--- In [email protected], "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote: > > Raunchy caught some fire I remember, and she fired right > back in her usual entertaining way. I don't know who you > are talking about that needs protection. I see a lot of > people who deserve what he dishes out and sometimes, even > when it seems prematurely harsh at first, his analysis of > new posters ends up seeming prescient in retrospect.
This is an interesting comment, Curtis. I own up to my occasional harshness, but I also think I've been, as you say, nigh-unto-prescient about some of the posters on this forum. The reason is that what I look for is not what the posters in question are saying in words, but what the *intent* seems to be behind those words -- WHY they're saying it in the first place. Several new arrivals in the last year or so have instantly struck me as being in it for the attention. Their whole act from the first moment they appeared reeked of what I call "attention vampirism." When I see that, my first reaction is to try not to give them any. When they then add "mentally ill" into the mix, I try to avoid them entirely. One of the things that I think distinguishes my comments from others here is that I tend to focus on the forest and not on individual trees. I spot TRENDS. Many of the people I end up criticizing (and yes, sometimes harshly) don't seem to be able to do that. They get so focused on the moment, and the putdown or "gotcha" they're trying to achieve *in* that moment that they lose sight of the fact that they have run the exact same "gotcha" number dozens of times in the last couple of months. The routine never changes, only the particulars. Becoming obsessed with another poster, to the point of not even being able to *realize* that one has become obsessed, does not strike me as sane behavior. Being literally *unable* to control oneself, and compelled to keep playing "gotcha" even if it means one has to "post out" to do so does not strike me as sane behavior. Writing tens of thousands of words trying desperately to get someone to argue with you who has said he has no interest in arguing with you does not strike me as sane behavior. Writing like one is trying to demonstrate the textbook definition of hypomania does not strike me as sane behavior. In short, a few people on this forum strike me as not sane. I have chosen to ignore them, and what they write. They have chosen to keep attacking me, and to expand their attacks to anyone who either agrees with me or admits to liking some of the things I write. They seem to feel that this is both justified, and rational. But again, it does not strike me as sane behavior.
