Why are you all pretending?

[Professor Yaffle]

I would much rather risk mistaking a troll for someone sincere and give sympathy/advice where I can, than risk ridiculing someone who is genuinely ill because I thought they were a troll.

 

[Locknar]

When the harassment finally escalated to someone ringing doorbells and throwing things through the windows, the culprit was finally caught. The 32 year old man was actually a 14 year old boy who lived in a nearby town. He posted her name on alt.trolls and enlisted the aid of other trolls to harass the woman. To them it was all a game and they were laughing themselves silly over the woman's terror.

How sad.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

I hope this forum isn't a place where the seriously mental ill should go to and expect to get professional help.

I hope there is no mental health professional who thinks it would be appropriate to treat someone via this forum.

I have no problem acting as if Brendy is not a troll (even though I strongly suspect he is).

So, he's made some very wild claims. One of which is certainly testable:

I
The only way to cure my problem would be a thick lead enclosure. No not a tin foil hat, that's not think enough and wont stop the electromagnetic waves from their brain reaching mine.

Electromagnetic waves are detectable. A receiver implanted in his head would be detectable.

He (or she) claims to have exhausted mental health services and also says:

The problem is, there is no way for anyone to convince me what I believe is not real.

No much a skeptic can do. Brendy seems to know how skepticism works, and has already shot down anything we could propose.

So. . . if Brendy's not a troll, what is the purpose of this discussion? As I said earlier, I suppose our huge conspiracy to pretend that telepathy doesn't exist has finally been exposed!

Seriously, DancingDavid, what do you think motivated Brendy to start this thread?

 

[dubitoergocogito]

Please read my posts about serial trolls and how they abuse kind people. We still do not know if Brendy is sincere and actually mentally ill or a teenager laughing his ass off at your impassioned speeches and righteous anger.

Any passing troll can go to any website listing the signs of schizophrenia and then work the symptoms into a convincing online persona. Try reading some of the archives of alt.troll on usenet. It pays to have a bit of credulity on the internet as 99% of the time we have no idea who is on the other end of the keyboard.

BTW-I don't buy magazines from unknown high school students raising money for a class trip to Vegas either.

If you are so experienced with identifying internet trolls it seems you somehow have never learned to properly deal with them (i.e. don't feed).

I don't think anybody can deny that there is a very real possibility that the OP has a severe psychotic disorder. That said, whether there's a 20% chance or a 90% chance that he's a troll is a moot point when considering the appropriate reaction. It's sad that some of you don't have the self restraint to either ignore Brendy and move on, or to offer help. I guess some people have to pump up their internet tough-guy image at every turn. Those trying to speculate as to a proper diagnosis are guilty too (though certainly more well-meaning).

 

[Miss Whiplash]

If you are so experienced with identifying internet trolls it seems you somehow have never learned to properly deal with them (i.e. don't feed).

I don't think anybody can deny that there is a very real possibility that the OP has a severe psychotic disorder. That said, whether there's a 20% chance or a 90% chance that he's a troll is a moot point when considering the appropriate reaction. It's sad that some of you don't have the self restraint to either ignore Brendy and move on, or to offer help. I guess some people have to pump up their internet tough-guy image at every turn. Those trying to speculate as to a proper diagnosis are guilty too (though certainly more well-meaning).

And thank you for joining us.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

And thank you for joining us.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Anyone that would spend almost a decade lying about their predicaments and ailments had some real serious issues. Perhaps not the ones they claimed but that person is seriously twisted without a doubt!

Nope. Some people have a sense of humor that you don't seem to understand. Screwing with other people for one's own amusement runs rampant on the internet. It's a matter of degree, not kind.

@ dancing david: thanks for the rant of reason

@ Whiplash: I've met some interesting trolls as well, but the one you describe is a classic.

DR

 

[Darth Rotor]

If you are so experienced with identifying internet trolls it seems you somehow have never learned to properly deal with them (i.e. don't feed).

I don't think anybody can deny that there is a very real possibility that the OP has a severe psychotic disorder. That said, whether there's a 20% chance or a 90% chance that he's a troll is a moot point when considering the appropriate reaction. It's sad that some of you don't have the self restraint to either ignore Brendy and move on, or to offer help. I guess some people have to pump up their internet tough-guy image at every turn. Those trying to speculate as to a proper diagnosis are guilty too (though certainly more well-meaning).

Cry me a river.

The internet is a jungle. The coin of the realm is the written word, and nowadays linked images to add a bit of depth. Sadly, Youtube has been added to devalue the currencly.

Brendy shows up and falls all over self. Standard internet behavior commences, and as you see in the past seven pages, a variety of responses and reactions arrived on cue.

Why is your bleeding heart approach the correct one? What assumptions are you making, about activity on the internet?

This isn't a mental health clinic. It's an internet forum, intended to promote critical thinking. As a byproduct of that intent, it serves as a playground for taking the piss out of things called woos, and things that look like woos.

Welcome.

If you came in the wrong door, I can offer personal abuse in room seven, or getting hit on the head lessons in room twelve.

DR

(Note: that last sentence is a gratuitous Monty Python reference.)

 

[Senex]

All right! All right! Enough already! I can no longer take the strain. Yes, of course we are all pretending. We aren't all doing it for the same reason -- but all our reasons are nefarious.

 

[articulett]

(you told... you promised you wouldn't)

 

[Senex]

(you told... you promised you wouldn't)

Yes I did. However, as much as we're told that what happenens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas -- if nothing sexy happens to you in Vegas I don't see why I should keep quiet. Something nice should have happened to me. Because nothing nice happened to me I'm spilling my guts.

Yes, telepathy happens all the time. My neighbors don't have to pay for gas, those rascals drive on telepathy power. The United States has the best military because George Washington left telepathy instructions for all Presidents that followed him.

Many people who post here are wise to the telepathy legacy. Keep digging. The truth is out there.

 

[Dancing David]

Please read my posts about serial trolls and how they abuse kind people. We still do not know if Brendy is sincere and actually mentally ill or a teenager laughing his ass off at your impassioned speeches and righteous anger.

Any passing troll can go to any website listing the signs of schizophrenia and then work the symptoms into a convincing online persona. Try reading some of the archives of alt.troll on usenet. It pays to have a bit of credulity on the internet as 99% of the time we have no idea who is on the other end of the keyboard.

BTW-I don't buy magazines from unknown high school students raising money for a class trip to Vegas either.

Hmm, so while perhaps you were or were not abusive, being mean to a potentially mentally ill person is justified because they remind you of someone at another place and time?

What kind of evidence is that? You knew that they were doing this, this time, because?

 

[Dancing David]

I hope this forum isn't a place where the seriously mental ill should go to and expect to get professional help.

I hope there is no mental health professional who thinks it would be appropriate to treat someone via this forum.

I have no problem acting as if Brendy is not a troll (even though I strongly suspect he is).

So, he's made some very wild claims. One of which is certainly testable:


Electromagnetic waves are detectable. A receiver implanted in his head would be detectable.

He (or she) claims to have exhausted mental health services and also says:


No much a skeptic can do. Brendy seems to know how skepticism works, and has already shot down anything we could propose.

So. . . if Brendy's not a troll, what is the purpose of this discussion? As I said earlier, I suppose our huge conspiracy to pretend that telepathy doesn't exist has finally been exposed!

Seriously, DancingDavid, what do you think motivated Brendy to start this thread?

That i could not answer, I would have to talk to them and ask them lots of questions. Could be a troll, could be an attention whore, could be someone with bipolar mania, scizophrenia or OCD who hasn't stuck with treatment or responded to treatment. they sure didn't act like a personality disorder.

A lot of severly mentally ill people get thier whole social life on the internet, sad but true, you tell them to engage in meaningful activities and that is what they end up doing.

Talking to people on the Internet.

Is that really meaningful?

 

[Miss Whiplash]

Hmm, so while perhaps you were or were not abusive, being mean to a potentially mentally ill person is justified because they remind you of someone at another place and time?

What kind of evidence is that? You knew that they were doing this, this time, because?

Evidence that a sucker is born every minute?

 

[articulett]

In my opinion Brendy is probably NOT a troll as I mentioned before. Trolls usually come in here with the attitude that they are "skeptic of the skeptics"-- not paranoid of them.

If Brendy is not schizophrenic or at least bipolar-- he gives one heck of stellar performance. I hope he gets what he is looking for. And I hope he comes back with updates. I know, I know... I could be a trusting, bleeding heart... but Brendy does not sound like Amy Wilson or mayday to me... nor any troll I've known. Brendy does sound like people I know who have neurological problems.

 

[Dancing David]

Evidence that a sucker is born every minute?

Oh, a platitude? Okay.

 

[Miss Whiplash]

Oh, a platitude? Okay.

If it helps you get through the night...

I'm also selling subscriptions to Collier's Magazine. Would you like to help send my class to Vegas?

 

[Drudgewire]

I hope this forum isn't a place where the seriously mental ill should go to and expect to get professional help.

Thank you, I was trying to figure out how to articulate that without sounding like a total jerk.

 

[PenguinWarrior]

This whole thread has been incredibly depressing.

And the cynical attitude that it's fine to treat people like crap because maybe they aren't being honest is just horrible. I'd much rather be mocked by some idiot teenager for showing sympathy to a made up character than I would be the idiot who's doing the mocking.

Why is the bleeding heart approach the right one? Because it reflects well on the skeptical movement? Because of ethics? Because I'd like it to be true that we're not the cynics that believers want to label us as? Because, you know, I'd rather not be a complete and total (rule 8)?

I really feel a whole lot less good about this forum tonight than I did this morning.

Yuck.

 

[Senex]

This whole thread has been incredibly depressing.

And the cynical attitude that it's fine to treat people like crap because maybe they aren't being honest is just horrible. I'd much rather be mocked by some idiot teenager for showing sympathy to a made up character than I would be the idiot who's doing the mocking.

Why is the bleeding heart approach the right one? Because it reflects well on the skeptical movement? Because of ethics? Because I'd like it to be true that we're not the cynics that believers want to label us as? Because, you know, I'd rather not be a complete and total (rule 8)?

I really feel a whole lot less good about this forum tonight than I did this morning.

Yuck.

Sounds like someone waddled off the wrong side of the aquarium this morning. If you just teleported once in a while you wouldn't be so darned depressed about the glaciers melting.