"Sara" wrote in message
...
Laura R. wrote:

.... Unfortunately, I think Usenet distills a lot of the psychoses
we wouldn't otherwise notice in people. There may be a coworker whom
you can't stand, or a neighbor who is a jerk, but that might be as
far as you'd go in evaluating their behavior. Usenet lets those
people bare their derangement for the world to see without them
suffering the consequences that they would if they were to do so at
work or in their neighborhoods.

Indeed. I wonder if Molly would call people newly introduced to
her in real life, "morons" ?

I hope, in this case, she would. Anyone who carts their children and pet
off to another country without the right passport and innoculations, then
changes their mind after a few weeks, and then decides the best thing to do
is to drug an animal and smuggle it through customs (breaking French, UK and
European laws) rather than wait a few weeks - to call them morons is being
insulting to morons.

IRL I'd probably be very polite to them but then get on the phone to social
services (CPS in the US), the police, customs and the RSPCA as soon as they
left.

[snip]

Alan

"Laura R." wrote in message
.. .
circa Sat, 19 Jun 2004 14:49:42 +0100, in rec.pets.cats, AlanWilliams
) said,

I remember when friends were first starting to see the internet. Chat
rooms and such. The first thing many said was along the lines of,
"lets go to the christian room and preach satanism" or "Lets go to the
republican room and preach democratism". Sad. I think it's genetic.

True but there's a difference IMO between that kind of trouble making
and
some of the more disturbed behaviour e.g. trying to swamp a newsgroup,
causing very real distress in blah.support groups and cyber-stalking.
Some
of the trolls seem to have psychiatric problems that go way beyond
childish
trouble making.


Indeed. Unfortunately, I think Usenet distills a lot of the psychoses
we wouldn't otherwise notice in people. There may be a coworker whom
you can't stand, or a neighbor who is a jerk, but that might be as
far as you'd go in evaluating their behavior. Usenet lets those
people bare their derangement for the world to see without them
suffering the consequences that they would if they were to do so at
work or in their neighborhoods.

The anonymity of Usenet doesn't help either. IRL you can avoid the local
weirdo (until he sits next to you on the bus) and they don't put on
different disguises to get through your defences, or come along with
sockpuppets to agree with them. At this point, the wierdo on the bus sounds
comparatively welcome :-)

The old saw about crazy people never
questioning whether they're crazy sure seems to hold true, though.

In the current case, yes.

In the UK newsgroups there's a regular poster, Mike Corley who is clinically
diagnosed paranoid and believes the secret services are monitoring his every
move, including getting people on TV, especially newscasters, to watch him
and even talk directly to him. When his medication is working he realises
that he's ill, but when it isn't he can't help himself spamming newsgroups
with his claims. IMO he's different to the current problem because he's
never malicious and, apart from the spam, never hurts anyone apart from
himself.

So, some crazy people know they're crazy, and even in their craziness, some
of them are still nice people.

Laura
--
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
-Oscar Wilde

Alan

"Mike" wrote in message
...
Laura R. wrote:

circa Sun, 20 Jun 2004 01:08:17 +0100, in rec.pets.cats, Mike
) said,
I think you might want to "re-evaluate" that which you consider
"not discourteous".. Here, try this for your first excercise...

Keep telling yourself that you're worth the oxygen you waste.

That was *after* I got the s**t troll responses, brain trust.

Laura, dear.. You *obviously* have a problem with simple logic
and the understanding of events through clear reasoning.


Never ever ever expect logic and reason from a women, especially during an
argument.