Ernest Major <{$to$}@meden.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:<WGvpHBAVQ4fAFwBc@meden.demon.co.uk>...
> In article <ff22d5bc.0404151640.58679588@posting.google.com>, Charles C.
> <charles_casey_google_groups@yahoo.com> writes
> >Davey has been especially cruel with his words and intentions towards
> >me and selected others. I would like to believe that he doesn't acts
> >like this in what he calls "the real world" so it's almost as though
> >he has set up a "Morton's Demon" where he suppresses the knowledge
> >that there are people behind these words and he treats them as though
> >they are nothing more than adversaries in a computer game. He has
> >basically created a wall that separates "Usenet people" from "real
> >world people."
> >
> >Since he has suppressed the awareness and understanding that "Usenet
> >people" are "real world people" who are just using a communication
> >protocol that appears unique to someone of his age who has grown up
> >with telephones and radios as the standard for communicating he feels
> >free to treat those people as though they are nothing more than
> >characters in a Castle Wolfenstein shoot'em up type game; the
> >difference being that text is the only weapons used. Over the years he
> >has fortified this wall developing an unhealthy perceptivity; an
> >outlet which allows him to act out the darkest side of humanity. It
> >has also given him a sense of power which would explain the obsession.
>
> There's a phenomenon that I know as 'email-blindness' (I don't think it
> is a term of my own invention, but I couldn't find other uses), where a
> user of email (or mailing list, UseNet groups, and other discussion
> groups) fails to internalise that he's communicating with real people,
> and that the group consists of more than a single individual. It occurs
> disproportionally in kooks (it's almost the criterion to distinguish
> kooks from cranks and crackpots, except that kooks have a parallel
> tendency to classify everyone as a friend or enemy), but has been
> observed in otherwise reasonable people known to function well in
> society.
>
> It's possible that some of the nastier trolls suffer from this (the
> other alternative is that they genuinely enjoy inflicting pain).
>
> I don't think that it applies to the alleged accountant - the claims
> that UseNet is not real-life seem more like denial than non-
> understanding. He seems more like an attention-junkie (which is a hazard
> for everyone on UseNet; not only does a version of Gresham's Law apply
> (bad posts drive out good), but the nature of the medium provides
> perverse incentives, as one gets more attention from being controversial
> than for being constructive.)
It's also the anonymity of the medium giving them the sense of
absolute power. Henpecked husbands, cowards that work for abusive
bosses, Napoleon complexes, nuts and other assorted misfits are
suddenly given the power to really screw something up. Disgruntled
primates beating their chests screaming there is no such thing as
evolution.
-Charles, a gruntled primate-
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