Trolls Are Fucking Assholes

 

 





I may seem very late to the game on this, so bear with me.

I recently saw an excellent YouTube video in which a young woman made several comments on criticisms women routinely receive. I will paraphrase and say she pointed out how if a woman has a child while young she is criticized for not being able to support it, if she waits til she is old she is criticized for waiting, if she has sex she is called a slut, if she doesn't she is called stuck up, if she has a career she is told she should have a baby.


No matter what she does she is fair game for ruthless, hateful criticism. I got what she was saying and articles I have seen on the double bind women experience in certain cults resonated. Women in some cults and religions unfortunately are treated as impure and blamed for having sex and if they don't have sex blamed for failing to do their duty to God. They have no morally acceptable options.

When I was a kid one day I cleared the dishes from the table and put them in the kitchen sink. I was scolded for failing to put the dishes on the floor for the dog to lick clean. So the next day I put the dishes on the floor and someone stepped on and broke a dish. Naturally I was scolded. I said "It doesn't matter what I do, I am automatically wrong and that's the game."

I have written posts with no quotes or sources referred to. And been told that without sources I shouldn't make claims. I have written articles with extensive quotes and supporting information, and been accused of cut and pasting. I have written brief articles and been accused of not supporting my claims. I have written long articles with lots of supporting evidence and been accused of being verbose.

Okay, I have read and could quote several articles on internet trolls. I have repeatedly told people who complain bitterly repeatedly that they choose what to read and choose to read posts by an author they know they don't like, but put all the responsibility for their choices on someone else.

Several authors have written extensive articles calling trolls sociopaths and narcissists. I won't go so as far as to say every troll is a bona fide narcissist or sociopath every second of their lives from birth until death.

But I will say the double bind the woman pointed out and the issue with trolls comes down to the same thing: one person thinks they are superior to another. In the cults it is in the doctrine and subjugates a gender. By any individual who follows the doctrine.

Trolls while they are trolling are exhibiting narcissistic and/or sociopathic behavior. They are over long distance acting as gutless cowards, asserting a false superiority entirely to deny their own feelings of inadequacy, impotence and worthlessness, if narcissistic. If sociopathic they are without compassion and see infuriating others as a game, since they have no interest or success at forming bonds of attachment through empathy. The sociopath has no consideration for fairness, human decency or compassion.

An interesting phenomena is observable online. I will give an example from my own limited experience. About a year and a half ago I left the Scientology cult in about March 2014 and was posting at ESMB ( the Ex Scientologist Message Board ), a site for ex Scientologists.

At first a large very friendly welcome occurred. For about a month or two the general tone was very friendly. Great.

Then I started writing extensive posts describing Hubbard's methods in fine details. Particularly Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology, Propaganda by Reversal of Meaning in Scientology, Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology, The secret of Scientology part 1 control via contradiction, Burning Down Hell - How commands are hidden , varied and repeated in Scientology to control you as hypnotic implants, Why Hubbard never claimed OT feats and the rock bottom basis of Scientology, OT III and beyond sources plagiarized from parts 1, 2, and 3,  Scientology's parallel in nature - malignant narcissism, There is no irony in Scientology,  and the Pulling Back The Curtain series.

For anyone who wants to know my positions regarding Scientology the above posts would be a good starting point.

So, I started posting many of the above and getting various reactions. Among them were undoubtedly at least several dozen people thanking me through either ESMB or the Underground Bunker or Facebook or my blog.

Now I have no delusion of immense fame or importance. I know perhaps a few hundred people have heard of Mockingbird or Mockingbird's Nest. I know several critics of Scientology I credit both with helping me to escape Scientology and to help thousands of others to either escape, recover or avoid the cult's influence. I include Arnie Lerma, Jon Atack, Tory "Magoo" Christman, Gerry Armstrong, and Tony Ortega in this group. 

But many people at ESMB have borne witness to others stating gratitude for my work. So the very same people who claimed to want people to recover from Scientology  and who saw others claim my posts helped them have sometimes acted oddly. Certainly only a very, very small few but worth addressing.

They first welcome me and act like recovery is important. Okay. Second they see me writing posts to dissect Scientology. All right. Then they see exes thank me, and some express extreme gratitude and claim the posts really help their recovery.  All fine.

Then if they don't like me or some of my posts or writing style the same people ruthlessly criticize me and my posts,  necessitating denial of the awareness of claims by others that my posts helped them. Since those claims don't support criticizing me and pretending to support recovery from Scientology. They have to not just deny my ideas, but also deny the dozens of claims, at this point perhaps hundreds of thanks and likes for my posts and tens of thousands of views my posts have garnered from others. 

They have to use strawman arguments, distort and misrepresent my claims , say I said statements I never actually did, and grossly use false equivalencies. Particularly ones that have a conclusion that cannot be proven nor disproven.

Among my favorites is the claim that OSA has paid attention to me and may now means I think I am important enough to warrant OSA attention. I didn't claim to be important, I know OSA has in the past run an operation against me, my importance is irrelevant. It was their choice, not mine. 

But the bottom line comes down to this: trolls are a special kind of gutless coward and hypocrite. They deny the fundamental equality of those they victimize over long distances. Safely hidden far away behind a computer, sometimes in a different country and certain they will never have to even stand before their victims. If they claim with no provocation or justification that their victim "thinks he's so"  important or smart they are projecting their own inadequacies, their own frustrations at their impotent rage if narcissistic or merely trying to tear someone down callously for twisted kicks if sociopathic, or perhaps a combination. 

Martha Stout studied sociopaths for decades and wrote the excellent book I recommend to all exes, The Sociopath Next Door. She claimed we have a sixth sense of intuition and a seventh of a conscience. And that Sociopaths either lack or neglect empathy, the heart of conscience. To her sociopaths are a sort of lower level of human. They are defective and inferior. I don't know if I would quite put it that way, but lacking a conscience and empathy is a profound deficiency. It is not an improvement.

I don't really get bothered knowing these wretched souls waste their lives bothering me, I am fortunate enough that many people have been and are now very kind and loving in my life to bolster me against such hollow efforts. I am a very lucky man. Additionally I have had so many kind and encouraging words from many people online and so will not cease writing and am comforted by knowing my meager talents have provided some real help to some very worthwhile people. 

I am just perturbed at times in knowing the trolls can confuse and discourage others I seek to reach. But the trolls in their hypocritical cowardice entirely deny their culpability in disrupting threads. That's why I consider them contemptible fucking assholes. And will treat them as such.