Dead camel two-step
Superstring01 said:
John, I've said this like ten times now. Your post was a direct personal attack at him and was totally irrelevent to the thread. What about "the rules" are you do dense to understand? Do you REALLY think they don't apply to you?
Is it possible ....
Now, just work with me here for a moment. Do you recall one of our fellows was dismissed once upon a time for suspending someone when it wasn't warranted? I've always joked—and even said publicly—that he was dismissed for suspending a member and citing the wrong post. Now, I'll go so far as to speculate that the boss probably doesn't appreciate that take on it, but it seemed to me that what happened there was that the moderator suspended the member and cited the end of a string of offenses. If he had picked another of several posts during that particular run by the member, he would have been in the clear.
Maybe.
Because, as I saw it, the member deserved a suspension, although there were certainly more apt and extreme examples to cite.
Anyway, my larger point is that sometimes people don't see things dynamically. You know, that bit of mine about viewing events as if they were in a vacuum?
Thus,
is it possible that part of what John is overlooking here is the notion of a
catalyst within a general trend?
If we start at #107 in that thread, the following is the sum of John's posts up to the yellow card:
John99 said:
well said, well said. that must have been compelling and festering inside you for decades. (#2402244/107)
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do you ever LEARN from a conversation? (#2402264/110)
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you only read a few threads so if you dont see something happening right in front of your nose it doesnt mean it isnt happening. you need to open yur eyes and diversify. (#2402277/113)
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i think you need to get out more. (#2402284/115)
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why dont you sum it up joe. didnt say much at all but was nicely formatted. (#2402369/118)
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nothing to write, is that right? (#2402372/121)
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you may just be fan of the formatting and not realize it.
that said, what is it with this crew that gets so defensive when they feel a member of the pack has been slighted? (#2402382/125)
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whatever happened to individualism? (#2402392/126)
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:bugeye:
where does that impression come from? (#2402397/128)
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are you sure you are not overcompensating for something? this is very common. (#2402399/129—flagged)
You know, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, or something like that.
Some people watching this display in motion might be amazed. Others might simply shake their heads sadly and mutter something about John being at it again. But I'm not certain how many people are watching that performance and thinking, "What substance! What flair! What brilliance!"
Myself, I'm puzzled, but that's beside the point.
Most viewing this process would conclude after a while that there is something deliberate about it; indeed, that's my general inclination. But it is entirely possible—or so it seems to me—that John just doesn't get it.
At the beginning of that run, #107, he stuck his nose into Buffalo and PJ's war, which, while fun, isn't particularly wise given the amount of shit that flies when those two are digging in. At #118, he shifts his focus to Joe, obliquely criticizing me. At #128, his focus is squarely on me in response to my inquiry.
What I don't understand is what any of those posts have to do with anything related to the thread. The closest thing to relevance I found in them was a negative assertion that effectively closed off any inquiry as to what he found wrong with the post he was criticizing.
But that's
me. And maybe it's other people, but none of us are
John.
Thus, is it possible that he doesn't see his posts as problematic in any way?
I would propose he's not seeing the buildup to the breaking point. He's looking at the one post in a vacuum and thinking, "Wait a minute. That's not so bad. And Tiassa didn't even get pissed off. Why is String flagging me?"
Of course, I'm probably wrong about that. But it's a better option than, "He's fucking with us."
The third option, I suppose, is that we're supposed to be so goddamned anal about it that everyone will be posting one of these threads by this time tomorrow. How many more hands you think WE&P will need for that? (Maybe we should just flag everybody; it might be easier to
unflag the innocent parties and posts one by one than hand out the yellow cards one at a time.)