[lbo-talk] 'Grey Vampirism' Obama's betrayal of hope

Dennis Claxton ddclaxton at earthlink.net
Thu Dec 3 13:30:31 PST 2009


At 01:11 PM 12/3/2009, shag carpet bomb wrote:


>sure. maybe. sometimes they just go away because no one is feeding
>them. (remember the old internet adage: don't feed the trolls!)

Ay, there's the rub. It's easy not to feed a troll. But it's a different type we're talking about. Here's part of the description from the source:

[...]

"It's quite easy to identify and distance oneself from a troll: once you've established they are a troll, sever all contact with them and - this is imperative - don't read anything they write. This requires a little discipline, but not much, and after a while you'll completely forget the upset they caused. For what is usually a very short period, trolls cause a great deal of incendiary, fruitless antagonism, but it seldom leaves much of a lasting trace..... The debilitating effects of the Grey Vampire are often much harder to identify and combat. They are 'friendly', they seem to be positive, they make their points respectfully - what's to dislike? Ultimately, though, their stance is precisely the same as the Troll - they are profoundly suspicious of commitments and projects, except that their anti-productivity comes out as sunny scepticism instead of outright aggression. One of their favourite tactics is the devil's advocate appeal to what someone else, not them, might think. Might not things be seen in another way? (This would be completely different if they were making a point that they were prepared to subjectively identify with: then we could get somewhere, then there would be an actual difference of positions, instead of one position confronting an infinite series of movable obstacles and promissory notes.) Another tactic - particularly effective at wasting time and energy this one - is the claim that all they want is a few clarifications, as if they are just on the brink of being persuaded, when in fact the real aim is to lure you into the swamp of sceptical inertia and mild depression in which they languish."

[...]


>Regardless, you know who made me stop and think about this incessant
>need to respond, the inability to just ignore: Angela M. in an offlist
>she said to me: Enjoy Your Symptom.

Again, it goes beyond the inability to ignore. It takes more than ignoring to deal with someone who incessantly derails what might otherwise be (or become) productive or interesting discussions with tired little intellectual parlor tricks.

You want to say please stop fucking this up so the other participants can have a conversation. After years of the same you would most likely be ready to drop the please.



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