Creeped out
There is an individual whom I've never had the dubious pleasure of interacting with but whom I avoid like the Black Pox*. It isn't always easy to avoid commenting on this person. He's got a huge following that includes some of the people I interact with, but...man...he just gives me the creeps.
This person is clever enough to cover his nastiness with a thin veil of hurt feelings and protestations of innocence. The innocence abused behavior sets his defenders howling for the blood of anyone who dares disagree with him.
The thing that really gets me as I watch in horrified fascination from the sidelines is that he seems to be quite charming and helpful...so long as everyone fawns over his every word and tells him how wonderful he is. The instant anyone is less than worshipful the mob is assembled, supplied with torches and pitchforks and given a map. While Mr. Butter Wouldn't Melt in His Mouth stands apart, safe, and watched the flames building higher and higher, a satisfied smirk on his face.
Why am I the only one to see the strings he uses to manipulate people? I'd like to say it's me who has the problem and that he's a really nice guy but...there's just something there, just under the surface, a nastiness that's too pervasive, too creepy to ignore.
Years ago a friend of mine found a live sparrow sealed in a plastic ziplock bag. She released the bird and it was well enough to fly off. I asked her how it had gotten there. She looked right at me and said that someone had taken the time and trouble to teach the bird to trust it, then put it in the sealed bag and left it to suffocate. To this day I can't understand the mentality that would do something like this.
Sparrow in the ziplock bag is the vibe I'm getting off this guy. Standing there, watching with a twisted grin on his face while the bird fluttered desperately in its airless prison.
*Black Pox A hopefully apocryphal cross between the Black Death and Small Pox. (Seems unlikely. One's caused by bacteria and the other by virus, but you never know. The term to use when the plague just isn't nasty enough.)
This person is clever enough to cover his nastiness with a thin veil of hurt feelings and protestations of innocence. The innocence abused behavior sets his defenders howling for the blood of anyone who dares disagree with him.
The thing that really gets me as I watch in horrified fascination from the sidelines is that he seems to be quite charming and helpful...so long as everyone fawns over his every word and tells him how wonderful he is. The instant anyone is less than worshipful the mob is assembled, supplied with torches and pitchforks and given a map. While Mr. Butter Wouldn't Melt in His Mouth stands apart, safe, and watched the flames building higher and higher, a satisfied smirk on his face.
Why am I the only one to see the strings he uses to manipulate people? I'd like to say it's me who has the problem and that he's a really nice guy but...there's just something there, just under the surface, a nastiness that's too pervasive, too creepy to ignore.
Years ago a friend of mine found a live sparrow sealed in a plastic ziplock bag. She released the bird and it was well enough to fly off. I asked her how it had gotten there. She looked right at me and said that someone had taken the time and trouble to teach the bird to trust it, then put it in the sealed bag and left it to suffocate. To this day I can't understand the mentality that would do something like this.
Sparrow in the ziplock bag is the vibe I'm getting off this guy. Standing there, watching with a twisted grin on his face while the bird fluttered desperately in its airless prison.
*Black Pox A hopefully apocryphal cross between the Black Death and Small Pox. (Seems unlikely. One's caused by bacteria and the other by virus, but you never know. The term to use when the plague just isn't nasty enough.)