Why do you make me hurt you?

[daveon]

Quote of yesterday, for me, was this on File770:

“I’m not a sociopath. As it happens, I’m actually unusually empathetic. I understand your pain. That’s why I gave you the opportunity to back down

Comments

[yamamanama]

Can Vox say anything without coming off as a shitbag of the highest order?

[daveon]

Hard to say at this stage. It does feel like he's created a parody of a mustache twirling villain and is now playing him for laughs.

It is getting harder and harder to take him all that seriously. Especially when he explains how HUGE he's going to be in a few years...

[soon_lee]

You've been astoundingly patient trying to engage with some of the commenters on File770.

[daveon]

As I said, it beats writing support documentation :)

But it is interesting watching the pathology of this from some of the more obvious trolls.

- Make statement
- Statement is refuted
- Make variant on statement
- People ask for evidence
- Repeat statement in slightly different way
- Go quiet

Rinse repeat.

[a_cubed]

At base, this is all about a tantrum that Larry Correia had when he lost (but wasn't voted below No Award) in the Campbell. He kept up that tantrum for a couple of years and then drew Vox Day into it by managing to get him onto the list of finalists for best editor. After Day was quite reasonably voted below No Award in that category, he had a similar tantrum himself. I'm fairly sure these guys really are deluded and not cyncial about what they're doing. All the evidence that shows that they're wrong about sekret cabals and SJW conspiracies can't convince them that they were wrong, because that would require them to admit that they've behaved abominably and they just aren't the sort of people able to accept that they've made any mistakes. Never imagine that you're going to persuade them to change their minds. On the other hand a modest level of polite, factual engagement help a great deal in avoiding more reasonable people from being drawn into their skewed worldview.
grrm's posts about this were wonderful in that vein. He clearly

[kevin_standlee]

I guess that "sociopath" isn't the technically correct term anymore; however, it would seem to me that a sociopath would by his very nature be unable to recognize the pathology he exhibits. By his own internal definition, he is "normal" and everyone else is a "cardboard cutout," or as I put it, a "non-player character."

The best thing we can do is to publicize his words so that people can see what sort of person managed to manipulate a few hundred people who I do not think all meant to be bad actors and are only now realizing that they were fighting against a conspiracy that never existed. The biggest harm done to the Hugos in the medium term is that in self-defense we may see the "slates" that they claim existed start actually existing, at least next year before any significant counter-measures to defeat organized bloc voting can be brought to bear

[daveon]

I think I've continued to post because I want people to see the other side....

It feels most like hostage taking really, especially phrasing like that and I'll be damned if I will back down from common bullies.