"gtr" > wrote in message news:2015081012083972120-xxx@yyyzzz...
> I've noted over many years how, one by one, each usenet enclave of
> enthusiasts on this or that topic eventually collapses.
>
> How does it happen? One to three assholes consistently ride the pony with
> bile and anger and angst and an endless series of faux vendettas, all of
> it fashioned to look like something they care about, when in fact it is
> primarily a proxy way to engage the world for folks that apparently have
> no social contact otherwise. They can fight, they can vent, they can
> stalk, but otherwise they've got almost nothing to offer.
>
> Every post on topic eventually becomes bickering and insults. Each such
> conclusion begins to happen more rapidly; at first there are still 8 posts
> on topic, before the flood gate opens, then it's only two. Hapless
> people, who ostensibly care about the newsgroup, but only know how to
> respond in kind, participate in suffocating the group. I use to say "when
> somebody slaps, I slap back". I ditched that approach about 8 years ago
> seeing that all groups then become slap-groups and no substantive
> discussion has a chance to breath.
>
> I saw that happen to a fabulous group on afro-cuban music;
> rec.music.afro-cuban. It became a bulletin board for the same
> anti-semetic rants, mostly cut-and-paste from websites. After a couple of
> years his lone voice eventually stopped. Everybody else vanished to some
> laundered and rigid "bulletin board" with a different time-consuming UI
> than all the other different and time-consuming UI's out there. The job
> is about complete at rec.arts.movies.past-films, and seemingly
> rec.food.cooking is hanging on by its fingernails as 1 (or is it 3) people
> have no other life than a daily name change and cut-and-paste roadblocks.
> And then of course all their incensed prey, nobly, dutifully slapping
> back; blocking all blood to vital organs. There's another 8 or 10 of
> these I've seen die in the past 15 years.
>
> As long as y'all insist on endlessly giving hand-jobs to the 1 (or is it
> 8) trolls whose only objective here is to kill discourse, the result will
> be the same.
>
> Usenet is just a snapshot: This is happening on a much bigger level as
> politics becomes an opportunity for dismemberment alone. I use to have
> substantive debates with Republicans over policy. Now "substance" is
> primarily the ludicrous Fox daily lies, Limbaughs empty agitprop, whether
> the president is a Kenyan or a Mooslim. And I hold up my end with
> outrage. Instead of policy on climate change and illegal immigration,
> we're bickering about what Donald Trump or Sarah Palin said. Instead of
> politics--or even political propaganda--we're bickering about celebrities
> and racist one-liners. And I've been a participant in changing the
> subject from something to nothing! The Republicans would rather have us
> bickering about bullshit than arguing about policy; when they control the
> discourse there will be no discourse.
>
> What's revolting is not that there are jackasses whose only goal in life
> is disruption and destruction, what's nauseates most is the degree to
> which well-meaning and interested people are so easily manipulated into
> facilitating it. Every. Single. Time.

Very well said. I have to say though it is hard not to kick back when there
is an attack. I get sick at the constant battering on chosen 'hated ones'
too. It is relentless. The bullies take huge delight in harassment. I
guess they feel it gives them the power they are lacking in real life. They
are pathetic. Even more so when they justify it to themselves.

I was a 'hated one' for years so I know well what it is like. It followed
me here for a long time until one day I decided enough was enough and I
kicked back. So, yes, after many years, I learned to be nasty in
defence. The constant bullying eventually killed the UK food group, so what
long term hope for this one? Many lovely people who were here when I
arrived, got fed up and went off to facebook which is exactly what happened
in the UK food group and it died.

There are some very good people here, but sometimes I think they just get
overwhelmed. There is little kindness, only intolerance and impatience
to be the first to stick the knife in. I guess it makes them feel good

You are right about the socks. It is relentless. People just
get fed up which is why they respond ... kicking back, but which only
perpetuates it. Until they realise that, it will not end.

What can be done about it? I don't know.


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