A postscript to "what happened to me"

[Alan V]

Rob is one smart cookie.  I think he can bounce back in time.  Depression just has the better of him for now.

That's not how it works though.

So you think intelligence has no effect whatsoever in dealing with depression?  Is that what you mean?

That's odd, since I thought the information I had about depression helped me offset my own problems with it back in the early 2000s. 

It's better to understand the nature of the problem than blame yourself or everyone else, for instance.

[adey67]

Rob is one smart cookie.  I think he can bounce back in time.  Depression just has the better of him for now.

I don't know bro, I really hope you're right but Ive suffered from depression for over 20 years and it's never manifested itself like how Rob has deteriorated over the last year, he's got  something wrong with him though and it involves major and serious paranoia and delusions. Last year when Gatwick Airport was shut down by someone messing around with drones he contributed to the thread on the subject over at AD with what I can only describe as a full on conspiracy theory all bases covered which was really quite intricate and completely unfalsifiable.
If it is depression related paranoia it's a very severe one and it needs serious professional treatment,unfortunately Rob is so far down the rabbit hole that kindness understanding and tolerance just won't cut it and might just end up making things worse. IMO Rob needs the sort of help that is unfortunately completely beyond the scope of any forum or individual on the Internet to give.

[Belacqua]

Rob is a good guy. And he's a logical guy.

The folks wanting to say that he's "turned into a fruitcake" are the people who don't find it worthwhile to discover why one of your friends is hurting and confused. Plenty of people want to pile on a hurting and confused person because that's what's easy to do (from a social perspective).

"Hurt the vulnerable person," may be the best summation of the herd mentality. And someone who seeks to think differently than you? What do you think of them?

"He who seeks, easily gets lost. All loneliness is guilt" — thus speaks the herd. And you have long belonged to the herd. The voice of the herd will still be audible in you. And when you will say, "I no longer have a common conscience with you," it will be a lament and an agony. Behold, this agony itself was bom of the common conscience, and the last glimmer of that conscience still glows on your affliction."

--Nietzsche

See, here I think you're arguing against a moral view that is pretty much dominant in the US these days. It's the "I'm a macho man fuck you" moral system. 

It says that once you are out of the charmed circle of people we approve of, we have no duty to be empathetic or kind. It's completely obvious among Trump supporters, who think the concentration camps are justified. It's also common among liberals, who think that anybody who voted for Trump must be a racist and lost cause, undeserving of our sympathy. People will even justify it as some kind of tough love, thinking that the person they don't approve of should be beaten until morale improves.

Recently a guy who posted on the old [S]inking Atheist forum died. His friends are eulogizing him as kind and generous. And to them, he was. He also spent a lot of time on that forum bullying people and typing the most hurtful things he could think of. But his friends agreed that the recipients of his cruelty deserved it, so they think it was a good thing to do. 

In other words, a person can devote lots and lots of time to cruelty, and still be considered a kind and generous person.

---

IMO Rob needs the sort of help that is unfortunately completely beyond the scope of any forum or individual on the Internet to give.

I suspect this is true, and it's a sad thing.

[The Grand Nudger]

Or..... you’re both using an asshole To ironically complain about the boards (and all of society, no less...) being full of assholes.



Rob knows exactly what he’s doing, it was his explicit intention to create not one... but two threads exactly like this. It will surprise no one when we get an identical pss to the ps.

If calling an intentional asshole an asshole is indicative of societal decay, well.....

The other possibility, to these elaborate observations you’re both drawing, is that this has nothing to do with any of that. Sometimes, trolling a forum is just trolling a forum.

[adey67]

Rob is a good guy. And he's a logical guy.

The folks wanting to say that he's "turned into a fruitcake" are the people who don't find it worthwhile to discover why one of your friends is hurting and confused. Plenty of people want to pile on a hurting and confused person because that's what's easy to do (from a social perspective).

"Hurt the vulnerable person," may be the best summation of the herd mentality. And someone who seeks to think differently than you? What do you think of them?

"He who seeks, easily gets lost. All loneliness is guilt" — thus speaks the herd. And you have long belonged to the herd. The voice of the herd will still be audible in you. And when you will say, "I no longer have a common conscience with you," it will be a lament and an agony. Behold, this agony itself was bom of the common conscience, and the last glimmer of that conscience still glows on your affliction."

--Nietzsche

See, here I think you're arguing against a moral view that is pretty much dominant in the US these days. It's the "I'm a macho man fuck you" moral system. 

It says that once you are out of the charmed circle of people we approve of, we have no duty to be empathetic or kind. It's completely obvious among Trump supporters, who think the concentration camps are justified. It's also common among liberals, who think that anybody who voted for Trump must be a racist and lost cause, undeserving of our sympathy. People will even justify it as some kind of tough love, thinking that the person they don't approve of should be beaten until morale improves.

Recently a guy who posted on the old [S]inking Atheist forum died. His friends are eulogizing him as kind and generous. And to them, he was. He also spent a lot of time on that forum bullying people and typing the most hurtful things he could think of. But his friends agreed that the recipients of his cruelty deserved it, so they think it was a good thing to do. 

In other words, a person can devote lots and lots of time to cruelty, and still be considered a kind and generous person.

---

IMO Rob needs the sort of help that is unfortunately completely beyond the scope of any forum or individual on the Internet to give.

I suspect this is true, and it's a sad thing.

Mate, I've read the entire thread on AD that you're referring to and there isn't one post that I can find where anyone agreed that any recipients of this so called "cruelty" deserved it in fact its not been mentioned at all. Maybe I missed it perhaps you could point it out to me. The guy you're talking about can no longer defend himself but his behaviour was certainly no worse than the rest of us there. You seem to be calling him out for failing to meet the standards of your own personal ideals and beliefs on what forum conduct and rules should be rather than on any of the  tangible forum rules and regulations that exist in reality and that's not fair.

[Deesse23]

Recently a guy who posted on the old [S]inking Atheist forum died. His friends are eulogizing him as kind and generous. And to them, he was. He also spent a lot of time on that forum bullying people and typing the most hurtful things he could think of. But his friends agreed that the recipients of his cruelty deserved it, so they think it was a good thing to do. 

In other words, a person can devote lots and lots of time to cruelty, and still be considered a kind and generous person.

De mortuis nihil nisi bene

[Alan V]

See, here I think you're arguing against a moral view that is pretty much dominant in the US these days. It's the "I'm a macho man fuck you" moral system. 

It says that once you are out of the charmed circle of people we approve of, we have no duty to be empathetic or kind. It's completely obvious among Trump supporters, who think the concentration camps are justified. It's also common among liberals, who think that anybody who voted for Trump must be a racist and lost cause, undeserving of our sympathy. People will even justify it as some kind of tough love, thinking that the person they don't approve of should be beaten until morale improves.

Recently a guy who posted on the old [S]inking Atheist forum died. His friends are eulogizing him as kind and generous. And to them, he was. He also spent a lot of time on that forum bullying people and typing the most hurtful things he could think of. But his friends agreed that the recipients of his cruelty deserved it, so they think it was a good thing to do. 

In other words, a person can devote lots and lots of time to cruelty, and still be considered a kind and generous person.

Kindness to the predator is cruelty to the prey. In other words, you can't necessarily judge by appearances because the world is complicated. You have to discuss specifics.

Over-generalizations get people into more trouble. Some people on any side of any issue are cruel. That doesn't mean most people are, except accidentally perhaps.

You have attacked the basis of social groups before. I will admit they have their pluses and minuses, but being an individualist ranter has its problems too.

[Aegon]

Or maybe if we supported him through this time when he is hurt and confused, he might make it through okay, and he might (in retrospect) see how the alt right is predatory. And he would then be able to help us better understand how the alt right operates by taking advantage of isolated people.

I would, except he’s a dick about it. Why give him a pass? He’s said he doesn’t read responses. He’s only here to tell us his story. That’s not okay.

I have no doubt he's reading responses despite what he said.

[Chas]

See, here I think you're arguing against a moral view that is pretty much dominant in the US these days. It's the "I'm a macho man fuck you" moral system. 

It says that once you are out of the charmed circle of people we approve of, we have no duty to be empathetic or kind. It's completely obvious among Trump supporters, who think the concentration camps are justified. It's also common among liberals, who think that anybody who voted for Trump must be a racist and lost cause, undeserving of our sympathy. People will even justify it as some kind of tough love, thinking that the person they don't approve of should be beaten until morale improves.

Recently a guy who posted on the old [S]inking Atheist forum died. His friends are eulogizing him as kind and generous. And to them, he was. He also spent a lot of time on that forum bullying people and typing the most hurtful things he could think of. But his friends agreed that the recipients of his cruelty deserved it, so they think it was a good thing to do. 

In other words, a person can devote lots and lots of time to cruelty, and still be considered a kind and generous person.

Please provide evidence or stick that diatribe up your ass.

[Shell B]

I would, except he’s a dick about it. Why give him a pass? He’s said he doesn’t read responses. He’s only here to tell us his story. That’s not okay.

I have no doubt he's reading responses despite what he said.

Oh, for sure, but he's trying not to, and he's not responding.