Reply to post: Re: @Trevor Potts: So what did they say?

Re: @Trevor Potts: So what did they say?

@h4rm0ny well it's not any one argument. It's the culmination of them. In large part it's a massive campaign of disinformation regarding Microsoft versus anything that even remotely smells of a Microsoft alternative. There's nothing particularly "political" about it at all. (And I have no idea why Mr "not a Republican" assigned "political" as a relevant motivation here.)

Normally, I honestly wouldn't care. Hell, "which OS is better" trolling is a part of internet culture. I trolled a bunch of Apple fanboys in a thread here a few days ago and it was good clean fun. I've no problem - most of the time - with this sort of tomfoolery. Gods know you and I have had some decent arguments, h4rm0ny.

But this guy is different. He shows up in virtually every thread that even tangentially mentions Microsoft or one of it's competitors and he lays it on thick. Toes the Microsoft Marketing party line 150%, and blows with wind. The party line changes? So does what he says. Someone has a complaint? He'll viciously attack the individual, their preferences, their heritage, anything and everything.

Now, again - for the most part - that's all good. But then this AC gets into dispensing advice. A lot of the advice is wrong; sometimes dangerously wrong. And a lot of what he says is provably a lie, or - at best - a gross stretching of the truth.

One thread? Ten threads? One hundred threads of this, even and it might not be a problem. But every single one for years on end and it moves from "trolling" to "a systematic campaign of disinformation and conversion".

If you replaced "Microsoft" with "Scientology" in a significant number of his posts and then had him say those same posts out loud in a public place I could get his ass locked up in at several western nations. The dude has some cult-like "glorious leader" worship shit going on with his Microsoft fetish and it damages my calm.

I will put up with creationists and deniers, I'll deal with $company fanbois and even the ultra-conservative types. I'll have a good argument with someone who screams red bloody murder about "nobody has the right to tell him what to do" then demands blacks be given a curfew and that he have the right to vote on the dispensation of women's vaginas.

But this guy is absolutely something else. Sheer persistence and volume combined with a skillful weaving of truth, partial truth an outright lies into a web of deception I've seen too often before.

The details of my issue with this particular individual are wrapped up in years worth of posts. Suffice it to say that it absolutely isn't something so prosaic as "he disagrees with me". I like people who disagree with me. I married my wife because disagrees with me; loudly and at length. I'm a commenttard damn, it. I like arguing!

No. It's the techniques used. The callousness of how he handles interactions with others...it's a slew of things. I know that doesn't help provide you the "go do this link, declare Trevor crazy, proceed to pick apart one thread in isolated context to show how" that you want, but that's life.

I'm the first to admit the possibility that I could very well just be nuts, and who knows, maybe I am. As regards this specific individual, however, I'm well convinced that the AC in question is using well practiced tools and techniques of psychological manipulation. And it is just as wrong to use it to promote your favorite corporation's interests as it is your political party of choice.