I know a person like this. An actually very smart and caring person but socially inept with strangers. Neurotic to the nth degree. Has a victims mentality but is always the one attacking (not going to be the victim this time she thinks). And once emotions flair and she takes a stance, stubbornness and pride kick in and she can’t disengage until she wins.
Not mentally ill but still manages to get into not sane situations on a regular basis.
That’s unfortunate, but I can think of a few people like that in my 3D life; and the tragic irony is that they often end up wondering why so many people avoid them.
Ding ding ding. The person in my case spends 50% of her energy driving people away and 50% desperately trying to make real lasting connections with people. It’s heart breaking to see and yet attempts to help just drag the helper into the quicksand.
So people walk this careful trajectory around her. Don’t get her pissed at you, that’s very bad. Don’t get on her besty list, that’s very bad. Just be friendly and … Oh there is someone I need to speak with be right back [run].
This is in the context of a social industry that has lots of events (and booze) that mix industry people and regulars like myself and this individual. Oh and she twitters and yelps and blogs like a fiend. So if an industry person just blows her off it becomes a social media melt down.
That social media is a double edge sword.
That’s like saying that someone can’t take a position on climate change because they’re not a scientist.
Anyway, I’m a little late to the two-minute internet hate, but I can’t imagine not seeing straight away that this woman is mentally ill. And an advantage of being late to the pile on is that I have the benefit of the information that the lynch mob has uncovered. And it turns out that she’s batshit crazy: she thinks she’s married to a well known pop star, she’s got a bunch of posts that claim she’s both his wife and his fiance, and the people who know her say she started showing signs of schnitzophenia in her mid 20s, which is a very typical time for that to start showing.
But hey, don’t let any of this get in the way of a good old fashioned internet lynch mob!
[Edited to make details about her a bit more vague.]
I had a motel clerk threaten to call the cops on my family after we spent 15 minutes in the room and then demanded to check out again. The bathroom had exposed wiring, there were holes in the walls, and I found a half-full LARGE bottle of personal lubricant in a drawer. My father-in-law, who has a very calm and disarming personality, said “Sure, that’s a great idea. I’ll just call them, shall I?” and pulled out his phone.
Suddenly the manager that was “out of town” magically arrived and refunded our card. I think a lot of the time people threaten that because they think you’ll back down, when they know they’re in the wrong. And it doesn’t work out for them when you call their bluff.
[quote=“wrybread, post:166, topic:98194”]
schnitzophenia[/quote]
That’s a portmanteau of schnitzel and quadrophenia?
Yes; clearly, we’re all ‘seething’ uncontrollably with “boiling outrage…”
FYI, typically when you put a word or phrase in quotes it means someone you’re replying to actually used those words.
But my point is that just by posting that video BoingBoing is helping to punish a mentally ill person for her illness. And I’m not saying you specifically but there’s plenty of guffaws in the above comments.
Thanks but I think it was more like:
Your attempt at deflection is noted, and denied.
Ah the gifs.
How about this approach: if it could somehow be established as fact that she’s mentally ill, would posting this video be wrong?
She’s not mentally ill. Just a asshole. Maybe a newly minted conservative xtian with something to prove. Growing up in a conservative church, I’ve actually thrown tantrums like this as a dude. Thank nothing I was raised in an american church instead of by someone in Al Quaeda.
The MAGA Folks love this shit. They think they’re defending their purity, when they don’t even realize “purity” is bullshit and meaningless. At best an extreme fetishization of pointless crap in a harmful manner.
I remember a time when this was called “Having a temper-tantrum” and you’d say it to an adult to embarrass them for acting like diaper-pissing children.
How about not making assumptions?
That’s a great place to start, and then we can move on to not exaggerating or posting one’s opinions as facts, once we’ve mastered that accomplishment… and then maybe we can even escalate up to advanced levels; not condescending to others, or trying to concern troll them just for having opinions.
Some would say doxxing the mentally ill would be worse than commenting on their actions in a video, but hey, don’t let that get in the way of your supposed moral high ground!
Unfortunately it’s not an assumption at this point.
Hopefully nothing I posted qualifies as doxxing, but I just edited my first post to make details about her a bit more vague.
