Quote from: Ned the Lonely DonkeyI would add "or for a desperate need to belong." This is possibly the biggest thing that drove me away from TPB. I hate group think, even when I agree with it - it just rubs me up the wrong way.

  Have you officially left TBP then?  

  I have a weird relationship with groupthink.  On the one hand, I've been at the crest of mobs and groupthink on a couple of forums and felt the power that comes from essentially leading the charge on a particular point.  I understand the attraction of it though I wouldn't seek it out again.

  As for being on the receiving end of groupthink, in the real world I'm pretty amiable and stable but there's something in my psychological make-up that means that if I don't get a kicking from the group every now and again I get bored or unhappy.  Regardless of the forum, I invariably wind up making some post that will instantly erase all the respect that I might have earned from months and months of sane normal posting.  It might be over-stating something I believe, taking a swipe at someone I think is the beneficiary of groupthink popularity or, in particularly weird cases, defending a position I don't even agree with.  On my regular forum about a year ago I got dog-piled on for defending Thatcher's treatment of the miners.

  Now, while I don't have much love for unions I certainly don't think that the way to deal with them is through strike-breaking coppers and forcing people to the wall without a carefully set up safety net and re-training system in place beforehand... and yet I defended Thatcher to the hilt over a number of pages simply because the consensus was anti-Thatcher.

  I enjoy being perverse and I enjoy being an outsider and sooner or later, if I feel accepted and appreciated a gasket will blow and I'll say something stupid that I don't really mean.

  So yeah... groupthink not good :-)

I don't do anything officially. I'm totally unofficial.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalOn the one hand, I've been at the crest of mobs and groupthink on a couple of forums and felt the power that comes from essentially leading the charge on a particular point.  I understand the attraction of it though I wouldn't seek it out again.

I too know that feeling. It makes me literally nauseous, like vertigo.

Ned

I didn't mean flaming out or going "Screw you guys!", I mean just not posting there any more.

Quote from: droogI tried. When he emailed me he said that I didn't seem to be driven by hate, so I thought I'd better live up to it. I just kept on writing him reasoned replies until he gave up and ran away.

You're a much better man than me, droog. Which is probably the reason why he tried to reach out. Me, I just ignore folks like this.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalI didn't mean flaming out or going "Screw you guys!", I mean just not posting there any more.

I didn't post for a long time, but I have a new nick and post very occasionally. One person knows, another rumbled me.

I also wanted to address this:

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalI enjoy being perverse and I enjoy being an outsider and sooner or later, if I feel accepted and appreciated a gasket will blow and I'll say something stupid that I don't really mean.

.. and say, the superior man doesn't care what others think of him. But I guess you know that and find it as hard to live by as I do.

Ned

Quote from: David RYou're a much better man than me, droog. Which is probably the reason why he tried to reach out. Me, I just ignore folks like this.

  I used to collect freaks.  I met this bloke at uni... COMPLETE weirdo.  

  He was this Cypriot millionaire who had basically spent the last 30 of his life picking up degree after degree after degree.  He used to follow me around like a little dog and kept on wanting to buy me presents.  Was very strange indeed.  He used to wipe down chairs with ethanol and talked about machine-gunning turks.  He even started spreading weird rumours about me that I was a part of this weird swinging group composed largely of senior EU officials.  We'd meet bi-annually in a Frankfurt hotel.  I actually had a couple of girls come up to me and ask me if they could join.

Quote from: Mr. AnalyticalI used to collect freaks.  I met this bloke at uni... COMPLETE weirdo.  

 

Not exactly the same thing Mr.A, but thanks for sharing.

Regards,
David R