Yanking the chain or chaining the Yank

Hi Devo

You are welcome even with your afflictions.

Hi Snowlynx

Reminds me of several other obnoxious posters who were finally given the order of the boot so I'm told. Funny thing is our defensive responses obviously have an effect on their ego, as they delete our posts, as is their obsession with so called "sock suppets"

Same as calling a woman" dear" or "dearie " .So patronizing .

@ agent bob

Unfortunately some presume too much and never know when to stop

Evening Lukeon

They don't bother me actually, but sometimes you have to stand up and be counted and not let them grind you into the dust

@ Bohemian Jack

Some people are extremely good at trying to pointing out the faults in others yet completely overlook their own:

Frankly after all the comments now being bandied about amongst this group who in hell would want to join in anyway. I gave up reading comics years ago.

Well I needed a laugh this a.m. and the last couple of comments sure had me splitting my sides :roll

Thanks guys

Yet again Delete ,delete delete.

That would explain why some moved from the Forums to the blogs so they could have more control and delete anyone who had an opinion differing from their own mindset.

Funnily enough they still mention certain posters in a mocking manner to feed their own egos.

Says it all really.

@ ged

More power to your elbow for even attempting to challenge others. It may be a wasted try but at least it grabs people's attention.

What makes me laugh ,as and others have said , is all our deletions which is why posters are now on here and not the Forums ,yet they leave their own caustic remarks about said posters on the blog. When someone kicks arse on the Forums it stays there but here it's just selective viewing for the chosen few.

@ swamie


Whatever turns you on.

Hi bohemian

I'm pretty oblivious to certain posters now to be honest.You can always tell when you've rattled their chain as they either try to demean you or delete your comments

Imagine having them for neighbours

If you haven't got what it takes to win by fair means, but are determined to win, that leaves foul.

If you're going to use foul means, the power the opposition has is in exposing your fraudulence.

How you protect yourself from exposure is by manipulating your base supporters into making the accusations first: ]they cheated; they're sheep; they use sockpuppets;they're being lied to by their own leader and are going to die because they believed their lies; etc.

This weakens any counter arguments where blatant foul play is pointed out. It ends up sounding like five year olds shouting, "No, you smell!" at each other.

Of course, you can only manipulate people into thinking that foul means are fair and fair means are foul if those people don't have the resources to understand the psychosocial dynamic.

All regimes who use foul means whilst claiming righteousness rely upon a large support base who are under-resourced educationally, intellectually and on many other levels.

This brings me to the accusation of "useful idiots". It's quite a clever one in that the under-resourced support base get to believe they are the clever ones, a status they have likely rarely enjoyed. It's more likely that one of the many ways they have felt disenfranchised is through intellectual discrimination. We live in societies where specific academic abilities have the greatest status and we marginalise, or ignore other skills, or forms of intelligence in many ways, including through pay/wealth disparity.

The thing is, if you're being silenced by the righteous regime which uses foul means, it's because you're not a "useful idiot". That regime knows full well it's own followers are the "useful idiots" and the "idiots" are empowered and uplifted by feeling useful.

The way to counteract the threat of autocratic dominance is to change the way we think about usefulness and status. We need to hold on to the paradigm shift that covid has brought where we recognise and value those who are essential to our existence - the healthcare workers, the cleaners, the factory workers, the food producers, the shop workers. If we stop expecting people to work themselves into disablity, ill-health and an early grave for a subsistence, or lower than subsistence standard of living then maybe they wouldn't feel quite so disenfranchised.

Instead of allowing ourselves to be distracted and payng attention to those who use foul means, we should be channelling our energies and using our voices to campaign for a living wage and and end to nurses having to rely on foodbanks.

In that way, being "silenced" may be a blessing and we accept those who use foul means are welcome to shoot themselves in the foot. It seems it's the only shot many are willing to receive.