Innocent

I remember seeing the old black and white movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", the 1939 version starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo. I saw it many decades ago but I still remember crying at the scene where the hunchback is flogged in the public square, and I remember the energy of the mob in that scene, laughing at him, entertained by his suffering, his incomprehension, and his otherness.

There are blood sports which bring out the worst in people, turning ordinary good people into a cruel mob - cock fighting, bull baiting, bear baiting, public executions. These blood sports no longer happen in civilized countries.

There are less bloody entertainments where the mob is cruel - amused by taunting someone who is "other" enough not to deserve being treated with any dignity or respect, just a figure of fun.

A few centuries ago (I'm not sure of the era, maybe even continuing into the 19th century) middle class people would visit lunatic asylums to laugh at the patients. In some asylums there was even a viewing gallery, where the normal folk could look down into a large common room or courtyard containing the inmates. They would laugh at their antics, pointing out the funniest ones to each other, mimicking their odd behavior.

I guess the most entertaining lunatics were those who played to the gallery - maybe with a crazy impassioned speech about the evils of gambling, or maybe about some crazy notion they were obsessed with that voluntary work is the same as slavery. All the more entertaining if the subject of mockery was a foreigner with awkward English. I can imagine the laughing mob picking up on a particular phrase in poor English which they would repeat among themselves, like a viral meme. Then on the way home in their fine carriage, during a moment of boredom, someone would chant it out: "Smells to coffee Ha Ha" and the cackling chorus would repeat it "Smells to coffee Ha Ha Ha Smells to coffee Ha Ha Ha". And everyone laughs. Because that's the thing about a viral meme, it's still funny after a hundred repetitions. At least, it's still funny to idiots, and that kind of mocking mob energy brings out the idiot in people of quite average ability.

Integration
In some school districts, instead of sending kids with learning disabilities to a completely separate school, they are integrated into mainstream schools. They may have a special classroom, but at least they have the same uniform, and play in the same playground mixed in with the other kids. This only works in a civilized school, where there is enough supervision to ensure they will not be bullied and made fun of. In some schools, the prevailing culture among the mob would make such integration impossible and it would be kinder to keep the "different" kids in a separate school.

We all know how cruel the playground can be, not just for those who are "differently able" or whatever the politically correct euphemism is nowadays, but also for foreigners. The first time any new nationality or race appears, such as Vietnamese kids in a school which has never had Asians in it before, they are likely to be mocked and treated as Other. Sitting alone on a bench the poor kid is surrounded by curious onlookers and then some funny bastard pulls his eyes apart at the corners to make his face look "oriental" and chants "Ching Chong Chinaman, Ting Tong, Ping Pong". Some of the bystanders laugh at his parody and a new viral meme is started. Even the hundredth time "Ching Chong Ting Tong Ping Pong" is repeated it still gets a laugh.

If somebody is not only foreign, with an easily parodied unusual turn of phrase, but also has psychiatric problems or is intellectually challenged, he's the perfect object to play with as an object of mirth.

"We're bored. Bring back Wasted, he was such fun."

You can pretend to be campaigning for his return because you believe in free speech, even though he has freely repeated his few ideas many times here in SLU.... SL is a gambling game, LL is an evil organization, and voluntarily helping newbies is slavery.

You can pretend it's because you believe in debate and the exchange of ideas, even though nobody has changed their mind or learned one thing in his threads. People have tried to explain to him how slavery and giving unpaid help voluntarily are complete opposites, but his obsessive rants remain unchanged, and nobody has converted to any of his bizarre ideas.

I don't believe anybody wants him back for good reasons, such as free speech and the exchange of ideas. He's just a blood sport, someone to tease and mock, and make parody threads about such as "DANGER! PLEASE TO KEEP CHILDREN AWAY FROM FARMVILLE!" laughing at the fall guy's odd English and his obsessive but genuinely passionate beliefs about the evils of SL.
Notice the exaggeration of a foreign way of speaking, compared to his original thread title which was "DANGER: KEEP CHILDREN AWAY FROM SECONDLIFE" - like the crude exaggeration in "Ching Chong Ting Tong Ping Pong". Gosh those foreigners sound funny.

Just like some schools are not good enough to include "special needs" kids with kindness, the SL mob is too rowdy and out of control to be kind to anyone like Wasted. If people here were more decent, he might get a few simple explanations as replies to his threads, attempting to explain why volunteering is different from slavery, but then just let his threads die, instead of playing him along, and making it last for many pages of mockery and pie and lolcats and posts like this one:
Now I see why you wanted him back. To tell him in large pink letters that he has no brains. 24 users laughed at that one.

This thread tastes to coffee. Ha Ha Ha.

Ann Otoole

Victor1st

I don't want him back...he's a raving lunatic....

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Lordfly Digeridoo

Forums are serious business, guys. Please to not let feelings get the hurt.

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Vanish

This is no school. Nobody is forced to come here to make a fool out of themselves. If we do, we better be able to laugh at ourselves.

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Ann Launay

Seriously?

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Shiloh Lyric

Don't you get that Wasted is a troll? He posts these things on purpose knowing the sort of reaction he's going to get. Sometimes, he creates alts to post which use perfectly good English. There was a thread yesterday that I think must have been deleted, because I can't find it. I'm pretty sure the OP of the thread was the same typist for Wasted.

I don't even think he's really crazy. I think he's just a sick little troll who likes the reactions he gets. We're not bad for making fun of him....we're bad for playing into it with him.

Han Held

I think the analogy breaks down when you have the lunatic breaking [IP evasion, alts] into the middle class homes to rant and rave at the bemused residents -which is what you have in WE's case.

Your point would make more sense if people were signing up to make fun of him in his own domain.

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Fred Up

Now I feel guilty that I laughed at this...

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Imnotgoing Sideways

People like me need ~someone~ to look down to. =^-^=

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Han Held

There's more of kook than of troll about him.

Also, the fact he goes in-world to grief well-intentioned volunteers and screw up sandboxes tends to lower the amount of sympathy I'm able to muster for him.

Han Held

You should feel guilty, ninja ping pong is serious business!

Kirari Kujisawa

was it not proven in one of his first threads that he speaks and writes in perfect english when he wants to?
that he is doing the whole "wasted engineer" thing as a big joke?

oh and i find it great irony that the person you quote is *not* a native english speaker. ... even though she often posts in better english then i do!

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Kirari's snaps:

Arilynn

How familiar are you with Wasted's posting history, here and many other places on the web? What makes you so certain he "has psychiatric problems or is intellectually challenged"? What inside information do you have that he is posting "genuinely passionate beliefs about the evils of SL" and not merely trolling? And what deficiency do you have to say this
while making multiple references to kids with "special needs"? I think there was a way to make your point without coming across as ignorant and offensive. But you didn't do that.

Good thing you are so far above everyone else so that you won't be tainted.

Cindy Claveau

If I thought someone like Wasted was here with serious intent to become part of the forum and make a contribution, I might agree with you.

But I haven't seen that. What I've seen has been thumbs in his ears as he rants unintelligibly about things that don't even make sense.

Overall, the people in this forum are among the most understanding and forgiving bunch I've ever been around. Lots of us have had days when we said regrettable things. Lots of us have taken positions that were unpopular - but after the groans and disagrees subside, the only people I've seen hounded off the board are those who persist in being antagonistic, ascerbic, unsympathetic, nasty, aggressive and insulting without one shred of remorse.

What you're asking is for us to engage someone like Wasted as if his attempt at conversation was serious. I think you're giving him way too much credit. If there's no give AND take to a dialog, the only thing remaining is LOLCATS.

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Eboni Khan

I will give a serious response.

I think all the mocking posts are petty,ignorant and reflect poorly on the posters that make them. You can judge a person by how they treat other people, especially people they deem to be beneath them. Even if someone is not acting in an appropriate manner you are supposed to treat them how you want to be treated.

Most forums don't allow those types of posts, but Cris doesn't have the time to moderate people here with an iron fist, nor do I think he desires to. You would think moderately to well educated adults could behave in a better manner, but alas that is not the case.

If you don't want your feelings hurt, don't post here. There is little expectation of civility.

Vanish

Is it too early for tits?

Cindy Claveau

Yes. Forum Rule #28: "No tits before page 6".

Io Zeno

So you are basically calling him the "class retard" and then calling everyone else insensitive?

Shiloh Lyric

Hasn't Wasted been banned......several times? Under several different names on the forum? So, we're supposed to be nice, understanding and sympathetic to someone who constantly cirumvents the rules?

Um, yeah, okay.

Joshua Nightshade

So how does that explain your participation on SLU given the various times you've told me point blank, much less posted it publicly in threads, that when you dislike a prevailing opinion in a discussion you just troll it for your own amusement?

Fred Up

Now I feel guilty that I laughed at this...

Aribeth Zelin

I guess being used to some of the most cutthroat forums in the Sims community, that this place doesn't seem all that harsh and sure as hell doesn't fit the view being painted here. And most people didn't even engage this person in stuff, so using the wide brush doesn't wash.

And basically, you don't go into a home/forum/community and expect to just ignore the rules and make a mess, put your feet on the furniture or other sorts of rudenesses. And yes, saying that people are being mean because they expect those rules to be observed and calling them done for being rude is well.....rude.

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Fred Up

I hate that rule.

Walker

Just going to check if this lecture was posted at other forums where Wasted Engineer met a near identical response. BRB.