OR & mph, don't let the fool get your blood pressure up. That's what it wants. In reality, Spiritless is little more than the class clown, acting out to get attention and saying whatever he thinks will annoy you the most. He also has a bit of the street corner conspiracy nut in him, with no grip on objective reality, no grasp of the obvious fallacies in his arguments, and no shame at being caught in obvious lies because he simply denies the proof of his lie. He has mastered the art of Doublethink and, no matter what any of us say, he will continue to drone on. If we could watch him speak, we would probably find this description from Orwell to fit him well:
"one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy: a feeling which suddenly becomes stronger at moment when the light catches the speaker's spectacles and turns them into blank discs which seem to have no eyes behind them."
"Politics and the English Language", 1946.
That's our Spiritless. He is a product of corrupted intellect and has thrown his entire being into his "cause" - being anti-Bush. He exhibits what Orwell described as the common characteristics of "nationalist" thought (anti-Bushism being a form of "negative nationalism") - obsession, instability and indifference to reality, the latter being the basis for "Doublethink."
Spiritless is indifferent to factual proof of anything. He just goes on "quack-quack-quacking" like Orwell's spectacled character above, as used later in 1984.
But don't worry too much about him. He is of no real consequence and persuades no one. His allies on SI are few and already thought the way he does, and they tend to stick together on a few threads where they can support each other.
By all means, continue to expose his lies, but don't expect him to ever admit to any lie, distortion or even honest error. Present your proof and then be entertained by his twisting, squirming attempts to extricate himself from his own falsehoods. Or as Mr. T used to say, "Pity da' fool!"
Bob |
