Bob Lord

Posted by Bob Lord

So, in making the transition to the new site, I had the occasion to look back at some old posts and comments, and stumbled on this one: How Many Other Trayvon Martins Have There Been? I posted it shortly after the Trayvon Martin tragedy became news. My question was how many other uncharged vigilante murderers were roaming the streets of Jackson, or Mobile, or Glendale?

I received this comment from a “Falcon9”

Here is my bet: Zimmerman has no criminal record and Martin has a criminal record for assault and or robbery. And, all of your preconceived notions are false

To exhibit prejudice is to “pre-judge” by race (or some other classification). Falcon9’s statement is classic. He had nothing else to go on besides race when he made his “bet.” Turned out, of course, he was dead wrong. Martin did not have a criminal record of any relevance (unless you consider pot smoking related to violence) and Zimmerman had run-ins with the law over violent acts both before and after his slaying of Martin. 

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Posted by Bob Lord

The puzzle pieces continue to come together on my favorite blog troll.
A few weeks back, we got some help from researchers at the University of Manitoba, who conducted an extensive study on the personality traits of blog trolls.

Unfortunately, a copy of the study itself was a bit pricey, so I had to go with the summaries available online, the consensus of which is captured in this passage from Digby’s Hullabaloo:

The research, conducted by Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba and two colleagues, sought to directly investigate whether people who engage in trolling are characterized by personality traits that fall in the so-called “Dark Tetrad”: Machiavellianism (willingness to manipulate and deceive others), narcissism (egotism and self-obsession), psychopathy (the lack of remorse and empathy), and sadism (pleasure in the suffering of others).

It is hard to underplay the results: The study found correlations, sometimes quite significant, between these traits and trolling behavior. What’s more, it also found a relationship between all Dark Tetrad traits (except for narcissism) and the overall time that an individual spent, per day, commenting on the Internet.

Wow. Almost a perfect overlap with the double high authoritarian personality. As Digby points out, 

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Posted by Bob Lord

Actually, I don’t have thirty-one things about Thucky for one post, but I couldn’t resist the alliteration.

So, the Thuckmeister scored a victory of sorts. He had the last word at the old site. He posted an interminable comment to my op-ed, The Way Forward: Tax and Spend, which kind of straddled the move, showing up as a lead post at both sites. I replied, but the site already was down by the time I did.

And he started with a whopper, mocking me for having what he described as religion-driven views:

This isn’t an economics column, it is a religious column. Get a goat, slit its throat and sacrifice it to the Gods why don’t you.

So, it was expedient in several respects for ole climate science denying Thuck to mock me for being guided by faith rather than reason. By doing so, he could distract from his own faith-based views and, at the same time, denigrate my logic. But, being the good Catholic he is, he had to choose his words very carefully, which completely undermined his purpose. Here was my response:

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