Cat's Squirrel
Gold Meritorious Patron
Cool post.
I'll make an observation on Alanzo's posts--because I have been watching him play the same game for a lot of years. I find everyone online posting about Scn. (COS, celebs, blow execs, former high level auditors, Ex-Scn, Indie Scn, FZ Scn, Never-In, et al) to all be fascinating--for different reasons.
Alanzo, despite his disclaimers, has always craved attention. He has some writing skills--but not developed enough at this point to attract more than a reader/comment here and there. That's why he resorted to something that professional or skilled writers do not have to do--gimmicks. That's how he is trying to solve the lack of attention.
His gimmick consists, essentially, of one trick he tries again and again, ad infinitum. He lures people into conversation using PR charm and a patina of "logic". He makes great effort to populate his posts with references to Plato, Socrates and other more modern authors/books. This lays the foundation of his gimmick. He even makes a showing of the "Socratic Method" and goes through the same drill of "asking questions" of his reader--to try to engage them what portends to be a reasoned "discussion". That's all a ruse.
Once he snares someone's attention online, he then begins to throw in subtle barbs, innuendo and he doesn't answer questions directly, but resorts to ambiguity, "cute" non-answers and dancing around the subject as if people on the forum are there JUST dying and hoping to gain his priceless wisdom.
When people start getting annoyed, he then throws out non-sequitur jokes--that typically & monotonously try to engage others in a role-playing game where he is the celeb superstar and others are his obsequious inferiors. It's a creepy kind of humor that is not funny.
Now is when Alanzo really gets going. When other posters start grilling him on his bizarre and frequently nonsensical ideas, the conversation heats up because people don't like getting played by showoffs and arrogant jerks. That's when Alanzo switches gears. He then begins BACK-PEDALING and WALKING BACK things he has claimed before.
Astonishingly, right before everyone's eyes, he begins negating his own previous statements, positions and crusades. Now everyone is thoroughly confused, which is exactly what he wanted in the first place. Many furious posts start flying and he continues to dance around, quite delighted with his clownish ability to hold so many people's attention.
When it gets too stupid and absurd, people start to ignore him. He then begins TROLLING THE SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM AND HIS PROBLEMS.
That's when he gets banned.
Well, there you have it. Trolling, Gimmicks and Hypocritical Sermons by Alanzo--about the dangers of Trolling, Gimmicks & Hypocrisy! LOL
Good post HH. It's occurred to me that Alanzo's gone one condition lower than "Enemy" on the Ethics scale; he's at a point called "Too Much Time On Your Hands." The remedy (which for some reason didn't make it into Hubbard's "Introduction to Scientology Ethics") is "Find Something Useful To Do."