Here's something I almost included in the previous post before running out of time. Just as well--it's not fit to be mentioned in the same space as Apollo 11 material.

I'd considered noting that the "cyberjerk" seemed to have vanished from the science newsgroup where he'd long annoyed readers, though I've seen indications elsewhere that he's still around. Unfortunately I found someone worse on an unrelated group, motivating me to set down a few relevant remarks here. It started when someone unknown (to me, anyway) presented a request for certain info. I wouldn't have responded, even though the item referred to a popular conspiracy theory, except that the author--who claimed to be a US resident--larded it with uncalled-for anti-US sentiment and cheap-left slander against our leadership and the UK's (plus a few mundane goofs). So I replied with relatively mild ridicule/contempt for the passages in question and left it at that. A French guy responded, and we discussed a germane subject over the next few days.

It may have been a week after the initial incident that the original clown popped up again, mad as hell; perhaps it took this person that long to write the overly-long rant. The fool more or less began by accusing us (?) of racism--as if anybody could tell anybody else by race in this context! The topic had never even come up. Well, maybe this demonstrates a truism about the Left: contradict these people, and, rather than argue, they prefer to call you names--"racist" being Name No. 1. Ironically this character came across as a racist him/herself, of the non-white variety. These views apparently extended to religion, which the offender evidently maintained a warped version of; threatening us supposed enemies with damnation was only the most twisted aspect. This party also promoted a website whose mere title hinted at a laughable exclusivism: This oracle alone had a monopoly on truth!

I felt like dissecting and refuting the lengthy rant point by point--but, maybe because it was so blasted long, my newsreader kept blowing up! Well, I checked out the site and found a message announcing it had been taken down due to offensive content. (Now that's convincing.) Finally I contented myself with adding "Forget it" to the thread title, noting "Serious crank..." and posting the web message. I never even read most of the creep's article--and don't regret it. This lesson reinforces a stereotype of the Net crank, which I see may be widespread: the hostile, paranoid, obsessed individual who believes he alone is right. Our distinguished cyberjerk shared these traits, but he was more refined.

At least they're not all lefties.