As a guy who runs an online community comprised of the world's smartest violent people, I get lots of PMs. (Why yes, dear reader, that was meant as a sort of double-entendre; how astute of you to notice.)
Many of the Private Messages I get engender a reaction that I imagine is a lot like Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. My blood pressure increases, I get a dull throb at the front of my skull, and the temptation to stab my fellow human beings makes a concerted effort to bypass the bulwark of my common sense.
That's not to say that all PM interactions here are bad. The ones you, [username], in particular, send me are just fine.
Anyway, not too long ago I got a PM from an earnest member who'd come across a mention of us in a blog post. The post referenced Sean Treanor's Stanford Journalism class article that profiled our awesomeness. The member seemed to be of the opinion that the folks on said blog had just gotten the wrong idea about what we do and that it would be productive for us to make some effort towards clearing up the misconceptions.
Sounds good to me; I've done this kind of thing a thousand times and we've gotten some good members out of such Internet ambassadorship efforts.
Of course, such outreach programs only work when the person you're attempting to have a conversation with isn't a complete and utter twat.
Chris "H--", seems to be the sole proprietor of The Martial Development Blog; a home for Developmentally Disabled Martial Artists. Oh wait, sorry, that's not their actual tagline; "Unlocking human potential through martial arts" is.
Yeah, that verbiage alone should send a red flag-waving marching brigade crashing into your mental living room if you've been hanging around this place long enough. The notion that there's "human potential" that needs to be "unlocked" absolutely drips with paranormal implications, mysticism, and the kind of thinking that's rooted in a deep desire to be able to cast "Sticks to Snakes" if you get enough experience points to reach level 7.
Or as James Randi would say: "that's some Yellow Bamboo BOOLSHIT!" (if he'd been raised by a black family in the deep south).
To be honest, I missed those red flags upon first glance. Because much like a cop, after seeing his second "hooker disemboweled and stuffed into hefty bag", I tend to instinctively tune out a lot stuff and stick to the bare essential facts and evidence. I helps to keep my sanity and some semblance of respect for other members of my species.
However, only a few sentences into this twat's diatribe, it became increasingly obvious that there was little point in dealing with this person as a peer.
If you've read one chi-hugger apologist's rant about us, you've read a thousand. But what made this one special was the smug, pseudo-intellectual tone with which the author delivers the diatribe. The blog post read like it was delivered through spectacles and down the nose of a 90lb, aspie, community college librarian who couldn't apply his doctorate in Sinophilia towards employment in any other career field.
While attempting to lambaste us for our "populist reasoning" (his assumptions of which aren't even accurate to begin with), "Chris H" even manages to imply that he himself is a legitimate researcher.
So we do the dance. I respond, doing what I do, if not best then with some degree of proficiency. He responds with the tone of someone that's managed to make it halfway into life without ever getting punched in the mouth. I respond again. He, of course, locks the comments down after getting in one last, limp-wristed jab.
And here, as we always provide in this pseudo-column, are the screencaps of the exchange; which I have compiled in order to save you from getting dirt on your brain by actually visiting this person's site (and partially as a record in case he decides to delete them):
Giving this dickwad the benefit of the doubt, maybe he's not an intellectual and moral coward. Perhaps he only locked down the comments because it takes a great deal of effort to type out responses with your pinky fingers in the air.
If you are a glutton for punishment:
Here's the blog post in question.
Here's a related blog post where he implies James Randi is running a scam with his million dollar prize.
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