asbestosman wrote:I don't know, but a lot of people seem to want DCP to engage them with various questions when he does show up.
Yeah, I guess that's true of some people, although I can't for the life of me understand why. It's almost as though they value his opinion or something. It's bizarre (to borrow his favorite word).
asbestosman wrote:But strangers on the Internet? ROTFLMAO
I understand the sentiment, but I don't think it's quite accurate. I've invested a lot of time in my asbestosman persona. In some sense I fell like I know something about the other online identities I frequently interact with. I don't care about them as much as I care about my family and friends, but I care more than I do about those I've never or rarely interacted with. The familiarity does, I believe have value. Besides entertainment or shared laughs, I also get new perspectives from people whose advice I can frame in a more certain context of our past interactions. Book recommendations are a good one, but so are anecdotes when I can put them in perspective.
I think I understand this. I guess it depends on what a person means by "caring" in this context. Do I care about what I'm doing here, enough to make the comments I do? Obviously. Do I care enough about the people to be overly concerned with what they think of me? Obviously not.
Certainly, I have a general caring for humanity enough to not want to physically or financially harm them. I care enough to be moral (as I define it, of course). When it comes to message boards, however, I guess I just care most about being as honest as I can be because always doing that in real life can get you into serious trouble. I expect people to not take me that seriously... which is to say, I expect people to take me as seriously as I take them.
Perhaps he cares about Scratch because of how Scratch can influence others' opninion of him. I'm not sure. It's an interesting point since I do believe he's said this is a board of no significance. If so, well, what some lunatic says on a board of no significance probably isn't worth wasting time on. I don't really care what kind of terrible things loons say about me in an asylum.
If he is actually worried that Scratch is damaging his reputation more than DCP is himself, he's even more delusional than I had imagined.
But really, most likely it's a simple aspect of human nature. We don't like it when people speak ill of us even if logically we believe their words will have little impact on our daily lives. Words hurt whether it be from cyber-bullies at school, or a bunch of trolls that have not influence on your family and friends. Logic is great and all, but it really doesn't mean much when the emotions run strong. Homo sapiens are weak that way.
The only time I get really bothered by something someone says about me is if at a certain level, I think they may have a point and I haven't already acknowledged it about myself (for instance, people can call me an asshole and, well... yeah, sure. I can be. What about it? I can admit my faults if I know about them. Big fuckin deal, right?) The majority of my comebacks on this board are about playing a game. I think people are kidding themselves if they imagine they aren't playing too.
