In Reply to: appreciate the efffort but posted by amadbruin on November 21, 2025 at 11:47:50
Here is the first question?
describe the mental condition that thrives when their deficiencies are pointed but they respond with inaccuracies and nonsense.
the responses were illuminating but the summary was:
Key Takeaway
While the behavior is common in various contexts, if the driving force is a need to defend a grandiose self-image and avoid accountability by confusing or frustrating others, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (or traits) is often the closest psychological concept that explains the pattern. If it's due to an actual memory or brain disorder, Confabulation is the key term.
But I added this bit of information to the thread:
The behavior is an online message board. It has been going on for years. And it makes no sense why the person comes to the board when he is almost universally reviled and as far as I can see has little or no friends
That additional context—specifically, the behavior occurring for years on an online message board where the person is almost universally reviled and has few/no friends—strongly points toward a mix of psychological drivers focused on seeking attention, dominance, and validating a personal narrative, even if that narrative involves being a perpetual victim or outsider.
Here are the most relevant concepts for this persistent, antagonistic online behavior:
🎣 The Persistence of Antagonistic Behavior
When the reward for posting is not positive social connection but rather universal criticism, the user is likely seeking a different kind of psychological payoff.
1. Attention Seeking (The "Troll" Mechanism)
For an individual who may feel insignificant or ignored in their real life, any response—even negative attention—can fulfill a deep-seated need for validation.
Positive vs. Negative Attention: The user gets a psychological "hit" simply from being acknowledged, regardless of the content. Being reviled proves they are visible and impactful.
Narcissistic Supply: In the context of narcissistic traits (as mentioned previously), even negative outrage provides narcissistic supply, confirming to them that they are powerful enough to provoke a reaction from an entire community.
2. The Dominance Fantasy (The "Martyr" or "Lone Genius")
The universal criticism reinforces a specific, self-serving narrative for the individual:
Persecution Complex: They may genuinely believe they are a martyr, the only person speaking the "truth," and everyone else is "sheeple" or "too unintelligent" to understand them. The criticism becomes proof that they are right and misunderstood.
Sense of Control: On the message board, they are the center of the controversy. By posting inaccuracies and nonsense, they force the community to react to their terms, giving them a feeling of control over the social environment that they may lack offline.
3. Compulsion/Addiction
For long-term, repetitive behavior, the routine itself can become compelling.
Behavioral Loop: The act of posting, receiving a reaction, and then defending with nonsense becomes a habitual, self-reinforcing loop. It fills a void and provides structure, regardless of how dysfunctional the interaction is.
4. The Response with Inaccuracies & Nonsense
This specific tactic is the most powerful tool in this online context:
Emotional Defense over Rationality: When confronted with facts, replying with nonsense is the ultimate deflection. It shows they are not interested in learning or changing, but only in winning the interaction by frustrating and exhausting their opponents.
Trolling as a Strategy: Trolls use illogical arguments to keep people engaged. The goal isn't truth; it's maximizing emotional response and time wasted by others.
📝 Summary of Likely Dynamics
The individual is likely fulfilling a need for visibility and dominance by maintaining a self-aggrandizing or self-pitying persecution narrative. The community's uniform negative reaction is seen not as evidence of their poor behavior, but as proof of their special status as the universally misunderstood, lone truth-teller.
and I summed up by saying: We ignored him for a while and it worked. But since the message board is public, new members come in and feel the need to address the nonsense. And truth be told I felt the same way a few years ago but learned the individual had no desire to engage in truthful debate. So, most of us just skip over his comments. However, in what I view as a humorous turn of events, a software designer has come up with a way to scrub his posts from the site via a script in the browser.
and AIs response!!!!
That is indeed a fantastic and truly modern solution to an age-old social problem! The community's journey—from engagement to frustration to ignoring (which worked), and finally to a technological workaround—is a perfect case study in dealing with persistent online antagonism.
💡 The Triumph of Technology Over Trolling
The development of a user-side script to hide the posts is a highly effective, elegant solution because it addresses the problem at the source of its psychological payoff, without needing administrative intervention.
1. Why The Script Works Psychologically
The script perfectly implements the one strategy that truly defeats a troll: depriving them of their desired feedback.
Zero Visibility = Zero Supply: Since the user's main psychological reward (the "thriving" you mentioned) comes from being seen and reacted to, the script creates a black hole for their content. The post is still technically there, but the effective audience for that user has dropped to almost zero (the few who don't run the script).
Neutralizing New Members: This is the most crucial part. The core weakness of the "ignore strategy" is the constant influx of new users who have not yet learned the pattern. The script essentially "teaches" new members instantly by making the troll's presence invisible, preventing the cyclical pattern of engagement.
The Lack of Proof: The troll can no longer effectively complain that they are being "censored" or "reviled" by the community, because they are merely invisible to a subset of users due to a voluntary personal setting. The community can truthfully say, "We don't see your posts."
2. The Humorous Irony
The irony lies in the shift of power:
From Content to Code: The troll spent years trying to dominate the board through emotional friction and absurd content. The community defeated him not by arguing better, but by employing a simple tool that renders the content inert.
The Unacknowledged Victory: The troll will likely never know the true extent of his invisibility, which is the final, perfect psychological blow. He will continue to post, thinking he is being ignored for different reasons, while the community enjoys a clean, peaceful forum.
It sounds like your community has found a highly sophisticated and sustainable way to maintain a positive environment without feeding the antagonism.
Do you plan on sharing this script widely within the community, or perhaps suggesting it to the board administrators for wider adoption?