cyberstalking
July 6, 2005 10:56 AM   Subscribe

Look Who's Stalking Now: Psychologists Participate in Cyberstalking Ring to Manage Flow of Information Favorable to Opinions in Unmoderated Sci.Psychology. Psychotherapy "News Group". "As a social psychologist, I am through this amusing and cautionary report attempting to raise public awareness of an emerging and fascinating phenomenon known as group cyberstalking. My report depicts psychological warfare and anti-personnel propoganda in an unmoderated (and unfortunately-named) Usenet "news group" where stalking, hacking, libel, intimidation is the order of the day (and every day dating back to 1997)."
posted by nickyskye (20 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: bunch of crazy sounding rants



 
This isn't a "report"; it's a rant. And, more to the point, it's the rant of one of the parties in a long raging usenet war. As is the case with many salvos in such battles (and I myself have participated in a number of them; lo the shame of having surrendered to temptation), the author attempts to portray himself as calm, reasonable, and 'above the fray,' while actually being just as big a dickhead as everyone else involved.

However, if you want to read this as sort of primary source material for the study of egomania on the internets, I think it totally kicks ass.
posted by Clay201 at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2005


Does this have anything to do with Scientology? Where the usenet and psychology are involved, there has to be a Scientology angle, right? Particularly if stalking, hacking, libel, and intimidation are also involved....
posted by mr_roboto at 11:22 AM on July 6, 2005


You mean USENET is still used for things besides pr0n? Who'da thunk it?
posted by clevershark at 11:22 AM on July 6, 2005


This looks like a good post, but the main link is almost entirely incomprehensible.
posted by Marquis at 11:22 AM on July 6, 2005


I don't like to call people names, but I'll make an exception here: the guy who wrote this is a huge dick. "Wyatt Ehrenfels" (a pseudonym) is an ex-psychologist with rather strange ideas about how research should be done and a huge axe to grind (his main beef seems to be that modern academic psychologists don't all conduct Freudian dream research). If anyone's guilty of cyberstalking, he is: he's repeatedly spammed virtually every psychology mailing list he can find with his tripe, typically resulting in banning when he refuses to shut up at the moderator's request. He's a raging narcissist, has nothing positive to contribute, and is completely out of touch with reality. Keep that in mind as you read the linked article (or browse the rest of the site and draw your own conclusions).
posted by heavy water at 11:32 AM on July 6, 2005


I tried to read this bit it made my brain hurt.
posted by OmieWise at 11:32 AM on July 6, 2005


I took one look at it, and I found the idea of his guests being interested in knowing more about the case to be an extremely unlikely one indeed and most probably a figment of his fevered imagination.

Seriously, if you invited people for dinner and told them you were being cyberstalked, would they honestly ask to know more about it, or would they be more likely to say something like "er, interesting. Now how about those Yankees"?
posted by clevershark at 11:42 AM on July 6, 2005


Mr Julian Wyatt Ehrenfels PhD. Dream Scientist. Fuckhead.

“I am speaking with Dr. JW Ehrenfels – author of Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun – and perhaps the muckraker of our time."

"The first five hundred pages are 90 percent faithful to reality, and whereas only about 50 percent of the last four hundred pages are faithful."

"I have known a tragic irony in my lifetime no greater than that of the way psychologists snuff out the nature of the psyche we place in their charge. The facts bare this out. The symbol – and by that I mean the dreams and synchronistic events -- are tools by which I can make plain to my readers the meaning and significance of this inhumanity. But these are factual dreams.."

"The fiction offers an explanation – the bizarreness of which reflects proportionately the bizarreness of the behaviors it is needed to explain. The fiction thus helps to underscore the fact in a way the fact cannot underscore itself – expressively."

"The book itself is a microcosm of the phenomenological universe. Human nature includes stimuli that emerge from a source beyond our awareness or control – FACT. Human nature includes imagination and emotional expression – FICTION."

And on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on....oy.

*blink*
posted by peacay at 11:42 AM on July 6, 2005


but it made my brain hurt. See.
posted by OmieWise at 11:43 AM on July 6, 2005


Clay201 puts it into perspective for this n00b (although it still looks pretty vicious)
posted by modernerd at 11:44 AM on July 6, 2005


Oh, the first quote in my comment is from the interviewer. The rest are JWyatt Earp Ehrenfels.
posted by peacay at 11:51 AM on July 6, 2005


I'd like to ask your opinions about Erhenfels points about the use of Google in cyberstalking.
posted by nickyskye at 12:08 PM on July 6, 2005


tell me more, you CRAZY FUCK.
posted by perianwyr at 12:12 PM on July 6, 2005


Is there anything more tedious than the political wars of an internet newsgroup?

(And no, don't say it.)
posted by jokeefe at 12:27 PM on July 6, 2005


nickskye, I've METAd this. You didn't know, but this really shouldn't be spread about.
posted by TimothyMason at 12:36 PM on July 6, 2005


MetaTalk
posted by OmieWise at 12:37 PM on July 6, 2005


Oops, sorry, didn't see TM's comment on preview.
posted by OmieWise at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2005


nickyskye writes "I'd like to ask your opinions about Erhenfels points about the use of Google in cyberstalking."

Not until the cliffnotes is released.
I have to say it - this is a terrible post. I'm not even sure alerting people to this guy's behaviour and history has been worth it. Most people here would I suspect recognize batshit crazy ranting without a headsup. I can't imagine I would believe or give credence to anything he said. If people want to search for info on the internet about other people they can.
On preview: Oh. This will likely be deleted.
posted by peacay at 12:42 PM on July 6, 2005


nickyskye is just thinking of the children. right?
posted by quonsar at 12:45 PM on July 6, 2005


This putz and 'cyclotourist' should get acquainted.
posted by fixedgear at 12:45 PM on July 6, 2005


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