And The Spamming Blogger Strikes Yet Again

This article did not really start out as an article. Originally, I just wanted to leave a comment in Moolah's blog here (http://whereiszemoola.blogspot.com/2009/06/and-spamming-blogger-strikes-yet-again.html), but seeing how long that comment quickly became, I thought it would be better to write it here instead.

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Dear Moo,

Even though I may not be actively trading nor blogging on the Malaysian market this year, your blog is still one of the few blogs I read regularly. Do keep up the good work!

As you know, the "spammer" (who goes under multiple nicks) is very well known by nearly everyone in Malaysian investing blogsphere to "spam" several blogs for a very long time now, for example, if they were to write articles that gives a hint of disagreeing with him, even if this is imaginary on his part. (and I use the word "spam" euphemistically here, as more often than not, they are often a poorly disguised form of public slandering, imaginary allegations and personal attacks).

In my case, he has done it hundreds if not over a thousand times as I indicated in my blog in the past. And when one has been sensatized, one is naturally more “in tune” when the same thing happened to others such as yourself, Dali, etc..

His case is very unique. There is really no one else quite like him over the Net. As I had the personal experience and opportunity to reflect on this, I am no longer surprised, because as human beings, our pains are unique to ourselves, and the result of a prolonged pain can give rise to certain irrational behaviors, and as unique beings, will tend to have their own unique signatures. (e.g. some people has been known to resort to alcohol under duress, whereas others resort to physically abusing wife/kids, others committing even murder / commit suicide under prolonged duress, etc.).

In his case, one signature is his chronic, recurrent, and long lasting spamming, regardless of what others say to him / of him. He simply ignores and continued his spamming.

Another signature is the content of his spams - e.g. the one you just quoted. The contents are typically delusional, imaginative and sometimes bizarre claims. As I mentioned earlier, it sometimes is a poorly disguised form of public slandering and personal attack on imaginary attributes.

For example, if we reflect closer on his last one - “Ha ha sour cow, feel the pain ? did my sifu sam 's achievement get you hurt ? ha ha cool it sour cow cool.”

Observe his signatures:
- Laugh for no apparent reason.
- Childishly, without real provocation, called you names such as "sour"
- Deluding himself of your pain (or is it his imagination of your pain?) instead of the true pain that he himself might be experiencing.
- Irrationally fear that others will forget about Sam's (or self?) achievement (or failure?) and so, acted on the urge to remind you constantly (via repeated spamming) of Sam’s achievement, whether real or imaginary (should one be so fearful of true and genuine achievements that it requires constant reminders?).
- Pathologically and constantly deny emotional responsibility when he asked you to "cool it".
- Repeated and end with childish name calling ("sour cow cool").

And observe the other typical signature – the rinse-repeat method.

The truth is -- even without me identifying it here and regardless of the nick, we all know immediately in our hearts that this is his signature (I am referring to the spammer himself whoever he is).

And when we take a step back, and reflect on the entire behavior from a detached viewpoint, what conclusions can a reasonable person make?

Even though we may not know who he is in real life, we can make some common sense and reasonable deductions. For simplicity, I will refer to the spammer as “he”, and I am quite certain that it is a “he” – I have yet to meet a female who behaves like this in the investment world – we can reflect on this later why is it that only males tend to behave like this but not females (who have a different way to deal with pain).

1. He clearly feels insecure. Insecure enough that he has this uncontrollable urge to attack you without real provocation repeatedly over the years without stopping. His insecurity is not limited to you, but includes others.

2. His clearly fears you. So much so that, he still sees the need to attack on the slightest hint of threat, even if it is not real but his own imagination.

3. He clearly felt a prolonged pain from something which was previously linked to you. He has no real reason to be jealous of you, since you don't publicly trade nor publicly disclose your trade results.

As I have plenty of opportunity to reflect on him in the past, I believe he has personally lost something meaningful or something large and important to him in the past. Whatever it is or whether the loss is real or perceived, is not really that important. What is more important is his own feelings towards that real / perceived loss – to him, it is very real. So much so, that he has to resort to this regularly and over a prolonged period.

4. Whatever it is, he still felt the Pain to this day. He is no longer in control of his Pain. Instead, his Pain controls him and drives him to do what he does, as an automatic reaction. He is like a Pavlov dog who salivates immediately as an automatic response whenever he hears the bell ringing. He is unable to let that Pain go. He still clings tightly to it, but for what beneficial purpose?

5. Sadly, over time, he has developed an intimate relationship with this pain which he still cannot let go even today. Most likely, he is unaware of the need to let that pain go. He is reasonably intelligent, so, I'm sure he has made past attempts to let that Poison go. However, I believe he felt an emptiness when he tried to do this, and so, the emptiness eventually brought him back to spamming you/me/others. It appears my absence in the past few months has seen him channeling his Pain to you and others as alternative outlets. It appears he still cannot let go of this root cause which is the Pain.

6. I believe his experience is not unlike someone who has lost a loved one, and unable to let that person go even though that person has already passed on.

7. Clinically, this happens more common than I originally thought. From society's viewpoint, he needs help, not more criticism. The root cause may relate to his strong attachment to his ego. It doesn’t help when others boost his ego to get tips. It is not dissimilar to giving the drunkard more alcohol to drink.

8. The other (less likely) possibility may be that he is merely doing his “job” when he blogs and spams. When things don't turn the way "it should be", you (or someone else or something else) had to become a convenient excuse, or a diversion. Either way, to cover up his own inadequacies.

9. His regular and chronic use of multiple Net names is indicative of this self-delusion. He doesn't appreciate that he cannot fool everyone all the time. Even the best get caught out when they do it long enough (e.g. Madoff), and in his case, he has been called out more than once. His signature is to ignore and continue.

10. Rationally, he knows it is self-delusion, but because it is a delusional act of perceived self-preservation, we cannot expect him to acknowledge this publicly. Ironically, healing for him would actually require him to reach out to someone in the real world and acknowledge that his past behavior is wrong so that he can heal and move on. But seeing how entrenched his behavior has become, this would be almost impossible for him to do by himself. I believe he will find it easier to heal when he reaches out to someone physically to break out from his habit (e.g. from not using multiple nicks, not publicly slander others on personal basis on the slightest hint of threat, to engage in reason, to be emotionally mature, and other signatures above).

11. As mydreamgetrich has suggested in the past, his chronic behavior is likely linked to isolation, coupled with lack of family/corporate/social/other meaningful network/relationship. He is most likely single, with no intimate / superficial connection/relationship in the real world. It doesn't help that he reinforces this behavior regularly in his blog. It has gotten to a stage where for years, he has not thought twice about lying to others over the Net. It had become habitual and second nature to him long ago. Hence, even if he were to try to stop by himself today, I’m not optimistic that it would be a permanent change, without some form of public acknowledgement or reaching out to a real life person or seeking the help of a medical professional.

12. So, as much as we like him to reflect on this article for his own benefit and hopefully see a permanent change in his behavior, the truth is statistically and from personal experience, it very rarely happens - don't be surprised if we don’t see that happening ... a strong and long lasting momentum like this is not likely to stop immediately and reverse …..

13. Going forward, if/when he spams again, I think the way you handled it (which is to remove it from sight after you've read it) is the correct way ....... there is no emotional benefit for you to hang on to it when it is clearly slanderous ........

And everytime when I receive such "spams", I would pause and reflect on his own pain, what drives him to do this, and reflect on his own inadequacies to find a better channel.

I reflect that since he is unable to deal with whatever that really bothered him, this became his outlet ….

I reflect that it's not dissimilar to an irresponsible father who drinks and come back home to physically abuse his wife/kid when he perceives (whether real or imaginary) that something didn't work out right at work/money/etc.

And then, I proceed to put that slander out of my sight.

14. And how should others respond when the "spammer" strikes again? Here, I think similar steps to 13 applies also. Read it ....... think about it ............ and reflect on the spammer's own pain ........... clearly he is in pain which drives him to do what he does .............. and because of hs own inadequacy, he does what he does and we should reflect on his inadequacy ................

So, in short the best thing that we can do for him as third parties - when he "spams" - is ironically to stay silent.......... Perhaps send a short note or show of support to Moolah .......... Tell Moolah tht you know that it has nothing to do with him ...... Acknowledge that it has nothing to do with us third parties ........... and acknowledge that it has everything to do with the spammer where regardless of what we say, it did not stop the spammer before ............

If the spammer has genuine friends and followers, they should continue to try to advise him to stop.

15. And when we are publicly slandered, we too should first reflect on our own egos – if the slander and allegations are untrue, why did we respond in a way that we later don't feel so good about our initial response? In my case, when I reflected long and deep enough on it – usually it boiled down to our own ego.

We may reason away that every human being usually have a limit that when pushed repeatedly over a long period of time – we simply snapped under duress and when under constant harassment.

But sometimes, we also need to reflect further on why we snap. Ultimately, for me, it comes back to my own attachment to my own ego ...... and I believe it is also true for many. The truth is, we don’t feel good when we’ve been slandered publicly. We fear others may start believing the slander to be true if repeated long enough. But when we fear, it reflects our inadequacies to deal with that fear.

16. And dear "spammer", as I know that you are reading this, my advice is try to let IT go …. Whatever IT is, decide and resolve to let it go ….. and then, let it go ……..

It is really not worth your emotional well being to be clinging on to it for so long …… The longer you cling on to it, the longer and worse the poison becomes.

You should not be too fearful of what others have written ........ whether it is TA vs FA ............ whether it is an article that points out the negative side of a stock .............. much has been debated before about TA vs FA, and much has been debated before about individual stocks good and bad points. All stocks have good and bad points ....... There is no need to resort to public slandering ........ there is no need to be fearful.

As I tried to allude to you long ago when you first wrote to me under a different nick, don’t let the fear (or loss or hatred) poison your heart ….. Don’t become the person you hate to be most ………

For what it is worth ......... in my own heart ........ I have forgiven you for EVERYTHING that you have done a long time ago, and no longer bear any hatred towards you …….

If my advice is worth anything, whatever IT is that you have been clinging on so strongly to your heart, “Let IT go”. It is not worth clinging on to.

Best wishes,

Seng.

PS. I am only a human being, so, don't take me too seriously too ......... and of course, you are always right ;-)

PS2. I have decided to disengage comment moderation. I am doing so because I trust in the Buddha seed and the goodness in the Spammer's heart. I realize what I said may appear harsh, and perhaps his response to my article would be a way for me to redeem my past karma ..........