Re: The craziest fundie i've spoken to so far..

[karadan]

I must admit, I'm somewhat hesitant to debate with fundies any more due to a recent encounter I had on youtube. I posted a comment on a vid and in return, This guy PM'ed me. I'm usually up for a good debate so I replied. After a few exchanges I started to become apprehensive. He wasn't your usual run-of-the-mill belief without reason fundie. His reasoning was dark to the core. All his values seemed to be based upon the pursuance of discomfort to non-believers or believers in other religions. He derived actual happiness from the thought that billions of people currently suffer in agony in hell. The thing which scared me the most was how (almost) persuasive he was. Here was a guy, quite obviously insane (some of the stuff he was saying was really off the wall, incredibly elaborate but nasty, insidious stuff) but actually super intelligent with it. Intelligent enough to probably find out who I am, where I live and maybe insane enough to act upon it. I quickly blocked him but am still a little worried. It was like I was having a conversation with Charles Manson.

Anyhow, it got me wondering if there's any point talking to fundies any more. The guy really gave me the creeps. Not only was he aggressively intelligent, his version of history was astoundingly incorrect although he believed in it with a totality and conviction I've not seen before. His radical ideas could not be reasoned with. It is scary to think there are highly educated people out there like him. People who would only wish harm upon others because of an unbelievably elaborate, malevolent and counter intuitive religious code. Is there any point trying to reason with people like this? Do you guys think debating their ideas can ever lead to any good things or should we just leave them to wallow in their own cynical self-righteousness?

I wasn't going to talk about this because it weirded me out so much but then, maybe you guys need to be warned of him. His YT name is MrTrilliondollarman and he is batshit crazy.

[Dretlin]

Don't be concerned.

People who have real passion behind there convictions can seem persuasive. Yet it is not their argument that is persuasive but the passion and determination that lies behind it.

Hitler was an unbelievably brilliant public speaker - do we need to go into anymore detail about how utterly insane he was?

To answer your question - talking to ANY fundamentalist is completely inane. I do not waste my time. Best that we sit back - let them talk - and then proceed to highlight every single bigoted remark and correct every inaccurate/factually wrong statement - and their will be. I strongly believe any more investment in time is wasted.

Job done.

[kelltrill]

That's a really disturbing story. Karadan, what youtube vid was it that you commented on? I'd be interested to see it.
I don't think arguing with fundies has a point, unless you simply want to fill in the gaps in your own knowledge and expose yourself to different worldviews. At the end of the day, they are creepy and mentally deranged. I shuddered at the line where you said he figured out where you lived.

[karadan]

That's a really disturbing story. Karadan, what youtube vid was it that you commented on? I'd be interested to see it.
I don't think arguing with fundies has a point, unless you simply want to fill in the gaps in your own knowledge and expose yourself to different worldviews. At the end of the day, they are creepy and mentally deranged. I shuddered at the line where you said he figured out where you lived.

Sorry Kelltrill, i probably wasn't clear. He didn't find out where i lived but from the several private conversations we had, it seemed he was capable and maybe crazy enough to follow through with it. Although the Atlantic ocean sits between us, it is still a little worrying.

It was a while back so it might take some searching but i'll try to find the vid. It was only one comment on a vid which led to our private message conversations.

[elliebean]

That is a chilling thought, though. I know of someone on another forum who had that happen to her just the other day. She also had commented on a YouTube video. Her parents were phoned, her email was hacked, she was threatened. She's since contacted the police and has gotten her email accounts back under her control, but that really is scary stuff.

I only debate fundies as long as they seem genuinely interested in a discussion that can progress amicably. Beyond that, I just start making fun of them and taunting them..... or ignoring them, depending on my mood and whether I have time for it.

[karadan]

Bloody hell, that is scary. They hacked her email? Wow. Something like that must take great determination if done by the usual means of guessing a password. That must take weeks of sustained effort, not to mention a whole heap of crazy.

*shudders*

[elliebean]

Thinking back on it, when I first read her account of the incident, I had my doubts. Not about whether she was telling the truth, but rather what reasons she had for suspecting there was a connection between her commenting on the video and the subsequent stalking. Given the apparent swiftness of the 'response', I had it in the back of my mind that maybe someone she knows is involved. I don't know enough about her situation to be able to say with any conviction either way. I guess if they catch the guy she'll let me know.

[karadan]

I found the vid where we first started speaking to each other before it went to PM's.

The guy seems to have posted a hell of a lot on that video since then.

[youtube:12g9unf6]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDxF3j4Q4g[/youtube:12g9unf6]