Having joined in some of the light-hearted abuse here myself, I will step back to say in all seriousness that jt probably gets worse than he deserves at times.
But I also suspect he tries to set it up that way. If you read any thread like this, it usually starts off with him making some rather conventional claim (something that's at least debatable, if not necessarily true) while making sure to state it in as flamboyant and antagonistic a tone as possible. Essentially, what could be a point of fun discussion is presented as Received Wisdom which fools challenge at their peril. The result is what you see here. He tries to rub people the wrong way, essentially, and is rewarded (I suspect that is the right term) by having his claims subjected to more scrutiny than most people's would be. The "unwarranted" attacks give him a chance to assume the lonely martyr's stance and claim people are singling him out irrationally. Go a few rounds, nothing gets solved. Move process to new thread. Lather, rinse, repeat. The circle of life is complete.
Having observed how consistently he stays "in character" regardless of how well or poorly his statements fare in reality, I've concluded there's probably a good bit of Andy Kaufman-esque performance art at work here.
So while I occasionally rise to the bait (hey, it's all in fun!), I do at least recognize (what I believe to be) the inner workings of this dance we've all gotten so used to.
Are you refering to Andy Kaufman the comedic genius or Andy Kaufman the tram driver? It makes a difference.
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