With genuine reluctance, I find myself obliged to ban Larry from St Louis from commenting on this blog.
I am extremely happy for people to comment on this blog who disagree with my views. It makes it much more interesting for everybody. I wish more people who disagree would comment.
But Larry has a different agenda. His technique is continually to accuse me of holding opinions which I do not in fact hold, and which he thinks will call my judgement into doubt.
Take this comment posted by Larry at 9.35 am today:
I’ve re-read your post on the Russian spies, and once again you’ve proven to be a complete dumbass.
I predicted Russia claiming (in some minor way) those idiots. You didn’t. You thought it was a conspiracy.
You’ve once again self-indicted.
In fact my view on the Russian spies was the exact opposite of what Larry claims it was. As I posted:
I don’t have any difficulty in believing that the FBI really have discovered a colony of Russian sleeper spies in the United States.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/06/those_russian_s.html#comments
This is not Larry being mistaken – remember he claimed he had just re-read my posting. It is rather indicative of a very deliberate technique he has used scores of times, that of claiming I hold an opinion which he believes will devalue my other arguments in the mind of other readers, when I do not in fact hold that opinion.
He most often – indeed daily – does this with reference to 9/11. He tries to divert almost every thread on to the topic of 9/11 and to insinuate that I am among those who believe that 9/11 was “an inside job”. In fact, I am not of that opinion and never have been.
I have put up with this now for months, but Larry’s activities have become so frenetic and are so counter-productive to informed debate, I am not prepared to put up with it any more. I am also deeply sucpicious of the fact that he is able to spend more time on this blog than me, and to post right around the clock (often as with this one at 9.35am – think about it – what time is that in the US?).
Anyway, sorry Larry, your derailing days are over.
.
Vronsky: you’re right. Apologies (again).
angrysoba: let’s shift this over to the 911 thread.
well, have fun, it was a pleasure to read such an open minded webversation anyway.
For anyone needing a link to the 9/11 thread, here it is:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/01/the_911_post.html
Richard Robinson said:
“How it works for him [Alfred, that is] to be so happy and all in a nice multicultural society thousands of miles away while preaching division and mutual paranoia to us is not clear to me, and very probably never will be. But, as with the previous iterations, it goes nowhere, makes no rational sense to me, and life’s too short for it.”
Sorry, Richard, I gave you an explanation, but I cannot give you an understanding.
But don’t worry, it takes all sorts to make a world. There are musicians in my family. They sometimes have trouble with explanations too. Something to do with being hyperemotional perhaps.
Ruth said,
“Obviously Larry has been reinvented as Alfred. It seems to me that the intelligence services are so afraid of Craig’s blog.”
Oh sure, I work for MI13, call me Larry, Alfred, whatever.
So, hey, Ruthie, when you’re in town, give me a call and I’ll take you for a spin in my Aston Martin. Then you can come up to my place and see my sketchings (of vacuum cleaner parts).
Just now I’m waiting for HQ to send out a cute secretary and a wireless operator, while I work at recruiting my network.
I just joined the yacht club, which means a coupla hundred thou on expenses for a decent boat. Then I’ll be able to get close the Admiral, a heart surgeon by trade, very social. He’ll certainly be an asset. He’s already promised to nominate me for the Golf Club ?” that’ll be another 25 grand on expenses for the entrance fee, plus beverages, of course. But it’ll be worth it. I’ll be able to check the bunkers for al Qaeda.
Actually, if anyone here’s an intelligence asset, it would make more sense to assume it is Craig:
“Say old boy, if you’re tired of dealing with that shit Karimov, why not consider a career change. You know your prospects in the FCO are limited ?” Egypt next, Pakistan or some other place where you can’t drink the water. At best, a posting to some dreary place like Ottawa or Canberra. You know Paris, Washington, the other top spots, are reserved for the toffs.
“But the security services are always in need of a good man. You could be the British Chomsky. They could fix you up as Rector at one of those Scottish Universities: hotbeds of separatism and Anglophobia ?” keep an eye on them. You could have a blog, write books, go on the lecture circuit, get close to the central Asian emigres, befriend them, like Chomsky with his Latin American leftie friends. Get to know their contacts, back home. Then shop ’em.”
A more plausible scenario, don’t you think. And there you go Suhayl, good set ups for a thriller. The first one’s been taken by Graham Greene of course, but why not use the second?
It helps in understanding if you can make an explanation comprehensible, factual, logical and credible, Alfred. That’s basic. Are you bored? Because this is quite boring.
What do they play, Alfred? The musicians. Weirdly, I was just trying to post something over on the ‘Doune the Rabbit Hole’ thread about very old songs. One of the links was to Gaelic metrical psalms – shudderingly powerful and evocative – from the Isle of Lewis.
Thanks, Alfred, I’ll think about it – though I don’t tend to write espionage thrillers, it’s not my cup of tea – I do enjoy watching such films though, if they’re good.
Well, one kind of understanding, I should have said; the intellectual kind. Interesting that you are yourself, Alfred, aiming for emotional understanding(“they’re coming to get you! it’s genocide!”) and no-one here feels the same way. Nor are your facts logical or consistent enough to persuade them intellectually, it seems.
Never mind.
MJ said:
“Alfred is far too articulate to be Larry. “Zionist Troll” is Larry, plus a couple of anons.”
Thanks MJ for distinguishing me from Larry. No offense intended Larry, but I don’t wish to take responsibility for any nonsense but my own.
Suhayl said:
“Alfred is interesting, if oddly incongruous, often frustrating and somewhat elusive. And there’s the BNP thing. I’m not sure quite what he sees in this blog though… ”
Well, thanks for the “interesting” but why the “elusive.” I have been entirely upfront in what I have said about immigration, yet you and several others have jumped to the conclusion that because I share the opposition to mass immigration of the great majority of the British population I must be a racist, or a “racialist”, as you put it. There’s no rationality in this. It is precisely the offense of which Craig has accused Larry: namely, ” holding opinions which I do not in fact hold, and which [you] think will call my judgement [or moral integrity] into doubt.”
Alan Campbell said:
“Is it beyond your comprehension that there are lots of people in the world on the internet who have very different opinions to you? Get over yourselves. They’re not agents of the state. They just can’t stand your opinions and have the right to express their anger/differences/contempt.”
For me it’s the laughs that bring me back.
In fact this thread provides the only example I know of an empirical fact deducible by means of a syllogism:
Premise 1: A joke thread contains nothing but nonsense
Premise 2: Everything on this thread is nonsense.
Hence this is a joke thread.
Just the kind of thing ol’ Bertie Russell would have seen as a major breakthrough in epistemology. LOL.
(P.S. My apologies if anyone said anything sensible.)
‘Trolls are now being openly employed by governments in countries like the U.S. and Israel specifically to scour the internet for alternative news sites and disrupt their ability to share information.’
‘Trolls use a wide variety of strategies, some of which are unique to the internet, here are just a few:
1) Make outrageous comments designed to distract or frustrate…
2) Pose as a supporter of the truth, then make comments that discredit the movement: …..then post long, incoherent diatribes so as to appear either racist or insane.
3) Dominate Discussions: Trolls often interject themselves into productive web discussions in order to throw them off course and frustrate the people involved.
4) Prewritten Responses: Many trolls are supplied with a list or database with pre-planned talking points designed as generalized and deceptive responses to honest arguments. 9/11 “debunker” trolls are notorious for this.
5) False Association: ….For example: calling those against the Federal Reserve “conspiracy theorists” or “lunatics”. Deliberately associating anti-globalist movements with big foot or alien enthusiasts, because of the inherent negative connotations. Using false associations to provoke biases and dissuade people from examining the evidence objectively.
6) False Moderation: Pretending to be the “voice of reason” in an argument with obvious and defined sides in an attempt to move people away from what is clearly true into a “grey area” where the truth becomes “relative.”
7) Straw Man Arguments: A very common technique. The troll will accuse his opposition of subscribing to a certain point of view, even if he does not, and then attacks that point of view. Or, the troll will put words in the mouth of his opposition, and then rebut those specific words. For example: “9/11 truthers say that no planes hit the WTC towers, and that it was all just computer animation. What are they, crazy?”‘
“But don’t worry, it takes all sorts to make a world. There are musicians in my family. They sometimes have trouble with explanations too. Something to do with being hyperemotional perhaps.”
[tries to keep a straight face] Your family tends towards getting hyperemotional ?
Ah, the cackling of the gremlins.
The Uncertainty of the Poet
I am a poet.
I am very fond of bananas.
I am bananas.
I am very fond of a poet.
I am a poet of bananas.
I am very fond.
A fond poet of ‘I am, I am’-
Very bananas.
Fond of ‘Am I bananas?
Am I?’-a very poet.
Bananas of a poet!
Am I fond? Am I very?
Poet bananas! I am.
I am fond of a ‘very.’
I am of very fond bananas.
Am I a poet?
technicolour – “Poet bananas!”
I like that ! Neat piece of work.
not me! Wendy Cope.
Richard Robinson said:
“[tries to keep a straight face] Your family tends towards getting hyperemotional ?”
Yes, what you might call musical. You know, they play with expression – like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB76jxBq_gQ
Not like Derek Paravicini. A genius obviously: if you gave him the date he could probably calculate in a second the day of the week when Caesar crossed the Rubicon. But when he plays, where’s the tone colour, touch, rubato, etc.?
I’ll give you the link in the next post, since two links in one post chokes the software.
Here’s Derek (see above):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhdGNSGjQSU
Angrysoba said:
“Oh dear! Prof. David Ray Grifffin is now cited as an expert on cell phone and voice-morphing technology.”
Angry, the self-confessed “footsoldier for the 9/11 lies movement” (I’m not kidding, see his website masthead), a useful member of the Craig Murray bodyguard of liars.
Ruth, could you please post the link to that piece from which you’ve quoted; I’ve read some things like it, but not entirely the same text, so it’d be interesting to read the whole. Thanks very much.
Alfred, yeah, I know, it’s the jokes. I actually respect your integrity (even if I find your ideas… ‘perplexing’ would have been a better word than ‘elusive’… as a totality). The fact that we (or indeed many others, on all sides) disagree on this or that has never been a problem for me – so, once again, Mr Campbell is entirely inaccurate. You are, of course, the antithesis of ‘troll’.
Technicolour, I am not a banana, I am a pineapple. A pineapple I am…
And here’s one more thing before everyone goes off to discuss mango juice:
Avatar Singh said:
“massive tranfer of money has happend in last 30 years from third world improvished by uk sponsored nealiberalism and ,money briought o uk and cayman island alls tolen money -uk is living off the money of the third world today. itis a protaction racket that is what uk is living off and calls it service industry.”
Av, I gotta to ask, do you type exclusively with your thumbs or did you spill coffee over your keyboard?
Av is another of Craig’s Anglophobic race warriors. He accuses the English of destroying India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh, etc., etc. Actually, of course, there were no such countries until the British (a) created them, and (b) made them independent states.
He rants about the UK living off the wealth of the third world. And be it noted that neither Suhalyl nor Techie have anything negative to say about such hate speech. Suhayl explicitly endorses much of it.
But here are some facts. The Indian sub-continent is more than a dozen times the size of the UK, it is vastly more fertile, it is more than thirty times as populous. The wealthiest citizens of India are wealthier than anyone in Britain. The wealthiest 60 million Indians have more wealth than all the British put together. Oh, and India has nukes, plus a space program, whereas the Brits never even put a ballistic missile into production.
So who’s really threatened here and by whom?
I knew that would be the response, which is one of the reasons I called avatar singh’s post “the other side of the same coin”. The English this, the English that. Whereas, in reality, whether it’s the Duke of Westminster of the (Dukes of Steel) Mittals and (Dukes of Everything) Tatas and whatever, it is transnational corporate capitalism this, transnational corporate capitalism that… Why does everything have to be tribalised? Ah well, what can one do?
Not many people are like Alfred, you know. Always a good thing to remember after spending a bit of time on this board.
“not me! Wendy Cope.”
Well, thanks for passing it on. I hadn’t known of her.
“…have anything negative to say”.
Truth is, Alfred, you completely ignored what I wrote about it, just as you did last time around on the same roundabout.
was a contender for the Poet Laureate and it would have been good if she’d got it, I think; except for the fact that it’s not her style.
Suhayl,
Here’s the link:
http://thecurrentaffairs.com/disinformation-tactics-the-methods-used-to-keep-you-in-the-dark.html
Avatar Singh from what I’ve seen there has been a
“massive tranfer of money has happend in last 30 years from third world improvished by uk sponsored nealiberalism and ,money briought o uk and cayman island alls tolen money -uk is living off the money of the third world today. itis a protaction racket that is what uk is living off and calls it service industry.”
Has the intelligence services with the remit to protect the economic security of the UK taken the idea way beyond legality and indulged in massive frauds laundering the funds into a vast web of companies with links all over the place?
Does the government within the government or the hard state run a shadow economy milking the UK economy to finance it? I think it does.