An Open Letter to Curt Olson

[jwocky]

@KL666
Eichmann wasn't that intelligent ... and his defence was "I only followed orders [from my Führer]". Stuart follows only orders, mindless, without thinking what he is doing to the community, he made himself a willing helper.

[legoboyvdlp]

Jwocky, is Eichmann really necessary?

Eichmann said towards the end of the war that he would "leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction.

Under Eichmann's supervision, large-scale deportations began almost immediately to extermination camps at Bełżec, Sobibor, Treblinka and elsewhere.

Eichmann's office was responsible for collecting information on the Jews in each area, organising the seizure of their property, and arranging for and scheduling trains.

[KL-666]

It takes some (badly misused) intelligence to do this job:

facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in German-occupied Eastern Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Eichmann

I wish he had been a lot less intelligent at his job.

Such large scale operations of evil can not be attributed to a simple moderator of a tiny forum. Probably in his innocent simplicity he has no evil at all in mind (Occam's Razor).

Kind regards, Vincent

[jwocky]

See, here is the difference between a behaviourist and a political correct person ... the behaviourist knows if any kind of power, how big or small, is given to a person who derives pleasure from serving the person who gave him the power, regardless how bad the things are, he or she has to do, then it's the same psychological mechanism. Thus, because Curtis didn't give Stuart the power to send millions to camps, you assume, that Stuart, who follows the same behavioural patterns as the mindless willing helpers of any dictator in history, wouldn't do that. But that is your assumption.

[KL-666]

How much worth is "the same psychological mechanism", if the one is capable of managing large scale operations and the other can not even manage his toy train at home?

Would you say that a retarded person abused by an evil intelligent guy, is the same as someone willfully following orders from a guy of whom he knows very well the evilness?

Kind regards, Vincent

[legoboyvdlp]

I just feel that it is not correct to compare a forum moderator to a mass murderer.

[Octal450]

@legoboyvdlp
+1

[jwocky]

Hummm, isn't that exactly the point? See, you assume, Stuart is retarded, but on a more objective scale, neither his speech patterns nor his use of language on the forum shows any sign of retardation in a clinical sense. So he has to be able to recognize that what he does is wrong and therefore is responsible for what he does, regardless who gives him orders.

Now, there is the idea, it is wrong to compare a board moderator and a mass murderer. Only, here is the rub: Before the Nazi-time, Eichmann was basically a district sales representative, a guy going literally from door to door to sell oil for the winter to house owners. A real small light. Only by subscribing to a cause and in return having given some power, he was able to become that mass-murderer we know from history books.
Now, compare that pattern to Stuart. He was once a very regular user and a user, as we know from other incidents, is a nothing in the world of Curtis & Co. Then, by subscribing to the cause, Stuart was given some power as a moderator. Now, while he has not the power of mass killing, he nevertheless abuses this power relentlessly for the cause of his master.
The difference is therefore not in what they do but in the scale. The mindset is pretty much the same. And of course, if someone would have recognized such behavioural patterns before 1933, the third rich maybe would have never happened.

[IAHM-COL]

Hehe

Somehow in defense of Stuart, I shall say he has been a FlightGear Core developer and a Moderator in the Forum for years before the hell broke loose. I don't think he was given power for maintaining a cause (unlike Bugman, who fits your description of scaling power using an agenda).

But in what we agree, and remain in the same board is that Stuart's moderation TACTICS are not sutbtle, and he understands the wrongdoing he does, and thus he is fully responsible.

[KL-666]

I did not want to say that Stuart is retarded, but i gave the ends of a scale of capacity to understand. There are many shades of gray in between.

Also there may be differences in level of understanding by subject. He may be reasonable intelligent on some subjects, but in moderation he is not. It is a mistake by the leadership to have given him that job, when he obviously can not recognize bullying in sociable wording. All he can recognize is very straightforward slightly offending words. Causing him to act on someone who reacts to a bully, but he does not take on the bully.

Only in moderation he may be called retarded (in other subjects i would not know). Therefore i say that in his moderation "the same psychological mechanism" should not have very much weight. I believe he really does not understand what he is doing within the subject of moderation.

Kind regards, Vincent