The Pitiful Pit of Prevarication

Today's post will be for all of you who've been dying to know how we keep the fires burning so brightly here at Blazing Pants so I thought I'd bring you a special edition!

First things first, our meter looks all clean and shiny and new. And it is. However, what keeps those flames going (at times too hot for me to even approach the Truth-O-Meter) is the foul underbelly of the world that most of us don't really care to think about. Trouble is, just when you are busily ignoring them you bump into one (or more, they always come with pals) and all hell breaks loose. They are know as the Dark Tetrad, which is sadly, a very real phenomenon. They create a fire pit that burns until they burn out and I call it the pitiful pit of prevarication.

I invited in our old friend from the bunny blog to give us a discussion on this strange creature known as the Internet Troll that is the Dark Tetrad. Welcome Dr Freud!

Oh, ah Hello again Ms Bunny. Vat do you vant dis time? You keep Vaking me up fon my deep slumber in vich I dream of cigars und my Mutti.

Oh sorry about that Siggy but this one is important. It's serious this time.

Oy, so vat is it? Get on vit it.

I want you to explain about Internet trolls and the abnormal personality traits behind it.

OK, Vell, I don't know dis Internet thingy but I can give you some information - listen up.

The Dark Tetrad consists of four disturbing personality traits, that when combined, make for a personality so dark at its core that it can possess no redeeming qualities. It's an addition of a trait to the traditional Dark Triad, which comprises Narcissism, Psychopathy and Machiavellianism but when you add in the fourth component; Sadism, you have the makings for a perfect Internet troll. There was study published recently that focused on Internet behaviors with respect the the Dark Triad - Click here for the abstract.  What struck me in particular was calling out sadism as a separate and distinct feature, though lack of empathy is a hallmark characteristic of the other three traits. However, several studies show that sadism should inhabit its own classification due to the unique characteristics as described thusly:

"All of those with dark personality traits were cruel to an innocent opponent when it was easy to exert pain. But the sadists increased the intensity of their attack when they realized the innocent person would not fight back. And what’s more, they were the only ones willing to spend time and energy for the opportunity to be cruel." (source - Everyday Sadism)

Vy does this interest you Ms Bunny?

It's of interest here at Blazing Pants, because those personality flaws lead the Internet Troll to go to nearly any lengths to achieve their ends.  Let's take for instance an inconvenient commenter, who trolls every blog, article, facebook group, twitter feed that she can to pleasure herself at the expense of others. I wish she'd stick to more conventional methods of self pleasuring.

Oh ya, ya, I haff seen her actions. Ve can talk about zee masturbation later but this kind of pleasuring she does may help explain the great lengths to vich she will go simply to be cruel or hurtful (that's the sadism part) perhaps fueled by an addiction as well.  Let's break it down by trait, shall ve?

Narcissism

Narcissism can be defined as: "extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one's own talents and a craving for admiration". This is blatantly obvious in this particular troll throughout her posts, both on her own blog and via comments to others.  She never concerns herself with the actual topic at hand, rather inserts herself in a superior and haughty manner simply to create a reaction. Narcissists often feel extremely inadequate and posture through actions such as these simply to build their own sense of grandiosity. They are also apt to view themselves as victims and portray themselves to others that way when their actions invariably generate negative consequences. Roger Elliot was a prime example of extreme narcissism.

OK, so kinda like when she's always claiming to be a close personal friend of people she's never met, like a convicted murderess and her mitigation specialist? That kind of thing?

Ya Bunny, these are "convenient UNTRUTHS" she has invented to boost her own notoriety or in this case infamy, since vat real person could take pride in that?  


But what about when she posts pictures of her own garden and dare I call it a pitiful fire pit?

Zis is also narcissistic - she is really posting a pitiful pit of prevarication which she is using to seem like a human vith real feelings to gain your empathy. Also ven she uses her family to invoke pity, she is attempting to shift the attention away from her own misdeeds but she never cares about her family until they can be useful to her. Now be qviet I haff to finish. Next is psychopathy.

Psychopathy

Psychopathy encompasses symptoms such as; lack of empathy, poverty of emotion, untruthfulness and insincerity, boldness and disinhibition and the inability to assume responsibility. In other words, they have no boundaries for their behavior and no conscience as you and I know it.

Wow, so things like posting people's addresses, phone numbers, calling police, having people show up at someone's house to puncture their tires or even impersonating someone to get process servers to show up at a PTA meeting someone is attending? Stuff like that?

Oh yes, and more. But usually, they will attract and enlist other people to do the physical dirty work for them. They attract other Internet trolls with personality defects and use them for their own ends.

They're not friends with the other trolls that they hang around with on people's web pages or twitter timelines?

Oh no, qvite the contrary. The Dark Tetrad is incapable of cultivating the connections required to establish and maintain an actual human relationship. She is like the fish that she slaps with; cold und dead on the inside. You can see that the people she calls friends are usually unstable themselves. She chooses people she sees as veaker so she can always see herself as superior. She needs that to feed the narcissistic facet of her personality.

So this is already a very scary person!

Oh vait, ve are not done yet! Now add in the machiavellian aspect and ve haff a dangerous subhuman creature.

Machiavellian 

The Machiavellian personality employs cunning, cynicism and duplicity to every action or motivation in their lives. They are devoid of goals other than to create and cultivate hate and power over others. They feel that any means justify their own ends. Morality and ethics are for the weak and they of course have risen above the weak so whatever they do is inherently right because they chose to do it. Of course, right and wrong are at their discretion so often you will see them condemn the very behavior they employ regularly.

Oh, yes indeed! The fishslapper and the fleas from the dog pound do that all the time!

I know, Bunny, I haff seen it! The duplicity is evident to most people in the normal spectrum but she deludes herself into thinking that she is always virtuous, or at least that is vat she vants you to think she believes. She tells so many untruths and spins so many webs that at times she can get caught in them herself.

So, combine all these traits with the sadism aspect that we described above and you haff exactly a fishslapping Internet Troll. Before she discovered the Internet, she was a garden variety Dark Triad who desperately vanted to add the sadism but didn't haff the nerve. She stalked her ex boyfriend (again, vee see the lack of ability to maintain a stable interpersonal connection) just to slap him viss her dead fish. 

Zen she even told police zat she vanted to strike a man in a Veelchair viss her car and keep him pinned to the curb until police could come. Ziss is clear evidence zat she feels justified in everything she does and seeks to inflict pain upon others that "irritate" her. Ve get a clear glimpse of the lengths she vill go to just to see her ends achieved. Her lack of conscience and machiavellian sense of entitlement are evident because she actually posted this TO the police. But ven she finally discovers her own sadistic qualities, she comes into her full grandeur as a Dark Tetrad of the Internet.

This has been an amazing amount of information Dr Freud! Thank you so much for joining me!

Now Bunny, I'm goink to tell you zat if you publish ziss information, she vill seek to destroy you vis her current posse of trolls. She vill lie, she vill spend hours upon hours trying to bring you down with rumor, innuendo and anything she can get her hands on.

Oh, I know. Her comments on this very blog and others have made that perfectly clear. Not to worry, I do have a conscience and it is clear!

OK, Bye for now Bunny, I must get back to my cigar dreams.

So there you have it folks - that's why the Dark Tetrad is of interest here at Blazing Pants. She uses the catfishes to do her bidding - very much like slapping someone in the face with a fish, only in this case, the fish are not yet aware that they are already dead to her.

So what you end up with is a fishslapper with fleas and a dog pound that smells like dead fish. Hold your noses and get out the Raid folks!

I will call this one a HUGE, off the scales Pants-on-Fire!

So that's all for today folks! Thanks for reading!

PS - we never accept donations here at Blazing Pants.

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