One reason that people might see Laurie quote things and receive
apparently unwarranted abuse in return is that they come into the
process in the middle, rather than having been there from the
beginning and having the whole wearisome experience stretch out
and onwards like some cyber version of the eternal and futile
labors of Sisyphus.
Laurie enters a forum with broad announcements and starts pasting
chunks of the "Little Red Quote Book (revised ed.)" into his posts.
Laurie gets messages explaining how his quotes are misquotes of one
form or the other. Laurie claims that anyone who challenges the quote
either is challenging the quoted authority or is too stupid to
understand what they are doing. After a small interval, Laurie
repeats the very same quote that was at issue, and without the
slightest change in surrounding text due to the rebutting commentary.
Within a few repetitions of this cycle, Laurie is receiving simply
scathing replies, since none of the earlier attempts at communication
started anything like an actual conversation.
To someone new to the forum, the regular roundhouse abuse that
Laurie receives seems out of line with what he posts. To those
who saw the original substantive replies go unheeded or scorned
outright, the abuse does not seem so much out of line as it is
ineffective.
For myself, I find the fact that certain persons find Laurie to
be a role model of sorts is highly illuminating.
Wesley