Highlander

Regretfully, I have come to the conclusion that "Highlander" is a propagandist provocateur and therefore he is banned.  They can send in their next agent to join the ones already here.

I don't have time for this nonsense.  pl

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16 Responses to Highlander

  1. johnf says:

    What a shame. Watching his chameleon-like changing of personalities and personna and beliefs was fascinating. His posts seemed to be composed by a committee.
    Israeli psy-ops really are getting aged and inflexible.

  2. LeaNder says:

    Highlander: Just like you “Mackrel Snappers” in the confession booth, we “Snake Handlers” can ask for,and find peace and forgiveness on this sinful earth.
    Admittedly I never heard “Mackerel Snapper” before, but it is easy to in understand context. The “snake handler” seems to convey more rich associations, and somehow suggests a much more evasive usage. The old “Good versus Evil” imagery? Which may well be a mirror face of the suggested “new” antisemite’s “prejudice of panic”? St. George-serpent/dragon-Ascalon-Ashkelon? Crusades, Israel, Armageddon.
    What I found interesting is the emotional response. If it was apparent before, I missed it.
    **********************************************************************************************************************************
    Amazing persistent prejudice and insult, it feels Colonel Lang is close to Kent no matter what his abstinence or non-abstinence on Friday.
    I do profess to be no less than I seem, to serve him truely that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest to converse with him that is wise and says little to fear judgement, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish.” King Lear, 4.12-16
    I trust I am none of those wicked that eat fish on Friday”. Don Marston, The Dutch Courtesan, 1.2, 18-19.

  3. LeaNder says:

    now I added a missing “in” at the wrong place, nitwit me.

  4. rjj says:

    Oh, damn. I admired his skill (or genius, as the case may be): the magisterial economy with which he was able to infuriate reminded me of my mom.

  5. Patrick Lang says:

    All some have written to regret the anathema, suggesting that his entrtainment value will be missed.
    Opinions? I am flexible in this matter. pl

  6. The trolling by that individual was a bane, a blight, and a waste both of your time and that and your readers.
    You’re well shot of him.

  7. Nancy K says:

    I kind of enjoyed highlander and it sort of scared me the few times I agreed with what he wrote as we are 180 apart in almost everything. Diversity can be interesting.

  8. LeaNder says:

    There may well be an entertainment value, but most of the time it seems coupled with ridiculing you, or more generally he tries to convince others question your authority on the matters you deal with, e.g. your price of oil prognosis which he obviously freely invented, and it wouldn’t be so hard to simply look for the message in the oil thread. And he occasionally adds themes and stereotypes, I am familiar with, but that I never heard from you, as if this was your opinion. I am a big fan of humor, but maybe not this kind.
    To pick one examples at random: Ahmadinajad wins and so does Bibi.
    Hey Colonel,
    You being the DIA “Uber Spook”, in your hey day.
    What further tidbids can you( or anyone else) offer up to us mere citizens, regarding Freedom House,NED,Gene Sharp, and Colonel Robert Helvey US Army retired? Are they good , bad, or just more government cows in the world’s china shop?
    But please! For Lord’s sake don’t metion George Soros and his foundations, or we’ll all be pushing up daisies!

    It’s a purely rhetorical show, even if you wanted you can’t answer this. Besides the last sentence makes sure you won’t even try.
    He is not very successful in attracting followers; but maybe his main point is to associate you with certain stereotypes, seemingly carelessly woven into his tale that may well stick with the occasional reader.
    My problem with these agents provocateur, self appointed or other-directed propagandist, honestly I don’t care, is that they hardly ever add anything essential or of interest. So in case, they send in their next one, less propaganda and more dialog would be fine. Besides it’s your decision, after all you are his main target. But strictly he can easily slip into a new identity.

  9. Charles I says:

    Pushed my buttons, wasted my time & energy. Energy best spent exposing and undermining the orchestrated campaigns against reality rather than rebutting any particular posted gibberish, pathetically pleasant though it can be to joust with these cads.
    I can entertain myself, I come here for the dramatic ignorance reducing potential of PL and the many informed and scholarly scholarly posters I have come to enjoy here at “The Academy”
    Never mind the price of oil, though I reiterate its only going up.
    Chesty Puller!? Peleliu? You and Mike expand my horizons Philipines-ward, who needs Higlander?

  10. different clue says:

    I hadn’t really read Highlander with enough care or slowness to really think about what he was writing. I just sort of breezed through it for the entertainment value which was about all I discerned there.
    He still seems more like a free-lance argumentator to me than a detailed agent.
    Wouldn’t a propagandist or a mind-molder try to be more in tune with the readership and less of a picker of fights?
    Anyway, if he is readmitted, he can consider himself having been very very warned; and at the very least he will bring some facts and references along with his arguments.

  11. Cieran says:

    Colonel:
    Highlander isn’t a propagandist — he’s a troll, plain and simple, and not a very good one, either. The proper response to trolls is not to feed them. Your banning him amounts to that.
    Smart move on your part. SST’s signal-to-noise ratio just improved considerably.

  12. Patrick Lang says:

    All
    I have been corresponding with him off line here and I now agree with Cieran that he is not a system agitprop guy. Google does wonders for knowledge. In reality he seems to be a resident of the deep Appalachian country, a farmer, local party official (GOP) and is probably a deacon or lay preacher in some evangelical church. Snakes? Who knows? I hope they are stocked up on anti-venom drugs. He just enjoyed annoying me, and he succeeded. That was my problem. I should know better. By the way, marines are excellent soldiers. pl

  13. charlottemom says:

    I chuckled when I read Highlander’s “mackarel snapper” reference. ‘Tis as old as the hills… When discussing anti-Catholic bias, my 75ish father recalled that insult from his childhood in the iron ore region of Northern Minnesota. I’d never that one before! Highlander seemed to me to a contrarian-type of provocateur, which I admit I sometimes am at dinner parties where I’m not particulary fond of the other guests!

  14. sbj says:

    Highlander always struck me as someone whose main purpose in posting was to weaponize the ignorance of others rather than seeking to dispel ignorance by bringing cogent and relevant arguments and info to the fore. I couldn’t say whether he is in service to one particular organization or not, but it seems to me likely he is not. More likely he spouts off in support of whatever shallow lunacy he himself believes in at any given moment, hence the less predictable, more mercurial nature of much of his commentary.

  15. rjj says:

    Oh, good. I hope he is coming back, because I want to hear more of what he has to say about the Clinton marriage.
    Also, as barrages of crap go two ways, it might be interesting to see how well he takes what he is so good at dishing out.
    ::::Without being disruptive or degrading the discourse::::

  16. confusedponderer says:

    I have sparred with people like highlander here and then, all of them self appointed and internet empowered. It is a time consuming and ungrateful process that is certain to make one angry and that take years to yield some results, which then might be too little, too late. The question is whether one wants to endure that.
    I eventually came with some of my nemeses of 2002 and 2003 to the agreement that indeed, there were no WMD in Iraq, and I got them to accept that there was torture ordered by US government and the like. It gives me the satisfaction of vindication, but what it is good for beyond that? Their change of view could have made a difference six years ago.

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