Comments on: More anti-gun sockpuppetry

By: SayUncle

SayUncle — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:54:50 +0000

Ya know, it never occurred to me. I just presumed sockpuppet as someone who holds themselves out as someone else.

By: equitus

equitus — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:50:51 +0000

Just a terminology quibble. I know there is no authority on this.

I thought a sock-puppet was someone who posted using a pseudonym in support of his/her own posts or comments – as in Ellers supporting Greenwald.

I also thought that the acts of NRAFOREVER were referred to as a Moby, in honor of the musician who publicly advocated posting in the guise of the most vile proponents of a position they in fact disagreed with – with the intention of discrediting that position.

Am I wrong?

By: Don Gwinn

Don Gwinn — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:18:52 +0000

Actually, a Quisling is an actual traitor. Quisling was Norwegian, right? I think that’s right. Anyway, he wasn’t a Nazi who pretended to be a Norwegian to make the Norwegians look bad. He was a Norwegian who betrayed Norway to collaborate with the Nazis.

If a prominent pro-rights guy turned anti-gun and courted the other side (for instance, if Les Jones joined up with VPC and started writing white papers for the Brady Campaign, that would make him a “Quisling.” “Benedict Arnold” would be another term. Not that Les would ever do that, but that would be one example.)

This Riley guy is more of an agent provocateur. A clumsy and unconvincing agent provocateur. More like the guy who joins his local radical political party and announces loudly “Man, I hate cops! I’m glad there are no pigs in here right now! So, who’s up for some felonies?”

By: # 9

# 9 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:40:07 +0000

It never ends, they dream of a day when we will all get along. When the Lion and the Lamb walk together. Jackals love the anti-gunnies.

By: DirtCrashr

DirtCrashr — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:33:42 +0000

Wikipedia points out that Quisling was convicted of high treason and subsequently executed by firing squad…

By: Pixelkiller

Pixelkiller — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:23:45 +0000

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nowadays, with the internet, they are called “sockpuppets”. When I was a kid, a long time ago, they were called Quislings.
What-the-hell.

By: Orion

Orion — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:08:00 +0000

Sock puppets have their amusement value. It’s hilarious pointing out that all the favorable replies to a nutjob’s post all came from the same IP Address (his) and were posted within 30 seconds of the previous reply. Even the ones smart enough not to get caught like that tend to reveal themselves over time and nailing them to the wall has an even greater satisfaction.

I’ve seen a couple of cases where there was a rightwing sock puppet and a leftwing sock puppet and they had violent flame wars between themselves. There’s something Freudian about that…