random observation for fun: i think cwc is a narcissist, i think narcissism is what made cwc so vulnerable to being bullied, and i think narcissism is the main cause behind 'lolcow' status as it is currently read
the big thing with narcissism is it's extreme sensitivity in one's ego, and a very vulnerable sense of self-worth. you get aggressive when criticized because you feel so humiliated by mild criticism.
i would describe the whole situation with the trolls as, cwc is heavily flawed, trolling points this out (liquid points out how pathetic he is, clyde points out how helpless/ineffectual he is, alec benson leery points out how mean and hypocritical he is), and if cwc could accept that this is the low point, and that he's *capable* of improving, he can just move forward and improve
but instead, because he feels so helpless and bad about himself all the time, he has to convince himself he's already perfect, because saying "this is the low point and i need to improve" would involve too much vulnerability, narcissism means you already feel helpless and worthless, so you have to externalize yourself as extraordinary, letting down the act would mean even more humiliation around your shortcomings, so instead, you double down and try to convince yourself your shortcomings are actually strengths - not to mention cwc always has a pile of enablers who'll play along until he feels great again (remember, cwc is a shallow and inert thinker - he's especially easy to suggest the thinking of, because he doesn't really have many principles or strongly held beliefs that weren't imposed on him)
i think fundamentally, interestingly, that's the risk factor. the reason you could not be made into a lol cow is because if some huge guy beat you up & humiliated you, you wouldn't feel the need to delude yourself into thinking this was a situation where you were, in some way, heroic or noble. narcisssism lobotomizes that virtue. (also note: vulnerability is a huge factor. lolcows are physically or cognatively less abled)
another minor observation: i think one of the main reasons cwc as a phenomenon turned this into such a big thing is i think his main troll group the miscreants had this stuff down to a science. i think at least some of the folks in that group probably understood this causality just as well as i do, and i think they probably very cautiously kept up this balance - remember the manipulation page on the CWCki, and how it mentions that manipulating CWC involves a tedious practice of enabling. i think they understood that system very well, and i'm guessing we just don't see it because i would speculate at least some of the miscreants were very wise about controlling their image.
aaaaaalso, i'd speculate that when this kind of practice gets out of hand and isn't reigned in properly, it tends to lead to risk factors for more extreme developmental issues. CWC was solidly a narcissist with a pretty stable head during the miscreants times, but after that ended, we saw what i would describe as psychotic symptoms showing up - heavier delusions that stray further from reality, more sporradic and unstable thinking, etc. i'm guessing it has a lot to do with the enabling stage being taken to further extremes to incite stronger results - the idea guys seemed to understand "Enable insofar as you need to enable to get what you want", but because they clearly wanted more cruel and extreme results, they went for more extreme and psychotic enabling.
just some thoughts. i'm not like a psychologist, i just like reading about how people think.
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