I fell for it initially. If you just read one or two of his tweets, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Over time when you see it is the same pattern over and over again you realize this is just his shtick. This is the pathetic way he gets attention. And if I thought it was just self-deprecating humor, I might still feel a little sorry for him. But there is an undertone of manipulation in his tweets as well. Like he is using pity to garner reactions and acceptance he couldn't get otherwise and that he is fully aware that he is doing this.
I think underneath the "woe is me" is a lot of anger and resentment and I could see him being a vindictive cunt if he stops getting the attention he desires from someone.
Some musings on Mode:
I too had so much sympathy for him initially-- but when I went and combed through all his tweets I started seeing this pattern of wallowing in his own self-hatred.
I don't think that his sexual humiliation fetish is the reason he humiliates himself online. The humiliation erotica he writes always has a sexual component to it, showing that he can't get off to everyday social humiliation unless there is some sexual humiliation mixed in to tint everything else.
Someone in Kevin's thread put it beautifully: Ryan is begging for the table scraps equivalent of attention.
He is begging for pity. Pity is a form of attention that is a step below sympathy. It happens when the pitied one is in such a situation that the pitier cannot see them as an equal going through a hard situation--instead the pitied cannot even imagine themselves in that situation. The pitied one is less human in their eyes as a result. Most people don't like to feel pity or be pitied for this reason. It's uncomfortable. You don't want to make eye contact. It's much easier to feel disgust.
This happens with Mode because he consistently positions himself as less-than. No matter who you are, even if he's never met you before, he thinks you're better than him. He never aimed for sympathy, because that would imply an equal status. Instead right out of the gate, he is aiming for pity--and then when he gets it, he milks it and plays up the same thing that got him pity the last time.
An onlooker's sympathy for what appears to be a serious battle with depression, quickly turns to pity when it becomes apparent this is also a way of life he has created for himself, which then turns into disgust at his attitude, because for those of us looking on, it is very hard to imagine a situation in which we would have that little self-respect for ourselves and not strive for better. Disgust turns to contempt, and contempt to indifference.
Ryan is the definition of what pathetic means, in both senses of the word: he is a figure of pathos, and a figure of bleak mockery, where in the middle of mocking him you start to wonder why you're even expending the effort.
To feel sorry for Mode, try to comfort him, or express pity or sympathy, is to give him what he continues to seek.
I won't say that the only way to stop him being so pathetic is to cut off that attention supply and remain indifferent toward him, because I don't know if he would change or simply direct the same attempts elsewhere. I do know that indifference is the only way to observe him and remain sane. This guy is the extreme example of "if you can't or don't love yourself, how can anyone else?"