Moreover, 24 isn't acting like a troll, he's acting like a defensively intelligent and somewhat socially inept but honest person, which is quite different, I believe, though many of the symptoms are similar.

None of us ever denied that he's intelligent, and he might be sincere; but I don't really give a damn about anyone's intentions. It's /actions/ that matter. He might have the best intentions in the world, but if his actions do not serve the project, then we have no choice to defend the project. It the "symptoms" that count, not the disease.

Also, "honest" doesn't apply. He lies constantly, accusing of of "censorship" when we edit his drivel even though he's free to speak his mind on talk pages, meta. and we've more than once offered to give him his own forum. He had the astounding gall to day that Larry, a Ph.D. philosopher, wasn't "qualified" to say what was and wasn't a field of philosophy. He's made idle threats, and backed down when we called his bluffs. I won't belabor his nonsense more here--we've done plenty of that.

I just think it's important that we not let normal standards of social interaction distract us here--this jerk isn't a cousin or a friend of a friend we might run into now and then that we have to treat with tolerance. His intentions, and his moral worth as a human being are utterly irrelevant. We have work to do, and he's destructive of that. He's taking valuable time that we could be using creating articles, forcing us to babysit his nonsense. I would have just banned him long ago and taken whatever hit to my own reputation here that would have resulted, but I'm not as tolerant as Larry or Jimbo.

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