Quote:
Originally Posted by Mutt
There doesn't have to be a contradiction between somebody having traits like empathy and charity for and to others and being anti social/reclusive, not saying this guy is like that but somebody could care about other people but for whatever reason they feel they don't fit in, fear rejection, unable to trust - pretty much a common childrens book theme, it's the Christmas season so think The Grinch - lived in seclusion, with a dog, hates people, when a little girl accepts him unconditionally his world changes.
When people can find companionship with only pet animals it's sad, a sociopath doesn't care about animals, so whether it's a middle aged military vet with PTSD living in the middle of nowhere with a dog or the old lady at the end of the street whose family has forgotten her or moved away living with 50 cats there are reasons for the loneliness and seclusion that aren't Unibomber-esque.
He's not telling us lots, we just know the story he wants us to know. He may be a Unibomber type nutbag or he may be somebody whose had some major drama/trauma in his life and this is the result.
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Those are all very good points. And you're right, no one knows whats going on in his head and he likely understands it least of all as is true with all of us. What you've said perfectly explains the oscillation between random attempts at socializing through this board by announcing personal things to people that are very clearly are and are going to be openly hostile towards him when he does so. I would guess the innate impulse to connect to people no matter what, finally overrides all others in those moments. Older people tend to do this in general and it might also be a new feature of old age in the Information Age/Internet Age as these options simply didn't exist in the past... i.e. forwarding jokes via email that no one cares about and more often than not, doing against the wishes of the recipient as attempt at socializing, posting their cats bowel movements on facebook and so on.