Spotting the 'cloaked' posters

[FloralBunting]

Having been reading FWR for a while now, watching the interactions between regulars, newbies and the various visitors, I thought I'd bring up the fact that us lurkers can quite clearly see what is going on.
You have your stalwart feminists. Articulate, clever and often extremely funny. I don't agree with all of them by any means, but I always give them a fair reading, because they just impress with their engagement and critical thinking.
Then you get the regular antagonists. Ploppers, and sealions and seagulls and all manner of loosey goosey "I do have a point in amongst all this verbiage" tightrope walkers.
But the ones I think think they are being really clever are the ones who are attempting to do, what I think bewilderness referred to as 'rat-fucking'. I say they think they are being clever and undercover, but they are so blinking outrageous they might as well be wearing a neon sign that says "I'm just here for the screenshots".
Just pointing out to those of you in the trenches that us lurkers can distinguish the genuine, heartfelt gender critical position from the hyper-loon transphobic approximation of the position a mile off.

In case you were wondering if the cunning 'cloaking device' was effective. It's not.

I read a lot and comment occasionally. I have to say that I completely agree with this!

Thank you for saying this since I compose most of my posts with the understanding that women are lurking and reading.

As I said yesterday in my livestream, when TA's call women nasty slurs and insist on banning words, sealioning etc. they do my work for me.

Men don't realise how much women know how much men hate them!

I've felt this and so to the person making contact with me with posts and user names:

Please stop. Please. I don't want you to hurt yourself any more and I want you to stop hurting me.

I wish you had told me yourself.

You still can one day.

Yep, I've seen a lot of it recently.

The old "I'm pretending to be one of you, I'm going along slowly and gently (sort of) and now I'm going to DROP A CLANGER - and then, bat my eyelashes all innocent-like and pretend it was a genuine misunderstanding.

It's interesting to sit back and watch some of them, and wait for the inevitable dropping of the facade. And the tantrum that even more inevitably follows [sigh]

It's not obvious to all of us though. I can't spot them. Mind you I can never tell you the trollls / wind ups are either.

Mate, they never use the word WOMAN! Watch out for that!

Ah good tip! Cheers

Yes, as someone who’s lurked for a long time, it’s pretty obvious when people aren’t posting in good faith.

I admire the posters who try to engage on behalf of the lurkers.

Yes. I've also noticed those who claim that they were completely gender-critical until one GC poster or thread said something they disagree with or that might cross the line a bit. Then it's 'I've unpeaked, because of this I'm joining the other side of the debate now.'

Floral

You are right. I now hardly go on AIBU and other parts of the site but when I lurk it's patently bleedin' obvious what's going on. I don't think I could spot it nearly as well when I was in it.

Yup it’s fairly obvious. It’s worth engaging if you can stay calm because it exposes their real intent after a while.

The posting usually follows fairly predictable patterns. We’ve had a few very obvious us/Canada based Ones as well (obviously all welcome from anywhere but a tad naughty to post as if you were from Wigan...)
My favourite are the reasonable for six posts then explosion of misogynistic rage ones. And the flouncers.

So heartening to see so many delurking.

I do hope the lurkers are reporting these posters - even if individual posts don't break the guidelines a pattern of this sort of behaviour can. They often turn out to be previously banned under a different username too.

Yeah it's really worth reporting even if you aren't sure. Just ask MNHQ "is this a previously banned poster?" (PBP)

Yes. I've also noticed those who claim that they were completely gender-critical until one GC poster or thread said something they disagree with or that might cross the line a bit. Then it's 'I've unpeaked, because of this I'm joining the other side of the debate now.'

I bloody hate this...its the same on some of the politics/EU threads

I just think 'mate...you now sound fucking stupid as well as a liar!!'

bowl

Oh they are my favourite as well

There was a great one the other day

No one was biting, everyone was being very honest but obviously not what the OP wanted to hear and toys were thrown out of the pram by the OPs 2nd post

Happy days

Yes. I've also noticed those who claim that they were completely gender-critical until one GC poster or thread said something they disagree with or that might cross the line a bit. Then it's 'I've unpeaked, because of this I'm joining the other side of the debate now.'

YY this is quite common.

If it's the one I'm thinking of Rufus, that was certainly a "that escalated quickly" moment!

It did escalate...i cant remember if it was deleted or not

"Yes. I've also noticed those who claim that they were completely gender-critical until one GC poster or thread said something they disagree with or that might cross the line a bit. Then it's 'I've unpeaked, because of this I'm joining the other side of the debate now.'"

I see this as a not-so-subtle variation on the old favourite of "I used to be a feminist until one feminist, somewhere, in somewhat unspecified circumstances, was a bit rude to me - at which point I realised that the whole of feminism, in all its incarnations, was fundamentally flawed (geographically from Caitlin Moran to Chimamanda Adichie, ideologically from Andrea Dworkin to Naomi Wolf, and historically from Christine de Pizan onwards), and all feminists, everywhere and at all times were horrible bitches." Funnily enough, that's an argument (if one can dignify it with the word "argument") I've seen lots here right since I started posting in FWR many, many years ago.

I stopped commenting for a while because I grew so tired of these types of people. No more.
Well said OP.

We see you.

I dont like liars

People who tell you what you mean...when your post was very clear....In fact i fucking hate that...i hate having words put in my mouth

And people who say 'bob said....' whan bob didnt bloody say that at all and ive just rechecked a 20 page thread to find the context!!!

and people who say 'im a bit of a lone voice....' WHEN ELEVENTY BILLION PEOPLE HAVE SAID THE SAME SODDING THING

And look.....now I'm shouting!!!!

My faves are those folks who use their new female name (or an easy-to-spot variation thereof) as their username on here. They just can't seem to help themselves.

Then someone on here will post "Oh, is that you who was talking about used fishnet tights on Twitter, Tiffany?"

And off they skulk. But not before they've linked to their blog.

Thank you for saying this since I compose most of my posts with the understanding that women are lurking and reading.

OP, I would also like to say thank you for saying this.

I'm afraid I just gobshite out whatever I'm thinking at that moment though - I should probably try harder!