apology: world's longest post ahead:

That's what this was all about? Wilky didn't take your John Best thing seriously?

Well. I'm not sure what to say. (so it will take 5,000 words to say it)

You know I consider your obsession with Best essentially delusional. Months ago, when you first posted about your fears that John Best would be elected president and take over America as Hitler did Germany, I tried to talk to you and explain that you didn't need to be fearful and angry about this inconsequential little nobody.

When it became clear to me that you had a profound psychological invested in this John Best delusional system, I dropped it. I wanted to talk you out of the beliefs because they don't make you happy -- they take up way too much of your time, and they create enormous anxiety and anger for you -- which carries over into your totally unnecessary cyber-conflicts with infidels like Wilky and all your other "enemies." (not all of them -- some of them are legitimate asses.)

I have a close friend with delusional disorder, and I know there's no way to rationally convince her that Eugene -- the 70+-year old Chinese man next door to her -- is NOT breaking into her house to put sugar in her food, kill her roses, and release her cats into the wild. She believes it; it is her reality.

Based on her beliefs, she has enlisted a couple of friends to spy on the old man, she has dragged him to court to bring legal actions against him, and she has gone throughout the neighborhood telling everyone what an evil, malicious, destructive thing the old man is. At her instigation, the poor old guy became an object of scorn, hostility, and inflamed prejudice (he's not like us) in his own neighborhood.

I understand my friend is delusional and I take that seriouly. But I can't take her delusions "seriously" as you demand Wilky and everybody take your John Best obsession. How can I? I am bound by reality, and I can no more seriously consider that Eugene is walking through the walls of Susan's house than I can believe that John Best is on the path to world domination a la Adolph Hitler.

Harsh reality: it's unreasonable to expect your views on John Best to be taken seriously because they are not reality-based. I take your obsession with him seriously, because that is real, and I wish you could be happily released from it.

What Wilky and I and so many others should have done was to just nod and walk away when you go into John Best mode. I think it's reasonable for you want your boundaries respected: "Leave me alone with my obsession and don't try to take it away from me." That's how I felt after the first couple of times I tried to explain to you that, beyond the air that he breathes, John Best barely registers on the face of this earth, and you didn't need to make yourself miserable worrying about him.

The problem was that you refused to keep your John Best thing to yourself, or to keep it relatively contained-- you became evangelical and aggressive about it, and at that point you were violating other people's boundaries, like my friend going after poor Eugene.

Like GuessWho and his  god-hates-fags obsession, you are an okay guy outside of the obsession. But when GuessWho goes into the god-hates-fags preaching, I feel like Eugene. Wilky has become your Eugene. You have a long list of Eugenes. It started with an actual evil creep (John Best) but it has expanded to target other people for their failure to comply with the dictates of your delusion. That is an unreasonable expectation on your part.

Where does it stop, and how does it stop?

You have a total right to your beliefs. Everyone does. But Wilky et al also have a right -- a right not to be thrust into Eugene's position.

I can't see why Wilky would need or want an apology from you. It doesn't seem at all necessary -- to me, your hateful attacks on her fall into the realm of "diminished capacity" because when we enter the John Best Obsession Zone, your capacity for realistic thinking is diminished.

Do I think you should apologize? Yes. For two reasons: 1) She deserves it -- and 2) anything that brings peace to you and moves you a little distance from the heat of the John Best War is good for you. But if it's just something you can't do, I don't suppose it really matters.