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he's not interested in "research" or actual discussion. It's all about the drama and all of the jewels in the crown are in this thread (it's in other threads, but it's consolidated pretty well here).
He knows he's perceived as a "negative poster" and has specifically said so in a couple of posts in this thread. But it's not just about negativity - we all differ in opinions from one another, from time to time, about how the team manages the personnel decisions.
But most times it always comes back to the player. or the organization. For this poster, it's just about himself.
You've noted he doesn't do any research, and he won't.
He prides himself on collecting red thumbs - and has given himself a nickname:
and he invites other people to red thumb him:
Now, you might think that he's cool with that. He wants you to red thumb him. He's okay with it. But he's not, not really. Only so that he can use it as a barometer to tell people to bugger off:
So he invites the red thumbs only so that he can point to said thumbs and use it as ammunition against the people that red thumb him. He collects and solicits negativity, at the same time expressing indignation at the negativity he's asked to heap upon him.
The next step is a passive aggressiveness because he can't argue something on its own merits.
A couple of examples:
here, rather than openly tell a poster why he's wrong and specify what's wrong in the post, he makes a passive aggressive 'recommendation' where that poster can locate an "edit" button so that he can "fix" his post.
and in the event that there's not an opportunity for passive-aggressiveness, there's the signature to punctuate every post:
Which is code for him sticking his fingers in his ears because so many people are pointing out how ridiculous his posts are. So if you criticize him by quoting him and he doesn't respond, he wants you to know you're on his ignore list.
And it's punctuated with the "thumbs up!" emoji - for good measure, in case the passive aggressiveness was, somehow impossibly, missed.
I think it's helpful to understand the approach so that future contrarian-ness can be contextualized properly. The opinions are posted but never supported because it's not really about discussion - it's about seeking attention and 'look at me disagreeing!"
It's a net drag on a thread that - as you noted - worth being positive over.
If there was some analysis or discussion around why the optimism should be tempered (how is he in pass coverage? what was his scouting report in university? for example), that would be one thing.
So, I'd recommend my approach - be happy we have another LB with promise! It's been a long, long time since I've been as optimistic about who we put on the field at LB and I'm going to be a Pollyanna, absent any proof the contrary :17:
