Eva Mathews


Brant Gaede

Recommended Posts

This is my last post on this thread or about "Eva" anywhere unless it's an apology to her. And no more interaction with any of her postings. Since I titled this thread "Eva Mathews" she's certainly entitled to do with it what she wants now.

--Brant

done

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 96
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Michael wrote:

One of the main writing errors people of this persuasion make (but not all--there are some very good Progressive writers, frankly some very good anti-Rand writers of many different stripes**) is they keep themselves in their writing.

end quote

Many of us “keep themselves in their writing,” but she does seem to be establishing a “personality.”

And Brant wrote:

And no more interaction with any of her postings.

end quote

Thanks for drawing him / her out a bit more Brant. I am tending towards the “no mo” view, since few of her posts rub me the right way. I do not think she is 20 year old “Sweet Pickle” from Georgia or from where ever, OR that she has a theoretical physicist father and a Psych mom professor. More likely she is from a different era. Her writing and spelling are atrocious. It is possible she is some weird perp “getting into character” then spewing out her stream of conscious writing, and briefly editing that for authenticity, then hitting send. I think, we the readers, are being conned. Research on google might establish her as the fraud that she is, but is it worth the effort? Watch. Judge. Hit the do not read buttons supplied by OL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That shit about somebody trying to rape her and her response to that has pushed me totally over the edge with this fraud.

...and that was his intention right from the beginning. I call it...

Captured Attention

Attention is energy. And when a person lacks their own natural energy, they seek to get it by behaving in such a manner so as to capture the attention of others. The capturing is accomplished by tempting others in order to get emotional reactions from them, because emotions have the power to fixate attention on that which can elicit them. So whatever can tempt you to react emotionally can capture your attention. Or, whatever can upset you controls you through your reactions to it. Just as the emotional energy is not good to get from others, is also not good to give to others because it rewards their behavior.

The trick is to be aware of others without emotionally reacting to them so that you do not lose your energy to the world. :smile:

Greg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greg wrote:

. . . whatever can upset you controls you through your reactions to it.

end quote

Very astute. That reminds me of the forensic show, “Bones.” They always open with a brief emotional “story” and / or a view of the decomposed corpse, and the team from The Jeffersonian Institute working for the FBI, sorting through bones, guts and bugs. Kind of like watching Eva. Oops. Got to go.

I am now resuming my writing, under my true name, Ova. Whew. I am feeling woozy after flying my helicopter to the Ukraine and back. I will be reporting to John Kerry in a few minutes, about the Russians firing at me, and the world’s dislike of daylight savings time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A mediocre bully?

Brant,

Nah...

The idea of bully flatters her too much. Bully aspirant, maybe, but I don't even see that.

I just wrote some thoughts about the remote control mentality of the young. (I was addressing one of the young intelligent new members here.)

I have a theory about the younger generation and a remote control perspective. If you don't like a show, you push a button and change the channel. If you don't like one group of people, you push a button and get in touch with another. If you don't like the temperature, you push a button and make it colder or hotter. If you don't like what you're eating, you push a button and get something else. And so on. This is the way you've grown up and it's the only reality you've known.

But some things don't work that way--like wars. And I see this cause a lot of stress and impatience in the younger people. It does in my generation, too, but it's different. The older people oppose or support wars because of long-held convictions (even when at odds with each other). They get really pissed off when those convictions are violated. The younger folks, from what I perceive in the media, get irritated because long-term problems don't go away quickly. They get bored, but the damn thing is still there the next day. And that irks them.

This is the only reality this generation has known. And it is actually a form of learned helplessness. I've been talking about this remote control mentality in the culture for a while, but the idea of linking it to learned helplessness never occurred to me until just now. Probably because I just wrote about learned helplessness.

Researchers have been shocking dogs (and God knows what else) to test this. Essentially they teach a dog that nothing it can do will avoid random shocks, then later put it in a box where all it has to do is jump over a partition of some kind right in front of it and the shocks will stop. But the dog just lays down and whimpers. Other dogs that are taught that shocks can be stopped by pushing a lever, or other ways, will jump over the partition immediately when placed in the new box.

Thus, in this case, teaching the dog helplessness was done by "forced association," but later, after the learning happened, when there was one easy alternative available that was not forced that ended the suffering, the dog didn't take action.

All you have to do is morph this out to human relationships and see the real evil that can be done by it. (Good, too, when dealing with real, but not apparent, dangers, but I don't want to get too nitpicky at this point.)

The standard story told in marketing circles to illustrate learned helplessness is about circus elephants. When they are small, the owners fix a rope or chain to one of their legs and attach it to a stake in the ground. The calf cannot budge the stake. After an elephant grows up and gets huge, it will no longer try to leave the confines of the stake, even though it could easily pull it up just by walking away. The story goes that elephants in this condition have died in tent fires, burning to death rather than simply walking away from the danger.

I'm pretty sure this story has had some morphing of its own over the years, but it persists because it is such a great metaphor for limiting beliefs (i.e., learned helplessness for humans).

If you think in terms of a positive stimulus, the nonstop instant gratification that results in the remote control mentality is a form of learned helplessness.

Notice the half-digested learning of this girl, which she constantly presents as complete ideas to lecture others with (especially that bad habit of replacing concepts with name-dropping of both people and jargon) and her inability to correct her errors. This last seems visceral. She can't break out of the instant gratification cage to divorce ideas from the competitive mind-games she demonstrates she has to win, and win NOW.

Read her stuff and try to hone in on where her sense of urgency falls. It's as clear as day once you know to look for it. (I probably picked up on this because it is so similar to addiction. In fact, come to think of it, if you think about the dopamine, serotonin and endorphin rushes you get from instant gratification, I bet fMRI scans would light up in the same brain areas as your garden variety cocaine addict on getting a fix. Woah... No wonder I, myself, like the Internet so much. :smile: )

Here's an image for you. If you dropped this one on a desert island, I don't see her hunting and fishing and foraging at first when she gets hungry. I think she would have to go through a phase of pouting and bitching and wondering why the food doesn't appear. Why there's no button around to push. :smile:

So I don't see a mediocre bully (although there's plenty of her mediocre to go around--it's all over the forum. :smile: ) I just see another lonely soul trying to replace the big questions of life (Why am I here? Why do I have to die? and so on) with push-button relationships and not doing a very good job of it. I suspect, deep down inside, not even to herself.

We get all kinds on OL...

:smile:

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many of us “keep themselves in their writing,” but she does seem to be establishing a “personality.”

Peter,

I think I expressed myself in a half-assed manner here. Of course we all keep ourselves in our writing.

I was trying to hone in on the subtext of self-congratulations and the nonstop "Look at me, look at me, look at me!" message that these people convey.

There's a huge difference in the following statements.

"This idea's important, goddammit. I believe that to the bottom of my soul."

"You're beliefs impair your understanding, poor thing. May I suggest you look into Hobberknocker and Zerkelbaum? Oh dear, this is so above your head right now..."

Both have the author in it, but the person in the first statement is pulling something sincere out of his gut and presenting the idea as primary and his evaluation of it as secondary, even though it looks different. In other words, if the idea goes away, the evaluation does, too.

The person in the second case is all about evaluation and posing attitudes. Maybe there's an idea in there somewhere, but you have to dig to find it. Hell, even if there were no idea at all, the evaluation would stand.

Now, if a well-articulated and emphasized evaluation is present in a discussion of ideas, but the thing that is supposed to be evaluated is not present (or so distant, it's hard to perceive), that means the evaluation is really about something else. In this case, it's about the author ("Look at how clever I am" and so on).

That's what I mean by an author putting himself in his writing. He divorces substance and evaluation, where the substance goes one way and the evaluation goes toward himself (his vanity), even though it may appear different on the surface.

So this can be explicit or by subtext. Either way, it gets boring real fast.

It's just bad writing no matter how you look at it.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greg wrote:

. . . whatever can upset you controls you through your reactions to it.

end quote

Very astute. That reminds me of the forensic show, “Bones.” They always open with a brief emotional “story” and / or a view of the decomposed corpse, and the team from The Jeffersonian Institute working for the FBI, sorting through bones, guts and bugs. Kind of like watching Eva. Oops. Got to go.

I am now resuming my writing, under my true name, Ova. Whew. I am feeling woozy after flying my helicopter to the Ukraine and back. I will be reporting to John Kerry in a few minutes, about the Russians firing at me, and the world’s dislike of daylight savings time.

Once a person becomes addicted to the emotional reaction energy of others, they will do, or in this instance, say anything to get it. Patience is the proper approach because it is aware observation of their behavior, but without any emotional reaction attached to it.

Greg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greg wrote:

. . . whatever can upset you controls you through your reactions to it.

end quote

Once a person becomes addicted to the emotional reaction energy of others, they will do, or in this instance, say anything to get it. Patience is the proper approach because it is aware observation of their behavior, but without any emotional reaction attached to it.

Greg

Greg, Like the man said, most astute. The impartial patience and "aware observation" you bring up is actually so synonymous with philosophical methodology, we shouldn't need to be reminded of it. I reminded myself soon enough: fighting emotional fire with emotional fire; the momentary satisfaction of dispensing intellectual 'justice' - are to be guarded against. Getting dragged in by a respondent's tactics and answering in the same vein, is inimical to an independent mind. You pay for it later, self-ishly, before other considerations.

Serenity --yeah? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jules Troy wrote:

After visiting the Ukraine I think Eva should travel to Iran in a bikini and express her views to the fissiles there in the name of better dialogue amongst people that would really appreciate her writing style and witty charms.

end quote

If another person’s train of thought adds to the recipient’s creative processes then fine. But if it detracts? “Bring in the dog and put out the cat. Yakity Yak.” Time to throw that scam artist out the door. I had about 12 posts on Ghs’s thread in my inbox but when I went to the thread on OL the majority had disappeared, thanks to our resident genius’s swift action. I think I will withdraw from the Eva thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eva is starting to remind me a lot of the poster "We Erred Rand." (http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showuser=6675) Lots of bluff and bluster, and sloppy wiki searches as a substitute for actual knowledge.

J

Jonathan,

The IP's track differently. Eva comes from Atlanta. Georgia and that dude WeErredRand, who also used a different account with same IP under the name of Endymion, tracks to Brooklyn, NYC. There's also a poster with a very similar posting style who tracks to Brooklyn under a different IP named AristotlesAdvance.

My bet is the two IP's go to the same person and maybe he moved to Atlanta or maybe they are related. :smile:

This actually sounds like a smart-ass New York loser who lives in the basement of his parents. The style reminds me of Anthony Weiner of all people. :smile:

George Smith gave her the old heave-ho in his corner and I'm very close to doing the same for the entire forum.

Some people think this kind of stuff is a new problem on OL.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posting an off-line query I sent to Michael. Michael's post above answers about the IP tracking.

Did you happen to see, before George deflected [should have been "deleted"] it, my post saying that I keep wondering if "Eva Matthews" is Darren Wrede on a lark?

There are, as I said, contraindications - Why would Darren have posted upward of 400 posts as "Eva" on RoR before trying to invade OL? Could Darren manage the persistent lacerating of grammar and spelling? Could Darren muster even as much of a show of knowing something about physics as "Eva" presents? Could Darren refrain from including creationist hints?

The contraindications are strong enough, I don't feel sure that Darren could manage to pull off the "Eva" persona; nonetheless, I keep wondering if Darren might have gotten ideas for a fake identity from the style of his "crazy lady" friend, Janet (Seymourblogger).

There are occasional things "Eva" says which I'd like to address just to counter them, but I'm reluctant to be playing into a Darren game.

Have you done a check on "Eva's" IP route? And did you ever do such a check on Darren's? Routing can be faked, but, still, the routing might provide a clue.

Ellen

In case people don't know this - Jonathan, it sounds as if you don't - "We Erred Rand" was Darren Wrede. Note that the name was an anagram, and there were giveaways even without that. The "other" posters Michael mentions - AristotlesAdvance and Endymion - were also Darren Wrede.

Ellen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eva is starting to remind me a lot of the poster "We Erred Rand." (http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showuser=6675) Lots of bluff and bluster, and sloppy wiki searches as a substitute for actual knowledge.

J

Jonathan,

The IP's track differently. Eva comes from Atlanta. Georgia and that dude WeErredRand, who also used a different account with same IP under the name of Endymion, tracks to Brooklyn, NYC. There's also a poster with a very similar posting style who tracks to Brooklyn under a different IP named AristotlesAdvance.

My bet is the two IP's go to the same person and maybe he moved to Atlanta or maybe they are related. :smile:

This actually sounds like a smart-ass New York loser who lives in the basement of his parents. The style reminds me of Anthony Weiner of all people. :smile:

George Smith gave her the old heave-ho in his corner and I'm very close to doing the same for the entire forum.

Some people think this kind of stuff is a new problem on OL.

Michael

Yeah, I don't know if Eva is any of the previous people, but her wiki-search-genius-pose is similar to some of them.

I do like observing how quickly the "uncanny valley" effect sets in. These people briefly look like they might be intelligent and well-read, but very quickly give off the vibe that they're wiki-bluffing. Eva burned very fast. She's no longer even slightly fooling anyone, and her attempts to reestablish the initial bluff aren't even entertaining. She's become dull.

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posting an off-line query I sent to Michael. Michael's post above answers about the IP tracking.

Did you happen to see, before George deflected [should have been "deleted"] it, my post saying that I keep wondering if "Eva Matthews" is Darren Wrede on a lark?

There are, as I said, contraindications - Why would Darren have posted upward of 400 posts as "Eva" on RoR before trying to invade OL? Could Darren manage the persistent lacerating of grammar and spelling? Could Darren muster even as much of a show of knowing something about physics as "Eva" presents? Could Darren refrain from including creationist hints?

The contraindications are strong enough, I don't feel sure that Darren could manage to pull off the "Eva" persona; nonetheless, I keep wondering if Darren might have gotten ideas for a fake identity from the style of his "crazy lady" friend, Janet (Seymourblogger).

There are occasional things "Eva" says which I'd like to address just to counter them, but I'm reluctant to be playing into a Darren game.

Have you done a check on "Eva's" IP route? And did you ever do such a check on Darren's? Routing can be faked, but, still, the routing might provide a clue.

Ellen

In case people don't know this - Jonathan, it sounds as if you don't - "We Erred Rand" was Darren Wrede. Note that the name was an anagram, and there were giveaways even without that. The "other" posters Michael mentions - AristotlesAdvance and Endymion - were also Darren Wrede.

Ellen

Oh, okay. Then, yes, I think it might be likely that Eva is this Darren douche.

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Barren Darren could actually live with himself posting so many typos i think his head would pop.

The typos are a big contraindication. For someone good at spelling, making so many typos would need dedicated effort, whereas for someone who really is writing in a rush and too lazy to bother about spelling, as "Eva" appears to be, the typos would flow easily.

Ellen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I said In was done with this thread, but Eva has identified herself as a male in her profile. I see "Eva" as phony and "male" as real. Since "she" hasn't posted here since the 10th I feel free to resume posting on this thread as might be my wont. Won't engage "her" anywhere, however.

--Brant

3.5 billion to go

age next?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I said In was done with this thread, but Eva has identified herself as a male in her profile. I see "Eva" as phony and "male" as real. Since "she" hasn't posted here since the 10th I feel free to resume posting on this thread as might be my wont. Won't engage "her" anywhere, however.

--Brant

3.5 billion to go

age next?

Gender: male

Holy crap, it's right under "her" avatar, how did I miss it this whole time!?! :laugh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I said In was done with this thread, but Eva has identified herself as a male in her profile. I see "Eva" as phony and "male" as real. Since "she" hasn't posted here since the 10th I feel free to resume posting on this thread as might be my wont. Won't engage "her" anywhere, however.

--Brant

3.5 billion to go

age next?

Gender: male

Holy crap, it's right under "her" avatar, how did I miss it this whole time!?! :laugh:

He just had another sex-change operation and is a she again.

--Brant

(it wasn't there "this whole time")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On my profile page, 'male' seems to be the default, as is 'Singapore' for time zone'. Perhaps some noticed that, to? So am I Malay or ethnic Chinese?

In any case, these errors bunch nicely with my spelling as for viable cause: i'm always in a rush & simply don't bother to correct what's otherwise a 'social' (non-academic) endeavor.

In this way, among others, I'm a typical, slobby student: jeans, little makeup, 5-6 slender, inter-mural soccer (all-state high school!).

I'm not really 'looking' for another steadyguy, as I enjoy the freedom after a two-year relationship.

My special side is having been raised a college brat (particle physics, psych) & having tested 3-400 level college apt in math at 10. Last year I did teach theoretical math, but this year I'm working with mom in experimental psych. I padooddle the numbers, of course.

My intellectual extras do include philo, but also lit and, now, anthropology.

My take on Libertarianism is somewhat minoritarian, but actually not by much. Lowering taxes has nothing to do with freedom, rather, the practicality of freeing more money for the private sector.

Consequently, I'm hard on Rand because a misstated philosophical solution is a fly in the soup, as far as realistic political action is concerned.

EM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My special side is having been raised a college brat (particle physics, psych) & having tested 3-400 level college apt in math at 10. Last year I did teach theoretical math, but this year I'm working with mom in experimental psych. I padooddle the numbers, of course.

Even in the age of Wikipedia, it is impossible that Eva Mathews is a 20yo college student

I'm a senior, actually, & I try to contribute to Wiki, in an altruistic spirit of sharing

I know a lot of psych & physics because of mom & dad, who both do research & teach.

And because i scored ex-hi in math at 14, I've been helping mom with coding & stat method.

This likewise gives me an understanding of the math of physics.

(In case you haven't noticed, my physics really sucks. I just do the equations & dad comes around to tell me what they mean..."Oh, so when the values go ++ on the two functions on all 4 coodrinates, that means the universe is expanding? Like, totally cool!")

I have noticed re the sucky physics - and history of physics. Maybe best ask dad for more help.

I've also noticed that the age of your precocious high score in math has gotten 4 years younger.

Ellen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now