or
How to irritate your fellow people for simple malicious amusement.
Fanatics are easily defined as people who concentrate and get excited about one subject to the exclusion of all others.
Nobody is about to deny that there is a lot wrong with the world and, on the whole fanatics are people who want to do something about it. The problem is that they tend to give themselves labels and then use those labels as if they defined their whole personality.
Anyone who calls themselves an "ist" of any description is asking to be baited, simply because, by the very act of telling you "I am a (insert cause here)-ist" the unavoidable subtext is "On this subject I am a zealous, closedminded person who has absolutely no sense of humour".
And anyway, while most of the fanatic's causes are undeniably good ones, the fact of their fanaticism means that they somehow think this cause is more important than all the other good causes out there. And that way lies hypocrisy, wouldn't you agree?
But still, the main reason for baiting fanatics is because watching other people get so irritated that they can't see how ridiculous they are is enormous fun.
This node is dedicated to the noble art of winding up people who take themselves too seriously.
A small note for the humour impaired. There's no reason to take this node or any connected to it seriously. It's a bit like jokes. For example -
- Q: What's the difference between a truckload of babies and a truckload of marbles?
- A: You can't load marbles with a pitchfork.
Nobody's recommending loading babies onto a truck with a pitchfork here, it's just funny. You understand now?
TheLady:Quod erat demonstrandum