Sarcasm and Condescension Are Counter-Productive

I read the blog and message board of a man whom I dont' really care for. But he's a soundtrack CD producer, this is a topic that interests me, so I read it, even though I cringe with embarrassment at the "voice" he uses when he writes his blog, and on occasion I have told him so - pointing out what I'm going to point out below - but to no avail. He is always right, everyone else is always wrong, on any subject you care to name.

So apparently a company named SAE has brought out a Blu Ray (or Blue and Ray as this guy insists on callin it) of a movie called The Egyptian and people on BlueRay.com were trying to figure out how many copies were left by some sort of complicated alchemy.

So my guy posts that what they're trying to do won't work. Now, if he'd said this in a matter-of-fact way, pointing out his name (he's writing there under a pseudonym, and it is not his usual pseudonym) and that there aren't as many copies of it as they think, etc. the people whom he was correcting would very likely say, "Oh, I see. Thanks for the information."

But he never, ever makes a straight-forward correction in this manner. Every single sentence in his posts (and he made several) reeks of sarcasm and condescension, so much so that if he said this type of stuff directly to someone's face, they'd either slap him or punch him depending on if they were a man or woman - he is that offensive.

SO, he makes his first sarcastic and condescening post, saying he knows it all because he's friends with the producers concerned, and no one believes him because a) we all have read message boards where someone pretends to be a big shot or to know a big shot and b) he's just so sarcastic that people automatically assume he's flaming them instead of actually trying to be helpful.

So after several posts, he finally proves his point, apparently, but gets no apology. And as he posts on his own message boards, in a condescending manner, "No one ever apologizes." As if he really expects people he's subjected to his condescension to want to do anything but puthim on the [IGNORE] list. It's he who should be apologizing to them for being so condescending, and wasting everyone's time with 6 posts when 1, matter of fact post would have accomplished his purpose.

But try as you might (and I'm sure a few folk on his message boards have emailed him privately and pointed it out to him) he just can't or won't realize that it's his own fault that people will never apologize to him (even on those occasions when his facts might have been right). And this puzzles him.

Yet if someone ever posts something sarcastic or condescending in response to one of his announcements (of one of his soundtracks, for example) he goes ballistic. Or really, hysterical and shrill would be a more descriptive phrase.

But of course this guy is not alone in his self-deception, which is why I'm posting this to begin with. Read a sports message board, the sarcasm and rudeness is rife.

The differnece is that the guy *I'm* talking about is 60 years old and you would think he wouldn't be quite so childish at age 60, and the fact that he's a very successful record producer and you'd thus think would be above such childishness...but I guess the truth is that people don't grow out of this childishness, if they indulge in it when they're 20 they'll do it when they're 40 and when they're 60.

Unless they learn, early enough, that their sarcasm just...doesn't....work.