Kevin L. O'Brien
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Kevin L. O'Brien
(aka KLOB, Susan Anton, etc.)
Kevin L. O'Brien is a poster boy for Internet troll personality disorder. However, since the symptoms of his illness have largely been confined to TL;DR posts on the Usenet groups alt.horror.cthulhu and alt.books.ghost-fiction, his infamy and lulz are known to but few. His passive-aggressive argumentation style is marked by several notable characteristics:
- Compulsive lying
- Imperviousness to fact
- Support from imaginary friends
- Support from imaginary emails
- Accusations of conspiracy
- Inept sock puppetry
- Broken promises to stop posting on a thread
- Faked announcement of having cancer in order to obtain sympathy
- E-psychiatry
- Projection
- Fawning over those from whom he wishes to curry favor
This is what Kevin L. O'Brien looks like [1], suggesting that he is indeed a XXXL fat unemployed basement-dweller. In a few short years, the general opinion of KLOB has fallen from annoying and clueless to mentally ill and pathetic.
Classic Examples of Kevin L. O'Brien
Sturgeon's Law
Kevin disagrees with Sturgeon's Law, and argues that he knows better than Sturgeon himself what Sturgeon's Law means. In later posts in that thread, quotes from Sturgeon himself demonstrate that Kevin doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Naturally, this does not shut Kevin up, but only causes him to assert his erroneous position more forcefully.
Virii
Kevin opines that the correct scientific plural for virus is virii. Despite contrary evidence and being unable to provide a single example of virii being used, Kevin sticks to his guns, even though Wikepedia state that the word 'virii' is 'virtually unknown in edited prose', and that 'no major dictionary recognizes [it] as [an] alternative form[s]'. [2] Eventually, the issue drops.
Virii, Round 2
Six months later, Kevin remembers the previous virii thread differently from everyone else on the planet. In his mind, he handily won the previous debate. He then goes on to relate a story that is entirely fabricated, stating that he has seen issues of Science and Nature using 'virii' as the plural of virus. A deluge of contrary evidence falls on him like a ton of bricks, including a scanned image of Nature magazine and emails from editors at those magazines. Kevin, due to his illness, is unable to admit he's wrong and a liar.
After the notorious internet boaster John Pelan [3] is outed by his own ISP for having made 'false claims' about stock ownership in their company, Kevin claims to have both received and seen emails sent to John Pelan by the ISP which allegedly clear Pelan of all wrong-doing, even though the ISP categorically denies this. Curiously, Pelan fights shy of corroborating Kevin's startling new claim, sensing a trap, forcing Kevin to create many equally curious excuses for not being able to publish any of these face-saving emails. In contrast, several other people succeed in contacting the Legal Counsel at Pelan's former ISP, and quickly obtain proof that not only are Pelan and O'Brien lying, but also obtain permission to publish the evidence on the internet. [4]. True to form, Kevin refuses to admit that he's been exposed not just as a liar but also as an arse-kisser.
Cancer
His credibility ruined and having suffered the slings and arrows of internet flames, Kevin pulls the sympathy ploy by announcing that he has cancer and will be withdrawing from Usenet to focus on his IRL calamity. He signs off with the fateful phrase: "I won't be coming back in the form of a sockpuppet."
Susan Anton
Kevin rapidly goes back on his promise to stop participating on Usenet, and even uses his phantom cancer to engage in some E-psychiatry by discussing other Usenet posters with his hospital therapist, who indulges in Bill Frist style remote diagnosis. More skepticism follows, and within 24 hours a message is posted from the therapist (Susan Anton) herself, backing up Kevin's story and continuing the e-diagnosis. Unfortunately for Kevin L. O'Brien, the therapist's IP address is the same as his own, and the therapist's e-mail address actually belongs to Pat O'Brien (search for 'silvrepen'). Either these coincidences are further evidence of the anti-Kevin conspiracy, or Kevin L. O'Brien is a batshit insane lying sack of shit.
Susan Anton part 2
Although Kevin O'Brien admits that Patricia O'Brien is his mother's name, and that the family names in the aforementioned genealogical site match the families on his own biographical page, he asserts that this is all a startling coincidence. Kevin's keen scientific mind declares that the I'm-a-lying-sack-of-shit hypothesis is just as likely as the hypothesis that his therapist uses an email that formerly belonged to an unknown Patricia O'Brien who happens to share the same name and ancestral relations as his mother. Moreover, this therapist also uses his own IP address.
Current Status
Following his complete exposure, Kevin still maintains his absurd fantasy-world. His sockpuppet therapist returned to state that he has suffered a relapse due to the stress of serious business. She has also deleted his GoogleGroups account for his own good, in a bizarre form of Munchausen Syndrome e-suicide by proxy.
More Recent Status
As usual, Kevin has slunk back into Usenet with quiet, unassuming posts, stating that he has been released from the hospital and his "family has allowed me to rejoin the newsgroup provided I avoid stressful situations". In an effort to continue the charade that the GoogleGroups account was deleted, he now posts under a new e-mail address. Although the Susan Anton charade was completely exploded months ago, he continues to insist that no shenanigans occured. And despite having shown himself to be as mad as a sackful of psychotic monkeys, he is welcomed with open arms into both the Ghost Story Society and the Horror Writer's Association.
| Kevin L. O'Brien is part of a series on Usenet. | [Expand] | ||||||||
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