Can I do it in chronological order?
Originally, I thought I’d come here to troll. Not in the ‘lololol u suck u no’ hit-and-run way, but in the deeper and more artistic sense of shocking people into thinking a little harder (and yeah, I realize that last sentence sounds like one itself, but I really do believe it’s an art form
). I still don’t pass on many chances to liven up a conversation, though nowadays that’s more me being myself than trying to get anyone else to do something. I’m shocking enough to plenty of people without even trying – and oddly, I seem to get a greater rise out of people here
without angling for it.
At the same time, as an apostate who maybe never really possessed true faith, I was curious about it. What inspires it, what it feels like, so on and so forth. I’m not sure I’m ever going to get answers to that.
And lastly, there are a great many groups of people who are often grossly misrepresented or condemned out of hand here, with few or no members to defend themselves: non-heterosexuals, Muslims, pagans, non-theists of all stripes, the pro-choice, and substance addicts, to name a few. I am or was a lot of those things, and for those I’m not part of, I think it only charitable to help defend them against posts that sometimes honestly wouldn’t look out of place on a KKK forum.
So yeah, there’s a long-winded and tripartite way of saying I’m the devil’s advocate, and some of you may take that literally.
