Ass-hattery outside of the Halls of Golden Dawn and Wicca

Yesterday, a friend of mine (as much as anyone can be friends merely though Facebook and blog posts) pointed out that Golden Dawn and Wicca does not have the market cornered on ass-hattery. She pointed out a survey being conducted by an individual (or perhaps it is a small group) trying to set up an international guild for Lenormand readers (a Lenormand deck consists of 36 cards with simple images on them) that reeked of troll sweat.

One of the questions on the survey was obviously created by a troll. Well, actually they probably were all created by a troll in the Lenormand community.

Yeah, questions like this makes me trust you.

The first two questions were simply about who should be on the board, and who the president of the guild should be.

It is at question number three that you are faced with the overwhelming smell of troll breath. Underneath the section I blacked out is a person's name; and if you do not know what you are supposed to think about their methods of reading the Lenormand, the troll misspells the word "nonsense." In other words, all the other methods are ok as long as you do not believe that this particular person is right.

Of course, I find question four to be something that one probably should not brag about. Because it does seem like they are bragging about how unfit to be around real human beings they are. And why is there no option for "zero" groups left in disgust or banned from? Some of us get along fine with other human beings...not being half-troll or completely trollish in our blood lines.

As for question five, seriously?! You want a pirate flag to be the symbol of your guild?!

Now, my reaction to all this was that some people feel that they can only become experts by destroying the credibility of all other experts. You know the type of behavior that we are all familiar with among the more dubious esoteric leaders.

My friend also clued me into the little fact that the probable creator of the poll (AH) broke off their friendship with the blacklisted Lenormand reader when the black-listed refused to join in on bad-mouthing other reader. Yes, the quickest way to upset the trolls is to refuse to play by the troll's rules about who is legit and who needs to be stoned to death. And a little search reveals that the troll in question has never said anything nice about anyone ever...or at least, that is the conclusion that I came to based on their YouTube comments--definitely someone who decided to become an expert by destroying the reputation of other experts.

So there you have it, ass-hattery is not something isolated to the flame wars of Golden Dawn and Wicca. It is also alive and well in a dark alley in the Lenormand community. Kinda sad, isn't it?