Originally Posted by EndGameNYC

Your level of interpretation is based largely on numbers and the intentions of other people. You posit a group dynamic of mutually-triggering responses that become increasingly aggressive. You dismiss the "content of the OP or the poster's history" as being irrelevant when the mutually-triggering dynamic you describe asserts itself, as though all content were equal, and it's only the tone of the responses that differ. If you've ever visited the Weekenders' Thread or pretty much any other thread here on SR, many if not most of the responses can be accurately described as mutually-triggering. How can conversation or any other form of verbal interaction, whether online or IRL, be otherwise?

You don't need to be around for very long to have learned that OPs that carry obvious denial receive many more responses than others. We've all been there, witnessed it many times in ourselves and others, and react or respond not only to its emergence in a particular thread, but to its often destructive nature. You're aware that we've seen the vary same thing when the OP asks about or comments that he or she is planning on moderating his or her drinking.

When the OP is contemplating, planning, or already involved in dangerous behavior that can or will lead to a more complete kind of destruction, then attention is warranted, not only for the OP, but for those who respond. I'd only be shocked if this were not the case. In large numbers and sometimes with something of an edge. It's not the time to whisper when someone is involved in or planning to get involved in potentially destructive behavior which, again, refers back to the very content of the OP, and often to the OP's history.

As for your perception of responders "twisting" the OP's words...Well, I don't see this as anything near an epidemic; a rarity in fact, with the twister being ignored, dismissed or marginalized when he or she does not acknowledge the twisting on their own. The alleged perpetrators aren't necessarily up to no good. I've nothing else to say about it except that multiple responses to a single comment or body of comments is bound to lead to at least a minimum level of confusion or distortion, but I don't see evil in the event.