On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 10:22:48 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 6/6/2021 9:35 PM, sms wrote:

It's not illegal to be stupid, but sometimes it's not clear if people
like Tom lie in order to get attention or if they are really as clueless
as their posts make them appear.

The attention Tom gets is almost uniformly negative feedback. I can't
imagine he enjoys getting it, so that argues for your alternative
explanation.

OTOH, I've been told that masochism is a real thing. Could his posting
behavior be a weird form of masochism?

I'm not sure about the masochism, per se, I believe it is a severe
case of a lack of self esteem where any response is seen as "Look Mon,
someone noticed me" and thus an insult is as good as a pat on the
head.
--
Cheers,

John B.