It's not that glib, it's a point made in the article.
> He found more of a community on Usenet, a precursor to today’s online forums. But even in groups like talk.bizarre, where intellectual peacocking was the norm, he stood out for his desire to dominate.
This guy reminds me of another breed of oldschool Usenet creature, the crackpot physicist. These individuals are very smart, and often have advanced degrees, but for some reason have these crazy ideas that almost seem like their brains have gone a bit off the rails. The content is typically very verbose, hiding the weaknesses in the volume, and also seems very alluring and can attract a bit of a following.
And then just how a lot of brilliant physicists have switched over to software because it pays a lot better, seems like this guy switched to political crackpottery for the audience. :-)
> He found more of a community on Usenet, a precursor to today’s online forums. But even in groups like talk.bizarre, where intellectual peacocking was the norm, he stood out for his desire to dominate.