I think what makes Gene particularly disgusting is the fact that he breaks one of the primary social contracts that most of society is built on.
That is the idea that there is a balance between giving and taking - a central concept of fairness.
If you take something you must give back an amount equivalent to it. The most common aspect of this is that we buy goods (the take) and we pay for them using money (the give). In this case "the give" part is abstracted using money but in other societies you might barter one service for another.
This social contract also extends to the idea of friends helping each other out when they are in need and there is the tacit assumption that if the situations are reversed you would reciprocate for the friend and vice versa.
This central concept is the basis of all human civilisation.
You pay for what you use whether it is by exchanging work or money and that makes things fair (obviously it is not perfect but in most cases it works). Even small children understand and accept this concept. Indeed some animals (particularly higher mammals) can understand this even though they can't vocalise it the way people can.
Gene utterly rejects this concept.
For him there is only take (never any give) and what makes it particularly egregious is the way that he does this with absolutely no shame or remorse. To him it is his God given right to get whatever he wants.
There is never sincere thanks or gratitude either. No apology for those he may have hurt. If anything he is aggressive in doubling down on his entitlement to other's money. The very idea that anybody could even question this attitude is an outrage to him.
Not once has he expressed regret for screwing landlords out of thousands of dollars of money. Not even a single time has he expressed remorse for conning Torson out of tens of thousands of dollars. To Gene this is all fine. It is all for him to take.
It is all about Gene. As long as Gene is fine the world is fine - nothing else matters. The only unethical behaviour is that which hurts or harms Gene. Other people are fair game and have value only in as much as they can help Gene do what he wants to do.
I think this is central to what is so infuriating about him and makes him such a stinking pile of human excrement.
The world, at least the mostly nice part that I am lucky enough to inhabit, runs on honesty. This despite the likes of Gene Steinberg. Imagine his reputation in a small village.
There have been claims from psychological studies that humans have an innate sense of fairness or justice (I've certainly noticed it most strongly in people who grew up in multiple child households... but that's another story). I believe I've even seen studies saying some other higher primates seem to react badly to perceived unfairness. None of these claims strike me as implausible, really.
I think the sense of injustice that Gene is able to carry on with his emails and theatrics with no apparent repercussions angers people and that, along with the unbelievability of the whole thing, is one thing that keep people interested in his antics.
And makes it even more appalling to me that J. Randall Murphy cannot see the problems with Gene's everyday standard methods of operating. Is there some Venn diagram that would show people who are likely to stubbornly persist in the belief of something paranormal, such as UFOs, are also more likely to persist in believing in and defending Gene Steinberg? In the center of that of course would sit, proudly, USI Calgary, no doubt confused why he's all alone.
(I mean, to pick some names people may have heard of, David Biedny, Chris O'Brien, Paul Kimball, Jack Brewer, Lance Moody, Aaron Gulyas, Adam Gorightly, Joshua Cutchin, Jeremy Vaeni, Jeff Ritzmann, Carol Rainey, Tyler Kokjohn, Patrick Huyghe, Royce Myers, and Tim Binnall all appear to see serious issues with Gene and his conduct. Several of those folks don't agree on much or even like one another, yet all, I believe, agree it's a bad idea to give Gene Steinberg your cash. Not J. Randall Murphy though. And no disrespect to the dozens of others who feel the same as myself about Gene; I'm just naming publishers, podcasters, authors and so on whose names occur to me, and imagining all of them on one side of a scale and USI Calgary on the other side. Perhaps there's something wrong with Gene and we can expect no better than we've seen from him, but what of J. Randall Murphy?)
The account in comments at the UFO Trail blog of how Gene screwed up "Mike's" attempt to purchase the Paracast as an act of charity is sadly all too believable as a case of Gene being his own worst enemy (and one can imagine him sweating over the question of, is trading the Paracast in for $10,000 now worth never being able to use it as a begging platform again?).
If Gene is sick of what he calls his stalkers, he can stop feeding them. Cut out the emails. Start being honest.
Of course that's "if" Gene actually wants the attention to stop. I think it's noteworthy in his recent "one-time statement" all of the episodes he related from an alleged eight year history of harassment happened in this past year, and several of them are known to be bullshit, or are being wildly misrepresented. Is he more full of shit or more delusional, I don't know. Is he on the sauce or a pill head? Your guess is better than mine. The secret Discordian theory has as much explanatory power as any of the other assessments.
