Right Amos, I agree that sniping, carping, and harmful generalizations are extremely immature, psychotic, etc.

So why do we tolerate that behavior from the Mudcat Mafia?

And before you respond, think about what it means to be group labelled "mafia" please, as the definition of the word has two elements. One is to be secretive, but at the same time, well known to the community it operates in for it's criminality. Now, what the group of people I'm referring to are not doing anything criminal, they are at times (different levels of frequency for different members) guilty of behaving in anti-social ways, to be sure. Hence, the "mafia" label really does work metaphorically for me.

The so-called "Mudcat clique" or "Mudcat inner circle" or whatever once wishes to call it, is real, and both members and guests who spend any time here can identify the group royalty and their enforcers with a fair amount of ease. Just like a real life mafia group, they aren't equally guilty of criminal behavior. But when they marry into the family because they get some real benefits by doing it, they became just another member of the family, and will then engage in this dysfunctional behavior to protect one another.