What is on A man's Mind indeed.
Speaking of which......
Since we can't inspect the insides of each other's heads, we don't know other's intent. Scotty made a post that he should have known was provocative, a few days after Eric was blocked....it's enough that you're an admin and Eric is not, which means that you have more power here.....There was absolutely no call for Scotty to go there and poke Eric. Please hold yourself to a higher standard. Bishonen | talk 09:15, 17 August 2019 (UTC).
In this case, given the history, it is indisputable that he knew it would provoke Eric. The lack of any attempt to deny it, is the cherry on top.
Spoiler alert - he doesn't care.
Second spoiler alert. Cassianto isn't reporting him because he believes in universal standards. He saw an opportunity to go after one of Eric's enemies, and he found it irresistible, not remotely caring how hypocritical it makes him look.
This is what the years long farce that the Wikipedia Administration's treatment of Eric has produced. It has gone beyond mere disagreement as to the right approach. It has toxified. People like Scotty are fed up to the back teeth of it. So much so I'm sure he doesn't give a damn what the consequences might be for poking Eric, whether it violates the higher standard of Administrator or even the general standard applied to all editors.
The rule against poking clearly doesn't apply to Cassianto, and the continued protection of Queen Bishonen is a big reason why. That more than makes up for his supposed powerless in the face of Administrators trying to enforce minimal standards, like no personal attacks. It ensures the only standard that maters, is hers, and she has for many years been undermining WP:CIVIL and arguing for a world where Vested Contributors are protected. Not just arguing, doing. Using her power to do so, and fuck anyone who suffers for it, usually anyone unfortunate enough to do something that triggers the assholes.
Do they think people don't know this? Do they assume people like Scotty are blind? Or stupid? Or both.
There comes a point where being the bigger man, seeking to apply to the same standard to all, and taking all their abuse for it, just doesn't cut it. There comes a time for most ordinary humans, a breaking point, when you realize how attractive it is, to start torturing your torturers. To use your power to torment them. To use it to provoke. To use it to put them in a situation where they're the ones who end up hurting. It called revenge. And it's
brilliant.
If the consequences for this mild poke are themselves mild, he might even do it again. In a world where Eric cannot be blocked for more than three days, why bother about any notions of standards or indeed ethics? If anyone who does anything Eric doesn't like is going to be accused of deliberate provocation, well, why not be everything they say you are? This is Eric's excuse after all. And boy does it work for him.
I mean, I'm not saying anything here that quite a few Administrators who have reached the end of their tether haven't poured out of their souls in posts of complete and total despair before. All of which have been promptly ignored by Eric's enablers, as if there really would be no long term consequences, either for Eric or Wikipedia.
Eric has poisoned everyone. No surprise it results in extremely disturbing behavior all round.
It has gone on for so long, it has been so ridiculously unethical, I'm actually quite surprised the institutional reaction to Eric in terms of how many of the good people are prepared to go rogue just for the chance of giving him a proper back-alley beating, has been so limited. For all their whining, there has been incredible restraint shown. By rights, he shouldn't even be able to walk by now, and certainly be missing all his teeth.
You don't need to be a genius to understand that turning Wikipedia into a lake of flaming shit, has been Eric's sole goal for years. He is the problem. He has always been the problem. It's only ever been a case of asking, how far do his enablers really want to take it? Do they really want to destroy Wikipedia, just to prove that they can retain a toxic editor for their toxic reasons, and damn what any policy says.
They could have changed the policies years ago to explicitly say disgusting animals like Eric are to be tolerated to the nth degree, perennially excused with transparently laughable claims of diminished responsibility in the face of extreme provocation, thereby aligning with current practice. It would have been hard, but still an easier way to achieve their goals in the long run. They did not, because it's patently ridiculous when you say it out loud. Even after all these years, Eric has barely even begun to face serious consequences or be subjected to extreme provocation. And that is arguably the whole reason for this ongoing farce.
His enablers have ensured he missed all the steps inbetween mild wrist slaps and the inevitable lethal injection, the botching of which will probably cause a constitutional crisis that will make Framgate look like a mere trifle. So there is at least that hilarious realization to make the likes of Scotty feel so much better. Because we at least know that whoever loses, Eric will never win.
The long view. Really really long.