It Isn't Over… Get a Fucking Life!

A Message

A week or so after dropping a few friends from Facebook. I awoke to the following message from one of the admins of the “Linguistics” group. 

A Lawrence Rogers has sent me the following message in private: "9/1, 11:09pm I am petitioning you to join the group "Linguistics". Under the account "John Nelson", I posted statements in disagreement over minor issues with Admin "J* XXXX", for which he got my Facebook page taken down and banned my last attempt at re-joining "Linguistics". I think there was some misunderstanding between us. I sent him several private messages appealing to him to not be so angry at me for what I wrote, but he insisted he would be revenged upon me. The posts I found on his account were very angry, some referring to our minor contention. I also friended about 15 of his friends and posted positive "Likes" of agreement on his Person Page. He did not respond to my private messages but instead had me deleted. I studied under Dr. Grover Hudson at Michigan State University for my undergraduate. I have friends and contacts in Academia, who are professors, if minor ones owing to me being an independent scholar. But people of weight in their disciplines are on friendly and professional terms with me. I am amazed at his audacity, but willing to refrain from posting to this group, if only to just view posts. I met someone with similar interests to mine who is from Germany. I think that if you examine the particulars of what is posted on the "Linguistics" group, and make other inquiries, you will find that I am not at fault and the victim of a strange misunderstanding on account of disagreeing with someone on whether Chinese or Japanese is harder."
[SIC]

Break Down

Admission is the first step

A Lawrence Rogers has sent me the following message in private: "9/1, 11:09pm I am petitioning you to join the group "Linguistics". Under the account "John Nelson", I posted statements in disagreement over minor issues…”

This guy doesn’t GET it. The group policy is to prevent members who appear fake out. And, here he ADMITS that he’s using pseudonyms… again! For the record he’s used “Lavrentiy Rogozinksi” (in the URL), “John Nelson” and now “Lawrence Rogers”. I’ll continue to refer to this mother fucker as “John Nelson”, however.

An anonymous account is a red flag. Those who create them believe that it absolves them of RESPONSIBILITY and distances themselves from ACCOUNTABILITY. No one can trust these cowards or that they will abide with the guidelines of the group. Who’s accountable? They are COWARDS.

“…He got my Facebook page taken down and banned my last attempt at re-joining "Linguistics".

Had I the power, I would delete his account, too. Alas! I’m not in charge of purging accounts whose owners abuse them. It’s a good indication that whoever this guy is has rubbed a good number of people in a very, very wrong way for them to report him. I talked with the co-admins and we’re never letting this guy into the group because of this and a few other reasons.

John Nelson’s Facebook page (which no longer exists) looked like the typical anonymous douchebag’s. There were no real photos, just generic photos that you can get from the Internet and of various celebrities. The picture above and the following are other fake-looking profiles – Their membership will be denied… routinely.

Je t’accuse!

“I sent him several private messages appealing to him to not be so angry at me for what I wrote, but he insisted he would be revenged upon me…”

I’m not the type of person to pursue something like this beyond the group. What happens in Vegas should stay there, but this is Facebook. Yes, I’ll rant on my Facebook page and I ranted about this asshole motherfucker. But, as we’ll see next, Mr. Nelson even commented on my rant about him. In the back and forth, with him, I never once said anything about revenge. Yet, I think he was attempting it with me. Projection any one?

He mentions that I was angry over a “minor” contention. It was a discussion of facts that he got wrong. It didn’t get any worse until he took it there. I was never angered because he got the facts undeniably incorrect and incoherent. I didn’t get angry when he was arrogant and had the fucking nerve to suggest that I “read more on the subject”. I didn’t get angry when he started to reply in Tagalog. I did get angry when he went off on a culture-bashing tangent.
I’ve written about this in a previous post, but I’ll recap it here.

He responded with a few comments in Tagalog. At first, I thought what is he trying to prove? I didn’t read them. My only response was that it was against policy of the group to post in another language besides English, unless it was germane to the the thread. As an admin, I know I have to help set an example, so I kept everything in English. The only Tagalog however was “Matigas ang ulo ng admin ito (ako)” (This admin’s stubborn (me)). He went off accusing me of insulting him and that he had “dealt” with people of my culture, etc. Now, that set me off.

For starters, I might not understand Tagalog – he assumed it. To make several replies in Tagalog, he was professing considerable knowledge. But, that was undone with misinterpreting one of the most simple of sentences. For him to get his knickers in a bunch because of a situation he created… That was too much.

Stalker Factor #9

“The posts I found on his account were very angry, some referring to our minor contention. I also friended about 15 of his friends and posted positive "Likes" of agreement on his Person Page. He did not respond to my private messages but instead had me deleted…”

Yes, Mr. Nelson, I can rant on my Facebook page. It’s MY page, asshole! It’s because of asshole like you, John Nelson, that I was ranting on my page. And, this just give me more ammo to rant even more.

It is just ridiculous how this guy admits to his shenanigans. He did all that he said above and it just FLOORS me! I reported my experiences with the other admins of the Linguistics group. I fear that he will use the same douchebag tactics with someone else in the group. Yet, this is another reason why we don’t want his kind in the group.

Had he been a smarter asshole, he could have laid low. But, nope! He had to like and make comments by taking advantage of a few of the people from my friends list. All of them, unfortunately, are no longer on my list.

It was obvious that this guy is stupid. Why would I want to hear from him any further? Nothing he has or will have to say has any value. I saw the messages and just deleted them without reading one letter. I had just about enough of this idiot.

Again he accuses me of getting his account removed. I only wish that I had the power…

Credentials?! Surely, you jest!

“I studied under Dr. Grover Hudson at Michigan State University for my undergraduate. I have friends and contacts in Academia, who are professors… and, blah, blah, BLAH…”

At about this point in the message and after all his immature and unnerving actions, his “credentials” no longer matter. Who would believe any of it? His account is fake. He uses false names. He stalks people. Now, he’s dropping names? Shear audacity.

All in all, this guy is pathetic. One would think he could put his time to better use than to continue with this futile path.

I hope to never cross paths with this pathetic human being. But, I have a feeling I will. Or, at least with people like him.

The Troll Kicks It Up a Notch

When I had thought that things were pretty much settled - I had proven that I was more read up on the subject that this mother fucker, hmph! I was contacted by a close friend about Mr. John Nelson. In his message he asked if I was a friend of John's via Facebook. I naturally answered that I wasn't associated in any way with such a douchebag. The reason why he asked was because John had sent him a "friend request".

I found that odd. I just thought that John was friending members of the group. But, my RLF (real-life friend) mentioned that another mutual friend contacted him, too. Soon, it would become clearer s as to what was happening...

The Troll Rears His Ugly Head

Later that day, I found that John had liked a few of my comments and posts on my Facebook wall. They were parenthesized with "friends with XYZ", a "mutual" friend.

I had peeked at John's profile, but I gave it no special treatment. It was a simple profile with an ancient oracle bone in the background. It seemed like he knew something about Chinese, or made it appear that he did... poser! Yet, when I visited it later I was alarmed to find that we "shared" several, over 15, friends. That explained why he was able to comment and like several of my personal posts, even the one ranting about how arrogant he was in the group.
Paranoia dawned on me: was the using my friends list to monitor me or waiting to fire of a comment to harass me?

Regardless, my suspicions would be verified... quite sadly.

There Are Reasons Why People Are Unfriended

I contacted all those we had in common in a blanket message via Facebook. In it I warned them of what he might be scheming to do, namely harass me via one or more of them. I found that the URL to the profile did not match the display name. There were no pictures or photos one would expect on a personal profile - it was a façade, it was fishy and reeked of deceit. Several dropped him like a bad habit. A few just left the conversation. Others were silent. To protect my security on-line and my sanity, I immediately "unfriended" those who were “friends” with him several hours later. It was necessary and very telling.

For one, they weren’t careful about who they approved. One said that he accepted because a few people he knew were already friends with him. Others who responded to my status update about what was going one were more skeptical, to the point that they sent him a message asking how they knew each other. Most received nothing. One received "We'll get to know each other". What in the fucking hell was that about?! They rejected the request. Now, these are people I've interacted with off-line and in real life. They showed a lot of integrity in light of the shenanigans of this asshole.

Thank you for true friends!

The Mentality of the “Dialect” Hurdle

In another blog dedicated to Iloko localization, I wrote about the opposition to the idea that Iloko is a language. I received the following comments:

• "Iloko is not a language and will never be..."
• "Ilocano is a dialect, Philippines has only one language which is Tagalog... I should know Ilocano ako dear! [sic]…"

There are a few themes that I can point out just with the two comments:

• Socio-Linguistic Status
• The Philippines-has-only-ONE-language mentality
• Nativity equals credibility

Socio-Linguistic Status

First we need a brief revisit of the terms dialect and language.
According to the site Merriam-Webster.com, “dialect” has several definitions. But, the two that interplay are…

“…a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language”
and “…a variety of language whose identity is fixed by a factor other than geography (as social class).”

Wikipedia, in it’s article has a section about the “dialect VS. Language” discussion and the politics of the term "dialect".

One-Language Issue Fallacy

Many Filipinos are lead to believe that there is only one language spoken in the Philippines; it is Tagalog-based Filipino. What they do not realize is that the other languages become “dialects” or “regional variations”. Because these languages are considered “dialect”, there is lack of governmental support at the national level and there is lack of incentive to promote or use them. Future generations start to refuse to speak their languages in favor of the government sanctioned language citing socio-economic reasons.
The Department of Education in the Philippines recently instituted “Mother-tongue-based Multilingual Education” or “MTB-MLE”. (I have issue with such a long abbreviation. And, the name of the program sounds rather redundant.) The goal is to teach children in their respective regional language once they start school. Only in later grades will they be taught in Filipino and/or English. I guess they finally realized how detrimental it was to ignore regional languages. Hopefully, this curbs the “dialectical” mentality that became apparent to me in the Facebook group “NATIVES OF LA UNION” and gives pride to future Iloko speakers in particular.

(I recently found out that I was banned from the group. You rock, Norma, with your power trip! More on that bullshit later. Unfortunately, because of some bitches’ power trips, I can no longer access the post. Well, it lives on here and has a broader audience now.)

Nativity Equals Credibility

Only one of the comments came forth to claim that she was a “native”. And, that because of this, she spewed out the same line: Iloko is a dialect, dearie. What of the other person who proved that he was not fluent in Iloko?! Invalid as well, I suppose.

This is a false correlation that makes my eyes roll in their sockets that I think the Earth orbits around me! It’s one of those tactics I've seen to give validity to their statement in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You speak the language, "dearie", and you might be quite good at it, and I won’t doubt that. But, until I see some papers or some thing else that you've published, I’ll go with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Enthologue, the “Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Iloko” or GUMIL (down) and my own linguistic research. The louder and more obnoxious you are doesn’t give anymore validation to your statement.
What dismays me is the fact that it was in a Facebook group “representing” those born in a province where Iloko is predominant. Even other Iloko speakers and writers have commented on the post.

“[It] just shows that many non-Tagalog languages are not aware that their languages are not dialects. And what's more annoying is that they tell you that fallacy, ‘Ilocano is a dialect. I should know. Ilocano ako dear.’”

“Years of brainwashing and conditioning ... I get annoyed whenever people from DepEd [Depart of Education] in Pampanga call Kapampangan a 'dialect' and explain that despite the implementation of MLE there is only 'one Philippine language'...”

”ania ti pammaneknekyo, apo, nga ibagayo a dialect laeng ti ilokano language? ania a language ngarud ti akin-dialect iti ilokano? nagkas-ang man ta they profess to be ilokanos ngem idadanes ken irurumenda met ti kinailokanoda by insulting and denying their own native language, uhu.”

[What proof do you have to say that the Iloko language is only a dialect? Of which language is Ilokano a dialect? It’s rather painful because they profess to be ‘Ilokanos’, but they belittle and harm their ‘Ilokano-ness’ by insulting and denying their own native language. Boo hoo.]

Sometimes being adamantly ignorant pays off despite your opinions!

Points for Douchebaggery

Definitions

Let us begin with a North-American term from the title of this post: Douche Bag.

According to the “Bing Dictionary”…

1. Definition of douchebag (n)

   Bing Dictionary

   • douche·bag
   • [ dóosh bàg ]
   1. syringe for vaginal cleansing: a syringe used for washing out the vagina
   2. offensive term: a highly offensive term that deliberately insults somebody's appearance or character

When I searched on Google…

douche·bag

/ˈdo͞oSHbag/

noun: douche bag; plural noun: douche bags; noun: douchebag; plural noun:douchebags

1. a small syringe for douching the vagina, especially as a contraceptive measure.

2. NORTH AMERICAN informal an obnoxious or contemptible person, typically a man.

Emphasis, mine.

I like Google’s definition best, because in this case it deals with what as far as I can ascertain is a man or at least a male. You’ll see why I have my doubts later.

Enter Absolute Quackery

All this began with an article that I shared to the group regarding the “difficulty” of certain languages and how this “difficultly” assessment was more useful to deter people from learning Chinese, for example. The comments were in agreement with the author that various languages get a bad reputation. (But, the speakers of those languages have very little problem using it.) There were other comments as well, then a member who went by the name of “John Nelson” chimed in.

 

John went on about “spelling” in Chinese, about borrowings into Japanese from Middle Chinese, how Middle Chinese was “simpler” and that it was less convoluted than modern Mandarin. We have many members whose first language is not English in the group, so before I make any comments in disagreement with why they say, I ask that they clarify. I asked that of John to which he added in his response that I should read more on the subject… Read more on the subject. Point one for douchebaggery.

 

That set me off!

 

He posted later comments in Tagalog (???). [Point two for douchebaggery.] But, I just skimmed over them, really not interested with what he had to say with them. And, I reminded him about the group policy: English only, other languages if there’s a need.

 

I replied with “Matigas ang ulo ng admin nito (ako)” (This admin’s stubborn (me).). Then he became offended. It became obvious that he wasn’t fluent in Tagalog AT ALL. [pt: 3] (You can tell where I’m going with this point system.) The racist son-of-a-cunt continued with how he had “dealt” with people from “my culture” and started bashing my background. [pt: 4]

 

Here’s where you’re overstepping your bounds…

 

I began explaining that to spell you need letters. Chinese nor Japanese have them. Chinese is logographic, where each character represents a word not the phonetic make-up of the word like the characters in front of you. Japanese has borrowed the characters to represent the roots of words and the native writing system, Hiragana, for inflections and other functions. I pointed out how he was misinformed about the Middle Chinese “fact” he blurted and advised him not to use a language he really has no business using. And, that he should curb his arrogance for having the nerve to tell me “to read more on the subject”. It’s because it was quite obvious that I was far more read than he expected. In addition, that he should FUCK OFF.

 

Frist of all, he was using Google translate assuming that I knew Tagalog. I do, but the possibility is that I might not have. So, racism give this guy a point. [pt: 5].

 

Second of all, he didn’t know what short quip meant. OH MY FUCKING GOD! If you studied even a small bit of Tagalog, you’d know that idiom since it is ubiquitous in the Tagalog-speaking world. [pt: 6]

 

I think that the thread was later removed because I did go atomic and spewed quite a few F-Bombs.

 

What happened in Vegas, didn’t stay

Even without the post, things took a turn to the creepier side of people on the Internet… It was a turn that I had heard of, but never imagined it would happen to me.

 

So, far six douchebag points. He’ll rack it up in future post.