#but it's usually very clear when that's the case vs. bad faith bullshit that i just give no quarter from the start

[rudjedet]

do people not get that it's more embarrassing to be wrong, then double down, then lash out than it is to just plain be wrong? you must have lots of patience for these pseudo-historians lol.

My secret is that I have zero patience for bad faith pseudo-historians; I just consider debunking/correcting them on my own platform an opportunity to educate others, and that is what I cultivate patience for.

[rutilation]

there isn’t a new chapter but i feel like I should still...write things

Fool that I am, I thought that since there wouldn’t be a chapter this month, I could just quickly type up a post about some hnk things that have been on my mind, but haven’t been immediately relevant to the new chapters. Easy Peasy.

Now it’s 5,000 words later, I’ve started ranting about geology instead of my usual literary bullshit, a couple cookie recipes have snuck their way onto this word document, and the Euclase section has ballooned far beyond its original scope.

Anyway, click the read more if you want to see the following topics:

Hot takes about Euclase

I attempt to psychoanalyze Cairngorm’s fashion choices

Visual symbolism from the cover of the artbook

What type of microcrystalline diamond aggregate is Bort anyway? ft. the etymology of Bort’s name

Crazy snail theory

Since Euclase is a bit of a hot topic at the moment, I figured that I might as well expand a bit on my thoughts towards them.  Somehow, I ended up writing a big ‘ol essay.  Then I erased most of that essay.  But there were some good bits in there, so here’s what I thought was worth salvaging.  First though, I should lay my cards on the table, and explain why I’m not on team Euclase Did Nothing Wrong.  

In the days following the release of chapter 71, I’ve heard a couple people say that this line:

was not translated with the appropriate nuance, and that Euclase wasn’t blatantly saying “lol, I’ve found their weakness.”  However, the fact that Padparadscha regards Euclase’s words as emotional manipulation in the very next scene indicates to me that that’s still a probable reading of Euclase’s actions, even if they’re not being as unsubtle about it as the translation implies.  I don’t know much Japanese though, so I can’t really comment on any translation issues that may or may not have occurred.

I think my sticking point with Euclase is that I have trouble buying that they’re acting in good faith or that they’re really committed to the ideals they’re espousing.  Granted, most of what they’ve been saying and doing seems reasonable, especially compared Phos’s short-sighted flailing.  They haven’t displayed any malice, and they’ve at least paid lip service to wanting positive change and demonstrating pro-social behavior.

But here’s the thing: if they truly value change, and they simply want to go about effecting positive change in a way that’s more sensible than Phos’s bull-in-a-china-shop strategy, then why are they so consistently reactionary?  (I mean this in the most neutral sense of the term, btw.)  They didn’t value an equitable relationship with Kongou until Phos made it impossible for the Kongou-centric monarchy to continue. They felt no urgency towards Cinnabar’s plight until they became useful in warding off the moon gems.  They showed no concern for Phos’s crippling lack of self-esteem until they could use it to try and persuade Phos to defect to their side.  Even though they have reputation among the other gems for being kindhearted, from what I’ve seen, they’re only ever as kind as is absolutely necessary to maintain group cohesion.  The only time they’ve been considerate of someone else’s feelings in a proactive manner is with Dia, specifically regarding their issues with Bort.  And since those two are the gems’ strongest non-comatose defenders, it’s prudent for Euclase to concern themselves with their issues.

Like, compare Euclase and their partner’s respective reactions to Phos in chapters 21 and 22.  The story goes out of its way to show that Jade doesn’t mob Phos like the other gems, and they express concern over Phos’s insomnia.  Euclase meanwhile, has no compunctions about ganging up on Phos with the others, and only apologizes when they need to ask a favor of them.  I kind of expect a bit of tactlessness from the other gems, because most of them, on top of being single-minded, are implied to be pretty childlike on account of the highly static society they live in.  And even those who aren’t very childlike kind of don’t have their shit together.  But since Euclase has positioned themselves as wise and compassionate authority figure, that sort of thing stands out.  And when they’ve cultivated a reputation among the other gems for being kind, it’s really off-putting when the narrative drops hints that that kindness isn’t sincere.

Couple all that with Padparadscha’s wariness towards them and that creepy face they made in chapter 60 and my predominant emotion towards them is

Which isn’t to say that I hate them or anything.  To the contrary, I think that it’s valuable that their perspective--that of someone who is stalwartly on the ‘society’ side of the whole ‘individual vs society’ theme that the manga has going on—is a valuable one to acknowledge in the story.  Furthermore, I find them to be quite the interesting character at this point. They’ve come a long way from their initial role as “that one minor character who follows Jade around.”  I also find characters who are in some way secretive or two-faced to be a lot of fun because I get a kick out of trying to wade through the miasma of subtext and half-truths to try and get to the core of a character (looking at you, Craig-Greg.)  Anyway, in Euclase’s case, I don’t even think they have bad intentions; but at the moment, the impression I’m getting is that they only value other people insofar as they can contribute to the maintenance of society, whatever form that society takes, rather than seeing society as something that should exist for the sake of enriching the lives of inherently valuable people.  Despite the fact that Euclase is a staunch team player, I’m gonna go on record and say that I don’t think they care all that much about other people, they’ve just come to the conclusion that being cooperative and not rocking the boat as a general principle is the most rational way for them to go about their life.

If at some point in the future Euclase demonstrates that this isn’t their mindset, then I’m prepared to eat humble pie and admit that I was interpreting all their actions in the most cynical light possible and jumping to conclusions from there.  But for now, I am Mr. Krabs.

Getting away from “It’s about ethics in gem society” for a moment, I suspect that, unlike a lot of the other gems, Euclase isn’t really coming from a place of willful ignorance.  They’re not incurious and their words and actions have been quite deliberate.  I think that they know—or have at least inferred—some truths about their world that a lot of the other gems look away from. Their oft remarked fondness for statistics might have given them insight into some discrepancies in the narratives they’ve been fed by Kongou.  For example:

They’re probably well aware of the fact that no one on the moon has ever come back, and that if they themselves are captured, they’re gone for good.  (According to Aechmea this wasn’t always the case; but it’s quite possible that the gems who were returned to earth and promptly recaptured lived before the gems started keeping written records as well as before any of the current characters were born.)

If we compare the number of old gems to the number of young gems to the number of middle-aged gems, it’s clear that the old group is the smallest in number, and that most of the gems who make it to old age don’t patrol often for one reason or another.  Even though the gems go about their lives under the assumption that if they’re careful, they’ll never be caught by the Lunarians, that assumption is clearly not based in reality.  And Euclase, who apparently knows how old each gem is down to the day, is probably well aware of how illusory their immortality really is.

What I’m getting at is this: they’re likely one of the few gems who have wrapped their head around the concept of death, and like all the other gems who’ve come to understand that they’re not as immortal as they’ve been lead to believe, this knowledge has informed their outlook on life and their actions.  But while someone like Phos has taken a carpe diem approach to dealing with the fleeting nature of life, it seems to me that Euclase responded by maneuvering themselves into a position where they never have to take risks and, thus, never need to die.  As one of the little character intros mentioned, Euclase is skilled enough for any job, but the job they’ve chosen is one that apparently allows them to avoid patrolling and stay out of danger.

Something I find interesting which I expect to be brought up in the story later is Euclase’s insecurity about their brittleness, which was briefly mentioned in chapter 8.  To expand on this, Euclase has three planes of cleavage, one perfect and two distinct. This aspect is actually something they share in common with Phos.  Euclase, like phosphophyllite, is considered among gemology nerds mineral collectors to be a beautiful mineral that would make for great jewelry...if it wasn’t so rare and brittle.  Both of them also have names that reference their brittleness--euclase means “easily broken” and the -phyll part of phosphophyllite references its perfect cleavage.

Since many of the gems have one or more aspects of their characterizations based on the physical properties and/or cultural associations of their minerals, and since breakage is a major motif of the work, I think there’s probably significance to the fact that Ichikawa decided to make a gem so thoroughly associated with brittleness into a major character.  That’s how it is with Phos anyway.  To paraphrase a bit, Ichikawa said in this interview that phosphophyllite’s much lauded beauty and rarity juxtaposed against its unsuitability as jewelry was the inspiration behind Phos as a character being bold yet perpetually ineffectual (and of course very, very breakable, both literally and figuratively.)

So, this character, who is shaping up to be an antagonistic(?) force has a similar—and thematically relevant—existential condition to our protagonist, and they deal with it in a strikingly different way.  It’s a bit early to say where this element of the story is going to lead, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

As I’m typing this, I’m starting to wonder if the reason why Euclase misinterpreted Phos’s words in chapter 70 as insecurity about their hardness is because Euclase themselves is insecure about their brittleness.  In fact, that might also be the reason why they didn’t show themselves in chapter 70 until everyone was down and out, and why their overall plan involved shooting first and asking questions later.  The chance of breaking and showing weakness—either literally or figuratively—isn’t one they want to take, even at the cost of a lot of casualties/toxic mercury spills.  Additionally, when the Lunarians reported that they observed no changes in the earth gems’ behavior, Padparadscha comments that it seems like something Euclase would do, and doesn’t elaborate any further.  I think this aspect of their character is what Padparadscha was getting at, that Euclase is loath to show weakness, and goes to great pains to never be the first one to blink.

Going back to chapter 8, they also talk about how the gems’ immortality predisposes them to be ignorant of danger, and how they somewhat envy the bugs and plants that can react promptly to changing stimuli.  At that point in the story, it just seemed like one wistful observation on immortality among many, but looking back on it, it may have been just as much a window into Euclase’s anxieties as that line about their brittleness right after.  For someone who wants to organize the world around them and dislikes uncertainty, it must be frustrating for them to imagine that some inherent aspect of their nature predisposes them towards ignorance.

To pull back a bit, I imagine that the point of making statistics Euclase’s beloved hobby is to help set them up as a foil to Phos.  It’s a way to allow them insight into the flawed and tenuous nature of their society and their own existence without having them actually go out into the wide world to experience those answers for themselves like Phos does, since they’re not the type who’s willing to take risks.  So unlike say, Melon or Hemi, they’re not wallowing in their comfortable yet stagnant existence because they’re willfully ignorant and simply don’t want to inconvenience themselves.  Instead, they’ve spent their life running cost-benefit analyses and have come to the conclusion that they should maintain the status-quo to the best of their ability and avoid putting themselves out there.  It may seem like a distinction without a difference, but I think that’s what Ichikawa is going for.  Not to mention, it’d be kind of lame if everyone who decided to go against Phos and stay on earth was doing so out of incurious stubbornness or simple concern about the logistics of Phos’s plan.  For one of the gems to oppose Phos due to irreconcilable differences in worldview seems a bit more meaningful to me.

So, the core of the conflict between Phos and Euclase is that Phos finds value in risking failure as a means to finding something better, while Euclase believes that if they can simply play the system forever, they’ll never have to reap the negative consequences said system doles out.  This kind of goes without saying, but I don’t think the narrative is going to side with them in the end; looking at the story as a whole, I doubt that “If you keep your head down and play your cards right, you’ll be able to avoid suffering,” is a conclusion it wants to reach.  

But much like the rest of the cast, Phos has forced Euclase to change.  See, as much as they like to control the environment around them, they don’t like to let on that they’re doing so.  To me, their blurb on this page indicates that the reason they stick to Jade and subtly direct their actions is because it allows them to micromanage everything to their heart’s content while letting someone else take on the nominal position of authority and all the attention and responsibility that comes with it.

But now that Kongou has ceded power, Euclase doesn’t have the luxury of pretending to be middle management anymore.  Since no one else was willing to step up to the plate, they had no choice but to do so.  And now that the gems are split in two, Euclase has been forced to publicly stand for something.  Even if they’re trying to mitigate possible risks, they’re still operating well outside their comfort zone, and given that this manga is a veritable meat-grinder, it’s only going to get harder for Euclase to keep their world in order.

To sum it all up: yes, Euclase is a snake.  But they’re, like, a complicated snake.  A snake whose character flaws spring forth from very real insecurities. A snake who just wants to spend their days lounging on a comfy heating pad without having to worry about Actual Chaos Elemental Phosphophyllite mucking everything up.

(Ichikawa please validate my interpretation or else I’ll become Boo-boo the Fool.)

Anyway, Euclase isn’t the only character insecure about their brittleness…

Naturally, I continue to have thoughts regarding The Artist Formerly Known as Craigory.  There are times where I wish I had gotten attached to a more respectable character, but honestly where’s the fun in that?  I stan disasters!  

I mentioned in my last write-up that the glove Cairngorm is now wearing over their left arm pretty blatantly displays their desire to cover up the part of themselves that’s prone to breaking, both metaphorically and literally.  But after some thought, I’ve realized that their entire wardrobe is full of AnxietyTM.  Here’s a few of my observations.

They started off their foray with avant-garde moon lingerie with a small transparent shawl which has, a month later, become a full-body veil.  It seems to me, on a purely visually symbolic level, reminiscent of their situation with Ghost.  Like, if I were Ichikawa, and I were looking for a way to symbolize their existential plight in clothing form, that’s how I’d do it.  If I were to try to decode the meaning behind the evocative imagery, it’d be this: they’ve become trapped again, and are still being blocked from the freedom and the engagement with the world that they desire—symbolically in the sense that they’re interacting with the world through a veil, and literally in the sense that Aechmea seems to be, uh…strongly discouraging them from leaving their room, or doing things in general.

Cairn, please love yourself and get as far away from this creep as possible; I’ve got a sinking feeling that he’s going to cash in all those red flags he’s been setting off sooner rather than later.

Then there’s the matter of Cairngorm’s ongoing quest to find the Worst pair of shoes.  See, Cairn started their love affair with terrible shoes long before chapter 68.  

They’re not as ostentatious as say, the banana-peel crocs but…I mean look at them.  These may as well be pointe shoes.  Anyway, comparing these with their more recent…shoe decisions, I can’t help but think they might be a bit insecure about their height?  (And in case any of you guys didn’t see it, this omake explicitly spells out that they’re shorter than the other gems.)  

Even though they’re at most a couple centimeters shorter than the others, they seriously overcompensate for it.  I think that for them, the slight difference in height is a painful reminder that they’re not fully formed like the others are, which has lead them down the path of…dreamfoam platform high-tops.  

Getting back to the glove, chapter 44 contained a lot of subtext that indicated that they’re insecure about their finicky arm, and possibly about their finicky inclusions in general.  The whole buildup to Phos’s head being stolen is full of dumbass decisions from both of these clowns, but on Cairn’s side, they contributed to the whole fiasco by hiding the fact that their arm had been strained past its limit, and insisting on taking down the vessel alone in spite of that fact.  I’ve talked a bit before about how embracing or rejecting one’s weakness and impermanence is a major motif of this series, so the fact that Cairngorm consistently tries to hide the part of themselves that keeps breaking is…noteworthy, as is the fact that their most obvious attempt to do so in chapter 44 ended very badly.

Which got me thinking, what if that’s also why they started wearing long sleeves?  It might be possible that the long sleeves on their winter uniform served the same purpose the glove does now--to cover up their left arm.  We saw their bare arms in chapters 68 and 69 and it looked fine then, but what if, say, fractures appear on their left arm on a regular basis, and they wore long sleeves in order to cover it up?

To sum it all up, the aspects of themselves that set them apart from the other gems are all things that they subtly act like they’re ashamed of, and their choice of clothing reflects this.

I’ve already made a couple of posts about the cover of Pseudomorph of Love, but I felt like staring at it again and reporting my additional findings.

Something I noticed is that while the other characters’ broken pieces are placed right next to themselves, Phos’s pieces are scattered over the entire cover, usually lying on top of one or more of the other gems.  I have circled them here, with my peerless image editing skills.

If I were to take a guess at what this visual symbolism is trying to say, I’d say it’s that by changing and breaking, Phos leaves an impact on others.  At their very best, I think Phos breaks other people out of their bad habits and learned helplessness.  As Phos rushes forward, they also drag others out of their personal hells, sometimes intentionally, sometimes inadvertently.  Needless to say, they don’t always live up to these ideals, but that’s the general direction they’re headed in.

(Hey guys, do you think the fact that Phos’s hand is caressing their own face is foreshadowing that one day they will let go of their self loathing and learn to love themselves?  Because I want that to be the case.) 

Oh, and Cairn is indeed missing The Left Arm of Conspicuous Foreshadowing here too.  The break is even at the same angle.  If it turns out that nothing else happens to that arm for the rest of the story then I’m going to be so embarrassed because I have gone full pepe silvia over it.

Pictured here is Ichikawa making me cry by sneaking the foot Antarc left behind into the illustration. 

The only other gem whose parts have managed to travel across the cover is Dia, whose hand is next to Bort.  And I’m sure that it’s Dia’s because it’s a right hand and Euclase’s right half is blue in this illustration, and it can’t be Antarc’s either because all of Anatarc’s pieces are overlayed with a shimmery, watery reflection.  Make of it what you will.

At this point, I’m going to take off my literary hat and put on my middle school geology phase hat. Bort, how can I possibly bless your marriage to Cinnabar if I’m not sure what arbitrary classification of diamond you fall into?

So, bort is a rather ambiguous term, and can refer to basically any diamond that isn’t fit to be used as jewelry.  But Bort the character is not so non-specific.  They’re supposed to be an aggregate of microcrystalline diamonds, and the thing is, microcrystalline diamond aggregates are considered notable enough that they get their own names.  So while the term ‘bort’ does encompass these specimens, it’s a bit imprecise.

Microcrystalline diamond aggregates can be roughly grouped into four different varieties: framesite/stewartite, ballas, carbonado, and yakutite.  

Ballas, also known as shot bort, are microcrystalline diamonds with a radiating, fibrous habit that form spheres of various sizes. Despite being opaque, it sometimes displays a pearly luster depending on how heavily included a given specimen is. It ranges in color from white to gray to black.

Framesite is the name applied to most granular-to-microcrystalline diamond aggregates.  It's usually black but I couldn’t find an exhaustive list of colors.  Stewartite is the term for framesite that’s been magnetized as a result of magnetite intergrowths and inclusions.

Carbonado is the toughest and most mysterious form of diamond.  No one knows how the hell it forms, and theories about its formation range from the transformation of irradiated hydrocarbons to supernova-genesis.  These rocks are a hodgepodge of diamonds, graphite, and amorphous carbon.  Carbonado is very porous and its component crystals are of a much smaller grain than either ballas or framesite.  It is also further distinguished from its fellow diamond aggregates by a melt-like glassy patina that coats its surface.  While most are just black, they come in a wider range of colors than other microcrystalline diamonds, including grey, red, brown or even some weirder colors like green, purple, and pink.  There’s also some evidence that suggests it’s slightly harder than normal diamonds—at the very least, many a diamond-tipped sawblade has been ruined trying to cut into carbonado.

Yakutite is named for the location in Russia where it is found.  It is characterized by its numerous lonsdaleite inclusions, and since it’s found in rocks that have undergone shock metamorphism, it is thought that yakutite forms via meteor impacts.  So, this is pretty much the only variety of microcrystalline diamond we can rule out since I’m not seeing any meteor craters on the island.

At first I was thinking that since the inside of their hair is brownish red, and carbonado is the only one that comes in that color, they must be carbonado; problem solved!

But then I realized that the inside of Bort’s hair has never been colored that way in the manga, only the anime.  In colored illustrations, the inside of their hair is iridescent like Dia’s, but with much more muted colors, so that it looks more like an oil slick or something and less like a rainbow.  That could be an artistic representation of the glassy patina of carbonado, but it might also be the pearly layers of ballas.  Framesite on the other hand is more likely to have a completely dull luster than either ballas or carbonado, so…one point against framesite I guess

One thing that indicates they might be ballas is how their mineral is represented in both the episode 10 eyecatch and in one of Ichikawa’s illustrations.  The bort represented in these images has the spherical shape of ballas.

The most compelling argument for Bort being made of framesite is the fact that out of all the options here, framesite is the most likely to be referred to as simply ‘bort.’ Several sources I’ve looked at listed framesite and stewartite as being obsolete names for what is normally just called bort these days.  This comes with a big caveat though.

While the scientific names of minerals are widely agreed upon and are consistent cross-linguistically, unofficial trade names are...not.  For example, our Padparadscha probably wouldn’t meet the GIA’s standard for padparadscha sapphire on account of the fact that they’re pinkish-red with a bit of orange and a somewhat dark shade, rather than the GIA’s narrowly defined pastel salmon coloration.  But despite the GIA’s current standard on what counts as padparadscha, they’d still meet the criteria for padparadscha found in historical literature on account of being a hunk of corundum that’s vaguely orange-looking. There are other gems in this series who exist in this gray area, but this post is getting pretty damn long so I’ll spare you poor readers the details.

What I’m getting at here is that if you look at the Japanese Wikipedia page for carbonado, bort is listed as a synonym.  So even though they’re not typically used interchangeably in English, it looks like that’s not the case in Japanese.  In fact, last spring this geology museum did an hnk themed event, and the rock they used to represent Bort was a hunk of carbonado, and this tweet they put out treats bort and carbonado as synonyms.

In carbonado’s corner, there’s Bort’s fight with Ventricosus.  During said fight, chunks of their hair melted off from Ventri’s acid. But here’s the thing though: diamonds can’t be dissolved by acid, no matter how strong that acid is.  If we generously assume that Bort losing some of their hair isn’t just a plot hole, then it may point to them being carbonado, since the graphite and amorphous carbon packed into carbonado is readily soluble in acid.

In conclusion, there is no answer and I’m slowly going insane.  My mind is all out of Bort license plates.  I’m leaning towards carbonado because of Bort’s galling lack of acid resistance and also because I think carbonado is a pretty cool rock.

Putting on my literary hat once again, I can’t help but wonder if the reason why Ichikawa went with the ambiguous bort over the other possible names was because of its etymology, which comes from the Anglo-Saxon gebrot, meaning fragment which is in turn derived from breótan, ‘to break.’  (A related cognate from Middle English is brotel, which became brittle in modern English.)  Its cognates in other Germanic languages all seem to have meanings along the lines of ‘a break,’ ‘a rupture,’ or ‘a fracture.’  Another possible source of bort is the Old Norse brotna, meaning break.  -Brot also shows up in a few other Old Norse words like Skipsbrot—shipwreck, Haugebrot—the destruction of a grave, and ísabrot, meaning oh-god-someone-please-take-my-dictionary-away-from-my-sinful-hands.

Ahem,

Out of all the possible names Bort could have had, they got one that references brokenness.  I realize that this probably isn’t intentional symbolism, and I’m just shoving my interest in linguistics where it doesn’t belong, but I do think it’s a nice bit of serendipity nonetheless.

Okay, I promised you guys a galaxy-brained snail crack theory, so here goes: I’ve mentioned before that Variegatus seems to share a lot of parallels with baby!Phos, and that her name, which means multi-colored, could be said to describe Phos’s current state of being.  It seems pretty clear that, on a metaphorical level, she’s connected to Phos.  Well, what if that metaphor was literal, and ~somehow~ the inclusions from Phos’s arms and legs which were lost at sea ended up reborn as Variegatus, and that’s why she’s so Phos-like.  The idea seems pretty absurd, but it wouldn’t be the first time Ichikawa has used someone’s body parts becoming their own sentient person as a plot device.

[indjones4]

Karoor Soman (Author) vs Cyberbully Liars- Techniques Explained

Firstly, happy and secure people don’t need to bully. This article will not look at the plain cyberbully who barks out nonsense for the sake of it but at the educated cyberbullies who defy reason and logic to entertain themselves from their pathetic lives. I hope this small article is of benefit to both kids and adults alike in our socially connected worlds where cyberbullying is allowed and is flourishing.

 To identify genuine cyberbullying is relatively simple -: look for patterns of behaviour that is demeaning and deliberate towards the victim frequently. Ugly trolls of today are crooked, lying losers who genuinely have little substance going on in their life, so involve themselves in such acts. Make no mistake, they will do everything to mock and alienate you from others.

 Consistent harassment is one sign of spotting a cyberbully; which in the initial phases would involve some sort of financial arrangement.  There is always a financial arrangement with such people. Always! Greed is a huge driving force and should not be underestimated. These ugly **** crooked cyberbullies tend to do charity with the blackmailing extortion fees from the victim. Pun intended.  

 Blackmailing is standard for such people. There will be some hypocrites who wail about “Oh! I am doing a social good” nonsense. Separate the chaff from the wheat. If it is genuine, they would not victimise and neither harm. They would find out, sort out, work out, and find a better solution than cyberbullying. If the victim does not play according to the blackmailer’s demands, the blackmailer turns from playing blackmail to playing full mode cyberbully.

 Another trait to look out for among these new breed of cyberbullies is what I call the term “moral cyberbully”. The cyberbully usually would use an excuse/circumstance/situation to enhance one’s own feeling of moral superiority to do the trolling and cyberbullying. They display primitive response/reaction of hate and jealousy. Please note there is no cure for jealousy. No matter what reason or debate is thrown at them, they cannot view past their own little brain of hate, revenge and spite. They would make excuses so that they can keep hating.

 Personal revenge motives also play a huge factor with such idiots. These crooked liars pretend to fight for truth and justice. This is one of the best indications that you are dealing with a real douchebag whose main purpose is attention seeking or to become famous and “fight for a cause”. Look out for these types as they tend to drown on their ideas for a long time.

 Advice: Ignore such people and get on with your life. No point even debating or reasoning with them. “Justified criticism” is the excuse for cyberbullies to take on victims and has no place in a civilized society. Absolutely don’t waste time on such retards! Pointless waste of time! You can make more sense to a chimpanzee than with these cyberbullies.

 Standing up to cyberbullies literally takes skin and a rhino’s skin if they are in the 100s or 1000s. It’s understandable for a lot of people, this can be scary, hard, or even completely clueless. I have seen couple of recent examples from different people, who react differently to cyberbullies, but have their own methods of dealing with it. Everyone has a certain threshold after which point, some people break, some people become stronger than before.

 Character assassination is the goal for many cyberbullies and will stop at nothing to destroy your virtual identity and in real life.  Naming and shaming is a common tool of cyberbullies and usually they have a few core idiots who partake with a cyberbully leader to victimize people. Other zombie followers who can’t think for themselves usually are not far behind.

 Cyberbully followers are another easy spotting exercise. I call them zombies because they don’t have much neurons firing in their brain and respond to a herd mentality.  The cyberbully leader uses peer pleasure (yes, not pressure) technique to get people to help them in their bullying and mocking. Partaking in ridicule of the victim is a thrill from their boring lives. Imagine a person eating vomit nonstop- this is what the zombie followers of a cyberbully liar would look like in cartoonish terms.   

 One very recent example, I got an opportunity to look into after it was brought to my attention involves an author from India, who from the looks of it, either was gullible or was genuinely guilty or was clueless. I cannot be the judge of this. Unlike cyberbullies, I allow the courts of our land and law enforcement to do their job before I come to a decision to be critical of somebody I don’t know.

This author’s weakness or lack of hindsight was pointed out in the social media platform by some people who were affected by it. From what can be gathered, author made an unofficial statement about it, clearly stating that he was cheated by someone on this matter. The so called moral cyberbullies were aware of this and initially, looked like there was a real concern about this, but slowly as one separates the chaff from the wheat, it became clear that this was classical premeditated cyberbullying.

 Why do I say this? Similar cases are usually seen among teenagers or kids partly due to jealousy and partly lack of maturity. The similarities are astounding. And here is the Eureka moment! The cyberbully started a rant about the victim, even before the author was aware of it. Supposedly, the author came to know about this through someone else who watched a video of the cyberbully vomiting accusations and playing the mocking bird. If a person is genuine and has good faith, they will tell you honestly face to face like real men or women. There are situations where that doesn’t work and their only other means is to go viral. But always notice the first action- like they say the first impressions matter in an interview- it is similar- notice what a person does. Usually tells a lot about themselves, their background, their parents, culture etc. Try it out. It’s fun to see this in real life and in practice. Notice also the repetition that the cyberbully will use when they have nothing else to say. Yes, but…. Yes, but….

 Another interesting aspect was the amount of bullshit that was sprouted between the cyberbullies and their followers. Please see the debate/reasoning/arguments/ that was happening in social media-:

 Person 1(usually crooked cyberbully leader) starts a statement

Person 2 is shocked and agrees

Person 3 is amazed and dumbfounded and agrees

Person 4 is raging as if the author has spread chemical weapons

Person 5 agrees to this rage

Person 6 rallies more people and all of them agree

Person 1(cyberbully leader) usually claims an mission at this stage

Person 7 practices hashtags ######### (must have been illiterate)

Person 8 agrees and is shocked at the authors audacity

Person 9 is sure this was done on purpose by the author

Person 10 agrees and is shocked

Person 1(cyberbully leader) makes statement and agrees with Person 1-10

Person 11 amygdala rages and agrees with cyberbully

Person 12 is angry this happened - OMG!

Person 13 agrees to this anger! - OMG!

Person 14 agrees and speaks for the whole community

Person 15 is clueless but agrees at this outrage!! - OMG!

Person 16 wants to spread the word and agrees with Person 1-15

Person 17 finishes his work in his office and sees trending topic on social media and of course agrees!

 When you start reading this chain of events, majority of the time, not always, the issue is exaggerated, blown out of proportions, one-sided, filled with lies and has no signs of a sophisticated conversation.  It’s another sign of the stupidity and behaviour of cyberbullies. Thank heavens such people do not become political leaders with access to nuclear codes. They could literally start World War 3 based on a tweet! OMG!

 It was amusing to discover this as these are classic cyberbullying 101 tactics. As I researched further, it was clear that the crooked lying cyberbully was spreading rumours and lying that the author was doing this and that and was “selling arms and ammunition to kill people in Pluto” to get his zombie followers to act. It was interesting to see the slaves of zombies working hard to prevent the “cruel” author from writing any further.

 To stop someone from writing especially as an author, who is passionate about it is beyond cruel and is equal to Nazi behaviour to the Jews. Writing is a blessing and these losers wanted the author, Karoor Soman, to stop writing. We can learn very quickly how to differentiate the original from the duplicate critics just by looking at this example. A genuine critic being fierce in their criticism, would not bow down to Nazi tactics of cyberbullying as in this scenario, which stems from an under developed brain.

 Another trait related to this also involves mixing of truth with lie. Always make sure to differentiate the claims and their evidence for it. If they claim that everything the author has done is wrong, they need to give evidence for all of it. This brings us to the principle of “one bad, all bad” syndrome.

 A cyberbully targets one weakness of the victim, rotates the truth 180 degrees to suit the cyberbully liar’s narrative. If you are a celebrity/famous person/public figure they usually use the public interest/benefit/criticism reason to defend their cyberbullying.  

 If you as an independent third party, are reasonable and really after truth and justice, make sure that they have evidence to substantiate their bigger claims. The bigger the accusation, the bigger the evidence should be. If you see a lot of big words with little evidence- start raising your eyebrows! If they claim 100+100=200, and evidence comes out with 100+100 = 60; start running the opposite way, you are dealing with an immoral person at best and worse a crooked cyberbully liar who is convinced they are telling truth and really bad at their mathematics. It’s amazing what the brain can imagine and concoct.

 Author: Its worthwhile remembering the biggest critic in our lives is between your own two ears. You have been blessed with a brain which took millennia of evolution to bring to this stage. Focus on the road ahead of you and forget these walls of cyberbullying (Oops, Constructive criticism!) and negativity. Use all the hatred that is channelled towards you as an author for you to keep writing, recommitting to your work, refocussing on your goals. Life is too short for any victim to focus on such trolls. Cyberbullying liars only know how to tear down the work of other people, so do not worry about their huge numbers.

 The cyberbullying liars cannot take writing away from you as an author. It’s who you are and what you are. They are bigots who hiss for hatred. Its manufactured discontent and frustration that causes them to bully and troll. Meaningful dialogue to them is equivalent to singing La, La, La. The fate of these liars and hacks is to stay looped in their ether of fantasies. They cannot support, so they stigmatize as that is all they know. Unless you read their zombie creed, you are not one of them. They salivate and are turned on by the very presence of your name, Karoor Soman. Hats off to your courage and determination to stand firm even when everyone around you is going bonkers.

 Such bigots are loud to grab attention and only know how to hate and mock, as that is all that they know best. You don’t expect to smell flowers in a smelly trash can! Unfortunately, abuse is what comes out of some people’s mouth in the name of freedom of speech and criticism. Its ok, it is their fate that they are in this loop of immaturity. We can hope for maturity, but some people take a lifetime to mature.

 Take it from Mr Rushdie, who once responded to bullies both offline and online, who also wanted him to stop his writing, “Here’s my choice: not to shut up. To sing on, in spite of attacks, to sing (while my dreams are being murdered by facts) praises of butterflies broken on racks.”

 REMEMBER: Cyberbullies are Big Ugly Lame Losers who are Yearning for attention using hate, rumour, false accusations, jealousy, suspicion and lying.