Malignment Attitudes within the Deaf Community

After all these years reading other people's blogs and watching their vlogs some of their incompetence were realized early on up to the present in terms of their attitudes of malignment. In short, using the internet as way to spread gossip, hate and revilement against certain individuals on a regular basis.  It's one thing to argue respectfully and make a point of contention without getting emotionally involved but another to specifically target individuals as their personal punching bag using ad hominem and continuing with their online bullying ways. I'm sorry. I don't respect people doing that in the latter. The rule of thumb is that once people use ad hominem they have lost their argument.

Anonymous comments or not?

I had a brief discusion with a friend of mine that got around to blogging and how we handle comments. This person believes it's better not to have comments saying it cuts down on crap or hate comments by people bent on abusing the system and forcing them to become known entities in order to participate in a discussion. As for me, I believe there is always a choice for a blogger to have.

That discussion reminded me of what happened last year when a few state bills (see bill one and bill two) were drawn up in the New York state assembly by a few overly zealous and controlling Senators on advocating for the ban of anonymous comments by people in social networks, blog forums, message boards, or any other discussion site. From Tech Dirt:

Last fall, we were absolutely amazed at a paper written by some NY state politicians arguing that we have too much free speech, and that we need a "more refined" interpretation of the First Amendment, that outlaws things like "leaving improper messages on online message boards." Well... as covered by Dave Kravets at Wired, some NY state politicians have introduced the same bill, in both houses of the legislature, that would outlaw anonymous speech online. The actual bill is not particularly subtle.

A rather incredible thing to see on the attempt to regulate the internet and free speech.

Either you have a lot of enemies and don't have the skins for it to put up with anonymous comments, can't handle the truth, cannot debate effectively, orjust plain lazy. Or maybe they just drive themselves nuts on the need to know who is doing the commenting. Then again there are good reasons to not put up with anonymous comments, too, but I just believe in choices here. I believe in the freedom of choice and free speech (there's always a certain limit like you cannot make threats online) on both ends, the moderator/blogger and the people doing the commenting with the choice to comment anonymously or not. I can simply not allow comments to go through. A pretty simple concept there.

I've actually had one former moderator of a formerly popular discussion forum come to my blog and actually abused her posting privledge by violating one of my firmly esstablished rules on posting comments (slightly modificated from an earlier posting rules back in 2007). Ironic if you ask me.

Not all comments left are for discussion. Sometimes I get important anonymous tips through my comments as a way for some of my readers to communicate with me, whoever they are, and that's fine.

I think some bloggers actually pay more attention to the person behind the comment rather than the context of the comment itself.  And instead would want to focus on certain individual's name rather than allow anonymous comments go through. Which is probably why some bloggers want to know who is doing the commenting due to perhaps an insecurity issue of their own. They *must* know who is leaving comments behind. This is true among some bloggers who cannot debate effectively and are usually left with "no recourse" but to do ad hominems instead as a way to retaliate back. A psychological sign of an internet bully. All talk, thin skin, must know who is doing the talking.

Overall, I rarely ever delete anonymous comments. Or for that matter, even rarer, delete known person leaving a comment. I only delete a comment if it violates one of my, again, firmly established rules on posting coments. Whenever one is about to comment by clicking on "post a comment" link, a comment box pops up with a link "*****Rules on commenting click here!*****."   People can read. The rules are simple even a deaf caveman can follow them. 

Only a very few, clueless people actually think I delete comments on a regular basis because I don't like them. Actually, that is not the case. It's a very rare occurance that I delete comments because the idiots didn't follow my rules. Kind of like the same kind of people who don't pay attention to rules on playing Monopoly and that Monopoly money is actually fake money and the money doesn't automatically belong to any particular group by fiat.

Sometimes I let anonymous comments left by cowards go through with the intent to show the world exactly how brain dead some of these folks are with no common sense at all when they are intent on making personal attacks towards me. But these are a very small group of people who cannot effectively debate, discuss or argue on the merits itself. So, what do they do? They call you names in the book, make fun of you, and so on as if doing that they are making cogent arguments. They are not. The moment they do that is a sign they cannot argue effectively to make a case. And they are left with "no recourse" but to lob ad hominems over the fence just so they can make themselves feel better. A sign of immaturity. Weak-mindedness they are. I just hope one day they can learn how to argue correctly instead of throwing temper tantums and have that potty mouth.

My blog has always allowed anonymous comments since the day I started blogging Kokonut Pundit almost 9 years ago. I'm not about to change this approach. As always I reserve my right to moderate comments that come through.  They will go through as long as they do not violate my posting rules.

Enjoy your day. Spring is almost here!

Bullying

Fortunately I have not been a victim of bullying since I don't see myself as a victim in the first place. Rather I see the perpetrator as someone who wants attention in the effort to raise his or her self-esteem by targeting certain people with their rants and hate. For years as a blogger I've been a target of bullying-tactics by a few deaf people who have graced my blogsite of time's past. The same people who have attacked those commenting in my blog comment box and used profane language against them. Ultimately I was forced to ban them from my blogsite after warning them to cease against attacking people who leave comments in my blog. Even that didn't always work because they usually find a way to continue with the attacking and bullying. But in my own wisdom I've learned to ignore those people who insist on finding ways to target me.

What prompted me to blog about this was because of an article I read on the psychology of bullying asking an interesting question, "Bullies Have Low Self-Esteem Or High Self-Esteem?"

But current research shows that most bullies actually have high self-esteem. Bullies usually have a sense of entitlement and a feeling of superiority over others, and lack compassion, impulse control and social skills. They enjoy being cruel to others and sometimes use bullying as an anger management tool, the way a normally angry person would punch a pillow. Research does support the fact that bullies have low empathy and don’t know how it feels to be in someone else’s shoes.

I never realize that a person who bully sometimes uses it as an anger management tool. That one surprised me but I certainly understand that such attitudes and actions give them the feeling of superiority over others and enjoy being cruel to them in a variety of ways over the internet.  Such cruelties include name calling, put downs, smearing, lying or going after their families or spouses by targeting them in order to get to his/her main target.

More on bullying....

As long as bullies are able to manipulate another person or a situation, their self-esteem goes up. Once bullies lose control of their victim, or realize that they can’t manipulate situations to their liking, their self-esteem goes down. This causes them to look for new victims to manipulate and control so that their self-esteem can go up again. The bullying in itself almost becomes an emotional fix that bullies need in order to feel good about themselves.

Which is why it's important to ignore certain bullies for their bullying tactics because by doing so you are not giving them any opportunity for control or the opportunity to try and manipulate you.  If you can do this  try and block the person from your blog, YouTube, Facebook or anywhere else. The bullies I've come across in the past I see them almost as the equivalent of a druggie who seeks emotional fixes in order to get that same "high." It's almost a description of  stalker looking for his/her next fix.

If you come across a bully, do not try and engage with a bully. Best weapon is to put that online bully on ignore. Or, if you can, try and ban that person. That's what I did and I was able to take that control away from the few bullies who knew no better. It takes confidence to wrest control away from an online bully by the mere simple act of ignoring the bully in the first place. You have that power.

Six Year Anniversary of Kokonut Pundit

Yay! Well, not quite but that's a week away and I just wanted to put this out just in case I forget. I'm well underway very soon to start into my 7th year as a blogger of Kokonut Pundit.  Even though I am known as one of the more prolific and well known blogger among many deaf/hh bloggers. I've done 198 blogs so far this year. You can see the number of blogs in the left column of my blog page under "Blog Archive" that shows total number of blogs for each year and month. And as of today since January 1, 2010 (286 days so far) I've blogged on average 0.7 blog/day (198 blogs/286days = 0.7).  Or on average 5 blogs per week (0.7 * 7 = 4.9).

The most I've ever blogged was 471 blogs in 2005 or 1.3 blogs per day or 9 blogs per week. That's when I was really into blogging in my 2nd year as a blogger. But altogether 2186 days (or almost 7 years) I've produced 1609 blogs which turns out to be 0.73 blog/day if you calculate the whole thing.

For bloggers the most common rate of updating their blog is 2-3 times per week on average and not 2 to 3 blogs per day as some might say. I can see how some people might be mathematically-challenged to even say that. Also, approximately 20% of all bloggers update their blog on a daily basis. I'm not quite there since I don't quite blog on daily basis nowadays but back in 2005 and 2006 I was blogging on average a little more than 1 blog a day.

Happy?

When it comes to the deaf/hh/Deaf blogging community no where have I ever come across a blogger who have blogged on average 2 to 3 blogs a day. Anybody who says that need to take remedial math and learn how to compare actual numbers of blogs done each day, week, month or year to get your unit average for well known deaf/hh/Deaf bloggers.  So, please, next time, exercise some caution for a change instead of making things up along the way like the number deaf people that get arrested each year...on average. It doesn't pay to throw numbers around without any real validity or proper research into it. Your reputation could be a stake if you try and ignore that process.

Also, I don't sit around and plan for my blogging topics. Many are on spur-of-the-moment blogs when I get an idea from somewhere on the what I want to blog about. Usually it takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to do some quick research, get some links, or just take my time to put my thoughts into words on my blog. It just comes to me in most cases on what I want to blog about. No days and days of planning while I have my pinky finger inserted into my lips thinking up of diabolical plans and cast ruins upon the world......mwaahahahaha!  I'm like you guys, I get my inspiration and then I blog it.

Simple.

Kokonut Pundit - the longest continuously running deaf/hh blog around?

My Kokonut Pundit blog will be approaching its 7th year this October when I began blogging in 2004. With over 1,558 blog posts (not counting this one) I believe I am probably the most prolific deaf/hh blogger around if I may be so bold. With a few pauses here and there I maintained my regular blogging ever since covering interests ranging from politics, the environment, the Gallaudet University protest, deaf and hard of hearing issues, advances in technology and biotechnology, and lately the AB2072 debacle. Unless if I'm mistakened, and readers can point this out to me, are there other blogs that have been around much longer than mine and continuously blogged on a regular basis? If so then I will stand corrected. However, from what I can I tell, at least here in the United States, the Kokonut Pundit blog is the longest running and regularly maintained deaf/hh blog around. And certainly one of the more popular deaf/hh blogs around, too. Thank you, readers!

Why do you like to read Kokonut Pundit blog? A thanks to readers...

A little bit of a thank you here is in order to the readers of Kokonut Pundit who continue to read my blogs that I started almost 6 1/2 years ago. Let this be an open comment period for fans (or haters) of Kokonut Pundit the opportunity to have something to say here. The comment page is open and that my moderating control is now turned off so you don't have to wait to see if your comments are approved or not.

Thank you for reading Kokonut Pundit.

My response to Mishka Zena

When navel gazing goes too far into the trash can

What Mishka Zena said:

Actually, Shelley, I think Mike does get it. He doesn’t care as he apparently feels the needs of the oral deaf and hearing people more important than the needs of ASL users. Again this is my personal interpretation based on my observations on his posts and comments the last two years.

Incidentally he had already read this post the first time. This is not new to him, not at all, yet he is still pressing on for cc/subtitling of ASL vloggers while being quiet about blogs not being accessible to ASL users.

My response of which I already replied in her blog comment box:

Mishka, it’s a bit of a non sequitur (not to mention being a bit disingenuous) in the attempt to say that written blogs ought to have ASL video interpretations just to make it “fair.” If that’s the case then Closed Captioning on television shows and such ought to be replaced with an ASL interpreter in the corner of the tv screen. If it’s English is so bad to read then make sure you go after Gallaudet University for not including an ASL version for every article written whether it’s news, sports, administration update and so on. If you really want to see hypocrisy go after Gallaudet University or NTID for not including ASL versions in all of their writings over the internet. Or what about the countless Deaf websites that do not have ASL video versions next to their written English sections?

Secondly, you are making a statement (as well as helping perpetuate the 4th grade reading literacy myth/fact) about the literacy levels that Deaf people have by sayinig they are unable to read yet they have no problem taking the time to comment in many blogs. Maybe you ought ought to go after Ricky Taylor’s blogs for not including an ASL vlog version alongside each and every blog entry? But I don’t see Deaf people reaching for their pitchforks going after him for not adding an ASL version to his blog entries. Heck, go after DeafRead for no having an ASL version for their guidelines. After all I wonder how many Deaf people who already read DR’s guidelines didn’t understand them at all because it was all in English? Who knows, maybe they violated DR’s guideline umpteen times it’d make your head spin? You wanna talk about hypocrisy, diversity and accessiblity all in one fell swoop now, Mishka?

English is the one single common language that is accessible to the majority population, deaf or otherwise, who are literate. ASL is not accessible to the majority of the population in the United States. The majority of Deaf people are literate enough to read simple sentences to more complex ones such as yours, Mishka. I guess you better starting adding an ASL version of your blog entry just for the sake of “fairiness.” After all, you blogs are certainly not “accessible to ASL users.”

And for the record, I have not read or accessed Mishka Zena's post until today. Oh, and I do get it. It just perhaps you guys don’t get it and the level of hypocrisy y’all are displaying?