“No one cared who I was until I put on the mask.”
~Bane, The Dark Knight Rises
“So why the mask?” Some of my friends ask me. Why do I write under a false name? Why do I hide behind the identity of an undead armored corpse?
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Indeed, Fallen Angel has even written an article here about using aliases and anonymous blogging and why some react so negatively towards it. However, this article will describe my own reasons for using “Thaddeus Grimwald” over my real name and why I’m not planning on giving the latter any time soon.
To be honest, I initially intended to use my real name. Seeing the works of Paul Farol prior to 2015, the year I joined GRP, I sought to imitate him and author my writings through my offline identity. I only used “Thaddeus Grimwald” as a means of trolling some old friends (and old enemies) who were familiar with the name. I planned on using my real name after I had written quite a bit but changed my mind and decided to stay anonymous when I started receiving death threats.
No, I’m not going to go into detail about what was said but note that whoever this was (he was probably using a pseudonym as well I think, the hypocrite) was willing to personally look for me. Truth be told, I actually expected as much. Look, I’m willing to admit that the concept of death still scares me but I’ve more or less made peace with my own demise as, more likely than not, it is an inevitability that none, save God, can prevent. However, I’m not too keen on people making threats towards my loved ones. I know that most of them are probably just internet tough-guys but I still can’t risk the possibility that some of them might be more insane than their often angry and nonsensical insults and ultimatums imply.
If I get beat up for what I do, I suppose it’s just another part of what it means to be a “social critic” but I’m not going to put anyone else at risk other than myself. Unfortunately, considering the kind of people who are all too eager to oppose us, I have my misgivings about revealing personal information about myself as that may put my loved ones at risk. Even if some of my more violent detractors are just bluffing, I am not going to put at risk anyone other than myself if I can help it. “Better safe than sorry!” Is, after all, one of the guiding principles of my life.
Here are the three big reasons why I choose to continue to write as Thaddeus Grimwald:
Everything Is So Personal
As I’ve said before, one of the biggest problems in Pinoy society is that people tend to take things a little too personally. Heck, sometimes, if you put a scathing post on your wall in FB, you can bet that there will be people who will assume you are talking about them even though that can’t be further from the truth. Indeed, whole feuds have started because there are so many people who like to assume they’re who you’re talking about on your FB wall.
When it comes to blogging, when you criticize a given aspect of society, typical Pinoys will immediately brand you as a “hater”. They assume that you are attacking them directly instead of simply calling them out on their bad behavior. What I find ironic in all of this is while a critic might hate a person’s acts and not the person in question, the person’s often butthurt defenders readily attack the critic in question rather than the argument the latter presented.
People Can Be So Crazy Sometimes
I’ve said a lot about idolatry many times before but I’m going to mention it again just to get my point home.
While I think that it’s okay to admire certain people, we shouldn’t worship them because they’re people too, just like us. Sure, I’m a big fan of William Hope Hodgson and hope that one day, I can be something like him. However, I’m certain that William Hope Hodgson isn’t perfect and that he probably issues of his own to deal with. Now, I may admire the man’s works like The Night Land or his Carnacki series, but my life isn’t about loving or being William Hope Hodgson, it is about being me, Thaddeus Grimwald.
Unfortunately, from what I can see in our society, some of us give attention to public figures and celebrities that far exceed “admiration” and enter the territory of “idolatry”. Instead of simply seeing their respected individuals as people with good traits to be emulated, they see them as living gods to worship. They come to see them as divinities and jealously protect from all criticism, taking all their words, no matter how absurd or profane, as truth and all their acts, no matter how cowardly or conniving, as heroic.
Rule Of Cool
Truth be told, Thaddeus of Grimwald was the name of a protagonist in a poem I wrote back in college. I also wrote it under a pseudonym back then which was Amorsolo Jacinto. As fate would have it (and also since the poem was written in first person), they assumed that Thaddeus of Grimwald was the author’s name and it pretty much stuck since then.
However, the choice of name, I must admit has a certain ring to it. I chose it specifically for the protagonist of my poem as it was a tale about the Crusades of the Dark Ages. Thaddeus of Grimwald was simply a young boy who out of misguided dreams thought he could make a name for himself by fighting in the holy city. However, while he thought he’d be fighting Muslims, he and the other crusaders with him instead encountered a nefarious plot by heretical members of the Catholic Church who had formed their own satanic cult beneath the Holy Land.
I am essentially using the name Thaddeus Grimwald and not my own because I know that something bigger is at stake here and that what my people need is a noble crusader and not some backwater rustic…
I HAVE RETURNED TO LAY WASTE TO OUR ENEMIES!
Hello Grimwald.
It is not uncommon that critical people have to work behind a mask.
Especially in a country like the Philippines.
One of the biggest problems is that the majority of people will not be able a complex problem are mentally to recognize, let alone researching this problem and to draw the right conclusions.
But – one looks for the causes you have to realize, it is by design.
How easy it is for a “President” (better dictator) to manipulate an uneducated people. Aquino is a robber of his own people, a dictator of spiritual poverty.
See the deplorable state of the infrastructure. The Philippine economy is ailing. There is no own scientific – technical achievements, no innovation. Why? The Filipino is dangled before the Philippines possess an excellent education system.
The take immediately the question: “Why do most Filipinos working as a laborer in OFW?
Some because of the excellent education? Probably not.
2012/13 I tried a vocational school for technical professions in accordance with German standard reasons. I would have saved me the trouble, whom I would have done some more research. For then would have been aware that the Filipinos do not attach importance to a sound education. This is reflected especially in the laws again.
A foreigner can not be the head of his own school after the Philippine law?
What is this bullshit?
We bring knowledge, we bring the technology and the money for the realization.
Missed chances for your country.
African countries appreciate our efforts and self-government bodies to give us any help for the realization of our work.
The national character is shaped by the colonial masters. Spaniards, Englishmen, Americans, Japanese. The only legacy that these nothings left are corruption, crime, immorality and Catholicism.
It happened what still happens today, when peace is more important than law, for where the rulers want tranquility, it is the ruled badly.
But still there is the lie about the truth in the world and as long as the violence and fear holds the power in his hands, a man can not rest and will not flee but must fight as a journalist against the ignorance and stupidity.
To the state of the Philippine society during the Middle Ages – caught holding status to eliminate.
And to give with no mask-free reports to a free people.
You…Thaddeus Grimwald…me, Hyden Toro…
What is in a name, anyway?
Mark Twain wrote under the pen name of :Samuel Clements. Jose Rizal wrote under the pen name of: Dimasalng.
Focus on the messages…not on the messengers.
Dacer was a good writer. He exposed some unfavorable Truth about those in power. He was murdered, with his driver: Corbito. The case is still unsolved. The suspects are there in power. How can you guarantee the safety of our bloggers, who expose the truth?
Using a pen name is not against the law. We have to have Free Speech, which have been denied to us for a long time…
The Maguindanao massacre of Journalists is still unsolved. the Perpetrators, the Ampatuan, are in cahoots with Aquino.
The case dragged on. Witnesses are one by one, being murdered. The cases are deliberately covered up by Aquino, and those in power.
We . bloggers, don’t want to have the same fates; being murdered and buried with a Back Hoe.
I encourage every Blogger to use Pen Names, and expose the Truth. It will be like a fight between an Elephant and a Tiger. The Tiger jumps on top of the Elephant, and rip its flesh. The Tiger coming from nowhere.
Samuel Clements, wrote under pen name: “Mark Twain”. Jose Rizal under the pen name of: “Dimasalang”…(corrected)
Some people have to work behind a mask because other people are just nasty. They try to ruin you with lies, annoy, insult or just harrass you. They will even threaten your families. Hence the necessity or working behind a mask.
The only problem with fake identities is when they steal someone else’s identity. Catfishing, basically. But everyone here with masks is working under their own identities, not stolen. So there’s no problem.
Huh, well this is something. Basically phishing someone else identity is pretty much a piece of cake nowadays by viruses, cross-site scripting, SQL injection and even Email blacklisting. Pretty much any bozo with a computer can write a code.
I suggest better secure this site, if your budget constraint you from ever affording services like SiteLock, you can put certain measures to prevent others from well, doing harmful stuff stealing other’s emails etc.
In our ever evolving technology people will always find some ways to inflict harm to others. I guess it’s human nature, a fckup one that is. Just try to analyze the each threat respond only when necessary.
How can we forget ‘Mohagher Iqbal’? Did he not negotiate, (is he not negotiating), for the passage of the BBL under this assumed name.. or ‘Alias’? The President, his two ‘Peace Ladies’, Miriam Coronel-Ferrer and Teresita Quintos-Deles, as well as DOJ’s Leila deLima were all OK with this. Couldn’t bloggers do the same? As the old proverb goes.. “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”.
If my name were Mark Twain, I’d write under the pseudonym “Samuel Clemens”.