On Pathological Lying and Free-Farters’ Intellectual Exorcism

A lie, in order to be protected, needs to have a bodyguard of lies. This is what I learned from my expose about the

Less talk, less mistakes... and lies!

appalling, disgusting plagiarism committed by a fanatic member of the Filipino Freethinkers. In his desperate attempt to please his colleagues, this Free-Farter did the unthinkable: Plagiarism.

Despite being caught red-handed that he deliberately lifted, borrowed, plagiarized (call it what you will) several portions of online articles for his anti-Ayn Rand blog, Karlo Espiritu, one of the new bloggers of the neo-mystic group, insisted that he “honestly wrote the essay hurriedly and published it without rewriting/revising it very well.” My expose somehow called the attention of the founding members of this neo-mystic group, which I passionately call Filipino Free-Farters, that prompted them to release a statement, or an online memorandum, stating that Mr. Espiritu was suspended “from his post as official FF writer indefinitely until he edits his post and publicly apologizes and says ten Hail Marys.”

I don’t give a damn whether Mr. Espiritu just recently discovered the best argument against Ayn Rand’s Objectivism. What really appalled me is his dishonesty, lies, and determination to protect those lies in order to save his face. And just recently, he again produced another train of lies, this time claiming that I harbor a “personal grudge” against him for writing such a crappy blog.

For the information of Mr. Espiritu and his apologists, before I considered myself a “student” of Objectivism, I was an Ayn Rand critic and I even produced several anti-Ayn Rand articles published on my blogsite, which I later on deleted. His copied, borrowed bash-Ayn Rand is simply nothing- a ZERO- compared to what I read in the past. Again, he didn’t have to plagiarize the works of other people in order to please his colleagues. Because of his carelessness and dishonesty, instead of helping preserve the so-called integrity of his organization, he achieved the opposite.

Mr. Espiritu’s claim that I have a “personal grudge” against him because of what he plagiarized is quite the opposite. I was thrilled when I learned that a Free-Farter finally wrote a bash-Ayn Rand article, yet I was so disappointed when I discovered that it’s nothing but a piece of copied, plagiarized junk! But what really bewildered, disgusted me is the way he creatively peddled his lies. It seems to me that this guy is wont to making lies and myths. Chronic lying is one of the symptoms of pathological lying.

On April 16, a few days after my ‘plagiarism’ expose, Mr. Espiritu posted another statement on the FF website trying to exculpate himself from possible condemnation of dishonesty and buffoonery.

Here’s what he wrote:

Okay people, I really want to settle this issue once and for all. First of all, my apologies for not having the time to read all your comments. I already added the disclaimer to my blog post. My ONLY reason for writing that post on Objectivism is because I observed that a significant number of people in this community seem to be putting too much attention to personal attacks from a blog that promotes Objectivism; without a true understanding of the belief system. The Facebook page, forum discussions seem to be filled with reactions to statements by a group (probably just one) promoting Objectivism. I decided to support this community because I think that it is very important that a group that promotes science and reason need to exist in a very theocratic country…It really disappoints me that this group’s attention seem to be diverted to fending off insults and condemnation from a blog that promotes Objectivism. Objectivism is just a tiny insignificant movement that’s not even recognized by anyone in the academic world. Objectivism is not a real philosophy and Ayn Rand is not considered by many as a real philosopher.

If anyone of you have carefully read my blog post and compared it to the source of this plagiarism complaint, you would immediately notice that he wrote it in such a way that the plagiarism was intentional. And it seems very obvious that he has a personal grudge against me personally for writing that post. (Just look at the insults and effort he made, not to mention repetitive mention of my full name). My blog post on Objectivism is roughly a 3,000-word essay and I only wrote it in my free time. It is a very tedious process to write a piece of this length about a subject that is so broad…which just became recently familiar to me. I just missed adding some of the links and properly revising text portions of my post; it was an honest mistake, and unintentional. If you have doubts, just check the links I cited as sources and compare the ratio. (Emphasis mine)

If you want to talk about intellectual honesty, that’s perfectly fine. To begin with, I always used my real name and NOT hide under multiple online profiles. My blog post never insulted or morally condemned anyone personally, but a great number of the comments I received were insults and condemnation (mostly from Objectivists). And yet most people seem to immediately give merit to the source of this plagiarism complaint; never mind the malicious intention and personal attacks; never mind that the ideas, tactics, and words he used were just imitation of Ayn Rand’s; never mind that he posts malicious statements in the online pages of this group under different names, and so on…

Just to end this issue, I have already added the disclaimer in my blog post and revised portions of the text. I encourage anyone who has the time and passion to to edit it if there are still errors, factual inaccuracies, unrevised content that would be still considered as plagiarized, and so on. If that is still not enough, then please feel free to take it down. It’s perfectly fine with me. If there is someone who has the time to write and replace it with a better one, that would be cool. I only wrote it because I can’t find a comprehensive article about Objectivism that would help other people in this community understand the reason behind the personal attacks when arguing with Objectivists.

In my opinion, the best way to stop the discussions and petty issues from Objectivists is to completely ignore them. By responding to their personal attacks, it just gives them more online ’street’ credibility (if there is such a word). I’m all for being open but not too open that people with malicious motives are still allowed to post links and statements in the online pages of this community; and I think it’s very easy to identify them.

To Mr. Espiritu: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE FOOLING? Perhaps you might fool some of your colleagues, which you already did, but NOT this guy!

The funny, hilarious question is: How is it possible to produce a copied, plagiarized article if the person guilty of plagiarism didn’t do it deliberately/intentionally? I don’t have any “personal grudge” against Mr. Espiritu. Anyone who’s aware of the history of this Ayn Rand-FF issue would understand why I exposed his plagiarism and his intellectual dishonesty and buffoonery and why I am trying to slap reality across his face.

But it seems that Mr. Espiritu and his blind apologists need to be reminded about what he did and said prior to my plagiarism expose.

1. Last year I had an encounter with some Filipino Freethinkers online because of the notorious RH bill. I don’t know how they found out that I’m a “student” of Objectivism. Perhaps they checked some of my blogs.
2. A certain Freethinker posted a topic on the FF forum entitled Ayn Rand and Objectivists are so confusing. I’m aware of this because a certain FF member named Jobo (or whatever) invited me and a friend of mine to join the discussion. I declined the invitation.
3. I also observed that most Free-Fasters hissed whenever the name Ayn Rand was mentioned on the FF forum.
4. And then I wrote my blog entitled Freethinkers or Free-Farters.
5. An FF member, Innerminds, commented on my blog to which I replied with another blog article (Filipino Freethinkers Versus Reason). Better check this blog to see how some FF members displayed their idiocy and irrationality in the comment section.
6. Suddenly a friend told me I was one of the newest topics in the FF forum. It turned out that Innerminds posted a topic entitled “What do we do with this guy” (referring to me).
7. And then on March 26 I posted my blog entitled “Filipino Free-farters: The New Mystics.”
8. A day after that blog, Karlo Espiritu posted his bash-Ayn Rand crappy article on the FF website. He claimed that he wrote this blog.
9. So in short, Mr. Espiritu’s anti-Rand blog was a REPLY to all of my anti-FF articles. This is the reason why I am involved in this issue.

Consider the following statements Karlo made on the Freethinkers’ forum (CULT: Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and the Cult of Personality):

• On Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:45 am: “Recently, I keep hearing about Ayn Rand and Objectivism, and so I decided to read about it to understand what’s the friggin’ fuzz all about. I even started to read about “Atlas Shrugged”. The novel was badly written but it has some powerful ideas. To make things short, I found out that Objectivism is just a philosophy, it’s not science. I repeat that …NOT SCIENCE!…One more time…NOT SCIENCE!” — How is it possible to read Atlas Shrugged ( 1,200 pages and with a very small font size), The Fountainhead, and The Virtue of Selfishness in just a few months?
• Same date and time: “I also found a book that investigates Objectivism and Ayn Rand in detail — “Why People Believe Believe in Weird Things — Psuedoscience, Superstition, and other Confusions of our time (1997)” By Michael Shermer. — So apart from the three Ayn Rand books, he also claimed he did a detailed investigation.
• Thu Mar 25, 2010 10:47 pm. He also made this claim: “I’m quite new to Objectivism but it seems to me Randroids are like any mythical creature or religious prophet. You never see them in real life but they’re everywhere online. I bet no decent individual would ever admit being friend with one…well, at least for the Randroid trolls I encounter so far.”
• Sat Mar 27, 2010 10:25 am. Another claim: “I already posted an article about Objectivism. So that I won’t feel I wasted my time reading about that bullshit belief system. LOL.”
• Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:55 am. Here’s the most important thing: “Thanks for comments. If you see some factual inaccuracies, typos, link errors, or grammar errors. Just let me know. Thanks.” — This means that his pathetic excuse that “I honestly wrote the essay hurriedly and published it without rewriting/revising it very well” is a BIG LIE!
• Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:02 pm: “But there’s no point in arguing with them since they are honestly convinced they know the truth. He only commented on my ‘supposed’ misunderstanding about capitalism, disregarding all the other facts I presented in my essay. I did not discuss much about capitalism because the article is too damn long already. Hehe.” — Another CLAIM.
• Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:27 am. Another CLAIM that he WROTE the essay: “Wow, the essay I wrote got another new comment from a Randroid…”
• Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:58 am: “To those who are curious to understand the psuedo-philosophy called Objectivism, here it is in a nutshell…” Here Karlo is trying to make it appear that he’s an authority in Objectivism.
• Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:29 pm.  A PROOF that Mr. Espiritu did make a lot of LIES: “Wow, that’s awesome! I still have to revise the text since most of the content are just in my notes, I forgot to write down the source. Anyways, I’ll try when I’m not busy anymore. It’s nice to know that my first essay became very popular, it even reached the top 5 in just over a week. I’m stoked:) Hehe.”
• Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:36 pm. “It’s nice to know that my first essay became very popular, it even reached the top 5 in just over a week. I’m stoked:) Hehe.” — A PROOF that Karlo is a second-hander (Perhaps he knows the meaning of this term if he really read The Fountainhead.”
• Tue Apr 13, 2010 6:15 am: “There seems to be another fuss about this topic. I also posted the following response in the FF wall…” — And Karlo’s lies and temporary fame and happiness CAME TO A BITTER, TRAGIC END.

Again, may I remind you what he said in his insincere “I AM SORRY” statement:

“I honestly wrote the essay hurriedly and published it without rewriting/revising it very well. (Because honestly, Objectivism is a very broad topic, and it’s a very tedious one; and I feel it is not worth my time to put much effort into it). But now I realized it was a big mistake on my part, because it is remarkably obvious now that FF is very influential and there are people who are intensely affected by it. My sincere apologies for being too careless.”

But yes, this incident also made me realize that there are some rational, conscientious members of the FF. This reminds me of what a Freethinker, who “is still happy to associate with the FF group,” said: “if karl espiritu has passed the article on as his own, or has failed to mark appropriately entries that aren’t his, then he is guilty of plagiarism. sadly, it looks to me like that was what happened here. and it matters diddly squat if he had made a good point; if you plagiarise, you do not deserve to be heard, period.” (statement copied verbatim)

But the Free-Farters believed that plagiarism is curable, so they allowed their resident plagiarist to revise his blog. The Free-Farters cannot simply claim that do not have any control over the behavior or actuation of their members. Logic tells them that any person claiming to be a defender of reason, science, and logic would never commit plagiarism. I made a comment on the Free-Farters decision to allow their resident plagiarist to somehow ‘correct’ his blog. This is what I said:

“Now the proposal to edit or revise the work of Mr. Espiritu is unthinkable. It’s an act of intellectual exorcism. You cannot bring the dead back to life! You cannot correct a mistake by making another mistake! Everybody knows that an act of plagiarism was committed, and your proposal to revise the article in question is a travesty. It is, in fact and in reality, a mockery of reason and logic.”

This shows the Filipino Free-Farters is nothing but a collective of nihilist hippies and beatniks.

But since Mr. Espiritu shamelessly revised his plagiarized copied article, I am reproducing the print-screens of his original blog:

RELATED BLOGS:

The Highly Appalling Plagiarism of the Filipino Free-farters

A BIG INSULT To Bloggers!

To Filipino Freethinkers: Your Plagiarism is INCURABLE!