“Rage” is a bit strong, don’t ya think? “Drove me bonkers” I get. Rage?

I keep looking for future siting of Kushibora in his many forms for reasons of academic integrity.

If he had not gotten accepted into a good Korean and East Asian studies institute, I would have just found myself wondering which new commentator on the blogs was the new version of Kushibora. But, going to UH and trying to be a Korea-related scholar and teaching in college one day and writing articles for academic journalism is a different story.

More than likely, he is at UH with some form of scholarship. It has been my experience that most grad students go to programs that give them funding.

So, that means Kushibora not only took a slot in the program from someone who got turned down, he probably kept a fair number of other scholar-wannabees from attending UH because he sucked up one of the increasingly shrinking funding sources for Korean Studies. (If you have read the Korean press over the last few years, you might have noticed big name programs in Korean Studies in the US and Europe have come close to closing down and there have been cuts in funding from Korea and elsewhere for Korean Studies outside of Korea).

So, I am going to make sure I keep an eye out for the name of the person several have said is the real Kushibora.

I have heard enough fairly convincing voices on the blogs who say they have known him and that he has felt free to plagerize and assume other identities – pretending to be Korean or female or whatever – when writing things for the Korean newspapers and apparently Lonely Planet.

Hummm. I’d really love to get ahold of some of his undergraduate research papers.

And I will be watching his future academic production if it ever gets published.

What drove me crazy about Kushobo was how he would slip and slide all the time because he couldn’t put down on paper a strong argument (much of the time).

He also seems to have used his alter egos to boost the Kushibo point of view when he could not find a way to do so with his own voice.

Doing that on the internet is childish and makes him an ass.

Doing so in academic writing for journals is a different ballgame….

He should watch his step in the future…

You’re descending into tabloidism, Curzon. As Sunbin pointed out, Kushibo isn’t the only blogger using multiple handles in our blogging circles.

Yes, Darin, the blogger I am talking about uses multiple handles on his own blog AND trolls other blogs. I cannot prove this, and that is why I am not naming the blogger. My suspicions were aroused when all these new usernames starting popping up on his own blog and the Marmot’s, making references to my background and my posts on several blogs. Only a regular commentator could know so much about me.

P.S. I forgot to say: “Thank you for considering this request.”

The continuation of the phenomenon is also just a natural occurance. He was around for a long time. He spoke out frequently. And he crossed swords frequently with other similar types in the K-blogsphere.

If Marmot or Baduk or Bluejives or GI Korea or Bighominid and so on were to just disappear one day and at the same time a scandal broke out about them – we’d comment on it for some time to come…

People die all the time (well, at least once) but their ideas can live on.

I can not remember a single thing she/he said.

Damn . . .

Yes, Darin, the blogger I am talking about uses multiple handles on his own blog AND trolls other blogs. I cannot prove this, and that is why I am not naming the blogger. My suspicions were aroused when all these new usernames starting popping up on his own blog and the Marmot’s, making references to my background and my posts on several blogs. Only a regular commentator could know so much about me.

Sonagi, you should just come out and say it then. You did say that people on my blog have multiple IDs before, and you also implied that I have multiple IDs on my site. Since you have done that, everyone that reads my blog will instantly link “the blogger I am talking about uses multiple handles on his own blog AND trolls other blogs” to me. If this was not your intention, you can come out right now and say the person you are talking about is not me. If you are saying it is me, then do so now. Do not imply it in a round about way. Once you make the claim then people will investigate it. If you are correct, then I will be shown to be no better than Kushibo. If you are wrong, then you will have egg on your face.

This is not the first time you have made this kind of comment, and that is the reason why I am calling you on it. Lets see what you are made of.

Matt, I read about ten mostly Asia-related blogs. On your blog, I did suggest that some commentators were using multiple handles. I never suggested you were. While I was reading your blog, I didn’t notice any regular CA commentators posting there, so I doubt anyone reading this thread would have thought of you.

I read this site and Occidentalism, and from Sonagi’s comments on Occidentalism, and comments here, Matt immediately came to mind. I think Sonagi should make the accusation directly instead of insinuations.

In regard to kushibo, it’s one thing for a troll to have a few socks (although I detest that practice). It’s another for someone (kushibo), who has been part of the Korean online community for over ten years and who has presented himself as a serious, academically inclined researcher/commenter/published author, and who desperately wants the attention of others and to have others take him seriously, to be exposed as such a bizarre fraud.

I suspect that had he addressed his outing directly, there would have been fewer comments about this issue. I can only imagine kushibo reclining on some Hawaiian beach, drink and nubile companion close at hand, laughing his Korean/Japanese/Caucasian/Democratic/Republican/horndog straight guy/lesbian ass off over this kerfluffle.

Jing,
I was the one you accused of being Matt’s sock puppet. You just couldn’t believe that a middle-aged Japanese woman could write English using some contemporary phrases that you thought only natives were capable of comprehending. Well, guess what? By reading enough English-language blogs on a daily basis, even people sitting in front of their computers in Japan can learn some new English usage every day. I even explained to you that I had spent a bulk of my childhood years in the US, but I guess even that didn’t budge a single stone in your thick barricade of preconception that a Japanese could never have a good command of the English language. Well, as I said last year at Occidentalism, thank you for your compliment. My English may not be as rusted as I had thought it to be.

Sonagi:

Are you going to keep indirectly accusing Occidentalism writers of using multiple nicknames, or are you going to actually name the blogger you are accusing? I’m interested and hearing your position.

NB: That’s a grand accusation for someone who claims not to be taking this too seriously. I can assert on authority that Sonagi is not anybody’s sock puppet but Sonagi’s, having had email correspondence with both her and Kushibo, and seeing their respective ISP addresses.

Only a few commenters have addressed the phenomenon aspect. I remain perplexed why this has become such an issue. We’ve had so many thoughtful commenters come and go at so many blogs, but I guess the way to make people notice you’re gone is to ensure that they hate you before you leave.

Curzon,

I am interested in the real impact of the ‘kushibo phenomenon’ as you said. i am actually farily surprised.
because, honestly, i did not notice kushibo disppeared until your post, or notice any aspect of the ‘phenomenon’—maybe i do nto overlap as much as you guys with him/her.

I do have to say I find the “kushibo phenomenon”Â? a bit perplexing. I mean, yeah, the guy may have used multiple handles, but that doesn’t appear to be all that uncommon a practice. And frankly, I didn’t find his style of argumentation to be all that infuriating””?-didn’t agree with everything he said, but it was nice to have a counterpoint to the more critical comments of Korea often found in my comments section.

Yes, having multiple IDs is rather common, although very few people go as far as making a whole other blog for their socks. Kushibo tried to come across as a dead serious academic but he blew that when he started picking fights using his lesbian republican sock, Nora Park. I think that is the crux of the matter – he misrepresented himself as someone that is serious and above that kind of thing (going as far as to criticise others for it), and then refusing to own his words when he was called on it. People hate hypocrisy, I guess.

Kushibo’s sock Nora Park was being insulting and picking fights on your blog, it was Nora that got the sympathy, not the people that were merely responding to ‘her’ attacks. I think a lot of people sympathised and supported Nora because she was a ‘lesbian republican Korean-American woman’. How shallow.

A post on Nora’s blog called ‘Take the Nora challenge!’ shows the phenomenon of normal white guys seeking the validation of a rather obvious visible minority (racial/sexual/political minority) at work.

In that post she opens with attacks like this – bold added by me for emphisis.

Like I said, I hate being a lightning rod. And that’s why I’ve been scarce on Marmot’s lately. On the one hand, it’s a little cowardly of me to back off like this, but the fact is I don’t need the aggravation of feeling like I’m being attacked every time I turn on my fucking computer. Who needs that? I sure as hell don’t.

One of the reasons Kushibo created the Nora character is that he knew that white guys seeking validation would pay attention. The reason for that post was to get attention too.

And idiots they are. I also detect a little bit of homophobia, too, mixed in with the flip side of “yellow fever.” At least a few people on that list are probably in Korea or around Koreans because of their attraction to Asians of the opposite sex (one of the Korea bashers even said that the women are the reason why he’s here). And when someone goes against that grain (like a kyopo female who’s NOT subservient, DOESN’T want to fuck them, stands up and says they’re full of shit, etc.) then they turn on that person. I really hate bringing that up as a possible motivation, but it’s staring me right in the face.

There is a hell of a lot of race baiting right there. That should tell sensible people it is time to turn off.

I’m not a lesbian kyopo: I’m an American female who happens to be of Korean descent and who happens to be sexually attracted to other women.

Oh boo-hoo. That was designed to get the white guys come running to defend her, and oh boy did it.

At 5/12/2005 8:11 PM, Robert said…

Personally, for what it’s worth, I’ve always enjoyed your comments, and I apologize for the bashing you’ve taken at the hands of some of my readers (and the general kyopo bashing). BTW, like with Plunge, let me know if you’d like me to link to posts are not. I’m quite aware of the nature of a good portion of the crowd, and I wouldn’t want them coming over here and hastling you on your own personal site.

—The Marmot

Sorry Robert, I do not mean to attack you at all, but in all due respect, Nora was never bashed over at the marmots hole. People responded to Nora’s attacks, and did so with remarkable restraint, in my opinion. Complaining about attacks was a strategy that ‘Nora’ used and, again with all the respect you deserve as the godfather of Korea blogs, you were taken in by it. Of course, you were not the only white guy that posted on that thread, but you are the only one that is commenting here, so I used that as an example.

Robert, the following is not specifically directed at you, but I can hardly blame Kushibo for what he did. People that give credit to people for the labels they are wearing empower people like Kushibo to do things like that. Why wouldnt Kushibo take advantage of that? Kushibo is a kind of chameleon that takes on labels when it suits him to his advantage. So sometimes he is an white American, sometimes an American of partial Korean ancestry (complete with Korean family name), sometimes partially Japanese etc, as the situation demands.

Reading ‘Take the Nora challenge!‘, it is funny to see white guys jump through the hoops in a fruitless effort to assuage their white guilt with the kind of pre-programmed responses that have nothing to do with the way that ‘Nora’ actually conducted ‘herself’.

Do you really think so, sun bin? That is a bit naive. When a writer draws on his background and identity and experiences to inform his points, then those things become relevant, as the content is based at least partly upon them. This is a different matter than just using a pen name.

If “Nora” had simply written things having nothing to do with her supposed identity, etc., that would have been one thing. But as Matt and others have noted in detail, “Nora” used her made-up identity, etc. to give added weight and import to her comments and also to manipulate her readers.

If you still do not see why some people have a problem with this, I suggest you google “James Frey” and “Forrest Carter” for examples of what has happened to other “Nora”s.

I told myself I wouldn’t touch this post anymore, but I can’t let the Marmot be sullied without retort!

Matt: Kushibo/Nora was fully guilty of plenty of race-baiting in his/her career, but Marmot did no wrong by trying to sympathize with a blogger who felt bullied. Marmot has said similar things to me in private and public when I’ve made more controversial posts. Kudos and props to the grandmaster of East Asian blogging.

That’s the last word from me on this, you’re welcome to have the last word.

dogbert,

yes, i do not care whether you are lesbian or asian or korean-american. i only care about your reasoning.

sometimes a person’s background (eg language, experience) may help to build credibility. but one needs to prove oneself. e.g. if i tell you i can read hebrew, you would need me to translate at least a few lines, right?
e.g. i usually hold diametrically opposite opinion with our friend darin, but i would not hesitate to agree with him/her when i believe i should and i did.

i think you guys should try to cover the commentator name before reading the comments. I don’t know if that qualifies me for being naive. if that is, i am not ashame of being “naive” in this way.