In which I sing a song for JonMon

[harrock.livejournal.com]

My creative energy has been just about zero lately, thanks to a very busy schedule at work. But I'll say this for JonMon: His Lawsuit of Mass Destruction has inspired me. My wife, firstfrost, has received a threat letter, but she is not yet named in the LMD. I'm proud of everything she has said about JonMon. I didn't need JonMon's validation to be proud of her, but data is data.

I haven't been named or threatened in the LMD (yet), and I don't mean to make light of the anxiety that it has caused in our community. In particular, if you have taken something down or remained silent thanks to JonMon's toolbox of intimidation, I want you to know that I think no less of you for it. Every situation is unique, and we all have our limits of what we can deal with right this minute. My limit is high right now, so I'm standing up.

Likewise, I respect the opinions of those who have counseled caution or outright silence. I disagree with some of your key points, and I feel that some of your arguments apply better to people who are more concerned with anonymity than I am, or who cannot afford to risk an extended legal fight. The bottom line for me is this: One of the basic functions of any community is to sound a warning when a predator is around. If we're not sure the law can handle that, then it's time to get out and push.

This song is about JonMon's Lawsuit of Mass Destruction, and it is sung to the tune of "Charlie on the M.T.A." Permission is hereby granted to $verb this song, for all values of $verb, for every human being on planet Earth with the exception of Jonathan Graves Monsarrat. No permission of any kind is willingly granted to Mr. Monsarrat. In case he hadn't noticed, that's what happens when you are in the habit of excreting on your community.

---

Let me tell you the story
Of a man named JonMon
Who would really like to have his way...
He's the internet icon
Who you can't use your Psych on
He's the man who never will learn!

  Oh, his bridges are burned
  Please don't let him return...
  'cause his lesson's still unlearn'd!
  He may scam forever
  In the Square of Davis
  He's the man who never will learn!

He used to go by JonMon
But his rep has gone creepy
What's a smooth operator to do?
When you need to sound wholesome
Though your act is still loathesome
Then I guess that "Johnny" will do.

  Oh, his bridges are burned
  Please don't let him return...
  'cause his lesson's still unlearn'd!
  He may lurk forever
  On the blogs of Davis
  He's the man who never will learn!

Johnny says he's a victim
Because people keep on talking
Of some things no court has ruled
He says "come on and prove it
Or I'll make you remove it"
He's amazed when nobody's fooled

  Oh, his bridges are burned
  Please don't let him return...
  'cause his lesson's still unlearn'd!
  First he's looking your pants off
  Then he's suing your ass off
  He's the man who never will learn!

In Johnny's world the only law
Is what he gets away with
'less it's something he can use
To club his detractors
And intimidate their backers
And escape from paying his dues

  Oh, his bridges are burned
  Please don't let him return...
  'cause his lesson's still unlearn'd!
  He will leave you disgusted
  His ways won't be adjusted
  He's the man who never will learn!

Now the citizens of Davis Square
Are standing up to Johnny
And we all know what to do
When he says that you've been served...
And whines "I'm not a perv"
Just smile, and answer "fuck you!"

  Oh, his bridges are burned
  Please don't let him return...
  'cause his lesson's still unlearn'd!
  He'll play his games forever
  In the Square of Davis
  He's the man who never will learn!
  He's the man...who never will learn!

Comments

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful, and really makes me wish that Honk weren't still several months away.

[skexy.livejournal.com]

there's a certain irony to your posting that statement in the middle of porchfest.......

[ifotismeni]

[sairaali.livejournal.com]

This is great! I love that the filk keeps rolling in. We're up to five now? (one was taken down, sadly) Someone needs to make a songbook.

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind, can you put it back up? We should link link them all together in one post (a post with links to all the songs). We have so much talent in the DS area, it actually isn't a bad idea AT ALL to record them. It could happen!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

[tikva.livejournal.com]

There should totally be a benefit album to cover court costs.

(Uh, not JonMon's court costs. He can sell Girl Scout cookies or whatever to cover his costs).

[marius23.livejournal.com]

He can sell Girl Scout cookies....

That's actually a somewhat disturbing image....

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Bravo!

[moechus.livejournal.com]

Very clever and very nice but it also strikes me as needlessly and gratuously cruel (plus kicking him when he's down will doubtless make it even less likely that he ever learns). No doubt he deserves it (and a lot more) but still, I would hope that we could still treat him with some decency. As I lawyer, I have advocated a vigorous and uncompromising response to his shenanigans. But that's as a legal strategy designed to end this mess as quickly and forcefully as possible. As a human being, I urge compassion, maybe even forgiveness, regardless of his past misdeeds and whether or not he deserves it.

Lord Polonius
My lord, I will use them according to their desert.

Hamlet
God's bodykins, man, much better: use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in.

[harrock.livejournal.com]

As a human being, I am also in favor of compassion, decency, and forgiveness. Unfortunately, these are virtues that JonMon is adept at exploiting, and he has overspent his account. I commend you for serving as a community backstop in those virtues, and we're a better community for it.

I'm afraid I can't agree with your characterization of needless and gratuitous cruelty, however. Satire has to sting, or else it's useless. An unpleasant dose of satire is an obvious possible consequence of trying to silence a community with a bogus lawsuit, but JonMon's track record suggests that he doesn't actually learn anything unless the consequences pass from hypothetical to real. I'm doing my part to make them real.

[moechus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps but satirizing institutions and those in power is one thing; this strikes me as something else. Kicking someone when they're down.

Let me suggest an alternative interpretation to the narrative of this sorry affair. I begin with the observation that no human being, no matter how creepy or evil they may be, sees themselves as creepy or evil. Not Adolf Hitler. Not Jeffrey Dahmer. No one. Everyone constructs a self-image that, however, illusory, rationalizes and justifies themselves (or they create a universe in which creepiness and evil are virtues). Everyone is virtuous in their own mind. Furthermore, everyone will go to the utmost extremes to maintain their self-justification and rationalization. The more illusory it is, the greater the effort to maintain it. It is a survival mechanism for the failure to maintain the illusion is often fatal.

Apply this paradigm to JonMon. First, he finds himself isolated, ostracized and despised. Surely, no one can doubt that he is in genuine pain (who wouldn't be?). But if he can't accept the fact that he himself is the source of his own pain (and who can?), he must be baffled and construct a narrative where he is the victim and everyone is conspiring against him. From a legal, rational or practical point of view, his recent actions are self-destructive and self-defeating (he has probably sabotaged his legal case beyond repair) but they make a sense as a desperate attempt to maintain his illusion.

I suggested on several occasions (before he sabotaged his case) that the best litigation strategy is to make it quite clear quite early that continuing the suit will be very painful for him (more painful than for any of the defendants) and that his best course of action is therefore to drop it now. I suggested an aggressive discovery strategy targeting all of his past misdeeds (and I have several times noted that his past is a target-rich environment). This presupposes that ending the suit will end the pain. But clearly it will not. What then is his incentive to drop it? If it is thrown out, he will come up with some new and obnoxious way to convince himself that everyone is against him. Perhaps it will be sufficiently obnoxious (or the effort will render him sufficiently dysfunctional) that society will intervene and see to it that he gets the help he needs. Or perhaps his illusions will finally be shattered and he will see himself as everyone else does, i.e., as a creepy stalker. At that point, he will have two options: getting help or killing himself. Since the former requires both courage from within and support from without (both of which, I suspect, will be lacking), I see the latter as more likely.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

Compassion is good, but not when it could cause harm to others: http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/missing-stair.html

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on this, Moechus, especially on the gratuitously cruel part. I admit writing ditties like this does satisfy a very primal urge, but encouraging compassion seems like a good idea. I'm not sure I'm at the "forgiveness" point yet, mostly because he hasn't done anything to deserve it. My opinion is that until another interaction with him appears, the "kicking him when he's down" just seems kinda excessive.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Bullshit Christian morality strikes again. No, I am under no obligation to show kindness and compassion to someone who so obviously flaunts his immunity from doing the same to others. I have, according to the tenets of my faith, walked a mile in his very similar shoes and experienced acts of online "bullying". My behavior was very different and didn't involve the words "lawsuit" at all, even though what was said was far more damaging to me.

I am also required to give people the benefit of the doubt. That requirement cannot be fulfilled here because there is no doubt as the negative reasoning for JonMon's actions.

Don't throw Hamlet at me, especially anything involving fucking Polonius. Don't impose your bullshit Christian morality on me or this community. It's so...Christian.

[cfox.livejournal.com]

Having one's infamous misdeeds set to music seems a bit like having Westboro Baptist picket one's funeral. On the whole, I'd rather live a long time and be commemorated quietly, but if I were to meet a young and violent end, it would be disappointing for Westboro Baptist not to show up.

[ds-crier.livejournal.com]

I have been receiving e-mails from people who have known Jonmon well, from outside of this LiveJournal community, the details of which I will probably end up taking to the grave. What I can distill from these communications and share is this: if you are compassionate to Jonmon, if you forgive him, if you give him another chance... be prepared to pull a knife from your back.

In your case, pulling the knife from your back might result in a self-righteous orgasm, but those who do not share your philosophy and are tired of dealing with this individual after many years of constant issues are no longer willing to be accepting of his behavior. I think they are justified in venting and in warning others of their experience. Jonmon's MO is to try to (usually unsuccessfully) dominate everyone into doing exactly what he wants, and nothing less, by all means available. Mean words on the Internet are nothing in comparison.

[cos]

I see what you're saying (and I read much of the subthreads here) and I think you're entirely wrong in this case.

Many people probably agree with you in general about compassion, second chances, and avoiding cruelty, but don't think that applies here because they or their friends have had experience with this particular individual stretching back to more than a decade ago, have seen him repeat these behaviors over and over, and feel it's become useless to bother considering things like second chances anymore. But that's been discussed already in this subthread, so leave that aside for now.

What you're really missing is the positive value of a post like this, and the importance of welcoming it.

First, if you haven't already read it, please read my post on saying things in public. It's an important part of what I'm going to try to say in this comment, so I'm going to assume now that you've read it, and continue.

Now the key part: People were doing their part to say that kind of thing in public, and JonMon attempted to use the legal hammer to silence them. What's more, he's already previously apparently succeeded at doing exactly that. Various things about him on the Internet have been removed, and we know that in at least one case, they were the writings of someone he sued and won a default judgement against. Now again with this new lawsuit, we began to see some content being removed.

What people are reacting to, I think, is this attempt to silence them, their friends, or the community that seeks to warn them of something worth warning them about. If this succeeds, people will be more afraid to talk about it with respect to other people, not just JonMon. It's a real risk, and a harm to the community. It also feels infuriating when someone tries to silence you or your friends about something you think it's important for them to be able to talk about.

So what you call "needless cruelty" is actually people reacting by being louder when someone tries to silence them. That's not needless. It's an important signal: "if you try to use power to silence us, we'll be louder". It's also a very understandable emotional reaction.

Being entertaining serves a purpose. Parody and satire serve a purpose. They communicate in ways that aren't easily available otherwise. Furthermore, they encourage others to look. Rather than having a debate in a subthread few people will notice, a clever and entertaining satire like this song will get people to share it.

What you're trying to do is tell people that they should not express themselves in an effective way. That they should be more careful and guarded and limited in what they say and how they say it. In this context, your words are therefore in support of the harm that my post was talking about. You're promoting a message that will increase harm, rather than reduce it.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

I salute you, sir.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

This is the best thing ever! I think we should all get together and have a sing-along!

[ron_newman]

firstfrost is not Real Name'd in the lawsuit, but her LJ name is included there (on page 11).

[dcltdw]

I tip my hat to you, good sir.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

Wicked funny!

[phippslaw.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say good afternoon to you all and make a few remarks.

My background:

Sadly, I heard many of the stories while this was all going on. Most from people who had first-hand information and had been to the "premises." I met and interacted with the Plaintiff in this lawsuit on a purely social level (this is not to be taken as I was a friend of his, simply that I spoke with him). I ended My involvement with him pretty rapidly, since I had a "gut feeling" he was not someone I wanted to be involved with in any way. I never saw any of the alleged activities, alleged crimes, or alleged bad behavior; though I found the sources who told me of them to be reputable and credible in my opinion (obviously, I can't personally speak to the underlying facts).

My current life:

I am an attorney located a couple of cities away from Davis sq, but I often travel through Davis on my way to the Cambridge Probate and Family court. I generally handle Family law cases (Divorce, custody, child support, paternity, and the like); Landlord Tenant cases (bad conditions, bedbugs, security deposit, last month's rent and interest issues, and evictions); and Personal Injury cases.

One of the things I tell all My clients is when you are involved in a pending suit, it is best to not create ammunition for the other side in the way of social media posts. That isn't to say, you can't say anything, but it makes sense to self-monitor the postings you make, it can keep you from being the target of any idiot with a grudge and a few bucks to hire a lawyer. Obviously, I am not referring to anyone specific with this comment. If I were to make a statement about a plaintiff, who filed a case against a person or persons, and referred to him with factual statements such as "idiot", "pervert", "child-molester" or the like I would be opening myself up to a defamation law suit. Arguably, the word idiot could be a statement of opinion (which is not defamation) but the others are pretty solidly factual statements.

This is meant as informational, I am not in any way giving anyone legal advice, except to say if you have been or anticipate being named in a lawsuit, you should find competent representation.

Have an excellent day!
Adam