Nathan H. di Angelo

Doctor **Nathaniel Hawthorne Giotto di Angelo**, Psy.M Ph.D (born September 11, 1972) is an American research professor, polymath, zoologist, polyglot, former psychologist, and historian. He holds a Ph.D in Zoology from Stanford University, which he graduated from in 2006, following achieving his Master's Degree in Psychology at California State University, Fresno in 2002.

Since December 2022, di Angelo has been an active Quoran who has appeared responding in several posts, mainly those of Jerry Snyder. His posts and response comments usually consist of small anecdotes—much like Snyder himself; hardly relating to the original question at all—with occasional rants or political comments about controversial subjects relating to left-wing politics in the United States.

di Angelo is also the Quoran who coined the term "assertion is key," which is a core belief in his personal philosophy. He is also the co-author of the treatise and manifesto *The Principles of Snyderism* along with Jerry Snyder.

A fictionalization of di Angelo, along with Jerry Snyder and John Beef, serve as supporting and main characters on the Myth Smith web series *Better Call Badman*, respectively.

## History

### Early life

Nathan H. di Angelo was born on September 11, 1972 in Palo Alto, California. He was the son of Tuscan-born Italian Raphael Niccoló di Angelo, his father, and Maltese-born Beatrice Portinari di Angelo (*née* Comino) his mother; both emigrated to the United States sometime in the late 1960s.

During his early years, he developed an interest in oil drilling and fracking, though in his later years he repeatedly made a distinction between said interest in drilling and his position on fracking. di Angelo claims to not be in support of fracking.

### College

Upon graduating high school in Palo Alto in the 1990s, di Angelo attended California State University, Fresno. He graduated in 2002 with a Master's in Psychology. di Angelo transferred his credits to Stanford University in 2002, where he pursued a Ph.D. in Zoology, reaching it in 2006.

## Career

### California State University, Fresno (2006–present)

Almost as soon as he graduated and achieved his doctorate, di Angelo was hired by his Master's alma mater, California State University, Fresno, as a professor of zoology, in 2006.

### 2015 arrest in Saudi Arabia

Sometime in 2015, di Angelo was arrested and taken into custody by the Saudi police whilst on a vacation to visit the three holiest sites in the three Abrahamic faiths. Upon arriving in Mecca following his successful trip to Jerusalem, di Angelo was denied access to the Kaaba in the Masjid al-Haram on account that he was not Muslim. As a result, di Angelo decided instead to take pictures of the desert outside of the city as substitution, but was detained by police under suspicion of being an investigative journalist intending on exposing Saudi Arabia's oil fracking fields.

di Angelo was taken to a small jail cell and held under custody until questioning began, at which point an interpreter was needed after di angelo only communicated in Italian, leading the police to believe he was a Tuscan tourist. They held him in the room for over two days, according to di Angelo, and eventually brought him into a truck. They proceeded to drive towards Riyadh, where an interpreter coming from the city met them in the middle. The conversation between di Angelo and the interpreter took about ten minutes before they released him after they noticed his Italian passport.

As compensation for not taking any pictures of the Kaaba, di Angelo was supplied some by an officer. As a result of staying an extra two days in Saudi Arabia, di Angelo missed his flight to Italy and the Vatican, which was also compensated for by the Saudi government. The event was used by di Angelo to describe his displeasure of the Saudi bureaucracy alongside the bureaucracies of other nations.

### Quora (2022–present)

di Angelo's first appearance on Quora was in response to an answer by Jerry Snyder on December 10, 2022. Snyder's answer described a time when he joked about a family member being six feet in the ground, asking how that could be a better place than a hospital; this occurred during a funeral for his recently-deceased nephew. The comment given by di Angelo began with what is now seen as a staple of his philosophy: "Perhaps you weren't being assertive enough."

Originally active quite sporadically, di Angelo began to post and answer more frequently on questions or posts written primarily by Jerry Snyder. The contents of which often contain anecdotal reasoning for di Angelo's supposed support and affirmations of Snyder's actions. These writings also revealed some of di Angelo's teaching methods which he often employs in the classrooms at CSUF, usually entirely unrelated to the topic of zoology and often containing rants or tangents relating to philosophical or political topics.

### 2023 sabbatical

On April 29, 2023, di Angelo posted on Jerry Snyder's Space stating his desire to take a break from teaching for some time, as he supposedly had not done so in the seventeen years he had been in the profession. In that same post, he requested that Jerry Snyder join him in his travels alongside his daughter, Ariadne di Angelo, who di Angelo wished to spend more time with.

Snyder accepted the request after a day or two, and they began planning the trip. di Angelo stated that he had plans to visit Rome, Vatican City, Tanzania, and Kruger National Park in South Africa. di Angelo also originally intended to take part in a humanitarian cause of building a school in Papua New Guinea, though this soon fell over.

### di Angelo–Taylor controversy

*Main article: di Angelo–Taylor controversy*

From July 8–9, 2023, fellow Quoran Mike Taylor wrote a series of forum posts on Jerry Snyder's Space in which he criticized di Angelo's willing excuse of Jerry Snyder's criminal behaviors. In particular, he was unapproving of di Angelo's expressed tolerance to Snyder tearing up the marriage certificate of his mother and late father, as well as stealing the license plate off of his mother's car.

In response, di Angelo replied by stating there was a lack of context within Snyder's original posts, claiming that, according to how di Angelo had taught him, Snyder would have no worries and should not face any legal repercussions due to the theft, as the plate was returned later.

In yet another response, Taylor posted an essay-like post on the space which resulted in a six-day suspension from the space by admin Jerry Snyder.

## Appearance

Nathan H. di Angelo is a middle-aged Caucasian male with light black hair, receding hairline, and brown eyes.

## Relationships

### Family

* di Angelo family
	+ Raphael di Angelo, father (died 2021)
	+ Beatrice di Angelo, mother
	+ Aurora di Angelo, sister (miscarriage)
	+ Valentina di Angelo, sister (died 1971)
	+ Hebe di Angelo, sister (died 1999)
	+ Cassio di Angelo, brother
	+ Ariadne di Angelo, daughter

### Friends

* Jerry Snyder's Space
	+ Jerry Snyder
	+ Mike Taylor
	+ Herald Flemings
	+ Luke Carrol
	+ Larry Johnson
	+ Bob Johnson
* Danford Abernathy
* Mike Abernathy

## Bibliography

* di Angelo, Nathan H. (2006). *A Treatise On Honeybees*.
* Snyder, Gerald; di Angelo, Nathan H. (2023). *The Principles of Snyderism*.