Con artists

[dunfree]

Agree,it’s a mystery, but maybe it’s a version of Sunk Cost Fallacy. They make a little lie, it creates a positive outcome at least temporarily, and things spiral from there?

Depends on the con

[ötzi]

Right? Sometimes you start a little con, it spirals, and next thing you know you're the President.

[dunfree]

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Isn’t unidirectional

[ill-advised strategy]

There is a guy at my job who’s kind of a meathead, nice old school jock meathead, and we’re pretty insular here and years ago he was just discovering the internet, google on the phone, etc. Like he didn’t really understand what kind of information is on the internet, or that most people can just look anything up with their phone. He just didn’t get that yet.

He overheard me telling somebody about living in Washington, and chimed in that he had lived in Everett when he played AAA minor league baseball. I was like, whoa, any pro is cool, but AAA is a pretty significant accomplishment.
So I start looking him up and nothing, nothing at any level, not high school, nothing. Everett has like a low-A ball team, not AAA.

So I hailstormed him with questions, and it was clear he didn’t realize everybody is walking around with all the rosters and all the stats from every season and every team in pro baseball. I’m like ok ok, Dave, help me find this team…who were your teammates? Nothing. Just all brick wall nothing..

What was most interesting to me was watching him cook and sizzle and how his mind came up with an out: he was invited to training camp with that team but not picked up. It took him 2 days to work that story out.

And that was it? Never played again? Yup.
He also told everyone he owned a business in town, but it’s his brother’s business.

He’s probably been telling people that shit for decades. I wonder how many people he told post-google who never called him on it.

Another interesting thing is that maga coworkers thought I was an asshole for trying to find his stats and checking on the “AAA” team he said he’d played on. Like, the thought process is, like, yeah of course everyone’s a fraud, only some dork would try to look everything up.

[ötzi]

Those folks don't like actual facts much.

[The Suit]

Those folks don't like actual facts much.

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts don't come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to

[JongDoe]

“PM Rontele”
(If you get it, you get it).
On another note, it makes me downright angry that IAS isn’t analyzing and writing for a living.

Agreed, Those were some well thought out insights he posted and I was going to say the same when i got through reading this thread. Nice work indeed.

[frorider]

NEW YORK (AP) — The founder of Nikola Corp. was sentenced Monday to four years in prison for his conviction for exaggerating claims about his company’s production of zero-emission 18-wheel trucks, causing investors to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

…

[TBS]

Nominating Ray Wallace for his work as The Father of Bigfoot
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-...ce6-story.html

Ray was building logging roads for my grandfather when the first NorCal “siting” occurred. Besides the tracks (from feet carved by Rant Mullins, the Father of The Saint Helens Apes*), Ray and his brother Shorty would shit in one big pile, then Ray would add in fur from critters he had at his hamburger stand and wild animal zoo - an albino elk, bison, skunk, and a bunch of others. Then call the newspaper. Ahh, the simple days before DNA testing…

Ray became quite the authority on Bigfoot. In 1962 he was hired by the Southwest Research Institute to hunt Bigfoot. He in turn hired my grandfather as lead hunter-tracker. Sadly the expedition ended early when their benefactor died in a plane crash. Grandpa was devastated- “best job in the world, huntin for something that don’t exist”.

FWIW that’s Ray’s brother Shorty in the Bigfoot suit in the Patterson-Gimlin video.

* For those of you familiar with the Ape Caves on Mt St Helens here’s the saga behind that
http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/mullens.htm

[frorider]

Your post needs a trigger warning for folks like Core Shot that want to believe dammit.

[SB]

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts don't come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to

Fact

[Meadow Skipper]

I missed this thread first time. Nice bump, but it made me miss IAS.