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I tracked down my impostor

theguardian.com

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Re: I tracked down my impostor

#191

Post by sillysaurusx »

numpad0 wrote: post #188
N00bN00b wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it's a narcissist and I'm saying that as a narcissist myself. That fragile ego basically means narcissists are afraid of humiliation. On top that, mentally everything is build around shoring up my ego to compensate for the low self esteem. My ego. Not someone else's ego. I'd have to do some really weird mental gymnastics to be satisfied with copying someone else's work, that would just lower my ego even more.…

I don’t quite understand the downvotes. Narcissists, psychopaths, autistic, etc are technical terms, not an abstract labeling for “smart person with completely inhuman thinking”. Pointing at who seems to be an insane man and calling him a “narcissist” is like pointing at a Chrome window and saying “this folder on Desktop” and okay grandma I get it but that is technically wrong. OP is just explaining the situation. Th…

Mm, no, I think I agree with your original assessment. You and the top comment both seem correct.

(Also, no need to think of it as a shame game. It's more interesting to learn something.)

Let's put it this way. If you're mistaken, then I don't understand it either, so hopefully someone will explain.

More concretely, reading the list of how to defend against narcissism, it felt like lots of people tend to have some of these traits, but usually not all of them. If it's a partial match, how should you interpret it? Is there some sort of narcissistic meter that goes up as you accumulate points?

It seems hard to define.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#192

Post by cycomanic »

snvzz wrote: post #151
disabled wrote: post #106

I have been a victim of this, and it is still an ongoing matter. If you don't want to find yourself a victim of these kinds of people, then you better keep these two links as a reference, and always take them to heart: Narcissists Online: http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-on... What to Remember When Dealing with a Narcissist: http://www.issendai.com/psychology/narcissism/narcissists-wh... Peop…

A popular label they pick these days is Moralist. https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-cruel-moraliser-uses-a-halo-t...

I really don't see any connection. Can you elaborate.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#193

Post by cycomanic »

bombcar wrote: post #72
vletal wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.

Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.

Actually I say it's the other way around. In academia you're most likely to get caught. The communities are just to small for things to get unnoticed. You have many people reading everything related to the field, so people are likely to notice at some point. I'd say if the imposter would have gone for a PhD it would have come out at the latest.

Judging by some of the revelations in other business it seems not exceptional for people to add things to their cv's they've never done. And it's much less likely to ever come out, because people are less likely to check (and it might also be more difficult to check)

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#194

Post by cycomanic »

bombcar wrote: post #72
vletal wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice burn. Joking aside, I agree. There is so many things you could achieve while successfully impersonating someone. Seems like the best you can do in academia is to ruin someone's career. In this case it seemed fortunately "harmless" though.

Academia is one where the chickens won’t come home to roost - as in you won’t actually be called to DO what you’re impostering to be able to do. Fake being a surgeon and they’ll assign you to surgery, etc.

There have been several cases of people posing as doctors without any qualifications ("catch me if you can" is a movie about a famous case for example).

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#195

Post by luckylion »

zck wrote: post #133
brandonmenc wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a comparison between his tattoos and his imposters There is nothing very special or original about his tattoos. Just about everyone has tattoos that look like this nowadays. Anyone can walk in and select these out of a flash book. This is like complaining that someone is wearing the same t-shirt. Yes, I realize the imposter is mimicking other aspects of his personality, but I see a dozen copies of this guy walking…

The tattoos weren't a coincidence. The imposter was specifically impersonating him. The imposter went so far as to get the _same exact words_ tattooed on both hands. The dedication to impersonating Dr. Lodder is why it's concerning. The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder.

> The imposter wasn't just submitting Lodder's work as his own; he _permanently altered his body_ to appear more like Lodder.

That might be a coincidence though. He didn't submit only Lodder's work & bio, but also that of others in tattoo studies.

From the article: We discovered he’d also taken magazine articles I’d written and added footnotes to them, stolen catalogue essays I’d authored, and taken other people’s work from old books and paraphrased it.

He might steal work from everyone but because Hipsters All Look The Same, Matt Lodder feels like that guy is copying his personality when they've just read the same magazines and books and then selected the same tattoos out of the catalogue.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#196

Post by luckylion »

Qub3d wrote: post #169
parsimo2010 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect that in my lifetime there will be (or already has been) an imposter that gets a leg up on someone in this way and pulls it off- “no, I wrote the article first, they stole it from me and published it. Here are my drafts which predate their submission. Fire them, not me.”

As the imposter this is a really dangerous gambit, though. If it succeeds, and that person stops doing academic work, who does the imposter plagiarize from?

Success predicts success. Maybe it works out: you get funding, you're regarded as a smart scientist etc, so your work is judged with that in mind.

Especially in those parts of social sciences that are very essay-heavy and don't deal with disprovable claims and experiments, the difference between "that's total nonsense" and "another intelligent contribution by a fellow scholar" might be mostly knowing the author.

They could transition into postmodern studies and use the Postmodern Generator [1] to get their new stuff.

[1]: https://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#198

Post by soylentgraham »

anoncake wrote: post #129
brandonmenc wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a comparison between his tattoos and his imposters There is nothing very special or original about his tattoos. Just about everyone has tattoos that look like this nowadays. Anyone can walk in and select these out of a flash book. This is like complaining that someone is wearing the same t-shirt. Yes, I realize the imposter is mimicking other aspects of his personality, but I see a dozen copies of this guy walking…

Where do you live that just about everyone has a hand tattoo with some sort of rose and the word "more" on the knuckles?

Moredore

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#199

Post by jopsen »

baud147258 wrote: post #128
squarefoot wrote: post #13

"We never contacted the police, because we didn’t think he’d done anything illegal. It was really an issue of academic misconduct." He should have contacted the Police immediately. What if a crime was committed nearby where the impostor was located under false identity, and he was later taken into custody instead? I don't know if it qualifies as a crime, but assuming someone else's identity can lead to very dangerous…

I'm not sure the impostor was using the academic's identity, just his (and other people's) work

He copied his tattoo!

That's some dedication.. on the flip side it's hard not to feel sorry for someone being so dumb.

Re: I tracked down my impostor

#200

Post by jopsen »

nomdep wrote: post #172
macintux wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26604886

Aha! So the reason he didn't file a police report was: "He never actually claimed to be me, he just stole all my moves" https://twitter.com/mattlodder/status/1350379466313396224

Still, making money of copyright infringement is often a crime.

But if it's not a movie or music, I guess it might not matter so much.

(on the other hand, the police probably has better things to do)

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