As the saying goes, “You’re talking about Scott Adams. He’s not talking about you.”
11 thoughts on “Mary Rosh!”
Didn’t see all of that all those many years ago but it’s very interesting to read now given Scott’s considerable following and political influence.
It’s kind of like a nice “hindcast” to see that character traits I attributed to him recently are consistent with those he displayed back in the day. I might be judging him now based on my political biases, but he was displaying these traits I find obnoxious well before my political biases would come into play.
Because I am elderly, fragile and tend to mix things up, I had forgotten who or what “Mary Rosh” should mean to me. This might be helpful for others in a similar position:
In response to the dispute surrounding the missing survey, Lott used a sock puppet by the name of “Mary Rosh” to defend his own works on Usenet and elsewhere. After investigative work by libertarian blogger Julian Sanchez, Lott admitted to using the Mary Rosh persona.[51]
“Further accusations claimed that Lott praised himself while posing as one of his former students[53][54] and that “Rosh” was used to post a favorable review of More Guns, Less Crime on Amazon.com. Lott has claimed that the review was written by his son and wife.[54] “I probably shouldn’t have done it—I know I shouldn’t have done it—but it’s hard to think of any big advantage I got except to be able to comment fictitiously,” Lott told The Washington Post in 2003.
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For all I know, some of the participants is this blog are likewise fictitious, pseudonyms for others. In keeping with the current state of suspicion in the U.S., the greater the denial, the more likely the accusation is true.
It’s true, I post here under a pseudonym. I post here as Phil, short for Philip, but my actual name is Phillip so I ‘should’ post as Phil, short for Phillip.
I am not fictitious. However, Bob76 is neither my given name or any other kind of real name. I just use it here to allow (1) people who want to skip what I write to do so with having to read the first paragraph or two and (2) to perhaps make it harder for data aggregators to include my posts here is the great electronic database about people.
There are legitimate reasons for using a pseudonym. And whether you agree with them or not, millions of people use online pseudonyms or email addresses without their real names.
There are legitimate reasons for all sorts of things. Using an alias as part of a scheme to overturn an election doesn’t sound so good to me. One reason people use an alias is to keep their identity secret.
That said, I’d think Giuliani’s behavior had been insurrectionary even had if he hadn’t used the alias.
As with Mary Rosh (who paradoxically referred to him/herself as “the best professor I ever had”) and Scott Adams (who paradoxically wrote, “You’re talking about Scott Adams. He’s not talking about you,” during an exchange in which he was, indeed, talking about himself), the email alias in this case elicits humor rather than indignation.
I post here as “chipmunk” even though that’s not my given name and I do not have a direct connection with or relationship with any individual chipmunk, any organization of chipmunks, any organization representing the interests of chipmunks, or any organization broadly advocating in any way for the communities in which chipumunks exist. I am entirely independent of chipmunks.
Two words: Cyril Burt.
The damage this fraud did to the English school system beggars belief.
Not to put too fine a point on it: in the late ’70s, Eysenck Sr. (go to retractionwatch to see recent – well, what took you so long? – re-evaluations of his “research”) was interviewed on West-German TV, saying ‘… but isn’t it amazing how close to the truth he was?’
@Andrew: This is my real name. Fortunately, two others, who are infinitely more famous than I am (and rightly so), were born around the same time (maybe there was something in the water in them there years), which makes me google-proof.
Didn’t see all of that all those many years ago but it’s very interesting to read now given Scott’s considerable following and political influence.
It’s kind of like a nice “hindcast” to see that character traits I attributed to him recently are consistent with those he displayed back in the day. I might be judging him now based on my political biases, but he was displaying these traits I find obnoxious well before my political biases would come into play.
Because I am elderly, fragile and tend to mix things up, I had forgotten who or what “Mary Rosh” should mean to me. This might be helpful for others in a similar position:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lott
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Mary Rosh persona
In response to the dispute surrounding the missing survey, Lott used a sock puppet by the name of “Mary Rosh” to defend his own works on Usenet and elsewhere. After investigative work by libertarian blogger Julian Sanchez, Lott admitted to using the Mary Rosh persona.[51]
“Further accusations claimed that Lott praised himself while posing as one of his former students[53][54] and that “Rosh” was used to post a favorable review of More Guns, Less Crime on Amazon.com. Lott has claimed that the review was written by his son and wife.[54] “I probably shouldn’t have done it—I know I shouldn’t have done it—but it’s hard to think of any big advantage I got except to be able to comment fictitiously,” Lott told The Washington Post in 2003.
———————————————————————————————-
For all I know, some of the participants is this blog are likewise fictitious, pseudonyms for others. In keeping with the current state of suspicion in the U.S., the greater the denial, the more likely the accusation is true.
It’s true, I post here under a pseudonym. I post here as Phil, short for Philip, but my actual name is Phillip so I ‘should’ post as Phil, short for Phillip.
Perhaps what you use is more of an alias than a pseudonym.
I am not fictitious. However, Bob76 is neither my given name or any other kind of real name. I just use it here to allow (1) people who want to skip what I write to do so with having to read the first paragraph or two and (2) to perhaps make it harder for data aggregators to include my posts here is the great electronic database about people.
Sigh. Should be “in the great” not “is the great.”
There are legitimate reasons for using a pseudonym. And whether you agree with them or not, millions of people use online pseudonyms or email addresses without their real names.
Roger:
There are legitimate reasons for all sorts of things. Using an alias as part of a scheme to overturn an election doesn’t sound so good to me. One reason people use an alias is to keep their identity secret.
That said, I’d think Giuliani’s behavior had been insurrectionary even had if he hadn’t used the alias.
As with Mary Rosh (who paradoxically referred to him/herself as “the best professor I ever had”) and Scott Adams (who paradoxically wrote, “You’re talking about Scott Adams. He’s not talking about you,” during an exchange in which he was, indeed, talking about himself), the email alias in this case elicits humor rather than indignation.
I post here as “chipmunk” even though that’s not my given name and I do not have a direct connection with or relationship with any individual chipmunk, any organization of chipmunks, any organization representing the interests of chipmunks, or any organization broadly advocating in any way for the communities in which chipumunks exist. I am entirely independent of chipmunks.
Yeah, that’s a likely story.
Two words: Cyril Burt.
The damage this fraud did to the English school system beggars belief.
Not to put too fine a point on it: in the late ’70s, Eysenck Sr. (go to retractionwatch to see recent – well, what took you so long? – re-evaluations of his “research”) was interviewed on West-German TV, saying ‘… but isn’t it amazing how close to the truth he was?’
@Andrew: This is my real name. Fortunately, two others, who are infinitely more famous than I am (and rightly so), were born around the same time (maybe there was something in the water in them there years), which makes me google-proof.
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