Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Blah! C'mon R.L

I was skeptical
R.L. — (archived)

But I did an IP trace after his first post... I saw that it was Mexico, and that it was a high anonymity proxy server... I also took some of his odd turns of phrase like "our hands are tight" and googled them- it does seem to be a literal translation of a phrase in Farsi- Although the intended meaning is a little unclear.

As for his command of english- that is explainable for a student in a technical field...

Could he be faking? Sure- but if he is faking he is going through a lot of trouble and doing it pretty darn well... But if he is faking he will eventually make a mistake.

Now consider the possibility that he is who he claims... then we have a person that can offer a VERY unique inside viewpoint on a tyranny that is likely to play a very large role in international relations in the coming year... And he is taking a serious risk to be coming here, that should be respected.

So until I see proof to the contrary I am willing to give him the skeptical benifit of the doubt... So should you- :) If you think he is faking then view it as a game, try to catch him in a slip up, I did at first and so I did the checking out I described above. If I had found evidence he was lying I would have been VERY harsh with him... It is healthy to be skeptical- but I am also willing to give the benifit of the doubt when I feel it is justified.

If he is who he claims then he deserves our respect and admiration... A lot of us log in here even from work and state our views without fear- this guy could be arrested, imprisoned, and even executed for doing what we take for granted.

I say be skeptical, but give him the benifit of the doubt...

The skeptic in me has two comments:

1) His posts span a period of 8 hours: 2 pm pacific time to 10 pm pacific time... Tehran is ~12 hours ahead of pacific time, this means he was posting between 2 am and 10 am his time- these are odd hours especially if he is being careful and not posting from home and work...

2) People that have had to learn english as a second language often make mistakes that are indicative of their native language- french people that learn english make certain types of errors, as do Russians, and others- think of it as an identifying 'accent' that is identifiable in written communication... find someone skilled in Farsi and they should be able to tell you if his written 'accent' is consistent with his claim.

My reccomendation is give the guy the benifit of the doubt for now... he may very well be what he claims, and if he is then he is a valuable addition to the group and deserves our respect.

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