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Notes -
But it's necessary work, in my opinion. So for example, as best as I can tell from the Wikipedia article, Ellis became a full professor in 1979 and started BSing about his past some time after 1981. Moreover, the lies he told were not outrageous on their face, or even highly suspect.
In my view, it would have been roughly equivalent if (1) he'd claimed to have been a medal of honor winner who had singledhandedly prevented a massacre of a village; and (2) he had made the claim publicly BEFORE being hired and/or promoted. But I don't think something like that would have happened. Because people aren't (and weren't) afraid to express skepticism about a straight white man in the way in that in 2026 people are afraid to express skepticism about a black person.
I think that most people have met compulsive liars in their lives. People who constantly tell stories which are just not that believable on their face. For the most part, such people just aren't taken seriously. In my view, what's different about this case is that (1) the compulsive liar was a black person; (2) Cambridge University desperately wanted to hire a black person to be a professor; and (3) people in academia are (legitimately) scared to death of publicly criticizing a black academic.
In other words, it seems to me this is all about race and is not just some kind of generalized groupthink phenomenon which could just as easily apply to a white person. A white person who was a compulsive liar would, generally speaking NOT get into a situation like this.
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