# It is implausible that pchaos is a lawyer and he should stop claiming to be one **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316 "2013-02-14T20:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 26
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/501 "2013-02-19T02:59:51Z")
It’ll get deleted immediately. In the future try being _less_ stupid and see where that gets you. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/502 "2013-02-19T03:05:47Z")
I will just put it down to value differences in the end. I can entirely understand that no one should call a personal number. I also, indicentally, don’t think anyone should be outing irl identies (alleged or otherwise) of fellow sdmb posters, and I’m amazed you’ve allowed that and no one has complained. But if that’s to be done like it was by mr melon I see no real harm in making contact in the work sphere of people who claim to be doing said work, especially when there’s a direct line… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/503 "2013-02-19T03:20:06Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > (By the way my “guy who does things” philosophy, which I first named now, originates to reading the story of Kitty Genovese in some really cool book about marketing/psychology I forget the name of. I remember a catchphrase was along the lines of “click…whirrr” and given how many people are reading this thread I’m sure someone will know what I’m talking about It’s probably Robert Cialdini. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/504 "2013-02-19T03:23:40Z")
It would go on whether we allowed it or not- at least as long as people identify themselves and make it possible to find more information about themselves online. In the meantime, don’t do anybody any favors. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/505 "2013-02-19T03:25:20Z")
> [@Robb](#): > > Would you at least admit that Pong is your favorite video game? That’s a paddlin’. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/506 "2013-02-19T03:28:30Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Factual, Objective Truth, atheism has been around since F. Nietzche and yet they have no agenda, no major organizations, no coherent philosophy. Nor, for that matter, do they have any reason to have created any of those things. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/507 "2013-02-19T03:46:10Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > Holy heck, the idea he was an actual lawyer seemed bizarre. I just phoned up the obvious pchaos you find on the net, sadly there was no reply but I did leave a voicemail with a code-word. If that really is you pchaos, and you are not impersonating someone, please repeat it. If it isn’t you I suppose I or others will call the, back over the next few days. > > If you really are a lawyer I offer you an unreserved, unconditional apology. You actually called him (or someone you thought was him?) That’s seriously fucking creepy. You seriously don’t see anything wrong with stalking random strangers on the internet? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/508 "2013-02-19T03:50:03Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > Okay, in high school I read Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, I also have read some about her philosophy of Objectivism. But I don’t consider her philosophy to be sufficiently coherent. Then I’m not clear on what you meant by _“As much as people despise her, Ayn Rand has a coherent philosophy.”_ [QUOTE=pchaos] Atheism appeals to the mind and that simply is not enough to me and many theists. Religion appeals to the heart and soul of man that is it’s advantage. That’s what makes it a coherent philosophy and world view. [/QUOTE] Let me get this straight: you’re saying a claim can be true, and appeal to the mind, and that’s enough for some theists and plenty of atheists – but for _ **you,** _ that’s not enough to make it coherent; a _ **false** _ religion, by contrast, would be coherent so long as it appeals to the heart and soul? Is that your position? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/509 "2013-02-19T03:58:34Z")
I’m wondering if **pchaos** wants to believe atheists are competing for him on some level. Like we really, really, really want him as a member and need to make him an offer to pry him away from the Christians because he’s such a prize. Maybe that’s the kind of stuff he hears in church- a lot of smoke being blown up his ass about the value of his soul. **pchaos** , let me say that atheists don’t want you. We don’t care if you’re a Christian or an atheist, and recruiting you would not be worth any kind of effort. No atheist has any reason to offer you a thing. You’re obnoxious, lazy, and dense. It would be a bad sign if atheism appealed to you. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/510 "2013-02-19T04:40:21Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > And I have found none of these to be coherent philosophies and as compelling as Christianity. And the Founding Fathers were not atheists, they were the ones that coined the phrase, “in God We Trust.” Not true, as has already been pointed out. You are as bad at American history as you are at arguing. > [@](#): > > Stop your rationalizations. Ask yourself whether the ethical man would share the absolute truth if they found it. The answer of the atheist is let somebody else do the hard work. I’ll simply attack the work done by the theists. Funny, where did I hear somebody say something about letting someone else do the hard work? Oh yeah. It was you, in the atheist church thread, where you said, > [@](#): > > See, therein lies the problem. For Americans (and I’m one of them), most of us are too busy to explore partial world views, philosophies, religions, and whatever. I would prefer an entire world view and just tinker with it a bit to make it more comfortable. > > That’s why atheism isn’t particularly appealing. You want someone else to do the hard work (coming up with a coherent philosophy, many of which you’ve been offered and ignored) so you can tinker with it a bit so you’re comfy. Hell, you’ve said several times that that’s exactly what you’ve done with the NT; read it, tossed out about 20% and kept the rest as your personal (coherent, I assume you call it) philosophy. Why should anyone here offer you what we think is the truth? You’re already sure you know it. You are exactly what you claim to look down on. You come right out and say you want someone else to do the hard work of spoon-feeding you a philosophy you can twist to fit what you already believe, and then attack atheists for not giving you the exact pablum you want. While at the same time claiming we’re attacking theists. You know how _I_ know when I’ve struck a nerve? When people studiously, deliberately ignore questions they don’t want to answer. There have been several lines of discussion in this thread that you have suddenly dropped; why is that? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/511 "2013-02-19T04:42:26Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > You actually called him (or someone you thought was him?) That’s seriously fucking creepy. You seriously don’t see anything wrong with stalking random strangers on the internet? I didn’t _stalk_ anyone, that’s ridiculous. I just googled the dude melon linked to. If anyone is a stalker it’s him because I would never have bothered doing the kind of research he did (although I don’t think melon is a “stalker” either, btw, as again I presume he found out what he did with a google or something, and also stalking is a serious thing fwiw). That said if a few more people seriously think what I did was wrong (as opposed to a waste of time) then I may well reconsider it, not because I can see anything wrong with it, but just because I do quite often do things that turn out to be socially unacceptable for reasons which make no sense to me. That is not to say that in such a circumstance I will find it unacceptable either, I will just think about it a bit harder. But I’m nothing like this JohnClay guy (who I bring up just cause he’s here at the moment looking a nut and I hope he understands) - I am pretty succesful and competent albeit potentially eccentric so it is very unlikely that I am completely wrong. Then again I have a relative I will call an aunt (because I do not know the precise word for her) who angers a lot in my extendeded family by her contacting of people and she is a heroine to me so maybe I am behaving like her. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/512 "2013-02-19T04:45:31Z")
p.s. are phone calls from strangers some seriously taboo thing in the US or something. That would seem very strange to me, even if I didn’t know anything about the US (and I know a lot about the US) given how many threads there are in this precise subforum about telemarketers and peopel who call you up at suppertime to get you to do political polls and suchlike. In other words, what’s the deal about phone calls? It’s just a ringing noise and someone talking to you. I **do** understand the concern about working out who pchaos is (or allegedly is). I would never even think to do that kind of thing frankly. But when other posters have done and leave it in other posts, and as you can see the info is left here for everyone who is interested, what am I supposed to do? Ignore it? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/513 "2013-02-19T04:48:22Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > I do quite often do things that turn out to be socially unacceptable for reasons which make no sense to me. You don’t say! This is one of those things that’s not worth explaining if you cannot grasp the problem. Let’s just say this was stupid and you shouldn’t do it again. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/514 "2013-02-19T04:51:13Z")
> [@pchaos](#): > > And the Founding Fathers were not atheists, they were the ones that coined the phrase, “in God We Trust.” Your choice: Would you prefer we think of you as an ignorant idiot, or would you rather be thought of as a trolling jackass? ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/515 "2013-02-19T04:54:32Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > You don’t say! This is one of those things that’s not worth explaining if you cannot grasp the problem. Let’s just say this was stupid and you shouldn’t do it again. Ok but I reserve the right to take further advice on it (to clarify, for my own instruction, and in, as they would say, good time ;)). But perhaps more urgently I have to querey why if it is such a biggy why you are leaving up the posts that give pchaos’s identity. I know this is not wikipedia, but the policy at WP:OUT seems a good 'un to follow imo. Assuming pchaos is an impersonator, something that afaik is not known to be false, it seems unfair that someone can come along and besmirch a person by choosing a similar user name to them and being a bit of a prick. ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/516 "2013-02-19T04:57:10Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > I didn’t _stalk_ anyone, that’s ridiculous. I just googled the dude melon linked to. If anyone is a stalker it’s him because I would never have bothered doing the kind of research he did (although I don’t think melon is a “stalker” either, btw, as again I presume he found out what he did with a google or something, and also stalking is a serious thing fwiw). > > That said if a few more people seriously think what I did was wrong (as opposed to a waste of time) then I may well reconsider it, not because I can see anything wrong with it, but just because I do quite often do things that turn out to be socially unacceptable for reasons which make no sense to me. That is not to say that in such a circumstance I will find it unacceptable either, I will just think about it a bit harder. But I’m nothing like this JohnClay guy (who I bring up just cause he’s here at the moment looking a nut and I hope he understands) - I am pretty succesful and competent albeit potentially eccentric so it is very unlikely that I am completely wrong. Then again I have a relative I will call an aunt (because I do not know the precise word for her) who angers a lot in my extendeded family by her contacting of people and she is a heroine to me so maybe I am behaving like her. If you think about it, the exercise was pretty pointless. Option 1. The person you contacted is pchaos and confirms this - clearly this is what you hoped for but how stupid would someone have to be to do that? It would be the same as posting their IRL name, phone number and other personal information here, wouldn’t it? It’s just like saying if you want this IRL information about me, this is how you get it. So it’s virtually the same thing isn’t it? And what are the odds of someone posting information like that - outside of facebook anyway? Option 2. It’s pchaos and he doesn’t confirm. Well, pointless. Option 3. It’s not pchaos. Again pointless. The only way what you did would have made any sense is if it was in fact pchaos and he was so completely brain dead that he actually gave you the confirmation you asked for. And I don’t think even his harshest critics would have that low an estimation of him - although I haven’t read the entire thread so I can’t say for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/517 "2013-02-19T04:57:41Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#): > > p.s. are phone calls from strangers some seriously taboo thing in the US or something. The taboo is being tracked and contacted uninvited from a forum where you use a pseudonym and don’t volunteer real identification or real life contact information. It’s fucking creepy as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Simple\_Linctus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/518 "2013-02-19T05:00:37Z")
> [@deltasigma](#): > > If you think about it, the exercise was pretty pointless. > > Option 1. The person you contacted is pchaos and confirms this - clearly this is what you hoped for but how stupid would someone have to be to do that? It would be the same as posting their IRL name, phone number and other personal information here, wouldn’t it? It’s just like saying if you want this IRL information about me, this is how you get it. So it’s virtually the same thing isn’t it? And what are the odds of someone posting information like that - outside of facebook anyway? > Option 2. It’s pchaos and he doesn’t confirm. Well, pointless. > Option 3. It’s not pchaos. Again pointless. > > The only way what you did would have made any sense is if it was in fact pchaos and he was so completely brain dead that he actually gave you the confirmation you asked for. And I don’t think even his harshest critics would have that low an estimation of him - although I haven’t read the entire thread so I can’t say for sure. > [@Acsenray](#): > > The taboo is being tracked and contacted uninvited from a forum where you use a pseudonym and don’t volunteer real identification or real life contact information. It’s fucking creepy as hell. Ah, I finally get the point. If you look at clockworkmelon’s links, you can see that if pchaos is who melon says he is, then pchaos’s username is basically his real name (i.e. p. chao), and thus it’s obvious who he is. Now like I said, I thought it was crazy that melon was being allowed to link to that. But since he was, I figured it was ok. I don’t see how you can call me creepy for clicking on links in a thread and assuming other posters have read the bloody things! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/519 "2013-02-19T05:04:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m wondering if **pchaos** wants to believe atheists are competing for him on some level. Like we really, really, really want him as a member and need to make him an offer to pry him away from the Christians because he’s such a prize. Maybe that’s the kind of stuff he hears in church- a lot of smoke being blown up his ass about the value of his soul. **pchaos** , let me say that atheists don’t want you. We don’t care if you’re a Christian or an atheist, and recruiting you would not be worth any kind of effort. No atheist has any reason to offer you a thing. You’re obnoxious, lazy, and dense. It would be a bad sign if atheism appealed to you. Leaving aside the very real possibility that he’s just here to jerk chain, it might be that he wants there to be an organized atheist movement that is proactive because he wants something substantial to attack. As it stands now atheists pose no direct threat to his Christian community so any overt nastiness on his part just looks like an unwarranted attack. Notice that when his trying to get atheists to sign onto an “agenda” didn’t work, he came out with the idea of a “secret agenda”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316/520 "2013-02-19T05:09:32Z")
> [@Robb](#): > > **Monty** , pchaos wants us to believe he has a law degree from Boalt Hall, which is pretty consistently ranked around No. 7 among all US law schools. :eek: From UC Berkeley Law School (aka Boalt Hall)'s page on [[http://www.law.berkeley.edu/41.htm](http://www.law.berkeley.edu/41.htm)]Preparing to Apply: > [@](#): > > We seek a student body that demonstrates outstanding academic ability, integrity, problem-solving skills, commitment, leadership potential, and intellectual curiosity. & > [@](#): > > We recommend that you select courses that are challenging and that develop your analytical writing, critical reading and thinking, and logical-reasoning skills. If pchaos is correct as to attending and graduating from that institution, then the institution itself failed in their stated objective in the first quote. As for the recommendation in the second quote, facts in evidence here indicate pchaos did not act on the recommendation. Is that a fair summary, **Robb**? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316.md?page=25) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-is-implausible-that-pchaos-is-a-lawyer-and-he-should-stop-claiming-to-be-one/650316.md?page=27)