As far as his family stories go, Shagnasty has always struck me as one of those people whose stories are based on the reality of his existence, but heavily embellished by narcissism and self-delusion.
I believe that he probably comes from a pretty prosperous family. I believe that he probably has relatives who have done interesting things, and made financial and professional successes of themselves. A lot of the individual incidents he describes probably happened in a manner at least vaguely resembling his narratives. His whole family story and his whole persona and attitude are too consistent to be made up out of whole cloth. If that stuff is all pure fiction, then he is one of the master trolls of the internet era.
But while it might be based in truth, every story he tells seems to be passed through a fun-house mirror designed to make Shagnasty appear as big and smart and accomplished and competent as possible. I’m sure that we all do this, to an extent, but he’s taken it to an art form, and enrolled his family story as a sort of accomplice to his self-aggrandizement.
To be honest, the most idiotic shit that Shagnasty comes out with isn’t his family stories and personal history, but his overall worldview and his (efforts at) complex argumentation. His biggest delusion is not about his family history, but about his own intelligence. He says earlier in this thread that “**Blake **is a smart guy as well but he is basically the same type of cocky asshole that I am.” This reflects the depths of his obliviousness, because while Blake might be cocky (i take no particular position on that claim), he at least has some basis for his belief in his own intellect.
Blake spends time talking about the issues; Shagnasty is more concerned with telling people how smart he is. I can’t remember how many times he’s mentioned his “partial PhD” (Note: there’s no such thing) from an Ivy League school, and talked about the advances work in cognitive science and psychology that he did there. But all of this is belied by his absolutely risible efforts to discuss such issues with any intellectual rigor whatsoever. When i look at a thread like this, the only conclusion i can come to is that the profs in his PhD program must have realized soon after he arrived that he just wasn’t up to the brainwork. Here’s another thread he started, with a shitty premise and even worse efforts at rational debate.
I’m not arguing that the lack of a PhD is some sort of measure for intelligence. It’s not. There are millions of incredibly intelligent people in the world without formal qualifications. And intelligence itself is something that has no single definition. But if you’re going to constantly trumpet your own intelligence, including making claims to non-existent academic qualifications, it behooves you to be able to demonstrate it once in a while.
The thread linked by the OP is just another example. Blake suggests the problem is dishonesty. That could be true, but it might also be the case that Shagnasty simply doesn’t even understand why his contribution to the debate is so problematic. He’s one of those guys who sits at a poker table and spends five hours wondering which of the other players is the fish, even as he loses every chip in his stack.