Undone by a Strava KOM
May 1, 2022 1:09 PM Subscribe
Falls Church, VA bike shop owner Nick Clark was many things, a former cycling champion, former CEO, a scholar (3 Bachelors, 3 MBAs, and a PhD), former soldier and more. Or so he would have you believe. The truth, as outlined by Cycling Tips, is much, much different. (Note: long read)
I wonder how many slightly less extravagant fabulists are anxiously ensconced in corporations, academia and government.
posted by leotrotsky at 1:40 PM on May 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by leotrotsky at 1:40 PM on May 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
For anyone else confused, "KOM" stands for King of the Mountain, which is apparently something that the GPS exercise tracking service Strava gives you if you get the fastest time for a certain segment of road.
posted by ropeladder at 1:45 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by ropeladder at 1:45 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Remember when this would have been a 2,500-word article in Sports Illustrated?
posted by parmanparman at 1:51 PM on May 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by parmanparman at 1:51 PM on May 1, 2022 [8 favorites]
Remember when this would have been a 2,500-word article in Sports Illustrated?
Yeah, I didn't need uh such an exhaustive explanation. Good reporting though, needs an editor. I will try my best to sum up things as best I can:
1. Nick Clark started using Strava for biking challenges known as KOM. Strava captures all kinds of statistics of a ride, including heart rate, and basically all the statistics collected made Nick Clark a better athlete than world class riders at a much younger age. This aroused suspicion.
2. Much earlier Nick Clark, an Australian which I think is important in establishing his credentials as a world traveled cyclist, started a bike shop in a suburb of Arlington, VA called ProBike FC. FC does not stand for Football Club, but Falls Church. Perhaps coincidence but it made the whole thing sound more European-y.
3. He had medals from what seemed like an impressive career around the world, along with expensive custom made bikes posted around his store. I'm going to go on a limb and say most cyclists in a suburb of Arlington, VA aren't that up on obscure cycling races from the early 90s Australia and Europe.
4. He claimed to be part of a bunch of teams and races and no one can remember him or find records of him. But, no one was actively looking and he was by the writer's own admission a good storyteller.
5. He started a woman's team and was incredibly generous in buying the team new bikes and uniforms. He claimed it was co-sponsored by another actual company but in reality just bought the bikes himself. He was also apparently not a very good coach, was a typical chauvinistic male and played favorites. Unfortunately nothing too uncommon from any other rich guy who has a hobby and decides he's a coach.
6. He claimed a bunch of Ivy League degrees and a doctorate. He actually attended a lot of CEO seminars and bogus things at Ivy League schools that just fools pay for, the 3 day "executive training courses" so they can say they went to an Ivy League. He has in reality some remote learning degree.
7. Where did the money come from? He ran a defense contractor out of Australia that was semi-legitimate but still sold as penny stocks basically and he plifered as much as he could out of it to the tune of millions. He was, again, a good talker.
8. He paid a company to get him in just enough quotes in Forbes and other pay-to-play journalism to construct a Wikipedia page, which they also created. He or someone he paid fabricated or tried to fabricate a bunch of Wikipedia articles about him.
9. He rented out another place in the strip mall and started doing pro-cycling MLM but it failed. I only included this because I liked it, not really that important.
10. Eventually was caught by other cyclists who had no idea who he was and ate him up online.
11. He got really involved in the whole Jan 6 thing and now even has a tattoo. He uses typical scam artist lingo like being in "basically the equivalent of the Green Beret's" sort of talk. Huge into guns and stuff like that, he found another community that's prone to grifters. And that's where the story ends.
Geeze, even my summary was super long.
posted by geoff. at 2:14 PM on May 1, 2022 [77 favorites]
Yeah, I didn't need uh such an exhaustive explanation. Good reporting though, needs an editor. I will try my best to sum up things as best I can:
1. Nick Clark started using Strava for biking challenges known as KOM. Strava captures all kinds of statistics of a ride, including heart rate, and basically all the statistics collected made Nick Clark a better athlete than world class riders at a much younger age. This aroused suspicion.
2. Much earlier Nick Clark, an Australian which I think is important in establishing his credentials as a world traveled cyclist, started a bike shop in a suburb of Arlington, VA called ProBike FC. FC does not stand for Football Club, but Falls Church. Perhaps coincidence but it made the whole thing sound more European-y.
3. He had medals from what seemed like an impressive career around the world, along with expensive custom made bikes posted around his store. I'm going to go on a limb and say most cyclists in a suburb of Arlington, VA aren't that up on obscure cycling races from the early 90s Australia and Europe.
4. He claimed to be part of a bunch of teams and races and no one can remember him or find records of him. But, no one was actively looking and he was by the writer's own admission a good storyteller.
5. He started a woman's team and was incredibly generous in buying the team new bikes and uniforms. He claimed it was co-sponsored by another actual company but in reality just bought the bikes himself. He was also apparently not a very good coach, was a typical chauvinistic male and played favorites. Unfortunately nothing too uncommon from any other rich guy who has a hobby and decides he's a coach.
6. He claimed a bunch of Ivy League degrees and a doctorate. He actually attended a lot of CEO seminars and bogus things at Ivy League schools that just fools pay for, the 3 day "executive training courses" so they can say they went to an Ivy League. He has in reality some remote learning degree.
7. Where did the money come from? He ran a defense contractor out of Australia that was semi-legitimate but still sold as penny stocks basically and he plifered as much as he could out of it to the tune of millions. He was, again, a good talker.
8. He paid a company to get him in just enough quotes in Forbes and other pay-to-play journalism to construct a Wikipedia page, which they also created. He or someone he paid fabricated or tried to fabricate a bunch of Wikipedia articles about him.
9. He rented out another place in the strip mall and started doing pro-cycling MLM but it failed. I only included this because I liked it, not really that important.
10. Eventually was caught by other cyclists who had no idea who he was and ate him up online.
11. He got really involved in the whole Jan 6 thing and now even has a tattoo. He uses typical scam artist lingo like being in "basically the equivalent of the Green Beret's" sort of talk. Huge into guns and stuff like that, he found another community that's prone to grifters. And that's where the story ends.
Geeze, even my summary was super long.
posted by geoff. at 2:14 PM on May 1, 2022 [77 favorites]
I will say I'm actually sort of impressed he managed to pull this off and he seems like every other kind-of rich suburban business owner who takes up a hobby or has his little store/bar/restaurant to lord over. I'm always amazed at how these people manage to find themselves doing poor jobs, making pretty decent money (>$1million a year).
Feels like the Elizabeth Holmes scenario. If I was a CEO of a company I knew wasn't going to work I'd do my best to save it thinking I'd get caught and go to jail and not just launch into storytelling mode while I'm essentially stealing millions.
posted by geoff. at 2:20 PM on May 1, 2022
Feels like the Elizabeth Holmes scenario. If I was a CEO of a company I knew wasn't going to work I'd do my best to save it thinking I'd get caught and go to jail and not just launch into storytelling mode while I'm essentially stealing millions.
posted by geoff. at 2:20 PM on May 1, 2022
12. He manages to charm the writer a bit in an interview, but then they realize that his new ammosexual tattoo is yet another stolen valor pose. Fin.
posted by box at 2:21 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by box at 2:21 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
Huh. I almost bought a bike from these guys in 2018. I don't know if the guy I talked to was this Nick Clark dude (though I don't recall an Aussie accent...) but I got slightly skeevy vibes so ultimately went elsewhere. Guess my gut was right (for once).
posted by basalganglia at 2:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by basalganglia at 2:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
Maybe Clark had been living the lie for so long, that he forgot it was a lie - he spent time and effort creating this fake bike ride and gave it the result expected of a former pro. Except that it was so obviously fraudulent that instead of showing how good he was, it SCREAMED "I am a fake".
People on Strava are great at supporting each other right until you hit the leaderboards. Then instead of your friends, you get to deal with obsessives and weirds.
I have a course record (in running) for a tiny Strava segment, mainly because it's obscure and unpopular. I know the number two and three people on the leaderboard - they are better runners than me and could take the course record easily. They just don't care. Yet, my record run has been flagged a bunch of times, for reasons I don't care to understand. I got tired of disputing the flags, so I stopped. (I still have the record - a whopping one second slower)
posted by meowzilla at 2:31 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
People on Strava are great at supporting each other right until you hit the leaderboards. Then instead of your friends, you get to deal with obsessives and weirds.
I have a course record (in running) for a tiny Strava segment, mainly because it's obscure and unpopular. I know the number two and three people on the leaderboard - they are better runners than me and could take the course record easily. They just don't care. Yet, my record run has been flagged a bunch of times, for reasons I don't care to understand. I got tired of disputing the flags, so I stopped. (I still have the record - a whopping one second slower)
posted by meowzilla at 2:31 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
I know zip about cycling and care less, but this was a good read. I don't think this dude learned a damn thing and will grift till he dies or goes to jail.
You know who we didn't hear from? His kids or his wife's family. Or his family. I'll bet they have some opinions about his "accomplishments." Maybe some journalist in Australia will follow up.
I understand the woman who said "none of this was necessary, he could have just been a guy with a bike shop!" But the whole deal is, some people who grift can't seem to stop grifting. They're chasing a high, and whatever they already have isn't enough.
posted by emjaybee at 2:34 PM on May 1, 2022 [15 favorites]
You know who we didn't hear from? His kids or his wife's family. Or his family. I'll bet they have some opinions about his "accomplishments." Maybe some journalist in Australia will follow up.
I understand the woman who said "none of this was necessary, he could have just been a guy with a bike shop!" But the whole deal is, some people who grift can't seem to stop grifting. They're chasing a high, and whatever they already have isn't enough.
posted by emjaybee at 2:34 PM on May 1, 2022 [15 favorites]
He was a chasing a high - but a Munchausen attention seeker high, not a grift.
For serious grifters, it's a very careful and deliberate enterprise. You make up what you have to run the con, and maybe a little more to sort out the hard-to-con and quick-to-anger. But you'd never do something like obviously faking race results which creates more opponents and, most importantly, closes off exits. Every good con is working toward the end game: disappearing with the loot after the score if you're a career grifter, going legit if you're grifting to get into a career.
posted by MattD at 2:52 PM on May 1, 2022 [17 favorites]
For serious grifters, it's a very careful and deliberate enterprise. You make up what you have to run the con, and maybe a little more to sort out the hard-to-con and quick-to-anger. But you'd never do something like obviously faking race results which creates more opponents and, most importantly, closes off exits. Every good con is working toward the end game: disappearing with the loot after the score if you're a career grifter, going legit if you're grifting to get into a career.
posted by MattD at 2:52 PM on May 1, 2022 [17 favorites]
Really fascinating article. I think one reason so many of us are drawn to these stories of serial liars - Holmes, Delvey, faux-Rothschild, Ripley et al is that most of us have a moral compass that these people apparently just lack. Lying is exhausting and maintaining multiple elaborate lies for years is unimaginable. Seeing someone pull is off some weird kind of car crash we can’t look away from. Plus we love comeuppance.
posted by misterpatrick at 3:07 PM on May 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by misterpatrick at 3:07 PM on May 1, 2022 [5 favorites]
I read the whole, long thing, but I'm putting off correcting freshman English comp essays, so I have a valid excuse. The writer bangs a small nail with a really big hammer. I can't figure out why.
posted by tt2 at 3:12 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by tt2 at 3:12 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Sometimes you think you've got a nail hammered down and then it pops up, again and again and again and again...
posted by clawsoon at 3:26 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 3:26 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
"none of this was necessary, he could have just been a guy with a bike shop!"
This was my reaction to the whole thing. I enjoyed the article, even if it was, er, slightly longer than it needed to be, and I would never have found it myself. Thanks for posting it.
There does seem to be a compulsive element to this kind of behaviour. The people behind these scams put in way more work to maintain them than it would take to play it straight, and they always push just that little bit too far in the end.
posted by rpfields at 3:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
This was my reaction to the whole thing. I enjoyed the article, even if it was, er, slightly longer than it needed to be, and I would never have found it myself. Thanks for posting it.
There does seem to be a compulsive element to this kind of behaviour. The people behind these scams put in way more work to maintain them than it would take to play it straight, and they always push just that little bit too far in the end.
posted by rpfields at 3:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
3 bachelors, 3 MBAs, and a PhD, that's like that dude from Criminal Minds, also in VA
posted by avocet at 3:39 PM on May 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by avocet at 3:39 PM on May 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
I am very loosely connected to the DC cycling scene and I've heard of this guy and heard the warnings not to get involved with him in any manner as he had a reputation as a bullshit artist and a total shitshow. I had no idea that he was such a complete fabulist, but, wow, if you're gonna lie, why not be bold?
posted by peeedro at 3:46 PM on May 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by peeedro at 3:46 PM on May 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
If you want to be creeped out, here's a very convincing Nick Clark lying about his accomplishments in an interview.
posted by geoff. at 3:57 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by geoff. at 3:57 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
The writer bangs a small nail with a really big hammer. I can't figure out why.
I don't know if he's a small nail. If there's anything the past few years have taught us, it's that there's no limit to the possible infiltration of a flat-out liar. And now he's in the gun business, which: great! Great. Exciting for everyone.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:06 PM on May 1, 2022 [17 favorites]
I don't know if he's a small nail. If there's anything the past few years have taught us, it's that there's no limit to the possible infiltration of a flat-out liar. And now he's in the gun business, which: great! Great. Exciting for everyone.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:06 PM on May 1, 2022 [17 favorites]
I would have been fine with this jackass owning a bike shop and pretending to be a big-shot racer, but my opinion changed drastically when he became the completely-unqualified CEO of a company, meaning that people's jobs were dependent on him; and when he pretended to coach a bike team and harassed its members.
posted by meowzilla at 4:45 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by meowzilla at 4:45 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
I came away from this article with more questions than answers. Chief among them was "why does this article exist? Someone spent hundreds of hours tracking all of this down, but in service of what?" It almost reads like a hit-piece, against an admittedly shady-as-hell guy who spent a long time balancing on the knife edge between "scummy" and "fraudulent," but who I don't see accused of actually doing anything illegal. It sucks that he ruined a handful of women's cycling experiences, and he deserves to never work in cycling again, but that sounds like it's a foregone conclusion. Meanwhile, here's a thousand words about how his wife died in her 40s leaving him as a single parent to two young kids, followed by some weird language about how no one's accusing him of murdering his wife but we're just saying, wink wink.
It's a bizarre, tangled story, and I'm honestly baffled by what the author hopes to accomplish by telling it at such length. The dude is a grifting scumbag who has dipped a toe in every major scam the US has to offer, but dudes like that are a dime a dozen, and most of them don't have 20K word takedowns written about them in hobbyist magazines.
posted by Mayor West at 5:01 PM on May 1, 2022
It's a bizarre, tangled story, and I'm honestly baffled by what the author hopes to accomplish by telling it at such length. The dude is a grifting scumbag who has dipped a toe in every major scam the US has to offer, but dudes like that are a dime a dozen, and most of them don't have 20K word takedowns written about them in hobbyist magazines.
posted by Mayor West at 5:01 PM on May 1, 2022
Possibly because letting grifting scumbags get a pass is how we ended up where we are right now?
posted by suelac at 5:09 PM on May 1, 2022 [27 favorites]
posted by suelac at 5:09 PM on May 1, 2022 [27 favorites]
3 bachelors, 3 MBAs, and a PhD
Reminds me of Bruce Banner's 7 PhDs.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:22 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Reminds me of Bruce Banner's 7 PhDs.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:22 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Multiple bachelors and multiple PhDs can at least focus on completely different areas, but is there that much room to specialize with MBAs that 3 makes any sense?
posted by trig at 5:31 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by trig at 5:31 PM on May 1, 2022 [7 favorites]
Consider his demographic.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:58 PM on May 1, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:58 PM on May 1, 2022
The three MBAs is particularly loony. Three master's degrees in the same discipline, why? Even getting a second MBA is very rare. That would be suspicious enough to me to start checking.
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 6:14 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Flock of Cynthiabirds at 6:14 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Possibly because letting grifting scumbags get a pass is how we ended up where we are right now?
Exactly. 10 years ago, Trump was a laughingstock, a minor celebrity who admittedly had done lots of shady stuff and gotten away with it, but hey, who cares unless you were unfortunate enough to be in business with him? And now here we are.
There's a lot of people we shrug at, that we shouldn't. People who stalk or commit domestic violence; lots of mass shooters start off that way. Maybe if we treated their initial behavior more seriously, they wouldn't have that chance.
Maybe if we treated white collar crime as a serious thing (because that's what we are talking about with this guy, at least initially) we wouldn't have to constantly deal with white-collar criminals who kept on going all the way to the top and damaged our whole fucking society on the way.
posted by emjaybee at 7:25 PM on May 1, 2022 [24 favorites]
Exactly. 10 years ago, Trump was a laughingstock, a minor celebrity who admittedly had done lots of shady stuff and gotten away with it, but hey, who cares unless you were unfortunate enough to be in business with him? And now here we are.
There's a lot of people we shrug at, that we shouldn't. People who stalk or commit domestic violence; lots of mass shooters start off that way. Maybe if we treated their initial behavior more seriously, they wouldn't have that chance.
Maybe if we treated white collar crime as a serious thing (because that's what we are talking about with this guy, at least initially) we wouldn't have to constantly deal with white-collar criminals who kept on going all the way to the top and damaged our whole fucking society on the way.
posted by emjaybee at 7:25 PM on May 1, 2022 [24 favorites]
I'm still not sure whether the wife and children actually exist/existed.
posted by bq at 7:43 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by bq at 7:43 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]
Here's the wife's obituary with mention of the children. I doubt her death is mysterious, I think he lied about her death to fit whatever narrative he was trying to construct. The obituary unusually implies suicide, "She left her young family unexpectedly, seeking a perfection she may not have understood as having always been there." I could just be reading into it, it feels gross guessing at it.
The North Virginia sub-Reddit has several people claiming to have met him and all talk about the used car salesman vibe he gave off. No mention of his children. In these types of situations no one likes to be duped and everyone comes out claiming they knew he was hiding something.
I'm more interested in where the kids stayed during all this, their wellbeing and what he did before his wife's death. It really seems this all began with her death and I wonder if he might have been impacted. There's no real trace of him before that and it would be an unexpected, sad turn if he began to seek an identity through all this only after his wife's death.
posted by geoff. at 7:49 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
The North Virginia sub-Reddit has several people claiming to have met him and all talk about the used car salesman vibe he gave off. No mention of his children. In these types of situations no one likes to be duped and everyone comes out claiming they knew he was hiding something.
I'm more interested in where the kids stayed during all this, their wellbeing and what he did before his wife's death. It really seems this all began with her death and I wonder if he might have been impacted. There's no real trace of him before that and it would be an unexpected, sad turn if he began to seek an identity through all this only after his wife's death.
posted by geoff. at 7:49 PM on May 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
He also announced the death on the stock forum HotCopper and I can't view the replies without giving the my phone number. I find it really strange that the CEO would announce the death of his wife on a stock forum and also included this weird statement, "Thank you mate - love you all (the ones that are nice anyway)" ... I don't fall small cap / penny stocks at all. Are executives this involved? I assumed they were legally prohibited from making public statements regarding the company and so avoided making any statements at all to not incur the wrath of the SEC. This is odd right?
posted by geoff. at 7:57 PM on May 1, 2022
posted by geoff. at 7:57 PM on May 1, 2022
"why does this article exist? Someone spent hundreds of hours tracking all of this down, but in service of what?"
I think that it may have started out as just looking at Clark lying about the KOM, pretty obviously, and maybe one or two others, but mushroomed because it seems like he lied about just about everything in his life. Turn that question around: if this is sort of small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, why lie about it? FFS, he had cycling frames made up in colors of teams that he never rode for! Who does that? The same guy who's now apparently joined up with the 1/6ers, and isn't that a comforting thought.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think that it may have started out as just looking at Clark lying about the KOM, pretty obviously, and maybe one or two others, but mushroomed because it seems like he lied about just about everything in his life. Turn that question around: if this is sort of small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, why lie about it? FFS, he had cycling frames made up in colors of teams that he never rode for! Who does that? The same guy who's now apparently joined up with the 1/6ers, and isn't that a comforting thought.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:09 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also, I'm not reading any sinister suggestion WRT his wife's death, only a note "that Clark would bend the story to evoke particular emotional responses in those he was talking to." Which fits in very well with everything else said about him.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:28 PM on May 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
I find it really strange that the CEO would announce the death of his wife on a stock forum
I don't know about this. People find community in all sorts of places.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:58 AM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I don't know about this. People find community in all sorts of places.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 5:58 AM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
"why does this article exist? Someone spent hundreds of hours tracking all of this down, but in service of what?"
I wonder if it was lot more exciting to write about than most of the articles published by Cycling Tips. It probably makes a change from writing about brakes and gears and tyres: the author wants to stretch his wings too, and good on him I think. I must say I enjoyed reading it.
posted by illongruci at 7:25 AM on May 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
I wonder if it was lot more exciting to write about than most of the articles published by Cycling Tips. It probably makes a change from writing about brakes and gears and tyres: the author wants to stretch his wings too, and good on him I think. I must say I enjoyed reading it.
posted by illongruci at 7:25 AM on May 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
The writer bangs a small nail with a really big hammer. I can't figure out why.
Pure curiosity. The guy's entire life story is non-Newtonian.
I live about half a mile from this shop and am only partly surprised to hear it was run by con man - my wife and I were both surprised by the sudden appearance of a team-centered high-end bike shop in a commercial strip off the main highway, complete with wrapped Sprinter vans. But this is the strangest sort of con, where all he cares about is the personal glory story and, ultimately, power over the team? It's like some weird Falsely Earned Respect con? Now I wonder if I ever crossed bike paths with this guy.
(tbh I'm sort of tempted to get a Lipomo jersey - they're probably a dime a dozen, and it would come with an interesting backstory.)
posted by ptfe at 7:35 AM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pure curiosity. The guy's entire life story is non-Newtonian.
I live about half a mile from this shop and am only partly surprised to hear it was run by con man - my wife and I were both surprised by the sudden appearance of a team-centered high-end bike shop in a commercial strip off the main highway, complete with wrapped Sprinter vans. But this is the strangest sort of con, where all he cares about is the personal glory story and, ultimately, power over the team? It's like some weird Falsely Earned Respect con? Now I wonder if I ever crossed bike paths with this guy.
(tbh I'm sort of tempted to get a Lipomo jersey - they're probably a dime a dozen, and it would come with an interesting backstory.)
posted by ptfe at 7:35 AM on May 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Utterly bizarre. It never fails to astound me when someone uses lying and/or deception to advance - and gets away with it for so long.
posted by davidmsc at 7:39 AM on May 2, 2022
posted by davidmsc at 7:39 AM on May 2, 2022
The writer bangs a small nail with a really big hammer. I can't figure out why.
I'm all for banging the small nails back down the moment they start to stick up.
Our society gives lying dickweeds entirely too much room to maneuver, too many second chances, too many shrugging "what'cha gonna do?" / "boys will be boys" / "gotta hand it to him" takes, too many outs.
Fuck people like this. Every dollar he made, every opportunity he had, every ounce of attention that he got, was money, opportunity, and attention that could have gone to someone who wasn't a lying dickweed.
People like this make society worse. Maybe not in the same way that, like, a mass shooter does, sure, but they're still out there putting sand in the gears of the social machine, making it that much harder for good people to be trusted, and implicitly encouraging others to maybe try their own little schemes—if he can get away with it, what's a few white lies, maybe a little light fraud, here and there? They're like an infestation of termites. One of them can't really do much, but if you start to see them, you'd better do something, because there are probably a lot more, and eventually they can take your whole house down, one nibble at a time.
I agree that the article was a bit long on not-clearly-relevant detail, but kudos to the author (and all the folks online who seem to have done a lot of the legwork) for doing the research and dragging a small-time shitweasel out.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:42 AM on May 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
I'm all for banging the small nails back down the moment they start to stick up.
Our society gives lying dickweeds entirely too much room to maneuver, too many second chances, too many shrugging "what'cha gonna do?" / "boys will be boys" / "gotta hand it to him" takes, too many outs.
Fuck people like this. Every dollar he made, every opportunity he had, every ounce of attention that he got, was money, opportunity, and attention that could have gone to someone who wasn't a lying dickweed.
People like this make society worse. Maybe not in the same way that, like, a mass shooter does, sure, but they're still out there putting sand in the gears of the social machine, making it that much harder for good people to be trusted, and implicitly encouraging others to maybe try their own little schemes—if he can get away with it, what's a few white lies, maybe a little light fraud, here and there? They're like an infestation of termites. One of them can't really do much, but if you start to see them, you'd better do something, because there are probably a lot more, and eventually they can take your whole house down, one nibble at a time.
I agree that the article was a bit long on not-clearly-relevant detail, but kudos to the author (and all the folks online who seem to have done a lot of the legwork) for doing the research and dragging a small-time shitweasel out.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:42 AM on May 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
Since Safesport once again demonstrated how useless they are as an organization, I'm glad that the harassment victims on the women's team had someone who was willing to listen to them with an open mind and tell their story in an easily-accessed article. (I've seen accounts of abuse in other sports that are only available in a nearly illegible text image on Twitter, which is not great for getting the word out.)
And since people will bend over backwards to give abusers the benefit of the doubt, I'm glad that the article lays out every fucking lie this guy told, just to emphasize his enormous credibility issues.
posted by creepygirl at 9:03 AM on May 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
And since people will bend over backwards to give abusers the benefit of the doubt, I'm glad that the article lays out every fucking lie this guy told, just to emphasize his enormous credibility issues.
posted by creepygirl at 9:03 AM on May 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
It concerns me that someone as dishonest as this guy has graduated to playing with and selling guns. But his wife’s obituary really jumped out at me (as someone who has read many obits and helped write a few). First of all, the description of their courtship: “ She met her husband Nick at work, and man did he have to work hard to get a date with her. Nick chased and chased, but nearly gave up. Finally one night she rang him up, possibly during a night out with her girlfriends, and asked him if he was serious. ” Sounds more than a little stalkerish and inappropriate. Possibly able to dismiss in isolation, but a bit worrisome in the larger context. Then the description of their difficulty conceiving. The repeated assertions of a 1% chance of having the second child seem odd from a medical standpoint, and it is clear that she wanted kids but no mention of his being in agreement. Once again, nothing that would really stand out on its own, but in the context of a dishonest attention seeker one has to wonder what was going on behind the scenes. Not to suggest that her death was suspicious, but he certainly seemed to use the narrative of her death to suit his own needs.
posted by TedW at 12:18 PM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by TedW at 12:18 PM on May 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Imagine all the levels of manipulation in Nick Clark's response, and how successful they might have been ("how dare a cycling magazine say nasty unsubstantiated things about this well-educated decorated war vet former CEO with a dead wife") if the author hadn't blasted apart most of those credentials up front.
I suspect that this guy has gotten away with, "I may have exaggerated a couple of things because of [emotionally compelling reason that makes you feel sorry for him]" many times in his life. I'm glad the author, after almost being taken in by that, too, took the effort to dig up enough facts to completely demolish that escape hatch.
posted by clawsoon at 12:54 PM on May 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
I suspect that this guy has gotten away with, "I may have exaggerated a couple of things because of [emotionally compelling reason that makes you feel sorry for him]" many times in his life. I'm glad the author, after almost being taken in by that, too, took the effort to dig up enough facts to completely demolish that escape hatch.
posted by clawsoon at 12:54 PM on May 2, 2022 [10 favorites]
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posted by ryanshepard at 1:32 PM on May 1, 2022 [2 favorites]