www.lesswrong.com/posts/STBuKAX9kkMJunErA/your-prompt-plus-everything-you-ve-eve...
1 correction found
across both a college paper as ‘Ted’ and a pseudonymous letter as the Unibomber.
The comparison in the Unabomber case was reported between Kaczynski’s letters/documents and the published manifesto, not a college paper; the bomber’s nickname is also spelled “Unabomber.”
Full reasoning
Contemporary and FBI accounts describe the linguistic match differently from this sentence.
- The FBI says David Kaczynski gave investigators his brother’s letters and documents, and that the FBI’s linguistic analysis found those papers and the manifesto were "almost certainly the same" author.
- TIME likewise reports that David Kaczynski supplied typed copies of two of Ted’s handwritten letters, which were then compared with the manifesto; it specifically notes the shared phrase "Eat your cake and have it too."
- The Los Angeles Times was even more specific: it reported that the unusual phrasing appeared in the manifesto and in a letter to his mother.
So the public record points to letters/documents vs. the manifesto, not "a college paper" and not a "pseudonymous letter." Also, the correct spelling of the nickname is Unabomber, not "Unibomber."
3 sources
- A Tale of Two Brothers — TIME
Without saying who had written them, Swanson turned over typed copies of two of Ted's handwritten letters. She asked Van Zandt to compare them with the manifesto... Ted and the Unabomber shared certain turns of phrase. For example, "Eat your cake and have it too."
- Unabomber — FBI
Most importantly, David provided letters and documents written by his brother. Our linguistic analysis determined that the author of those papers and the manifesto were almost certainly the same.
- Unabomber Case Files Trace Trail That Led to Kaczynski — Los Angeles Times
The Unabomber in his manifesto also reversed an old cliche, writing that "you can't eat your cake and have it too"--the same phrasing Kaczynski used in a letter to his mother.