Trace posts about his LoTT hoax to the /r/TheMotte. The users don't react the way he thought they would.

[Deleted by author.]
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If you guys did the whole thing, I don't think you would have anything to apologize for. My employment with B&R complicates things, and I think I got caught up in the fun of the moment and put my bosses in an unfair position. I'm not going to over-apologize, but people I trust (not just salty partisans) have rightly pointed out that I inserted myself into the drama and the narrative more than I should have. I'm trying to balance a few things here.

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Tweet nothing but this video

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[trigger warning: we're Motte meta-posting. I have to write at least 2000 characters. them's the rules. :marseylongpost:]

There's in a sense in which your B&R affiliation does complicate things—because it empirically did in the CW Thread—, but whether it is reasonable for it to do so isn't obvious, and the replies there are much more unhinged than I'd expect. It seems more like they disliked the hoax for <reasons> and then latched onto that as justification. The place seems to have gotten markedly spergier in the past couple months, somehow, and the characteristic rigidity of thought and obsession with 'Truth' is leading to asinine accusations of pooping up the epistemic commons—of course, your whole point is that the commons are already shit-filled, but let's burn the earnest witch that dares admit to it. Maybe we need another war to get the more Continental posters back; the autism ratio is getting too darn high.

Sure, Hlynka is perfectly consistent with his past positions. But iprayiam, who I rather like, returned after months of absence to accuse you of trying to take down LoTT? No offence, but you've nowhere near the temperament to pull that off. You once penned a short novella trying to morally justify a schismatic forum fork—just as much to assuage your own neuroses as to seek community forgiveness, it seemed. In the LoTT hoax Groomercord chats, y'all nearly break frame when challenged by the most basic questions a social engineer would get. And thereby a hyperscrupulous furry is perceived the (accidental?) enforcement arm of the Cathedral. Jfc.

I'd argue you did nothing wrong, even by prevailing Motte/rat diaspora morality. In practice, guess we learned something about the Mottizens. The hoax transcended itself: a community with a founding mythos of cutting through mainstream misperception is now aghast at seeing the mainstream laid bare. Yes, what you did was an abuse of the inherent trust people extend to others. Yes, that trust is strained thin in an atomized society—which is a difficult-to-resolve aspect of liberalism I think you underestimate, e.g. in the Trace v Weed gay marriage series, but I digress. Further, exposing that motivated credulousness probably does marginally degrade trust further yet, though only marginally. However, you produced a mere 0.1% of this year's viral Libs-Doing-Stupid-Shit clickbait. The most compelling case against you isn't consequentialist; rather, it's an argument from virtue and vice. Insofar as any bait is counter to virtue—which all Drama is, at least to classical virtue, and perhaps not at all by modernity's standards—I see no consistent way of holding you out as exceptionally bad. Sorry to see your friends drag you to the pillory.

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OMG why so you mottefricks use so many acronyms.

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I HATE MOTTECELS I HATE MOTTECELS

:marseytrollcrazy: :marseytrollcrazy: :marseytrollcrazy: :marseytrollcrazy:

Intellectuals are the shoeshine boys of the ruling elite.

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Or guerilla terrorists. No fence-sitters

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SHUT UP

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Rude

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we should add an expensive Motte award where you need to write 2000 characters for a day or something

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Yeah, the most interesting revelation that came out of it was who and how many motteneurodivergents are actually culture warriors and lose their shit at someone who "attacked their side". That shit about LoTT standing up against the Cathedral and Trace being a traitorous arm of same was one of the cringiest things I've ever read. I try to give peeps like iprayiam the benefit of the doubt, like, maybe they were brainwashed throughout their lives but still ended in our truth-seeking place, that shows that their love for truth is stronger than my lazy raised atheist butt's, but that thread was quite a revelation, no, they are really fricked in the head in some way.

Pinging @TracingWoodgrains to provide emotional support!

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Yeah, the most interesting revelation that came out of it was who and how many motteneurodivergents are actually culture warriors and lose their shit at someone who "attacked their side".

I think the most pronounced we always knew, Hlynka was always going to have this take. I am required to put up resistance to the "look at this thread, it shows mottizens have gone off the deep end" when in reality it was like 5 people. But it was embarrassing just how narrow the contrarianism was there.


:#marseytwerking:

:marseycoin::marseycoin::marseycoin:
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It truly was a wakeup moment for me for how partisan the sub is at this point, I denied the rightoid infestation allegations until this incident happened

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The reaction to the invasion of Ukraine didn't tip you off? Some people have completely lost it.

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Tbh I've not been reading cw threads for a while but our comfy telegram group (that became de facto dedicated to the Ukraine war discussion) has been remarkably sane. Except for some hoe bot that liked random posts and never said anything.

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Appreciate your thoughts here. I think the core of truth (as @aqouta pointed out) is that I tried to play both jester and chronicler, and there's an inherent tension between the two that's intensified by my b&r role. Gotta find a better balance.

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Stop appreciating peoples thoughts

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appreciate your thoughts :marseylove:

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I think this comment is a very smart (or maybe just wordy) way of looking at very stupid and pointless shit.

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the characteristic rigidity of thought and obsession with 'Truth' is leading to asinine accusations of pooping up the epistemic commons—of course, your whole point is that the commons are already shit-filled

I think the point, actually, is that the ability to discern concerted misinformation is a skill everyone needs to practice, and lazy people assert that expecting effort is torture, so we are all fuk.

But most importantly, only apologize when you realize you've made a mistake without being told. Once you've been told you can never be sure it was actually a mistake.

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We love you here, and more specifically i love you (unless you are a mayo or a foid or gasp both)

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:marseylove:

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fair enough

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I like you

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:marseylove:

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I apologize for everything because I'm spineless, but on rDrama.. I'm a chad.

:#gigachad2:

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Just lie and say I did it. I run my own company they can't fire me b-word! My clients aren't the type to care about this either

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Why would you even write the article in the first place then? Journos try having one drop of foresight challenge [very hard]

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Never admit fault, double down, insult your detractors.

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Wow, disappointing.

@ZombieWolf may need to reconsider dramneurodivergent of the month.

edit: maybe not, even this is pretty funny drama

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lol darn they are murdering him.

It seems he really would have benefited from separating himself from the story.

He could have just called it an rdrama op, and let it any backlash be directed at us (good drama).

But journo gonna journo.

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:#marseyhesright:

lesson learned

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It happens.

Ender had to xenocide an entire species before he learned, right?

:marseythumbsup:

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yikes, orson scott card is almost as problematic as jk "trans genocide" rowling

do better

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The most essential trait of every good journ*list is his ego. Without the feeling of smug superiority over others, the journ*list fades into nothingness.

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Is he actually a furry?

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Mottetards are as self righteous as sardines.

:#marseyxd:

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blah blah blah, blah blar blar

:marseylongpost2: :marseylongpost2: :marseylongpost2: :marseylongpost2:

17,368 words words words


🚨 ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ALL TRANS LIVES MATTER MUST SHOOT ANY LIBTARD ON SITE!! 🚨

BUTTHURT LIBSHIT HERE. :marseylaugh:

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SRDines have told me that saying pit bulls are genetically predisposed to violence is racist without a hint of irony. Nothing comes close to SRDines.

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https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/pitqan/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_september_06/hcder7m/?context=999

Here's a bunch of the same people cheering him on for an article about their political adversaries being similarly fooled

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![](/images/1651357229890502.webp)

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there has to be some sort of reddit Mod Phenotype, they all talk and act exactly the fricking same.

It's like that stern lecture from your dad as he looks down on you for your poor behavior except the Dad in this case is a worthless piece of human excretement and a total drain on society that absolutely no one on earth respects.

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They are all Bardfinn alts.

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🚨Bard bot alert!🚨

Reset the counter. Current counter was: 0 days, 1 hours, 4 minutes

Record is 0 days, 21 hours

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Trace self deleted his comments in shame (or maybe just to save his own Motte modship?)

(warning: seriouspost :marseydead:)

The thread is full of people I've known and had cordial relations with for years; I wasn't quite ready for that sort of long-term camaraderie to break down like that and the whole thing was becoming a bit too real for me, so I felt like it was best to take a good few steps away from the screen and touch grass. I was operating in a rdrama context and the overwhelming response there was to view it in a b&r context; that dissonance muddied things a bit too much, I think.

Lots of partisanship; some people I trust making good points. Still trying to properly navigate the different hats I wear.

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Still trying to properly navigate the different hats I wear.

:#marseysquint:

Don't worry too much about it, if there's just one more journoid out there with the fear of falling for bait in them then it was worth it. Let's do aoc next.

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I still think sticking with my title suggestion would've mitigated the outrage directed at you, for the record. Most people don't bother reading the full article and will jump to conclusions based on the headline.

It's in the past now though and you got a decent jump in follower count from it all, so it's not a total loss.

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yeah, you've got a point. lesson learned

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Stop being a f@g, people should learn to do research and not blindly post random nonsense. :marseyhomofascist:

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they should! but I should stick to telling the stories, not becoming them

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wrong. there isnt even a difference.

tbc i have a lot of motte karma and they are just being hypocritical r-slurs here. if you had owned, like, a medium sized left-wing business, they'd be clapping. but bc it is partisan, nope.

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:#@tracingwoodgrainspat:

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Homie, Ily but you just used three semicolons in this one comment

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that's; not; even; close; to; my; final; form

kurt vonnegut, eat your heart out

where is the marseysemicolon emote :marseymad:

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I've read and liked many your posts over the years, I remember the one about your nickname. Coming from a not too different personal background (if that story is true) it is also about credibility/trust/reputation. It's not "different hats", this stunt reiterates the need for different personas/names. You linking your SSC nick to working for BARpod was interesting, but still reasonable. You openly posting here is potentially damaging to everyone connected to your account should someone powerful take interest. Good for drama at least. Lastly, the trolling makes everything you post suspect by default. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your choices and actions, but your reputation has changed. Namely "potential liar". Congrats/Condolences?

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Yeah, that mortgaging of trust, to the extent it has happened, is one of the parts I feel most seriously/keenly. I don't know that I agree with splitting my persona more broadly, though. I am who I am; I'm not ashamed to be willing to talk with people wherever.

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I don't know that I agree with splitting my persona more broadly, though. I am who I am; I'm not ashamed to be willing to talk with people wherever.

I don't think one can be viewed as a jokester and a serious writer in one person, unless one has established oneself firmly as serious (globally) writer beforehand. I also think most people dislike instigators and will not appreciate a Donna Ross "accept me" in that regard. My view is you can have multiple personas and also produce art and controversies as long as you tell people you do this and are somewhat predictable. Like Alter Egos. I'm not sure what you mean with "splitting your persona", but what I'm saying is when you want to have the same nick at Motte/Substack/Rdrama you probably need to communicate to people "this is me in this mode" somehow, because the modes of existence are a bit different between them

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you got owned. kitty. cant take it.

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