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New from me: Viral "Racism in Academia" Story Deleted When I Started Asking Questions
I noticed a suspicious-looking viral Twitter thread yesterday, so I started poking around a bit and, to my surprise, watched its author first reply to my question, then delete his reply and hide my question, then lock the thread, then delete the thread and nuke his whole account.
In this article, I tell that story and examine my takeaways from it. Highlights below:
Thank you for the good work, Trace.
Hm. About that: I feel like integrity demands I speak up here, even though I also feel like I'm going to regret it, but here goes:
I do have some reservations about the personal involvement, here, same as with the LoTT incident. I was under my lurker-vow-of-silence at the time, but hey, that's okay: it just means that I've longer to formulate my thoughts. Long enough? We'll see.
See: I feel like it's against the spirit of this place for it to house after-action reports by culture warriors returned from campaign. "Check out this scalp I just claimed" doesn't seem like "leaving the rest of the internet at the door," or something. Now, this certainly shouldn't be taken so far as to say that you can't speak from your own experience - Doglatine reporting on family conversations, and probably Obsidian's report from the trucker protest - but I do feel like there's a difference between speaking from your life and, I dunno, writing up the outcomes of trouble that one has deliberately instigated. Maybe someone can articulate a better boundary; I feel I've still only got a vague sense myself.
But on which side of the boundary does this fall? I don't know. There's less personal involvement this time - but I do feel like "TracingWoodgrains reports on his victory over a dishonest Twitter culture warrior [but with the political valence - and the reception - reversed]" maybe smacks enough of an incoming 'gotcha' that something needed to be said. Fortunately, with the political valence reversed, the personal involvement still does make me uneasy, so maybe I did have a principle, or maybe I've just tricked myself into assuming one since them. Either way, I hope it sticks iff it's worthwhile.
Trace was in the wrong with the LibsofTikTok story, a journalist should never become the story.
But I don't see this as a 'gotcha', more reporting on 'not enough hate crimes to fill demand, have to manufacture some' tendencies. Trace is a lot more liberal than I am, and if he is a Culture Warrior, he's generally on the other side of the fence - see TheSchism, which was set up for those driven off The Motte by the mouthy right-wingers 😁 This is different from the furry hoax, as Trace didn't set the entire thing up; this guy posted his (fake?) claims of "I am discriminated against because I am a minority, here's proof", and Trace (and by the accounts, some others) felt "hm, something fishy here" and being a journalist (abhorrent profession) he went digging. That's a legit story.
You may have a point about "sounds too much like boasting" when coming on here talking about it, but I feel it falls just on the right side of the line.
How is Trace a journalist? He's just some guy that posts online and produces a podcast for two people who are I guess quasi-journalists still.
That's close enough for journalism nowadays (boom-boom!)
He's getting paid for covering stories, so I guess that's being a freelance reporter? I don't know, he's making a quasi-living out of it and not just pulling pranks to post to /r/drama, that seems like a difference to me!
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