The woolery interaction was kinda hilarious. To be fair, Woolery was *100%* egging him on a bit (I'm uneducated on demonology! I'll need you to teach me more about that! Like come on, clear rage bait lol, still funny though) but it seemed like a crazy escalation considering Woolery clearly just wanted out of the convo, and the reasonable response was to... threaten him with eternal damnation? Anyway, I think I'm generally less BB critical (and I guess Ethan Muse critical now) than a lot of others but a lot of these particular interactions have just seemed like a massive failure at room-reading.
At the end of things, I was definitely egging him on too, especially the end where I said he lost the argument and that he was crashing out.
But it was annoying because I was trying to be nice and he was being kind of a jerk! If anyone is confused enough to think I’m snarky, just know that I hold back like crazy.
It feels to me like the equivalent of a bunch of college kids telling the funniest friend in their dorm, “you should do open mic night at the Improv!” then when he bombs they have to talk about how shallow and unfair the audience was, etc. BB is not really defending the post with any substance, just saying “he addressed that!” to every criticism. But he’s the one who introduced his friend to a wider and less friendly audience, so he’s got to stick up for his buddy. It’s the honorable thing to do, but it’s also embarrassing and he shouldn’t have gotten himself into the situation.
He probably poisoned the well by bragging about how smart his friend is. And to be 100% fair, out of curiosity, I googled this guy and he’s like the best student of his major at Michigan (forgot if it was philosophy or comp sci or both), so he’s definitely super smart! It would have played much better if he didn’t do that (Also: the smartest people I know, when I think about it, are a little idiosyncratic or even obsessive fwiw).
I don’t begrudge any of these people, we’re all humans acting human. But like come on, be a little less serious, accept the snark or don’t be snarky haha None of this is consequential, if any of them are reading this somehow, I totally respect people dismissing us as morons and not engaging, but it’s when you do the other stuff that comes off as annoying.
He’s clearly smart, I’m just not sure he’s street smart. He seems to either be unaware of previous cases where children stuck by remarkable claims and convinced people of their sincerity—the witch trials, the Children’s Crusades, the Satanic Panic, the Cottingley Fairies—or he’s overestimating how different those will seem from the Fatima case to skeptical people. So when people say “but the kids could just be lying” he gets frustrated and says “I already addressed that!!”, not understanding why people aren’t satisfied.
I don't understand why we continue to give these people optics. BB is a content farmer, not a philosopher. Ethan is attempting to do the same. Let them have their little circle jerk. They are sitting at the kid's table. The adults can have their own conversations.
Why thank you! But I'm honestly just have an ironic attachment to it all, like I don't take any of this stuff *too* seriously because I don't see it as too consequential. For instance, I'm more upset that my favorite college football team hasn't scored an offensive touchdown in 2 games than I am that I had a negative interaction with Muse. I think the world would be a better place if the people writing these things took themselves similarly less seriously!
The world absolutely would be a better place, but you can earn money here being combative, over-confident, and thin-skinned because it appeals to your average reader. The fact that you can write about it while being detached from the drama puts you at the adults table. I only mentioned giving "certain people" optics because I don't want them to be financially rewarded for being shameless dumbasses.
I feel like this is one where he could really stand to do the “mote in my eye” thing, by which I don’t mean that he’s the snarkiest of all, but he certainly has non-zero snark levels so it would be good to know that he knows that and is either repentant or at least feels he’s justified somehow.
I’m not joking when I say, just perusing substack casually, you can see his snark everywhere, as well as his orbiters. There’s nothing wrong with snark! As long as you can say “yeah that was a little bad, my bad” apologize and move on. But the policing is so silly and clearly self-serving.
Just a reminder that you can mute BB or anyone else who annoys you. He's very good at attracting attention and triggering people, but you don't need to fall for it. There are many quieter voices on Substack who are much more worth reading.
The woolery interaction was kinda hilarious. To be fair, Woolery was *100%* egging him on a bit (I'm uneducated on demonology! I'll need you to teach me more about that! Like come on, clear rage bait lol, still funny though) but it seemed like a crazy escalation considering Woolery clearly just wanted out of the convo, and the reasonable response was to... threaten him with eternal damnation? Anyway, I think I'm generally less BB critical (and I guess Ethan Muse critical now) than a lot of others but a lot of these particular interactions have just seemed like a massive failure at room-reading.
At the end of things, I was definitely egging him on too, especially the end where I said he lost the argument and that he was crashing out.
But it was annoying because I was trying to be nice and he was being kind of a jerk! If anyone is confused enough to think I’m snarky, just know that I hold back like crazy.
It feels to me like the equivalent of a bunch of college kids telling the funniest friend in their dorm, “you should do open mic night at the Improv!” then when he bombs they have to talk about how shallow and unfair the audience was, etc. BB is not really defending the post with any substance, just saying “he addressed that!” to every criticism. But he’s the one who introduced his friend to a wider and less friendly audience, so he’s got to stick up for his buddy. It’s the honorable thing to do, but it’s also embarrassing and he shouldn’t have gotten himself into the situation.
He probably poisoned the well by bragging about how smart his friend is. And to be 100% fair, out of curiosity, I googled this guy and he’s like the best student of his major at Michigan (forgot if it was philosophy or comp sci or both), so he’s definitely super smart! It would have played much better if he didn’t do that (Also: the smartest people I know, when I think about it, are a little idiosyncratic or even obsessive fwiw).
I don’t begrudge any of these people, we’re all humans acting human. But like come on, be a little less serious, accept the snark or don’t be snarky haha None of this is consequential, if any of them are reading this somehow, I totally respect people dismissing us as morons and not engaging, but it’s when you do the other stuff that comes off as annoying.
Yea kinda agree, fwiw the Ethan guy is clearly smart, I think the article is quite good. But also, sometimes you need some perspective.
He’s clearly smart, I’m just not sure he’s street smart. He seems to either be unaware of previous cases where children stuck by remarkable claims and convinced people of their sincerity—the witch trials, the Children’s Crusades, the Satanic Panic, the Cottingley Fairies—or he’s overestimating how different those will seem from the Fatima case to skeptical people. So when people say “but the kids could just be lying” he gets frustrated and says “I already addressed that!!”, not understanding why people aren’t satisfied.
I don't understand why we continue to give these people optics. BB is a content farmer, not a philosopher. Ethan is attempting to do the same. Let them have their little circle jerk. They are sitting at the kid's table. The adults can have their own conversations.
I too sit at the kid’s table though!
You're putting yourself there. You belong with the rest of the grown-ups.
Why thank you! But I'm honestly just have an ironic attachment to it all, like I don't take any of this stuff *too* seriously because I don't see it as too consequential. For instance, I'm more upset that my favorite college football team hasn't scored an offensive touchdown in 2 games than I am that I had a negative interaction with Muse. I think the world would be a better place if the people writing these things took themselves similarly less seriously!
The world absolutely would be a better place, but you can earn money here being combative, over-confident, and thin-skinned because it appeals to your average reader. The fact that you can write about it while being detached from the drama puts you at the adults table. I only mentioned giving "certain people" optics because I don't want them to be financially rewarded for being shameless dumbasses.
I feel like this is one where he could really stand to do the “mote in my eye” thing, by which I don’t mean that he’s the snarkiest of all, but he certainly has non-zero snark levels so it would be good to know that he knows that and is either repentant or at least feels he’s justified somehow.
I’m not joking when I say, just perusing substack casually, you can see his snark everywhere, as well as his orbiters. There’s nothing wrong with snark! As long as you can say “yeah that was a little bad, my bad” apologize and move on. But the policing is so silly and clearly self-serving.
needs more subscribe button
I’m an email marketing guy, buttons are a good pause for breath!
Just a reminder that you can mute BB or anyone else who annoys you. He's very good at attracting attention and triggering people, but you don't need to fall for it. There are many quieter voices on Substack who are much more worth reading.
I typically do that, but I’m also a fan of making content that says “hey look at this guy!”
It unfortunately does numbers.