Quote:
Originally Posted by that_pope
I used to troll Torelli online, but in the last 6 months I've came around and think he was a victim of Doug's bullying machine.
He handled the situation poorly, but I found it telling that Galfond mentioned this case in his post about Doug's bullying. Obviously, Galfond doesn't see Alec as some chronic slimeball or hustler who should be driven from the game.
I also think when Galfond said Doug picks on "easy targets," he was tactfully saying maybe some of these people don't have the highest level of self-awareness, or are out of step where Doug/his team are very adept at SM and PR. Alec misspeaks and can be kind of goofy and a lot of what Doug was doing was mocking Alec's personality, the quality of his videos and things like that. So basically using Alec's mistake as a pretext to bully the uncool kid who isn't really equipped to stand up for himself.
I think Doug rationalizes these things by viewing himself as comparable to a political satirist who targets bad politicians who do a lot of damage to the world. A bully of bullies. But there is a line somewhere between The President of the US and a person who made a dumb tweet where this stops being applicable. Alec didn't start an unjust war or steal a bunch of public money. Though he does choose to promote himself as a public figure.
Now, maybe Alec does have a lot more shadiness in his past. I don't know. I kind of skimmed old posts someone linked to about chip dumping, and it didn't look good. I didn't feel like digging into it at the time. But I certainly don't hate the guy because of the hidden chip hand and many people have gotten passes for doing far worse.