Correction: Stop The Violence

Yesterday, we discussed one automotive journalist’s rather hysterical reaction to the Dodge Demon. That writer contacted TTAC shortly after the article was published to request a particular sentence be removed.

In the interest of complete clarity, I’ve elected (and Mark has agreed) to publish this correction instead.

I was a little annoyed to see this is Jack’s story: “To my recollection, he has threatened to beat me up at least twice.” This is not only NOT true, it is not even remotely accurate. I’ve never done anything of the sort. I have never threatened Jack – a person I don’t even know – with any kind of violence. I have been in 1 fight in my entire life. I don’t engage in or endorse violence – and certainly never would over a disagreement over cars.

We had words once on Facebook… If Jack can show me any of these threats that he is referring to, I will make an immediate $10,000 donation to the Dearborn Animal Shelter in his name.

Unfortunately for both me and the homeless animals of the Dearborn Animal Shelter, the disagreement to which Mr. Truett refers occurred on a super-secret little Facebook group for autowriters. Ninety-five percent of the time the discussion in the group consisted of nothing besides a) second-tier writers trying to beg their way into free trips, or b) a truly nauseating amount of mutual back-scratching. The dust-up between me and Richard was either edited or removed outright by the administrators of that group. I was then ejected from the group after having a couple of further arguments with dudes whose primary performance-driving experience consists of steering a Rascal mobility scooter around the buffet table at the Detroit auto show. Shortly after, I quit Facebook for good, which has greatly improved my quality of life and would also greatly improve yours if you could bring yourself to do it.

I cannot, therefore, prove that Mr. Truett threatened to beat me up. And the more I think of it, the more I think it was probably a case of him saying something to me that I wouldn’t say to someone unless I was totally willing to bop them right in the face. Everybody tells me that Richard is a really decent guy. Like, he’s so decent that if he went into a restaurant and said to the owner, “Nice business — it would be a shame if something happened to it,” he would actually be expressing a sincere concern about the restaurant.

The troll in me wants to challenge Mr. Truett to a charity boxing match. If he wins, the money can go to the animal shelter. If I win, the money would go to Claire Lind, a young lady who poses topless in front of custom vans from the Seventies. (Find out more here, but not if you’re at work.) However, I am currently following the example of my hero John Mayer and working on my personal spiritual growth. So let’s leave it at this: I probably misunderstood what Richard was saying to me. He seems like a very nice man. The Dodge Demon is a very nice car that also means no harm to anyone. Can’t we all just get along?