Second TCR Cold War



The Second TCR Cold War, the resulting conflict of the First TCR Cold War, was an ongoing conflict between the Trolls of True Capitalist Radio and the Inner Circle. It began on March 16, 2017, when the Inner Circle Bounty Hunt took place. This picks up from the First TCR Cold War due to the fact that many believed that the doxing of several Inner Circle members was the start of Troll War IV. However, it was realized that this was not the case when Ghost turned it into a bounty hunt and no doxes were fired back. It would not heat up until May when Ghost would call out adults who watch cartoons, dubbing them cartoon fetished freaks, and bronies as pedophiles.

The name TCR Cold War comes from the fact that despite tensions, a large scale conflict had been avoided for a very long time, with a few proxy wars fought on different platforms, much like in the real Cold War. This relative peace had been achieved thanks to various mediators on both sides, who have managed to calm things down after particularly heated incidents as well as various lessons learned from the dramas in 2012.

Around July 4th, 2017, when Ghost didn't come back to do a show due to him getting drunk, much of the drama had simmered down. Between July 4th to October 31st when Ghost would return to broadcast, much of the drama had already dissipated between the trolls and the Inner Circle, with both sides moving on with their own lives both online and in real life.

Prelude: The Drama of the Inner Circle
Main Article: Ghost's Inner Circle

Before the Inner Circle got into a bunch of drama (pre-CelticIbanCrew era), it was a group that was full of seriousfags that talked about things going on in the show, like the Meme Wars and other topics Ghost brought up. It was as advertised, and only a few trolls had any problems with it. However, a drama free Inner Circle didn't last long. On October 8th, 2016, a twitter user under the name CelticIbanCrew sent threats to Ghost over twitter that he was going to dox of everyone in the Inner Circle, and threatened to release them within 48 hours if Ghost didn't dox himself in this time. This was the beginning of the CelticIbanCrew Blackmailing Incident, which is really the first instance of the Inner Circle attacking trolls, even though very few (if any) people sided with CelticIban. This would start a slow, but growing trend of pitting the trolls against the Inner Circle, which would lead to the creation of the Short Bus and multiple purges of "trolls" in the Inner Circle.

The Inner Circle Bounty Hunt
The Inner Circle Bounty Hunt was a conflict that began on March 16th, 2017, after doxes of various Inner Circle members were released and a subsequent hunt for the doxer. The name of the conflict comes from Ghost setting a bounty of $500 on the Inner Circle spy or the doxer.

Prelude of the Bounty Hunt
Tensions were on the rise in TCR community as screenshots of the Inner Circle discord chat were leaked by an unknown member. In retaliation, a raid was performed on Elfoxo's chat, causing them to outright ban Inner Circle members. Following Mr. Optimism winning the autograph war, Ghost compromised with the trolls, supposedly due to not wanting the Inner Circle doxed and things to escalate any further. This led to the introduction of the Saturday Night Troll Show.

The Hunt For The Mole Begins
However, during Episode 470, someone on /pol/ doxed DistillingCapitalist, eaglecock1776, Amy Daly, the Arab Prince (though the validity of this dox was later confirmed fake), and Make Australia Great, claiming they were going to dox more Inner Circle members unless Ghost quits the show. After the person who doxed several Inner Circle members confirmed that he had a mole in the Inner Circle feeding him info, Ghost stated during the post-show that if people keep messing with the Inner Circle or the slots he was going to put up that Saturday, he will quit the show for good, or at least go away for a while again. Ghost placed a bounty of $500 USD to whoever can find the leaker, and $750 to troll them off the internet as well as dox them. Ghost stated the main reason that he wanted the leaker's dox is not to attack him, but for the Inner Circle to pursue legal charges.

In the Early morning of March 17th, Ghost tweeted out a cryptic tweet stating that he received evidence that "many" of those in the Inner Circle took part in the "Conspiracy" and that he was very disappointed. He then tweeted out a video of a Cypress Hill song titled, "What Go Around Come Around, Kid." Later that day, during the show, the doxer dropped the email addresses of everyone that was in the first wave of Inner purchasers of the Inner Circle pass and named Zim Tower as an accomplice. Later that night, the supposed dox of Elfoxoloco was dropped in the comments section of the TCR Wiki by an anonymous user using an (presumably proxy) IP originating from St. Petersburg, Russia. Things would flare up even more when Ghost saw a tweet from Sgt. Yoda that showed a member of the TCR Steam Chat wanted to frame him for being the leaker. This caused Ghost to go on an outrage on Twitter, with him blaming many members of the Steam chat for colluding with the Inner Circle doxer.

Troll Chat Preparations
After Ghost had wanted a bounty on the suspect who doxed the Inner Circle, many discord chatrooms had been worried that they may be dragged into the hunt. Many users would make "Discord Bunkers", back up discord chatrooms in case of the main Discord chatrooms fell or got involved in the Inner Circle Bounty Hunt. Many of the main Discord chatroom leaders including TheSplicer and Tison Rockit urged many discord members to not get involved in the IC/Pol conflict, as it would make the situation much worse.

Silence
While many initially thought the conflict to be the much feared Troll War IV, the effects of the doxings weren't nearly as bad as initially feared and the conflict went dormant soon after the Elfoxo dox and Steam Chat drama. There have been multiple attempts to try and locate the Mole, but thus far these have been unsuccessful, and the leaker has not posted to /pol/ or made a pastebin with the promised doxes since. This silence would last for about 3 months, until purges began in the Inner Circle.

The Cartoon Crackdown
During Episodes 498 and 499, Ghost made criticisms of adults who watch and/or sexualize cartoons. Many trolls were stirred by this and called out on Ghost for his accusations, though Ghost responded by saying he was being attacked for not liking their fetish. This later escalated on Episode 10 of the Saturday Night Troll Show, where Ghost kept going on about cartoon watchers, even going as far as attacking the Bronies by claiming them to be border line pedophiles due to them sexualizing the cartoon and stating it to be close to pedophilia. Because Ghost was getting tired of cartoon fetishists calling his show, and the situation with Elfoxo, he announced that he would remove Radio Graffiti, and possibly Twitter Shoutouts from future weekday shows. This would be confirmed after Twitter suspended Ghost's account, ending anymore potential twitter shoutouts. It is yet to be determined if Ghost loses viewers for weekday broadcasts or if he actually intends to get rid of either segment for good. This would be the catalyst for his hiatus.

The Brony Olive Branch
In the weeks prior to be suspended, Ghost had posted an article on ghost.report, claiming to extend an "Olive Branch" to the brony community, which can be found here, claiming Ghost would not claim to generalize the entire brony fandom and acknowledge the fact that not only do bronies make up a good portion of his fanbase but to also accept that only a small percentage of bronies are what he would consider pedophilloic. Many were stunned by this, while few called his bluff, believing this was just a ruse. Then, Ghost tweeted a week later a report of a person who went on a shooting at supermarket, asking in the tweet if "bronies are murdering now?!" despite the report claiming the person had a history of mental problems. This set relations back down to an all new low as this contradicted his olive branch post, while disappointing several people in the fandom.

Elfoxo "Poz-Hole" Incident
On the other end of the spectrum, on the night of Episode 499, Ghost would announce on Twitter that he plans to sell Elfoxoloco "Poz Hole" merch to raise awareness for HIV/AIDS on Saturday. He would also post both Robert Redford's dox again as well as an image of Elfoxoloco. In response, on Episode 500, Elfoxo would claim he had BlogTalkRadio pull Episode 433 (A Pyro Incident involving a caller trolling about PizzaGate) down. In response, Ghost said that there would be no Saturday Night Troll Show the next day. However Ghost decided to have a show after the Elfoxo-merch sold more than 20. Elfoxoloco reportedly reported Ghost to GumRoad, removing said merch, and officially shutting down ghost.market, causing Ghost to automatically blame Elfoxo after assuming it. He would later sell the merch via bitcoin.

The Break
Main Article: The Break

On May 8th, 2017 Ghost announced that he will be entering an extended break from the show due to the bronies, anime, Touhou and other fandoms that are infesting his show (though some have argued this is actually just an excuse and he's really just afraid that he might get legal charges for the nefarious things he's done on the internet or that he was allegedly outright doxed on 8chan's /pol/ during Episode 500 and got pizza bombed during the broadcast). Unlike the last time, Ghost assured that this was not in fact the end of TCR and that he might still do occasional broadcasts, but no longer 3 hours a day 6 times a week, assuring that he will make a full fledged return one day.

However, On July 4th, 2017, the day he was scheduled to comeback, Ghost did not come on to do a show. It was later revealed after he posted on ghost.report an article stating Ghost was apparently too drunk to do the broadcast and how he only seems to have a good time only when he's buzzed or drunk. He finally stated he would extend his break in order to get his drinking under control due to how ashamed he felt and for being a bad influence to his younger audiences.

Ghost would not return to do an official broadcast until October 31st, 2017, marking it a nearly 6 month hiatus off the air.

The Inner Circle Purge
During said time, Many trolls turned to the Inner Circle as a culprit for absorbing and following Ghost views and opinions, become obedient followers, thus strengthening Ghost's own views, opinions, and perhaps his ego. Tensions increased at the realization of this by the trolls, leading to small arguments across different platforms. During the hiatus, Ghost and several members would conduct an Inner Circle purge in their Discord server; banning anyone for; being a brony (sexualized or not), interacting or conspiring with trolls, becoming corrupt with power and greed, (i.e, admins banning members or scamming the group and their coins), or simply disagreeing with Ghost over an idea or issue. In the early morning hours of May 29th, 2017, roughly 7-9 members were kicked from the IC chatroom, making it the largest ousting of members in the purge. While only some were banned for a legitimate reason, many were banned for something small and ridiculous, including core members like Amy Daly and Trumping Capitalist. This along with Ghost's attack on bronies have led to some troll groups such as Elfoxoloco and his server to unite with the bronies in protest of the Inner Circle. The purging would finally slow down on June 29th, 2017. This was viewed by Ghost and the members of the IC as simply weeding out those who would hamper in their success in capitalizing.

The Trumping Capitalist Phone Call Incident
Shortly after Ghost's twitter account was mass flagged by several trolls (and along with the term Poz-Hole being seen as an attack on victims of HIV/AIDS by Twitter), word had spread out that the Inner Circle had doxed Trumping Capitalist and had called his parents. This was confirmed true when he finally came public about the incident without much detail. In a statement on Twitter, he stated that he was sorry for "harassing" the Inner Circle, and was "deeply embarrassed" by how he treated the IC. Trumping had decided because of that to try to keep out of Inner Circle melodrama to the best of his ability. The trolls, being rather friendly to Trumping, offered admittance into their discord server. However, it was later revealed that he was colluding with another kicked out Inner Circle member against them. It was later revealed that Trumping, along with many others, had been leaking and giving screencaps to MakeAusGreat, as well as rumors that he had been leaking the Inner Circle chat logs as well. This ended with Trumping and MakeAusGreat going on a blocking spree on twitter, ending the feud.

The End of TCR?
Because Ghost did not return to broadcast on July 4th, the day he announced his return from his hiatus, much of the drama came to a close when Ghost decided to cancel his return, Many of the chatrooms, including the Inner Circle, became less active, with members moving on to different matters both online and in real life, as well as Ghost going off about not wanting to come back. For a while, i t was highly perceived that the show would not return at all.

Invasion of The Burger Planet
In the early days of August 2017, BN King would tweet out a number for anyone to call up. It was revealed to be the number to a show titled Burger Planet. As several trolls called up, few swore they could hear Ghost calling as well. It was later revealed in the days following that Ghost as well as the Inner Circle had been trolling the host of Burger Planet and have even went as far as to raid Burger Planet's discord. Many members of the Inner Circle along with Ghost were banned after the raid.

These events have shown signs that perhaps Ghost may not return as he and his group have gone full troll. Whether Burger Planet deserved to be trolled may be debatable, it shows the hypocrisy that is Ghost and The Circle due to the fact that many of them condemned the trolling that went on during the show's run, as shown from the purging of trolls from their server, and prefer to be a much too serious group discussing cryptocurrencies.

Ghost's Comeback
After not doing a show on the 4th of July, rumors spread of Ghost doing a show sometime in August, then on September 11th. Both of these dates were proven to be a lie as he did not do a show. Around this time, Ghost conducted a poll in his Gab, questioning whether if he should come back or not, or even wait another 5 years. Naturally, the majority of the people voted yes.

It would not be until October where he would finally announce his return by the end of the month. Many were very skeptical of him, doubting he would actually return. To everyone's surprise and excitement, he finally did a show, episode 501, on October 31st, 2017. Before he broadcasted the episode, Ghost would change his avatar again on both Gab and BTR. He would go on to explain that the reason he was on hiatus was due to Robert Mueller's investigations and fears of being put on an indictment list, while also referencing Elfoxoloco when he took down his ghost.market site, and how the term "poz-hole" lead to his banning from twitter, and the censorship of rightwing political views.

The show wouldn't return without changes. Ghost would start a new schedule of every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6pm CST/7pm EST. Ghost Claimed the reason for the change in time was because he no longer had the energy to do five shows a week, while also claiming that Blogtalk had suggested to him that he'd air his show during the prime time hours of the internet.

He has also declared the Saturday Night Troll Show to be over and done with and going back to 20-30 minutes of Radio Graffiti during the weekend show, as he rather wanted to do something else, more specifiacally, going into gaming. At first he turned down the idea of starting a gaming channel after seeing Twitchcon and the amount of degeneracy he considered to be present there, thus not wanting to be apart of that culture himself. However, he has still rolled the idea around of doing a gaming channel. Whether this becomes to fruition well only be told later on in time.