Talking Spit, Getting Hits: MT Election Discourse

Elections are spicy. The Moist Talkers have an incredibly smart and engaged fanbase, but even the most empathetic Canadian can find themself caught up in unproductive partisan discourse. That’s why we’re rolling out this new vocabulary ahead of Season 18, to help shape the conversation — how we express our own ideas, and how we view those of others.

In the past, the debate has been boiled down to Lore vs. Stats. Each issue would get categorized as one or the other, and they would be in competition. But what if they’re not in competition?

We’re broadening the terms to emphasize our core values as Moist Talker fans and better communicate that they are not conflicting: Talking Spit and Getting Hits.

Talking Spit

This category focuses on the Moist Talker brand, separate from game outcomes.

This category is a bit nebulous, but it prioritizes things like:
• Team Culture / Tradition
• Player attachment
• Exploring fun or funny options
• Embracing the inevitability of chaos & calamity

Getting Hits

This category focuses on the ability of the Moist Talkers to win Blaseball games.

This category is generally more concrete, and prioritizes things like:
• Improving the team’s skill level
• Finding lineup / rotation efficiency
• Analyzing strategies to exploit untapped potential
• Worsen the team when strategically advantageous (“tanking”)

Hits / Spits in Practice

In analyzing any particular Election issue, you can refer to how it interacts with these two categories, and one does not necessarily negate the other. It is often helpful for illustration to think of them as quantities with discrete values:

Transfusing Cutie Foodcrimes would improve her stats, so it’s High Hits. It could lead to a mini lorejam about how she improved, which is at least Medium Spits; but some of our fanbase has a weird obsession with how bad she is at the game and might irrationally reject her getting better, so it could be Low Spits for them.

Keep in mind that these are still qualitative evaluations, and your take on an issue’s “Level” in either category may differ from someone else’s!

In addition, each category encompasses a spectrum of opinion. If a move would improve the team’s stats in the short term, but potentially sacrifice the team’s stats in the longer term, it may be regarded as High or Low Hits depending on your perspective and priorities within the category.

And of course, not only are Hits and Spits designed not to inherently conflict, please note that they are also not mutually exclusive. Remember that very often team culture and traditions can come from on-field performance, for example!

Other Helpful Vocabulary

This is still a fairly new concept for our community, and its use is evolving. Here are some terms you might encounter in Moist Talker discussion:

Moose / Goose

Kind of an unofficial third category. The Moose is solid and stable; the Goose is an agent of chaos. These can be used when talking about an issue in general, or within the other categories to better define a position. Again, not mutually exclusive; if you’ve seen a Moose, you know that sometimes they get Goosey.

Splash / Soak

Another modifier for discussion within a category. A Splash is superficial / low-investment / short term, while a Soak is wide-reaching / high-investment / long term.