And that's the point here.  Forty merits for a single post, especially to a low-ranked shitposter, is excessive in the extreme.  Had Taki given something like 2 merits for that post, nobody would ever have noticed.  Instead, he's suffering the consequences for helping a friend who might not be a friend at all. 

Hard to say how I'd feel, since I wouldn't send 40 merits to either a friend or an alt account.  I have a feeling I'd probably know I deserved whatever was coming to me and just move on, which is what you should do.  Lauda and TMAN don't often remove negs as far as I know, so you're going to have a hell of a hard time getting rid of the ones you got. 

As far as staying silent goes, that's your best bet.  If you keep making noise, you're going to end up on ignore lists and have your PMs blocked, and that'll make it near impossible to get anyone to remove their tags.