As you might have heard, someone on the internet said something stupid and prejudiced. I know, shock and horror! How could this be?
Did I mention this is the internet? Stupid and prejudiced is kind of the internet's brand.
Specifically, Bob Bledsaw II wrote something nasty about Jews and also that black music appropriated by Elvis is pretty good.
I don't know him, but I've heard of him. And, of course, I know of Judge's Guild, but I've never used their products. If there's no chance of it having come from an LSD fever-dream, I'm just not interested.
Predictably, many are coming out of the woodwork to condemn what he said. That's fine. I condemn it, too. Just like when I condemn it from the mouths or twitter accounts of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and similar progressives.
But what came as a surprise is this - it wasn't the radical left or woke police or social justice warriors who are trying to "out" this old guy as a horrible bigot who must be shunned without any means of supporting himself or his family. No, it was the neutral-ground fence-sitters, the moderates, the centrists, mild mannered conservatives, and those who don't want to get involved in politics.
Just a year ago, a popular OSR bartender disowned probably the only trans-person he's ever been in close contact with. And I've received cold stares and silence from many quarters of the community. But I'm not going to stop being me, just as I'm not going to stop pointing out hypocrisy.
So, what have we learned from our moral superiors, the political leftists who've tried to deplatform, demonetize, and cancel everyone that deviates from woke scripture, anyone who doesn't pass the litmus test of egalitarian brother and sisterhood, all who stand in the way of intersectional workers of the world uniting?
That it's better to accuse and punish others than to look inward and try make better choices for ourselves.
You change views by discussing them openly, not beating people over the head merely for holding them.
And then you get comments like anti-semitism is merely talking to their OSR base or that President Trump ushered in a new era of racism, anti-semitism, sexism, homo and trans-phobia, etc. That, too, is bullshit. Trump has been more pro-Jew and pro-Israel than any President in memory.
I honestly thought we were better than that. We don't need to virtue signal because, as we all know, that currency is vastly over-inflated, its stock doomed to plummet until 1,000 digital back-pats can only afford you a crust of Democratic Socialist bread.
If you want to stop buying this product or stop promoting that designer, more power to you. It's a free country, you can do what you want with your dollars and time. Just don't ask me to sign my name to some blacklist or join the outrage mob or help you force some dude with a terrible worldview from attending an RPG convention.
VS
p.s. We'll be discussing the issue this Sunday on Inappropriate Characters.
