I want you to watch this scene first and we’ll come back and discuss, in a civil manner.
This scene is composed of only two people in this conversation. One is so enraged that he’s willing to escalate things, despite what he told everyone when they first arrived at the Titty Twister bar. Jacob points that out and Seth Gecko, being the criminal he is, acts dismissive and, the longer things go, the worse it becomes.
When Jacob poses the question and points out his ultimate victory, he finally pauses and calms down and the two share a drink.
Right now, the problem is that there are people whom I’ll call Ordo Penduli (Order of The Pendulum) Jacobites (in honor of Harvey Keitel’s character) trying to take on the futile task of calming down The Gecko Warhawks.
Last night, after being locked out on Twitter, we’ll come back to that, I decided to trawl YouTube for a little while and I came across this video which I encourage you all to watch because I will be talking about it at length.
Servant of Shiloh. He’s one of my favorite YouTubers when it comes to Tabletop Role-Playing Games. I see him as insightful (that’s a different word from inciteful, please learn the difference, everyone) and thoughtful.
Differences in theological persuasions aside, he makes sense without it being something to use to browbeat others. I can respect that, and do. I’d sit at a table with him and play a game he runs or play right alongside him. Besides, my dude’s got superhero games and that’s a genre I am kind of interested in. In any case, he’s a great YouTuber and one I recommend.
In this video, he does give caveats and I have to say, I agree that it’s sad he has to give those caveats but let me get to the point of it all. He gives two compelling reasons why some of us would have a world of good done for us if we just broke away from all the drama and played.
In fact, that’s what I should have done yesterday. But I didn’t and it got me locked out. If I hadn’t, I don’t think I’d have surfed YouTube into that video so, despite selective enforcement of their rules.
In any case, I still don’t support cancellation and here are two examples why.
I have had to fight for jobs and keep them in my area when I refused to allow lies to continue. When I knew I’d been lied to and opposed being lied to any further, I became a target in my own hometown. One night, I didn’t make it home in one piece, neither did any of my D&D books or materials. Everything had been destroyed and I’d been messed up pretty badly. Local rumors about me were so ridiculous that seeing me laid out like that should have ended them. Were I so powerful…how did they manage all that in one night? It’s simple. Perception of Threat caused these people to believe they were doing “The Lord’s Work” that night. Even though now I’m of a different faith, I do not support cancelling people based on faith, even if they’re annoying and pounding their pulpits that those like me should be burned at the stake again in order to keep their communities “pure” in a manner of speaking. I’ve been through that. I’ve seen that kind of thing firsthand. It was wrong then. I pointed out once, this is what started it, “If Satan is the Father of Lies, what makes it okay for You to lie?” A perception of threat based on lies, are still based on lies.
The radical left’s perception of threat was based on the same thing. Now, the pendulum is swinging, hard and fast. The radicals never once thought they’d be held to their own rules but once the exiled outnumbered the exilers, that’s when they lost and Lose They Have, in the biggest of ways. They’re losing at the theaters, in the comic shops, in the streaming services, in tabletop RPGs, in the highest offices of the U.S. …they’ve lost. They’re cornered and they’ve bought their own press so hard that they’re desperate, lashing out and can’t comprehend why they’ve lost and it’s because they have spent years fomenting discord, resentment and much, much more.
Now I’m seeing people ready to take on an actual “crusade” to root people out and expel them from society; to see them broken, destitute and ruined.
All I can do at this point is hang my head.
The radicals have proven each and every time that they’re nothing more than hypocrites. If that was wrong then, it’s wrong now. To now “go forth and conquer” makes me want to ask these people if they’re such fucking losers that they don’t know when they’ve won.
All that stuff from point one, it was designed to get me to stop listening to the metal, stop reading the books they didn’t approve, stop playing games, stop watching movies and all because they perceived some threat that I would become an inhuman monster, misting my way into their homes and leaving them exsanguinated in the morning. Again, that’s not hyperbole, just one of the many rumors going around about me at the time.
Well that didn’t happen. I won. I don’t need any more than that. To those who used those tactics to attempt to alter my behavior, you lost. I’m not gloating about it but I will say that, when faced with your day of judgment, that’s something for which you’ll have to answer. I’m okay with that.
I’ve said a long time ago, when you can’t make peace with yourself, you’ll never make peace with anyone or anything. Your mind will be locked in an eternal state of conflict. When I play Thousand Year Old Vampire, I couldn’t care less about the author and his declarations. It’s whatever. If I run a game of Monster of The Week, the only shame I’ll feel is that I am not running Night Shift: Veterans of The Supernatural Wars as I should. To be clear, I’d use MOTW as reference and source material for ideas for NS: VSW and not much more than that.
What else is also not on my mind? What others are thinking of me for playing those games. The only opinions that matter are those who are sitting at the table with a character sheet made. Finis. End of. Full Stop.
People, they lost. The entire thing is crumbling around them. Let it.
We don’t need the tactics of the radical. We never have. Remember, these people embody the line Lancelot used in the movie Excalibur when he said the following:
Your rage has unbalanced you. You, sir, would fight to the death, against a knight who is not your enemy. Over a stretch of road you could easily ride around.
Isn’t that what they’re doing right now? An enemy off-balance will undo themselves. All we have ever had to do is sit back and watch. Let them blame, let them say stupid and insane things. They’ll undo themselves.
Let’s fast-forward from the days of the Panic to the early aughts when Rush Limbaugh made his on-air comments that ended up getting him fired.
I agreed that what he said on the air wasn’t a good thing. I understood that firing. I understood why people were angry. When they started rushing to any and all radio stations to keep him from ever being hired, I backed off. No. I’m not supporting that.
Here’s why.
In my corrections days, PPCT (Pressure Point Control Tactics) classes taught us the Use of Force Continuum. It’s a ladder. You establish presence and that should take care of any problems. If someone steps up, you step up to meet them in order to bring them back down the ladder and then you reciprocate.
While that part is true, the very first thing anyone on the continuum should do is make every attempt at de-escalation. Only when the other person escalates can you then use force but it must be even and it must back down when the other backs down. Criminals do not engage with the Continuum as officers do, that much is true but those methods are effective and they do work. The point being that it’s about subduing these people.
Back when all this cancellation stuff was going on, we, time and again said “We’re not apologizing if we don’t know what’s wrong.” Goodness knows, we tried. When we figured out nothing was good enough for them, especially the Original Sin of being born of a certain color, sexual, or religious persuasion, we were all guilty until proven innocent and no proof would ever get rid of that Original Sin. There was no path to redemption but somehow we are going to employ that very same criteria and that’s right?
While I understand the sentiment, I do not back it and won’t. Even though someone did go after me on Twitter, I’m not going after them. I don’t know who they are and I don’t care.
When asked what did I do in this time, the answer is simple; I would not contribute to an all-out war here in this country. I wouldn’t rend it irreparably asunder because some people acted like deranged idiots. What did you do?
In closing, I just want to say, don’t get it twisted, plenty of people are doing that already. I propose we leave each other the hell alone for a change. Haven’t we been so meddlesome in the affairs of others that we forgot our own faults? No matter what theological persuasion you’re currently in, even you, dear reader, have to admit that that is a universal truth. Servant of Shiloh is one hundred percent correct when he states that the mental vacation (his words on this one) does us all some good. It may even save our lives at times. Electronic gaming has made us isolate ourselves, it’s time to sit with family and friends and have a little fun. Ignore all the nonsense that your games may be infected with. Get creative enough to excise that from your game and I’m talking about the Safety Tools, Lines & Veils, Constant Affirmations, etc. Let people know who insist on these things that they should take a break and come back when they trust their GM…or don’t return at all. Encourage them to start their own table or join another. We’ve lost that sense of true connection and it’s to our detriment. We haven’t used technology to bring us together, we’ve used it to bubble ourselves. What we’re seeing today is a consequence of that so get out of your bubbles for awhile.
That’s it, that’s all I have for you. Remember everyone, I love you all. Take care of yourselves and each other. Always do what lights you up from inside and share that around…it’s needed more than ever and, as always, Shine On.
-Rev. Dr. Raven Wulfgar
3:16 pm (WHAT?! …WHAT?!)
Turnabout is always fair and there's no middle ground to save anymore. If you don't use every weapon and burn your enemy until they're nothing but ashes, you lose.
Total War. War to the Knife; Knife to the Hilt. Bellyaching over the morality of the situation is only going to leave the gut stab wound to fester.