Having watched the video, I'm reminded of back in my teens when I went to go see The Last Temptation of Christ with a group from my church and discuss it afterwards. While we were in line, there were a bunch of protesters handing out pamphlets about how awful and blasphemous the movie is - without having seen it.
In general, there's plenty to criticize in Journeys through the Radiant Citadel, but Pundit is explicit that he hasn't read it, and is just going by rumors he hears about it.
He also does a lot of declaring what the creators really think (like "they hate white people") and then clarifying that they don't say those things, but he just knows the impurity in their hearts.
Where did I say "they hate white people"?
Well, for example, it seems that when adventurers first arrive at the citadel they are immediately taxed, but that tax can be in coins, or jewels or gems, or in objects of values, magic items, or (I think) services. So the implication in the setting is that money is not considered a sole form of currency at least.
We're also told that all power and resources are distributed equitably.
Additionally, that everyone in the city receives a universal basic income.
And that health care is socialized (including resurrection spells, made easier by the fact that because the spire is full of the Power of Leftism or whatever, healing in the citadel is always at max effect and with not material component requirements).
So like most of human history even after money was invented? Even today, if you can't pay your taxes but you own stuff the government steals your stuff to cover the taxes plus their expenses in stealing your stuff.
Off course they have a magical NHS, one that works as intended because it's magical, and off course healing doesn't require material components in their commie utopia, these idiots think all things just fall from heaven.
Someone who creates a setting gets to define how magic powers work in a given world, as well as larger cosmology. Within their world, they are right. For example, in Pundit's Lion & Dragon - the monotheistic Church of the Unconquered Sun and the God of Law is defined as good, and the forces of chaos opposed to it are evil and a threat to human survival. Heresy and heathenism are "a direct threat to humankind in this life and the next".
Overall, the Radiant Citadel itself is a left-leaning utopia - but it seems the equivalent of fantasy nordic country or similar, rather than a communist country like Cuba. I don't think it works well as a gaming setting. It seems like a weak wrapper element to bring together the anthology of 13 adventures each in their own mini-setting, and it's my least favorite part of the book. However, that doesn't justify making up false stuff about it.
1) Pundit's charges of community policing are the most off-base. The book specifies a highly trained guard who deal with violence and inspectors for non-violent crime.
Now who's lying?! Here's their entire text on law and justice: "Public safety and peacekeeping are administered through a variety of councils and organizations designed to address specific issues. The House of Convalescence helps those living with mental illness, while inspectors investigate nonviolent crimes and use nonlethal methods of detainment. Theft is uncommon in the city, and rehabilitation and restorative justice are preferred methods of addressing wrongs. Highly trained local guards mobilize to
handle the rare incidents of violence, and citizens are expected to proactively intervene if needed. The worst offenders are sentenced to a controversial
Djaynaian punishment wherein the criminal is subjected to a ritual that prevents them from repeating their crime and then is banished from the city."
So Peacekeeping is NOT the product of a centralized police force. It is handled by "a variety of councils and organizations", there is no single police force. The default is to assume that crime is a mental disorder, while nonviolent crimes are handled by "inspectors".
Theft is miraculously uncommon in the city though no reason whatsoever is given... Is it the lack of a single unifying culture? The Lack of police? the lack of caucasians? I mean, to leftists its obvious that crime is REALLY the fault of some combination of those three, and 3rd-World Sigil has none of the above, so that's probably it.
Rehabilitation and restorative justice is the preferred method to addressing wrongs, which means criminals say they're sorry and leftists bully the victims into saying that's enough.
And then we get to the key part, where YOU did
exactly what you accuse me of doing. You said above "the book specifies A highly trained guard" (note the "A").
The actual text here says "Highly trained LOCAL guardS". (note the lack of the a, the word local and the s at the end of guard)
YOU changed the text to fit your narrative, wanting to pretend that 3rd World Sigil has a single organized police force. IT DOES NOT. The text makes that very clear. A variety of organizations and councils administer peacekeeping and justice, and (presumably in each ethnic ghetto of 3rd World Sigil) there's (DIFFERENT) 'highly trained' LOCAL guardS (plural), meaning STREET GANGS with QUASI-GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY, exactly of the kind you see these days in Venezuela, Argentina, Seattle, Portland, Zimbabwe and other 3rd world shitholes.
YOU lied.
2) There's no suggestion that money isn't important or that *all* resources are distributed. Indeed, the multiple mentions of taxes, tariffs, and tolls scaled to means contradict this.
3) As one example, healing isn't free for anyone except the poorest. As the book puts it, "The House of Convalescence turns no one away; healing is priced according to one's means, and the poorest are served without charge." That could be called socialist because pricing is according to means, but people still have to pay. Historically, many church-run institutions would help heal the poor as well as provide other services, tithing members to pay for it. Alms is a common practice in Christianity and one of the pillars of Islam.
Yes, I'm sure they were basing this on their deep rooted Christian faith, and not in the gospel of modern leftism. Quit trying to pretend these people give a twopenny fuck about historical precedent. They are engaging in a masturbatory fantasy of what they imagine modern day america would be like if they had full control.