RPGnet's decay (TBP madness)

[Visitor Q]

Well, it's finally happened.

Someone's caught a permaban for not wanting to call the opposition Nazis.

How long before TBP accuse the Anti-Defamation League of being Nazi sympathizers?

https://www.adl.org/blog/lets-avoid-holocaust-analogies-in-the-public-square

I mean it would be pretty easy to start a thread on TBP copy and pasting this with a little bit of editing without attributation and see the reaction.

[Mistwell]

I don't know Bethdrshon personally yet even if I did it's not someone who I would want to be around.

Unless something happened in her life some kind of mental and/or physical abuse it's one thing. I can excuse the bad behaviour. If not I don't want that kind of toxic person in my life.

Basically saying " tired of being nice" shows the person was never nice to begin with and possibly a borderline sociopath if not one already. Normal people don't get tired of being nice.

I know several parents who were beat down by circumstances over time where they just got tired of being nice to people who pissed them off and who got a short temper where they used to be patient. They were genuinely nice people at one time, but life just ground them down. I keep hoping, as their kids get older, their old selves might rise to the surface more.

[Mistwell]

Well, it's finally happened.

Someone's caught a permaban for not wanting to call the opposition Nazis.

How long before TBP accuse the Anti-Defamation League of being Nazi sympathizers?

https://www.adl.org/blog/lets-avoid-holocaust-analogies-in-the-public-square

I mean, it looks like they just did. They would say the views of the ADL are not a good fit for their forum.

[Skullking]

Well, it's finally happened.

Someone's caught a permaban for not wanting to call the opposition Nazis.

In this case I agree with the Mod. A reasonably sane person like that isn't a good fit for the site.
The more I see of RPGNet, the more I think 'what a bunch of cunts'.

[Abraxus]

I know several parents who were beat down by circumstances over time where they just got tired of being nice to people who pissed them off and who got a short temper where they used to be patient. They were genuinely nice people at one time, but life just ground them down. I keep hoping, as their kids get older, their old selves might rise to the surface more.

Of course as long as it's not just something that came out of nowhere. The OP made it sound like BBD simply just no longer wanted to be nice. We have all had such days for sure. To live one life like that one loses their friends maybe even family because it takes too much effort especially mentally. Best way someone I knew put was to tell me to ask myself " being I friends does it feel like a friendship or like work.

When it's the second one either tries to help the person if wanted or simply walk away before you turn into them because it is draining emotionally and mentally imo. An effort should be made but if they don't want the help then you get to walk away.

[Ratman_tf]

So what happened to Bethdragon over there?  She had inherited Tanka's crown as worst-of-the-worst, IMO.  Do you think she got Trotsky'd, or just died from one of the many ailments endemic to blue-haired landwhales?

Hasn't been online since early July, but still listed as a mod, and no announcement. Maybe she's just taking a break—we know how hard moderating TBP is, after all.

(I should probably stop lurking as well. That "Open Letter to GenCon" thread has not been conducive to peace and calm, and that's with my indifference to the convention...)

Bethdragon was a dear online friend of mine for over 20 years. We wrote together, gamed together, and visited each other. She was always the nicest person that I'd ever met. I used to joke that everyone loved her except evil people, and even they were ambivalent.

Somewhere along the way, something changed. She stopped replying to my Facebook messages for a long while, and when she finally did, she expressed that she was "tired of being nice".

It really makes me sad.

I'm sorry, man.  That's sad to hear, and I'm sorry she made that choice.

Ditto.

It's hard to remember that no matter how much they infuriate us, the mods at RPG.net are just people. I happen to think they're people who have taken ideology too far on a message board (and probably in RL) and become the things they profess to hate, but my hope is that they come to their senses eventually.

Because the alternative is what we've got going on now, and that sucks.

I hope BethDragon is ok.

While I don't want wish anyone ill and I sincerely hope BethDragon is getting support for any mental health issues she has, the people the mods are banning are also people.  They are generally being pushed out of an avenue to express themselves and enjoy their hobby merely for expressing wrong opinions.

Often bullies are the most unhappy people around.

my hope is that they come to their senses eventually.

[Trond]

Well, it's finally happened.

Someone's caught a permaban for not wanting to call the opposition Nazis.

In this case I agree with the Mod. A reasonably sane person like that isn't a good fit for the site.
The more I see of RPGNet, the more I think 'what a bunch of cunts'.

That sums it up nicely.

[Valatar]

Yeah, I'm neither interested in hanging out with a bunch of people who want to shriek that everyone disagreeing with them are literal genocider nazis, nor in being somewhere with a pack of assholes for moderator staff.  My beef is that rpg.net used to be an actual decent site where people could come together to talk nerd things about RPGs without constant purity spirals, and that community got driven away by the cretins and ratcheting upwards of far-left hysteria.

[Ghostmaker]

Yeah, I'm neither interested in hanging out with a bunch of people who want to shriek that everyone disagreeing with them are literal genocider nazis, nor in being somewhere with a pack of assholes for moderator staff.  My beef is that rpg.net used to be an actual decent site where people could come together to talk nerd things about RPGs without constant purity spirals, and that community got driven away by the cretins and ratcheting upwards of far-left hysteria.

That's been the proverbial pebble in my shoe for a while. The fact that the place calling itself 'RPG.net' is basically a hive of stupid wokeist politics, moderated by people with hair-trigger tempers and a cheerful willingness to kick people off for frankly innocuous postings.

I feel sorry for any new player looking for information who stumbles into that hellhole.

[Thorn Drumheller]

Yeah, I'm neither interested in hanging out with a bunch of people who want to shriek that everyone disagreeing with them are literal genocider nazis, nor in being somewhere with a pack of assholes for moderator staff.  My beef is that rpg.net used to be an actual decent site where people could come together to talk nerd things about RPGs without constant purity spirals, and that community got driven away by the cretins and ratcheting upwards of far-left hysteria.

Yes, this agreed. I remember when TBP used to be a site with a lot of great discussion. But just like toxic friends, I had to leave it behind.

[Ghostmaker]

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/ahndrostalgan-receives-a-🚫-thirty-day-ban-downplaying-sexism-and-dismissal-of-minority-concerns.901454/

I am kind of at a loss here.

It appears to me that ahndrostalgan is pointing out that the solution to the problem of GenCon being in a 'regressive' (their view, mind you) state is not as simply as boycott/move elsewhere.

But because bcaugust54 is an incoherent moron who can't read, and can't stand that people might not march in lockstep with it, here comes the banhammer.

[wmarshal]

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/ahndrostalgan-receives-a-🚫-thirty-day-ban-downplaying-sexism-and-dismissal-of-minority-concerns.901454/

I am kind of at a loss here.

It appears to me that ahndrostalgan is pointing out that the solution to the problem of GenCon being in a 'regressive' (their view, mind you) state is not as simply as boycott/move elsewhere.

But because bcaugust54 is an incoherent moron who can't read, and can't stand that people might not march in lockstep with it, here comes the banhammer.

I think I can explain. The boycott Indiana discussion is fundamentally a Two Minutes of Hate session. (Not exactly literally, because it would be a blessing if it lasted only 2 minutes.) The point is to identify an object of hate, and get everyone engaged in a process of groupthink. It's a brainwashing technique. Anything that interrupts the Two Minutes of Hate must be stopped, otherwise the technique loses its effect.

The offending poster sounds like he's on the progressive side, but he's interrupting the 2MOH with some factual concerns. That his concerns may be legitimate is besides the point. He's interrupting the 2MOH, and therefore has to get banned for a significant amount of time.

[Visitor Q]

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/ahndrostalgan-receives-a-🚫-thirty-day-ban-downplaying-sexism-and-dismissal-of-minority-concerns.901454/

I am kind of at a loss here.

It appears to me that ahndrostalgan is pointing out that the solution to the problem of GenCon being in a 'regressive' (their view, mind you) state is not as simply as boycott/move elsewhere.

But because bcaugust54 is an incoherent moron who can't read, and can't stand that people might not march in lockstep with it, here comes the banhammer.

I think I can explain. The boycott Indiana discussion is fundamentally a Two Minutes of Hate session. (Not exactly literally, because it would be a blessing if it lasted only 2 minutes.) The point is to identify an object of hate, and get everyone engaged in a process of groupthink. It's a brainwashing technique. Anything that interrupts the Two Minutes of Hate must be stopped, otherwise the technique loses its effect.

The offending poster sounds like he's on the progressive side, but he's interrupting the 2MOH with some factual concerns. That his concerns may be legitimate is besides the point. He's interrupting the 2MOH, and therefore has to get banned for a significant amount of time.

I think this is correct. 

Note also that the line of argument in the thread has moved from a political disagreement about a social policy to a literal direct safety concern. Essentially a raising of the stakes from an issue that can be solved with discussion and compromise to a purely emotional argument where direct force cam be employed and justified. It's actually quite scary to watch the slow motion development of extremism and the justification of violence.

(I don't think this is hyperbole, earlier in the thread the direct through line that equated anyone who disagrees with abortion with literal Nazis was made).

[oggsmash]

  LMAO...."people capable of being pregnant"  God damn these fucking idiots are so far up their own asses they can not even just say women any more.   Human rights....Shit heads can not even say women get pregnant are going to lecture about human rights. 

[rytrasmi]

  LMAO...."people capable of being pregnant"  God damn these fucking idiots are so far up their own asses they can not even just say women any more.   Human rights....Shit heads can not even say women get pregnant are going to lecture about human rights.

It's either insane or it's a calculated and cynical attempt to erase women. "Women aren't special. Anyone can be a women!"

The human race would not exist without women. As a man, I can say I fucking love women and am thrilled they exist. Other differences aside, I respect the feminists who are fighting this kind of utter bullshit (JKR, Megan Murphy, etc.).