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Author Topic: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?  (Read 9383 times)

King Tyranno

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #45 on: September 13, 2021, 06:35:31 PM »
I noticed the SJW bollocks around the same time as I noticed the sudden obsession with this strange podcast that badly pretended to be DnD from a mediocre DM that enabled many of the bad habits that had annoyed me previously.

Hand in hand I noticed several things. Suddenly players were galvanised to dictate to the GM what to do. This included the pronoun stuff of course. And throwing tantrums when I'd say I wasn't a fan of their weird furry Tiefling OC. It all snowballed from there. Suddenly I'm a bigot for discovering I like B/X more than 5E, voting for the "wrong" politics, and liking or not liking things different from the hive mind. I'm an evil meany GM because I wouldn't run an adventure exactly like it was told in a you tube video. And an even meaner GM because I respected dice rolls I had no control over instead of just fudging things so everyone always lived happily ever after.
For the past 5 years I just tried to get on and play games as much as I could within these annoying restrictions. Respecting the made up pronouns of the mentally ill, letting them have that "super oppressed" tiefling, trying to prevent death because only hardcore edgelords respect dice rolls as is.  I didn't want to be the old man yelling at the clouds. I didn't want to be a mean old boomer just moaning at kids. I did everything as the consensus wanted. But it sucked. I grew to resent 5E and the SJWs running the show. And now I've got a B/X game I want running it really made me realize I shouldn't have capitulated as I did.

Still though, fuck Critical Role. Fuck Matt Mercer and his shitty DM style creating expectations in newer Gamers. Whilst I doubt he's the only reason SJWs infiltrated with the woke bullshit. He was absolutely one of the sappers who breached the walls. So they could come in.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 04:37:00 PM by King Tyranno »

Stephen Tannhauser

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #46 on: September 14, 2021, 03:46:37 PM »
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I remember a discussion on RPG.net about sex differences and abilities around 2010-2011.

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2010-2011 seems to track in multiple communities.

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When I first joined this forum in 2006, one of the recurring topics was Pundit ranting against the Blue Rose RPG. ...Over the next decade, it seems like a slow slide that politics became more and more central.

I've said this before in threads on similar topics, but I'm never averse to repeating myself: the point where I spotted the real shift in polarization, viciousness, and moral conviction on the part of the SJ movement was in mid-2008, when Sarah Palin was nominated for the Republican Vice-Presidential candidacy after Barack Obama had secured the Democratic Presidential nomination. The fervency among the American Left to secure the moral accomplishment of having the first black President, especially after having had to grit their teeth for years pretending to support the anti-terrorism campaigns following the 9/11 attacks, is hard to understate, especially when Palin's appointment gave real momentum to the Republican campaign and it looked for a month or two like the Republicans might actually beat the Democrats to a coveted "First Non-White Male" national executive position.

After the 2008 financial crisis caused McCain to (stupidly, in my opinion) suspend his campaigning, the triumphalism following Obama's successful election combined with the new availability and reach of social media platforms to transform the movement. I consider it no coincidence that the fandom imbroglio known as "RaceFail" -- look that up -- happened the year after Obama's election in 2009, and was the first manifestation of the kind of ideological purge to which SJ movements have always been prone. Obama was the first President to really give the SJ movement in North America a sense that they had finally achieved a kind of cultural "mandate of heaven", a public willingness to adopt the philosophy, and Hillary was expected to maintain and reinforce that mandate -- that was why Trump's election in 2016 caused the breakdown it did.
Better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain

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oggsmash

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #47 on: September 14, 2021, 06:58:03 PM »
Quote
I remember a discussion on RPG.net about sex differences and abilities around 2010-2011.

Quote
2010-2011 seems to track in multiple communities.

Quote
When I first joined this forum in 2006, one of the recurring topics was Pundit ranting against the Blue Rose RPG. ...Over the next decade, it seems like a slow slide that politics became more and more central.

I've said this before in threads on similar topics, but I'm never averse to repeating myself: the point where I spotted the real shift in polarization, viciousness, and moral conviction on the part of the SJ movement was in mid-2008, when Sarah Palin was nominated for the Republican Vice-Presidential candidacy after Barack Obama had secured the Democratic Presidential nomination. The fervency among the American Left to secure the moral accomplishment of having the first black President, especially after having had to grit their teeth for years pretending to support the anti-terrorism campaigns following the 9/11 attacks, is hard to understate, especially when Palin's appointment gave real momentum to the Republican campaign and it looked for a month or two like the Republicans might actually beat the Democrats to a coveted "First Non-White Male" national executive position.

After the 2008 financial crisis caused McCain to (stupidly, in my opinion) suspend his campaigning, the triumphalism following Obama's successful election combined with the new availability and reach of social media platforms to transform the movement. I consider it no coincidence that the fandom imbroglio known as "RaceFail" -- look that up -- happened the year after Obama's election in 2009, and was the first manifestation of the kind of ideological purge to which SJ movements have always been prone. Obama was the first President to really give the SJ movement in North America a sense that they had finally achieved a kind of cultural "mandate of heaven", a public willingness to adopt the philosophy, and Hillary was expected to maintain and reinforce that mandate -- that was why Trump's election in 2016 caused the breakdown it did.


  I am going to have to be honest here, I agree about how hard they went at Palin....But McCain was fucking horrible.  I did not vote for either of them, but as I hit that Libertarian ticket, I have to admit I hoped to high heaven that McCain would not be POTUS. edited to add:  I *want* to think in hindsight McCain might have been better...but I can also look at him in hindsight after that election as well, and I hate to say...I am glad Obama won that election.
« Last Edit: September 14, 2021, 06:59:41 PM by oggsmash »

Pat
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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #48 on: September 14, 2021, 07:09:21 PM »
  I am going to have to be honest here, I agree about how hard they went at Palin....But McCain was fucking horrible.  I did not vote for either of them, but as I hit that Libertarian ticket, I have to admit I hoped to high heaven that McCain would not be POTUS. edited to add:  I *want* to think in hindsight McCain might have been better...but I can also look at him in hindsight after that election as well, and I hate to say...I am glad Obama won that election.
McCain ran a Hillary Clinton campaign. Low energy, low effort.

Obama ran on hope for the country's race-blind future.

Shame how that turned out.

Ghostmaker

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #49 on: September 14, 2021, 07:11:14 PM »
More than one conservative referred to McCain as the 'least repulsive Democrat'.


Fergurg

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #50 on: September 14, 2021, 07:18:38 PM »
  I am going to have to be honest here, I agree about how hard they went at Palin....But McCain was fucking horrible.  I did not vote for either of them, but as I hit that Libertarian ticket, I have to admit I hoped to high heaven that McCain would not be POTUS. edited to add:  I *want* to think in hindsight McCain might have been better...but I can also look at him in hindsight after that election as well, and I hate to say...I am glad Obama won that election.
McCain ran a Hillary Clinton campaign. Low energy, low effort.

Obama ran on hope for the country's race-blind future.

Shame how that turned out.

I’ll go further. McCain clearly had no intention of winning. He sounded like he was campaigning to be in Obama’s cabinet and every single time something came up that could have hurt Obama’s campaign, McCain made a point to dismiss it as irrelevant.

oggsmash

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #51 on: September 15, 2021, 07:53:26 AM »
  I am going to have to be honest here, I agree about how hard they went at Palin....But McCain was fucking horrible.  I did not vote for either of them, but as I hit that Libertarian ticket, I have to admit I hoped to high heaven that McCain would not be POTUS. edited to add:  I *want* to think in hindsight McCain might have been better...but I can also look at him in hindsight after that election as well, and I hate to say...I am glad Obama won that election.
McCain ran a Hillary Clinton campaign. Low energy, low effort.

Obama ran on hope for the country's race-blind future.

Shame how that turned out.

I’ll go further. McCain clearly had no intention of winning. He sounded like he was campaigning to be in Obama’s cabinet and every single time something came up that could have hurt Obama’s campaign, McCain made a point to dismiss it as irrelevant.

  Yes.  I would also add, now that we have hindsight, what sort of complete narcissist holds onto a position like that with a FUCKING BRAIN TUMOR?   If there is a medical condition that should allow for immediate removal from office, I would think a brain tumor has to be it.  Leave, rest, get well... but make big policy decisions?  fuck no.

horsesoldier

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #52 on: September 17, 2021, 12:00:42 PM »
There has always been a tilting towards progressive ideology, whatever that may be at the time, and the nerd phenotype. Physically weak people, the unattractive but smart, these types of people are in a majority sense going to be drawn towards the hot new thing. In the past this was Christianity, or Protestantism, or the industrial revolution or whatever.

Today it's begging that your town of 30k gets 5k Afghans and 8 year olds on puberty blockers.

Anyway, when it first dawned on me, I guess it was Origins in the summer of 2003. Just having graduated high school in Texas, the kind of gamers I had been around were either wargamers, who by personality trended more "conservative" or roleplayers, most of which was just weird people. Looking back on that time I never had a thought about the politics someone might have had nor did we have any conversations relating to that. We talked about girls, games, sports, crap like that. My other con experience had been on a university campus and I didn't treat it as representative. Anyway, going up to Ohio and seeing the nerd flotsam that had spilled into Columbus, I started to identify the lefty tinge to the hobby.

When it coasleced into something more concrete I guess it would be gamergate and it's after effects. The first time I really grappled with SJW mealy mouth bullshit was George R. R. Martin tying to explain why the Sad/Sick puppies were a bad thing for his precious worldcon. Guy just couldn't or wouldn't come out and say what the problem was. Meanwhile his opponents could. Since then I have learned the side who is able to simply explain a problem is usually the correct one.

Stephen Tannhauser

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #53 on: September 17, 2021, 01:24:30 PM »
There has always been a tilting towards progressive ideology, whatever that may be at the time, and the nerd phenotype. Physically weak people, the unattractive but smart, these types of people are in a majority sense going to be drawn towards the hot new thing.

I think it's less about the "hot new thing" and more about the opinions towards society and other people that certain formative experiences tend to inculcate in people. Using myself and many fandom friends I've known as examples, several childhood characteristics tended to be common among the Western fan-geek population, especially in the '70s and '80s:

- Frequent humiliation and/or rejection by peers, usually as the victims of bullying or teasing based on unusual interests, or genuine gaps in intellect and/or maturity.
- Generally better experiences with teachers and adults, especially if the adults encouraged those interests rather than mocking them.
- Personal familiarity with family collapse, either their own or a close friend's or relative's.

Assuming formative experiences like these always seemed a very plausible explanation for many of the traits I've seen demonstrated by fervent progressivists (and which I possessed a few of to some degree myself, back in my more centrist days):

- contempt for popular taste and opinion;
- admiration for benevolent authority figures who could use their power to redress injustices and share things out fairly;
- the belief that society would do better if run by a small gifted elite than by leaving the hoi-polloi to themselves;
- disdain for "traditional families" and the impatience with any arguments that such families were best for both parents and children;
- the desire to characterize rejection, criticism and condemnation (even purely verbally or philosophically) as socially destructive assault when done by the majority to the minority or the powerful to the weak, but to embrace it as moral and heroic when done in reverse. (This is, of course, one of the first things to change now that progressivist philosophy has such a stranglehold on certain key channels of social power.)
« Last Edit: September 17, 2021, 01:26:11 PM by Stephen Tannhauser »
Better to keep silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. -- Mark Twain

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Novastar

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #54 on: September 17, 2021, 05:22:47 PM »
As for many others, it was Gamergate. It was quite literally shocking to me, the demonization that took place from the media.
I like to think I was no innocent before that, but the sheer willful vitriol and dishonesty from those being criticized, was appalling.
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Trond

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #55 on: September 17, 2021, 06:35:18 PM »
….The first time I really grappled with SJW mealy mouth bullshit was George R. R. Martin tying to explain why the Sad/Sick puppies were a bad thing for his precious worldcon. Guy just couldn't or wouldn't come out and say what the problem was. Meanwhile his opponents could. ….

Wut? George RR Martin? I’m not his biggest fan but I always thought he was relatively cool?

Eirikrautha

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #56 on: September 17, 2021, 07:06:08 PM »
….The first time I really grappled with SJW mealy mouth bullshit was George R. R. Martin tying to explain why the Sad/Sick puppies were a bad thing for his precious worldcon. Guy just couldn't or wouldn't come out and say what the problem was. Meanwhile his opponents could. ….

Wut? George RR Martin? I’m not his biggest fan but I always thought he was relatively cool?

Hell no!  He championed giving no award in any category of the Hugos that a non-woke book looked like it had a chance to win.  He's part of the cult, only old and cantankerous enough that they really don't like him, either...

Trond

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #57 on: September 17, 2021, 08:05:14 PM »
OK, and what was the deal with the sad puppies?

Ghostmaker

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #58 on: September 17, 2021, 10:10:08 PM »
OK, and what was the deal with the sad puppies?
As I understand it, Sad Puppies was the brainchild of Larry Correia, who was out to make the point that the Hugos had devolved into a circlejerk for the 'in' crowd at Worldcon. If you checked off the right diversity boxes, you got nominated, regardless of your work's quality.

This led to Larry and several other center-to-right authors campaigning for a slate of nominations, which resulted in the usual suspects losing their minds and culminating in the 'no award' bid, rather than vote for something nominated by (ew) conservatives.

Correia offers his explanation here: https://monsterhunternation.com/2014/04/24/an-explanation-about-the-hugo-awards-controversy/

After a few passes with the Sad Puppies, Correia more or less departed it to focus on, y'know, writing. He'd made his point, in his opinion. I suspect that he was also tired of dealing with Teddy Beale/Vox Day, who was running the 'Rabid Puppies' campaign -- which was Sad Puppies with no class at all.

oggsmash

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Re: When did you first start to notice the SJW takeover of the hobby?
« Reply #59 on: September 17, 2021, 10:14:38 PM »
  Dealing with Vox Day would make a fucking champion triathlete exhausted.   That guy is as full of his own shit as anyone I have ever heard talk.