One of the weirder things I have witnessed over the past twenty years of blogging is how so many writers out there, particularly those with an ax to grind about an issue or issues approach things as if they, alone have the gospel truth, and that what they are writing, if followed, will change the trajectory of the world. It’s really bizarre, honestly.
The proximate cause of this discussion is earlier today I noticed Jesse Singal, a middling intellect and former writer for one of the NY rags, who has spent the last few years ranting about Trans issues. He’s one of Sully and Greenwald’s favorites, so that means he is kind of an edgelord douchebag with a dubious grasp of statistical analysis. Speaking of statistics, there is literally nothing that statistically ignorant writerslove more than a shoddy meta-analysis. It’s the dataset equivalent of of an asset backed security potentially jammed full of subprime loan tranches. At any rate, Singal was picking a fight with, of all people, Drew Magary:
Lol at picking a fight with Magary https://t.co/12cgYjqP5Y
— John Cole (@Johngcole) March 2, 2023
If Magary even bothers to respond, this is not going to end the way it played out in Singal’s head when he started this ruckus.
Back to the point. Singal and those like him always seem to write as if the very existence of our species and nation is at stake if these issues with the troublesome trans people are not dealt with, and dealt with in the way he sees fit at this very moment (because, as we know, that may change moment to moment). It’s really kind of crazy.
There are so many people out there who really do not realize they are not the main character in this story, and I don’t know if that has changed over the past few decades because we spent so many years boosting people’s self esteem instead of making sure people have accurate self esteem, if the internet has just given everyone a bigger megaphone, or who knows what else. But when these guys write, it feels like they think they are at the helm of Civ IV making big decisions about the shape of their empire, rather than just being some windbag blasting out noxious fumes into an already smelly public discourse.
The trans and other various antigay bigots are really special cases, though, in that they seem to think there is some concerted effort teh left or the other villain du jour to transition everyone to the ick. And it’s just so absurd. First off, so what. If 50% of the population decided overnight they were going to transition, I would give zero fucks because it is not going to change how I live my life in any way, shape, or form. I’m still going to have the same like and dislikes, and the same sexual attraction I have always had and still have my “type.”. In case any of you are wondering what my type is, at this age it’s “willing.”
At any rate, none of the anti-trans shit that Republicans and others are pushing is going to change the number of trans people out there, just like no amount of bigotry is going to change the number of gay people out there. They’re still going to be trans, they’re just going to be more miserable than they already are, which if you look at the numbers for kids, is fucking horrifying.
And, if you are an old like me, you don’t have to fucking understand it. It literally does not impact your life. All you need to do is call people what they want to be called, don’t be a fucking bigot, and mind your own fucking business.
On a side note thank you for all the roofing advice- I have a person coming on Monday to give me a bunch of estimates.
Also, I am driving to Rhode Island tomorrow to pick up the cat this weekend.
Amir Khalid
Re the cat from Rhode Island: congratulations!
I agree 1,000% about trans people.
And, um, I hope you end up with a nice-looking, durable roof at a reasonable price.
Betty Cracker
😂
Couldn’t agree more on the “just asking questions” people. Mind your own fucking beeswax!
PS: Congrats on the kitty!
Baud
Also too, able.
NotMax
Don’t pass up the opportunity to drink a cabinet while there.
X Foley 8
If you’re hungry while passing over the Gold Star Bridge from New London into Groton, I recommend Paul’s Pasta. A gem. And you kind of look like Paul.
suzanne
If anybody honestly looks around at the world and concludes that acceptance of transgender people is The Biggest Threat To Society, that person is either so stupid that they shouldn’t be let outdoors without a leash, or they are at core a narcissistic cruel self-aggrandizing control freak.
There is no reasonable reason to be so wrapped up in other people’s personal lives.
Baud
@suzanne:
But the unreasonable reasons are endless.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: Cole can make up the extra effort on his partners’ behalf (behalves?) , I’m sure. It’s the chivalrous thing to let her just lie there, I hear.
I don’t pair with women, I couldn’t tell you. Just what I picked up from society, maaaan.
eclare
Yay! New kitty!
Baud
BTW, I don’t know who any of the people mentioned in the post are.
schrodingers_cat
This moron sounds like he may have Indian ancestry. Singhal is a Marwari last name. Marwar is a region of the arid state of Rajasthan. Or may be not.
His father’s name is Bruce and the last name doesn’t have an h in it
Gin & Tonic
Wave when you’re driving by. I’d invite you for lunch, but neither of us likes people all that much.
NotMax
FYI. Looks as if they’re gong all in on rolling out new Koch.
eclare
@Baud: I googled and couldn’t find Sid Meiers. Who is that?
Baud
Being cruel gets them our attention, obviously. And ignoring them gives them a free pass to hurt others to try to grab our attention. It’s a nice gig.
Spanky
@Baud: When Cole rants, does it really matter?
(Me neither. )
BellyCat
@Baud: That is SO wrong it’s right!
NotMax
@eclare
IIRC the creator of the Civilization video games. Or maybe it was Sim City. Or both.
The other two named? Haven’t the foggiest.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Our daughter has a trans couple that she works with and she frequently shares her lunch hour with them and a couple of other employees. They sit at a table and usually have a chair or two free that they offer to the local green frog-loving MAGA asshole who declines if either (or both) of the trans couple are there. If they aren’t there then he accepts but will leave if they arrive (our daughter always makes sure to invite them to sit with her so…). If they leave then he will come over and ask to sit, which the nice people allow the asshole to do. It’s obvious as fuck what he does and he doesn’t give a shit about it.
I will say that our daughter fucks with this asshole every chance she gets ans she is good at it. He likes her and keeps trying to get her to go out with him but hasn’t figured out that it’ll be a cold day in Hell before…
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Me either. I have no idea why anyone should be shaking in their boots about Drew Magary.
eclare
@NotMax: OK Google did pull up that guy, but his name is Sid Meier, not Meiers. And I don’t understand what the effect is.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: I assume it refers to this:
Baud
I wonder if red states will start banning Sadie Hawkins dances.
Spanky
I thought it was a store out west, but turns out that that’s Meijer.
catothedog
Many Americans lead such miserable empty lives, that they need a punching bag – to look down and to take it out on. And anything would serve – blacks, gays, Mexicans, ..
We have perfected sycophancy into an art form in all walks of life. It destroys the soul and we need to blame someone anyone .. for this … Dante’s Hell placed sycophancy worse than murder.
oldster
@Spanky:
Or a Fred Meyers. Also a big chain store, esp. in Oregon.
Suzanne
@Spanky: Are you thinking of Fred Meyer?
steppy
I expect that Magary is going to respond, and when he does, it will be devastating. Magary is 40% of the reason that I subscribe to Defector, he is a magnificent writer, and he is going to lay waste to that hack.
NotMax
@eclare
Who ya gonna believe, Google or Cole?
(close tongue firmly welded to cheek)
Baud
@NotMax:
I clicked through to see if they said what American principles they were referring to, but they didn’t.
WereBear
YAY for new kitty!
Our enemies are bullies who seek the most vulnerable targets. If we keep fighting together we can reduce their power to harm.
Baud
@catothedog:
I blame Biden
WereBear
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Oblivious is their middle name.
delphinium
@catothedog: I also wouldn’t discount those folks who are deeply insecure about their sexuality and/or religion and cannot deal with anyone who doesn’t conform to their own beliefs.
different-church-lady
Nice to see you really writing again.
different-church-lady
@catothedog: Wadda want from a country started by religious nuts?
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
For me it’s Mass Effect, but same idea.
Heidi Mom
Good luck with the new kitty, the roof, and the drive to RI and back.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: I followed the links and took a quick look and can’t figure out what Koch’s beef with the Republicans is. He has no “core American values” except tax cuts and regulation removal, and Republicans haven’t given up those goals.
I did notice that Koch industries is investing in batteries and other electric vehicle components. The truth will always out.
different-church-lady
In the end I’m pretty sure the concerted attacks began because trans-people started getting attention. And if there’s one thing MAGAs and their fellow travelers can’t stand, it’s someone who isn’t them getting attention.
NotMax
@Baud
They’re … fungible.
“If it’s Tuesday, it must be Yellen.”
:)
Captain C
@NotMax:
She’s almost there…
Ohio Mom
@Spanky: The Meijer store chain is headquartered in Michigan, that’s hardly “out west.”
Fred Meyer is a grocery store chain out west (they were bought out by Kroger, which is based here in Cincinnati).
ETA: I see this has already been covered
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Seems the next question is “did these candidates violate any core Republican principles?”
NotMax
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Andromeda excepted, being in a niche of disdain all its own.
;)
Alison Rose
The right’s obsession with gender identity is fucking creepy. Especially when it comes to kids. I mean, they keep accusing Democrats of being perverts and pedophiles, but they’re the ones constantly thinking about kids’ genitals.
And their diehard NO THERE ARE ONLY TWO GENDERS AND THEY CANNOT EVER CHANGE, YOU ARE EITHER A BOY OR GIRL AND THAT’S IT thing is pathetic. For one thing, intersex people exist and that is a physical medical situation, not an internal sense of one’s self. But also, I just don’t get why they care so much when, as John notes, it doesn’t fucking affect them. Their whole screeching about “how do you define a woman” annoys me. Last year I was reviewing my friend’s memoir about their journey to their nonbinary identity, and I said:
And I stand by that.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@NotMax: I found the early tasks immediately tiresome in Andromeda and never made a significant effort at the game.
Captain C
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: That depends if you consider Reagan’s 11th Commandment to be a core Republican principle.
Or for that matter, if they have any other than greed, will to power, and sadism.
Danielx
All you need to do is call people what they want to be called, don’t be a fucking bigot, and mind your own fucking business.
Word.
Josie
Thanks, John Cole, for expressing so well how I feel about this whole mess. I just can’t see how other people’s personal choices have any effect on me. I have my own family and problems to deal with and have no desire to interfere with someone else’s life. It seems to me to be the height of cruelty to deny someone the right to be who they really are. But that’s it, isn’t it. The cruelty is at the heart of it.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I believe the Supreme Court ruled there’s an exemption for RINOs in 2006.
They don’t. Not the ones who matter.
strange visitor (from another planet)
hey. eddie blake here. going to be switching to a new nym, that of “strange visitor (from another planet)” or just, “strange visitor”. i’ve been commenting as eddie blake for a long time, i’m do for a change.
anyway. trying to catch up on the day’s threads, will be hopping in and out on this one.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: the ending for mass 3 was SUCH a letdown and andromeda’s launch was replete with tales of bugs galore; i was so soured on mass effect, i didn’t even bother with it.
Quiltingfool
How exciting to get a new kitty! Speaking of cats…and that sometimes they can be very helpful (lol)…
I bought an “ergonomic” fabric rotary cutter. Today I decided to try it out. Well, first thing that happened was a spring that holds the blade guard fell off. I couldn’t remember how it was affixed, so I looked up a video for the cutter to see how to put it back on. Put the spring on, and damn me if it didn’t fly off, hit the wall and went God knows where. I went through the trash, swept the floor, no spring. Oh well. I knew I could order a spring, so I set it aside and went back to sewing. About an hour later, I noticed Miss Sassy pushing something around (all the way across the room). Thought it was thread, but no! She found the spring!
I would’ve given her a cat treat, but she doesn’t like cat treats. However, she does like potato chips. She can be sleeping in the bedroom and hear the rustling of a chip bag and come running! She will eat two tiny pieces of a chip and she’s happy.
She will will not sit in my lap, but she will get on the arm of my recliner, pat my arm (to get my attention) and then, after being acknowledged, will fall off the arm onto the side of my leg, ready to grab my hand and play- bite.
She is doing this right now. Excuse me, I gotta pay attention to the cat.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@WereBear:
It’s his chosen name…lol
satby
@different-church-lady: It started when trans people took up their rightful place as their true selves out in society, and the bigots had to be confronted with people who just didn’t care that they (the bigots) didn’t like it.
Plus, I bet at least a couple of high profile transphobes are fighting attractions to the “wrong” folks. Every accusation a confession.
delphinium
@Josie: This too-these folks must have the least stressful, boring lives ever (no one in their family is ill, no one has lost a home or job, etc) to be able to have such focus on this. I mean, it is a big, beautiful world out there with any number of amazing and enjoyable things one could be doing instead of this hateful nonsense.
Spanky
@Ohio Mom:
I’m sitting at 25′ msl above a tidal river on the East Coast. West By God Virginia is out west.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Same here.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Oh Civ IV is a game! Got it. Thanks!
different-church-lady
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Trick question! Republicans no longer have any principles!
Captain C
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
They’re all RINOs now by that standard.
frosty
Ha! My type too! Anyone who shows any interest in a runty little fucker with a sense of humor, I’m there for you! Luckily I found one when I moved back East but the California girls kinda went … um, no. Fuckem.
delphinium
@Quiltingfool: What a good kitty to find your spring for you! Speaking of cat treats, my friend’s cat didn’t like them either but went absolutely nuts for broccoli.
Quiltingfool
I can’t figure out why some people are so bent out of shape about trans people. I agree with John, trans folk do not affect my life whatsoever. And it really isn’t any of my business, either. Or anyone’s business. I want people to be happy and safe.
I live in Missouri and our shitty Republican legislators want to spent time making trans kids lives hell. We’ve got 99 fucking problems in this state and trans kids aren’t one of them. (Loose paraphrase from a song)
Ohio Mom
It’s an interesting question, where did today’s trans panic start? Obviously, in one of the right wing think tanks, there is a file outlining the entire campaign. People like Singal and Magary (whom I’ve never heard of before and hope never to hear of again) are just useful idiots.
I just googled this to refresh my memory: Back in the 1950s, Christine Jorgensen went to Scandinavia to transition, so obviously there were doctors helping other trans people over half a century ago. Her transition was widely reported and I think more or less respectfully.
And Jennifer Finney Boylan, another trans woman, writes occasional op-eds in the NYT, and to my knowledge, no one has flipped out about her (she writes beautifully).
Someone figured out how to leverage medicine’s advancements in trans care — which obviously includes earlier treatment than ever considered or attempted before — and here we are.
Craig
@zhena gogolia: do you read his shit? Don’t fuck with a guy who writes about sports, politics, and has a cruel wit when you’re a hack like Singal.
Dan B
@suzanne: It seems like the belief that someone has to “know their place” or society will unravel. Like when people ask gay couples “Who’sthe man?” Apparently equal partnerships cannot be real. All the gay and lesbian couples and nearly all the straight couples I know are equal partnerships. It’s the 21st Century people!
Ohio Mom
@Spanky: To be fair, when I was very young, growing up in New York City, I would have probably identified Ohio and Michigan as “out west” as well. As it was, everyone around me called the Catskills “upstate,” and I was convinced the Canadian border was minutes from Bear Mountain state park.
NotMax
@Quiltingfool
Sounds like a manifestation of “spring forward, fall back.”
;)
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve been to Marwar. I bought a bronze Nandi there that weighs 44 pounds. I’m told that it’s “tribal art”. I love it!
frosty
It amused me no end when I was in California and they referred to Colorado as “back East”. Umm, no.
Matt McIrvin
@Ohio Mom: It seems to me like there was a time decades ago when trans people were actually more openly accepted than gay people… BUT with a lot of caveats: they had to surgically transition; they had to be capable of presenting really traditionally and seamlessly as their gender. And they were treated as ultra-rare curiosities. The understanding was that almost nobody would really want to do this.
There was a lot of this sort of giggling prurient interest in the 1970s. I remember my elementary-school classmates making a lot of jokes about “THE operation.” On the TV freakshow “Real People” I remember trans people occasionally appearing and being treated as entertaining weirdos.
I imagine if you actually were trans it was incredibly hard. But there wasn’t this sense of a massive politicized panic because it was treated as so marginal and rare.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: imo, the ending of mass effect 3 was SO anticlimactic and just the opposite of what was advertised. your efforts in the previous games had nothing to do with the choices offered. SUCH a disappointment.
between that and the reports that andromeda was just replete with bugs, i stayed away.
Craig
@Ohio Mom: again. You should google Drew Magary and read his stuff. He’s one of the best writers working today. He’s kind of an updated Charlie Pierce, great sportswriter who writes very clearly and insightfully about politics and culture. Clever feller.
ETA: I didn’t mean ‘again’ to imply I’ve said this to you before, but that I’d already made a response in this thread about Magary.
Amir Khalid
A news alert on YouTube tells me that Leo DiCaprio and Kim Kardashian have been questioned by the IRS and the DoJ in relation to the great 1MDB swindle. I know he was paid out of the stolen funds for starring in The Wolf of Wall Street. (He says he gave back the money.) I have no idea what her connection might be.
NotMax
Meanwhile, feckless governor of Tennessee has signed the bill outlawing Dame Edna.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
I don’ t know Drew Magary, but just to note that he seems to be on the right side of the issue.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: Boylan’s contract with the NYT wasn’t renewed. That’s one of the points of contention (although she claims not to be upset about it).
Craig
Cole, great to see you writing with such passion, grace and fire again. If you end up in Providence definitely go eat at Julian’s. Great little restaurant.
Delk
It’s always projection. Rufo is a groomer.
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
So old can remember when the mere mention of Christine Jorgensen would elicit nervous titters.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Captain C: Any Republican of any standing can become a RINO by demonstrating failure. The rest of the story tells itself.
mvr
Another phrase for the ages.
Alison Rose
@Ohio Mom: Since you mentioned her and since I just recommended this book the other day to someone, Boylan wrote a wonderful memoir called Stuck in the Middle With You, about her experience parenting as a trans woman who came out late in life. It was incredibly moving and open.
NotMax
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Prefer the appellation HINO.
H is for Human.
strange visitor (from another planet)
oop. trapped in moderation?
billcinsd
Republicans act almost exclusively on projection
b. Republicans are very hierarchical, and hate not knowing where to stick trans people in the hierarchy
...now I try to be amused
@Craig:
Sports writing is a good background for writing about politics because sportswriters are held to a higher standard in the US. Americans as a whole know sports better than politics. If you write BS about sports they will spot it and they will call you out on it.
Not my original observation, of course.
Argiope
Some Republican voters (& some lawmakers) have convinced themselves it’s protective to keep trans youth from finding gender affirming care, helped along to this misguided opinion by Fox and a number of so-called “experts”. Some clinician colleagues in a red state have convinced themselves it’s okay if the lege passes a law that makes medical professionals criminally liable, including loss of license, if we provide counseling or care to help or support kids to transition. They’re happy to give up their own rights to freely exercise clinical judgment without state interference, and remove the rights of parents, in order to “protect children” from gender reassignment surgery, which is not what the law does. It’s way broader than that. But bless their hearts, they like the sound of “protecting children” from the dreaded trans menace. When it was pointed out that the law does not prevent invasive, risky and irreversible breast augmentation surgeries for cis youth—you know, to affirm cis gender—crickets. It’s like they haven’t thought any of this through. And that’s just how the forces of fascism want things. The cynicism is horrifying. It’s the perfect camel’s nose for the tent: make people think the creeping authoritarianism is *protective*.
khead
A little surprised the jackals are unfamiliar with Sid Meier and Drew Magary. Not a lot of old school gaming addicts and Deadspin readers I take it?
mvr
@…now I try to be amused: Sportswriters also got to express their informed opinions when everyone else in the news media had to pretend to be firmly without any. I was never much of a sports fan but always thought this made many sports columns interesting.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
In addition to being one of the few treasures of the modern media, Drew Magary is a blatantly decent human being.
The trans panic exists because fascists need somebody on whom to focus the hate of their followers. Well, that and they realized that declaring that they want to exterminate women won’t fly so they go to the second tier of their misogyny.
Thanks for writing this, John. We need all the help we can get right now and every little bit counts.
strange visitor (from another planet)
ah. there we go.
it’s really uncanny how the gqp is just running the fascist playbook, page by page and play for play.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@…now I try to be amused: there’s too much money in it. gamblers rely on precise information, not bullshit.
...now I try to be amused
@Ohio Mom:
I don’t know where, but I know when. It was after their last manufactured moral panic fizzled out.
I notice a pattern: The shat-upon class du jour is smaller than the last one. The right wingers hope that this group of people will be seen as so out there, they can get away with other-izing them. Ultimately they will fail again. Trans people are Us, and they are making yourselves the Other.
Craig
@…now I try to be amused: yes. Good point.
Joe Falco
Just writing to say I appreciate the video game reference, John, though if I were to describe the Sid Meiers effect, it would be slogging through a task that you should take a break from but you’d do it after “one more turn”.
Sister Golden Bear
Thank you so much John for call attention to this. Sadly we’re up to at least 400 anti-trans bills in state legislatures.
FYI Bari, Weiss is also getting called out for a trans hit piece about a St. Louis medical clinic that supposedly was sending kids straight to the OR on their first visit (I’m only exaggeratedly slightly). It was based on a single source, who was scheduler, and never even saw the patient consultation. Then more than a dozen parents of patients came forward to say the source lied about went on, and the talked about the detailed process, proving just how involved and supervised the process of getting gender-affirming care.
Sister Golden Bear
@Amir Khalid:
What’s the betting pool for a post about how John feel from the roof trying to save a birb nest that was a risk of sliding down the new sleek metal roof.
Ohio Mom
I admit, I did not read the beginning of the post carefully, else I would have groked that Magary is a good guy. All I saw was another loud fight on the internet and I am done with all the loud fights. Burned out on them. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.
I am curious though about how we are all so manipulated. We all agree, this is a manufactured “crisis.” I don’t doubt there are doctors making mistakes in caring for trans kids, that’s all of medicine, every speciality has its share of screw-ups.
But I am sure that the great majority of doctors treating trans youths are doing so in thoughtful and considered ways. Doctors generally like to follow established protocols based on evidence from studies.
UncleEbeneezer
Putting aside their odious obsession, beliefs and ignorance about Transgender People, the other thing I don’t get is how these writers who are clearly quite vain are so unaware or ambivalent about the fact that there will be books written about this horrific Trans Panic and the things they are saying and writing now will be in those books showing them to be the villains. There will be Trans-equivalents of 1619 Project and Stamped From the Beginning etc. Even if I were clueless and on the fence about the issues, I’d sure as hell want to make sure I wasn’t going to be on the wrong side of history. These fuckwads are and will be forever. JK Rowling’s legacy will be like Henry Ford’s where her horrible Transphobia will be mentioned in every second, if not first, sentence about her. Jesse Signal will ONLY be known for this shit. I guess the $ and the thrill they get from punching down on already marginalized people is worth it to them. It’s just bizarre to me.
Sister Golden Bear
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Love it!
@Ohio Mom:
British has an unfortunate small, but extremely vocal, strain of transphobic lesbians. The current turn towards becoming about a decade ago — specifically via online forms for new mothers.
In the States it’s been simmering for years — in the 80s Jesse Helms had trans health care specifically excluded from the ADA Act — had been growing over the last 15 as trans people because more visible trans people Lavern Cox in 2013 with OITNB, Caitlyn Jenner transitioning in 2014. Also around that time the Christofascists realized they couldn’t kick the gays around politically any more, but they could turn their grifting and supposed moral outrage towards trans people. They introduced bathroom bills, ended up losing So they determined reframed things to focus on “sexual predators.” There’s been a sharp increase since 2020, and absolutely sky rocketed this year with 400+ anti-LBGTQ+ bills.
Lit3Bolt
Sid Meier is a literal maestro of game design, specifically Computer Role Playing Game design. He’s basically the US’s answer to the creator of Nintendo’s many franchises, Shigeru Miyamoto. Like anything this guy touches or lends his name to literally turns into multi-billion-dollar franchises.
Part of Meier’s appeal is that all of his games are based on historical facts and/or statistical evidence, yet their sandbox quality and whimsical playfulness can lead to odd scenarios in his games…the most infamous example probably being in the Civilization franchise where Gandhi, the leader of the Indian Empire, can end up using nukes against the player when controlled by the AI. He was mainly a computer nerd interested in wargaming scenarios out of the 70s and 80s…basically Dungeons and Dragons with guns and aircraft and submarines.
To his credit, I read Sid as fairly progressive dude who rolled with the times…his early computer games, like Colonization or Civilization II, had fairly accurate if unflattering historical options available in the “game,” like wiping out all the Native Americans (and stealing their treasure and land) or having the equivalent of beating slaves to death in the Civ games, along with charming things such as suicide bombers. That was never the focus of the game, it was always just a game option with seemingly appropriate penalties, but as time marches on and computer game graphics get more realistic, they were not culturally appropriate, especially as such events are playing out on social media on a near daily basis. So Civilization removed those options from updated versions of their games.
However, the reaction from conservative gamers to less “aCkUrATe” history led to a bit of backlash among the revanchist rightwing gamers online. Now there’s charming things like the “Hitler Mod” for the current Civilization game, because it’s just so unfair that Hitler never is a playable character in Civ, and there’s such a demand from odious people online who want to role-play as Hitler in a game. There was a similar reaction to the revival of the “Wolfenstein” game franchise a few years back, where a definite plurality of toxic gamers whined about unfair depictions of Nazis and Klansmen as “bad guys.”
So I see John’s point in that there are a ton of people online, be they journalist or gamer, who, for whatever brain diseased reason think that playing as a fascist or promoting fascist ends is literally “giving voice to the voiceless.” These are people who are mad there’s not all white casts in TV shows and movies. These are people slowly realizing that they are cultural losers, who have never met a single black or brown or gay or trans person in their life, seeing them in the media they consume, and terrified that they might be forced to respectfully interact with such people.
Their computer screens have convinced them that they are God-Emperors. But if their computer screens are filled with stories that make them the slightest bit uncomfortable, then they think they’re losing the “game.” And if they can’t live in perfect comfort, then all must burn.
glc
@eclare: TItle is fairly obscure. At first I thought Sid Meier had been bloviating so I scanned his wikipedia page and saw no trace of that, then I read the post down to where Civilization was mentioned and started to get an inkling.
In Civilization you have the task of bringing a society to an advanced civilized state, through a series of “technologies” (can’t get to nuclear weapons till you have women’s suffrage, and so on). I played that game a great deal when it came out but it did not leave me with the impression, outside the game, that the fate of civilization rested on my shoulders. I think Cole is positing that this could be a side effect. Or something of that sort
… and – the previous comment seems better informed.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
If he was a proper bible-believing man, he’d be asking for quotes that include guard rails:
Devarim (Deuteronomy) – Chapter 22:8
The same section has something very un-John-like to say about nesting birds. (I am a nest-defender, too.) Also, about cross dressing, and mixing of fibers.
JaneE
1000 times this.
No one is trying to convince straight young people that being gay or trans is so wonderful they really need to come over to the other side.
What is it about right-wingers that makes them need to know and control what goes on in every bedroom in the country? Voyeurism and dominance both used to be considered perversions.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Drew Magary is a semi-well-known writer (but apparently not around here). He comes across as a good guy on Twitter.
Steeplejack
@Quiltingfool:
That’s a cute ritual. I wonder how she came up with it.
Ruckus
@suzanne:
There is no reasonable reason to be so wrapped up in other people’s personal lives.
My time as a mental health counselor showed me that most people so wrapped up in other people’s personal lives do so because either they are so perfect (and we all know NO one is perfect) or because they are hiding something they are ashamed of. And often what they are ashamed of is rather normal in humanity. None of us are perfect, some are farther away from it than others. Some aren’t within a 20 week drive close. It’s life. We live it, we screw it up, we hopefully apologize and give it a better shot.
But no one is perfect, no one has all the damn answers, and no one has to fit into someone else’s diagram of perfect, because NO ONE IS ANYWHERE NEAR FUCKING DAMN PERFECT THEMSELVES. If we were perfect we wouldn’t fit in, in any way shape or form, because humanity. Life is imperfect. Life is often messy. Life always ends at some point, for every single living creature. It is what it is. It’s better for some, it’s worse for some. It would be far better if we weren’t so fucking worried about making everyone else conform to our version of perfect because our version is likely just as imperfect as everyone else’s.
BethanyAnne
I am honestly surprised to find that the dipshit who picked this fight isn’t in this thread. Yet. I’d put better than even money on him showing up at some point. He googles mentions of his name, and directly bothers people that don’t like him. Usually women. Always polite, but relentless. When people say things about him that he doesn’t want to hear, he’ll pester them over and over to provide names and such of how they ended up with such an awful opinion of him. It’s creepy as fuck. He’s an “I’m just asking questions.” “Both sides” shithead. Always “reasonable” and “polite”, because it’s never his goddamn right to exist in peace that’s at question. It’s just always us rude emotional rabble that can’t politely use logic and reason to prove that we have a right to be left the fuck alone by privileged fuckwits.
Barry
@UncleEbeneezer: “Putting aside their odious obsession, beliefs and ignorance about Transgender People, the other thing I don’t get is how these writers who are clearly quite vain are so unaware or ambivalent about the fact that there will be books written about this horrific Trans Panic and the things they are saying and writing now will be in those books showing them to be the villains.”
IMHO, a combination of cluelessness, arrogance, a paycheck and no idea of history beyond today’s story.
Another Scott
@BethanyAnne:
Obligatory: Wondermark #1062 – The Terrible Sea Lion
Cheers,
Scott.
BethanyAnne
@Another Scott: Heh. Yep, I thought about calling him a relentless sea lion, but figured it might be a little too jargon-y.
It’s probably 5 years ago, but when I last paid attention to Twitter, some women who were the objects of sea lioning were beginning to demand payment to engage. You want me to spend my time and attention on you? Pay me to do so, or be ignored.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Long ago lost track of the link to my all-time fave Wondermark. Not so little Riding Hood and the wolf together studying the ceiling while abed, captioned (if memory serves) “We shall not speak of this again.”
;)
AM in NC
@Ohio Mom: Koch’s beef with the current crop of Republicans is that they aren’t winning enough. So he’s going all in on funding primary challenges to MAGAts so the old guard, strip mine the economy for me and mine-type Republicans maintain power.
brendancalling
If you go through New Haven, stop at Modern Apizza for a pie. One of the best apizza places ever. The crust is to die for—everything is good, but the clam casino pie is my favorite.
Paul in KY
@strange visitor (from another planet): Cool! What’s your planet like? Is it as messed up as ours?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@oldster:
@Suzanne: Ironically the guy who started the Meijer chain of superstores in Michigan’s name was Frederick (i.e. Fred) Meijer. One of his grandsons just got voted out of Congress last November…he was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump (it was one of if not his first vote as a Freshman Congressman). They’re one of the local Grand Rapids, MI oligarch families along with the DeVos, Van Andel (both Amway), Bissell, and Wege (Steelcase). The DeVoses are very active in Republican politics as everyone knows. Meijer, the grandson, ran as a Republican but the family doesn’t really seem to inject themselves into politics much. Neither do the Bissells or Weges. The Weges seem like the most purely philanthropy focused of the bunch…with the Devoses their “giving” has an ulterior motive sometimes – e.g. they helped build a new conference center downtown which happens to be right next door to two luxury hotels they have ownership stakes in.
The Meijer family had a huge botanical garden and sculpture park built in the East side of town that is pretty spectacular. Worth a visit for those travelling to GR. Also worth a visit is the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Meyer May House ( from his Prairie period, restored immaculately by Steelcase).
Subsole
@Craig:
This.
Sportswriters, unlike substackers, are actually required to know of what they speak.
Subsole
@Delk: I’m telling y’all, at this point? The ONLY question is how many victims.
Some day, someone somewhere somehow is going to take a long, uncomfortable look at the Evangelical church and the salvation-timeshare crowd. The results will be ugly. It’s going to put the Catholic abuse scandal in the shade.
Subsole
@billcinsd:
I may be telling on myself here, but I was wondering about this the other day.
What is the formal mode of address for they? So many social cues are wrapped up in gender. I know to address a femme as ma’am, when I wish to be formal. How does one denote a similar level of respect to non-gendered pronouns? So much of what we say and do rests on these assumptions and cues.
How do I expand the water I grew up swimming in to include them, I guess is my question?
Subsole
@khead:
I still think Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is one of the best pieces of sci-fi I have ever interacted with.
Subsole
@…now I try to be amused:
Yep. It’s why they’re trying to link them to groomers/pedophiles.
Take a group small enough to sacrifice (they hope), and tie them to someone that nobody will ever rally to.
Subsole
@Joe Falco:
Don’t go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Subsole
@Sister Golden Bear:
Too mundane. There needs to be at least one condiment and partial nudity involved.
Eduardo
@Delk: That mission-aligned phrase scared the shit out of me when I read it first. No bueno.
JCNZ
“And, if you are an old like me, you don’t have to fucking understand it. It literally does not impact your life. All you need to do is call people what they want to be called, don’t be a fucking bigot, and mind your own fucking business.”
Words to live a good life by. Give this man the Nobel Prize.
Sister Golden Bear
@Subsole: Good question. Non-binary folks often us Mx. instead of Mr./Ms.) but I’m not sure what the equivalent of ma’am/sir is. Best to ask the person involved.