Tuesday 8 July 2014

I'm Starting With the Man in the Mirror, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate Internet Pharisee-ism

I've been making an effort recently to bring my signal-to-noise ratio within healthy limits. This means generally avoiding watching the news, visiting news websites and forums, and steering clear of the internet in general as much as possible. (Sport news and my The Economist subscription being the major exceptions.) My basis for doing this is the idea, advanced by Nassim Taleb and others, that the really valuable information will find its way to me eventually, and I can cut out distractions and false/irrelevant news.

It seems to have been working, in that most of the things that find their ways to my ears seem worth knowing, and I don't appear to be missing out on anything by not learning what all the fevered egos on Twitter or rpg.net think about issue X or Y.

I have today learned about all the drama that G+ has been afflicted with recently regarding the release of D&D 5th Edition and how it seems to be bad that Wizards of the Coast have employed Zak Smith as a consultant because, er, jazz hands. (The reason appears to be that Zak has been involved in making porn and for a certain breed of politically correct nerd that must implicate him in something awful, for no defined reason other than that it simply must.) So that must qualify it as signal. And that makes it worthy of a blog post - at least indirectly.

For some reason, for a sizeable portion of the population of Western societies, being offended has become something to luxuriate in: self-righteousness is addictive and provides our brains with a kick that is more powerful than any drug known to man. You see it in religious fundamentalists, you see it in liberals, you see it in conservatives, you see it everywhere. People get off on anger because it makes them feel good about themselves - it reassures them that they are good and that awful person over there is bad and they can rank themselves in the hierarchy of goodness accordingly.

This is nothing new. Jesus spent considerable energies fighting Pharisee-ism but not even the Son of God could sort it out: the people who are today trawling the internet searching for things to be offended by in the name of their liberal/conservative sensibilities are the exact same people who were watching Jesus curing lepers on the sabbath and muttering "Tut, tut" into their beards because he was working on the holy day. Times change but human impulses are as old and immutable as solid granite.

The thing about Pharisees is that they are insecure; they hated and feared Jesus because of what he represented and what he was delivering - freedom, love, etc. He was showing them up. And internet Pharisees are no different: what they hate most of all is other people creating things, doing things, enjoying themselves, having fun. Because their own inflated sense of self-importance is threatened by it - they are so sure of their own brilliance and access to universal truth that they feel that more successful and happy people are showing them up. They should be the ones everybody looks to, but they're not. It frustrates them and they rage against it.

If you feel you are an internet Pharisee, here is a three step plan to easy cure:

1. Start creating a game or game-related product
2. Put it on your blog
3. Play it any enjoy it

The drug of being offended by what other people say and do is distracting you and robbing you of your creativity and passion. Put it to one side and your life and games will be so much better for it.

24 comments:

  1. It was brilliant for Hasbro/ WoTC to hire Zak, RPG pundit (and other internet bloggers with lots of traffic). They are now consultants that have a financial relationship with D&D 5E; therefore, if their blogging is to negative towards the company/ product they can more readily be silenced or ligated.

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  2. Clovis, that thought entered my mind too. I hope no one faults WoTC for being shrewd, or fault anyone lucky enough to be paid for consulting on something that they enjoy as a hobby.

    That said, Noisms, good blog post.

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  3. I'm not as cynical - I suspect WotC wouldn't want the bad publicity from litigating any breach of some sort of contractual clause prohibiting negative comments. They are on the charm offensive. Also, I'm not sure about The RPG Pundit but I can't think of many people you would rather have as a consultant than Zak. That's not me blowing smoke up his arse - he's very intelligent and perceptive and thinks hard about games.

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    1. I think the RPGPundit already wrote that he was not bound by contract from critique...

      @Clovis -- But honestly, do you think WotC would hire a couple bloggers just to keep them from writing bad reviews? That's silly. 99.99% of the consumer public has never even heard of these guys. Even the worst possible rants on their respective blogs would likely mean the loss of less revenue than they were likely paid as consultants.

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  4. I applaud your stance. And I like reading Zak's blog. I have always considered it easy to criticise others or to praise them. Putting something of mine out there is something else, and risks criticism or being ignored (occasionally it gets praised, but I don't consider it a risk). The times I have written a post getting angry about something or someone else in the blogosphere, I may have felt it necessary at the time, but looking back I consider them my weakest posts, possibly deserving deletion once my anger has calmed down.

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    1. I agree fully. I have done the same thing in the past and, like you, consider those posts my weakest ones.

      Delete
    2. HAH, FUNNY YEW GUYS GET A BAD FEEL OVER DOING IT ONLINE WITH STRANGRES BUT I DO IT WEEKLY AT A WORK JOB TO SCUMBAG MANAGERS AND CC TEH DEPARTMENT WITH NOTHING BUT WARM HAPPY FEELS!!1

      DOES THIS MAIK ME:
      a) A PRINCPLED DEFNDRE OF UNRELANTING TRUTH, JUSTICE AND TEH AMERICAN WAY
      B) A COLD-HARTED PRACK IN NEED OF FINDING PEACE WITH HIS FALLOW MAN?
      c) IN IT FOR TEH LOLZ?

      I KNOW, LETSA SK ZAK!

      :p
      -NUNYA

      Delete
  5. I applaud your final thought: create, share what you created, and enjoy. Don't waste your time on negativity. Life is better that way.

    I do, however, offer some perspective on the "Zak controversy": he's simply an incredibly abrasive personality. No doubt there are some people who find his attitude endearing in a way... as long as it's not aimed at them. But I get the strong impression that any disagreement whatsoever will start with him screaming at you and go downhill from there: For example, check out Martin Skullerud's rather benign comment on the recent "Boredom is its own balance" post - and Zak's all-caps response. I think it's clear that describing the guy in question as "abrasive" is kind of a euphemism.

    Disclaimer and background: long ago, I heard about Vornheim from some blog I was reading, checked it out, and found it interesting enough to start following the D&DwPS blog. And for a long time I would just read with mild interest about whatever zaniness he had come up with; a lot of it is genuinely creative and/or useful and/or inspiring.

    But over time the nastiness and negativity around the edges began to wear at me. I saw him call people liars and yell at them simply for disagreeing with him. I saw him declaring that everyone he had met who liked game X was "a dickhead" - and therefore game X was bad - and therefore the people who designed it were bad designers... and then weaseling out of his repeated assertion by pointing to the word "seems"... and yet it's clear that if someone else tried the "seems" tactic on him, he would take deep, and emotionally fraught, offense.

    In other words, he has a huge supply of vitriol that he aims at people for the simple sin of *liking something he doesn't like.*

    Every other blog I read, when it criticizes something, does so from an impartial and analytical stance. Zak's stance is imperious, aggressive, illogical, violent, and abusive. It got to the point where seeing that his blog had updated made me feel physically ill, because increasingly I felt I would just be subjected to him airing more dirty laundry or getting in screaming matches with people (and then deleting their posts to ensure that he had the final word, and then mocking anyone who tried to simply walk away as "piggwinkles." See for another example his recent post "weep and howl..." where he literally does nothing but brag and then jeer at people who don't like him. It's an unpleasant post that was a waste of my time to go read, since all I want is the creative stuff.

    Or in other words, he could really stand to hear and follow your advice: Zak S., please *stop being negative and spend your energy on being creative.*

    But if you tell him that on his blog, don't be surprised if he reacts incredibly negatively. He declared me "banned" for simply reminding him of the Joesky Tax - a bitter irony, given that I heard it about it from him in the first place, but by this point I'd be happy never to read anything by him again, so great is the antipathy caused simply by his attitude. In short, I'm an ex-fan because he spent all my positive feeling satisfying his own hatefulness.

    Understand that I'm not taking offense, nor do I begrudge him his credits in the new book. He worked for them, and that deserves to be acknowledged. I am simply noting that *it is easy to understand why some people would have a strong negative reaction to simply hearing his name.* He's just that kind of guy.

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    1. Sure, it is quite clear however that Noisms was referring to Zachary Zak as the Pharisee.

      When Noisms says "That's not me blowing smoke up his arse" he means that's me trying not to blow smoke up his arse.

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  6. Confanity, I did catch a bit of your interaction with him in the comments on his blog. Please know that I can see where you are coming from on this.

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    1. I doubt I was at my best the whole time either, especially since I didn't speak up on the issue until I was already frustrated - but thanks.

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  7. NO bile towards Zak... he does what he does & many people read and watch...
    this is about contract law ... question for NOISMs
    ...
    if one of your employees smears you on the net... the internet provider has a duty to prevent malicious and false claims? ...

    big company/Hasbro presents contract with offending blogger to internet provider and requests all offensive comments by blogger be taken down by ...
    no litigation is required ... comments are deleted by administration .

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  8. 1) on news consumption: amen brother

    I am such a news junkie! But especially during this time of the year, I turn it off some. It's the silly season. Things just get so silly in the comments sections especially.

    On the other thing:

    So what if I made up a game, I reference it a lot (because I'm geeked about it) but I don't have a blog or whatever? What if I only comment on other people's blogs?

    I'm so confused. Pharisee or Sadducee?

    On the silly brouhaha:

    I disagree with Zak some but I am glad he helped to make a D&D. I don't disagree with Pundit so much. Also, he made a very nice game and published it and everything, so I am glad that he helped make a D&D too.

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  9. Confanity got asked a question then didn't answer it. That's like the worst thing you can do on the internet. He or she is a pig fucker.

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    1. Ladies and gentlemen, exhibit A.

      It's sufficiently ludicrous (literally "the worst thing you can do" is ignore a question?! Has he not heard of phishing, bullying, NSA shenanigans, etc.?) that I'd pass it off as snarky hyperbole... if that sort of response weren't par for the course whenever he felt the slightest hint of criticism.

      Anyway, now that I've unfollowed his blog, my life is better because less stressful - which is kind of sad, because I'll miss the nuggets of good stuff, but c'est la vie.

      Delete
    2. Simply put:
      Let's say you phished or NSA-spied on someone or bullied someone.

      Then you got asked:
      1. Why did you do that?
      and
      2. Where do you live?
      …and you answered honestly--the problem would be solved, more or less. And probably wouldn't have come up in the first place. Because of answering questions.

      Answering questions (not avoiding them) is the key to a healthy conversation.

      Not answering them is the first and subtlest tactic of anyone hoping to be dishonest in public.

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    3. Once you don't answer them: you're a troll, you don't count. You don't get to demand any kind of decent treatment from anyone (including answers to your questions)

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    4. That's retarded.

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    5. TELL US MORE, ANONYMOUS INTERNET TROLL!

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    6. OK ZAK, HEAR AM A QUEST-ON FOR YEW. WHO MAID YEW KING OF CONVO'S AND INTRENET POASTINGS LAWS SO YEW CAN DEFINE AND SET A RULINGS FOR HOW TEH PEEPLE RESPOND/CHOOSE NOT TWO RESPOND?? HUH?

      :p
      -NUNYA

      P.S. - AND U ARE AM BUTTER ANSWRE OR BY YEWR OWN DEFINING IT MAIK YEW A PIGFUKKRGUY TOO!

      :p :p

      PPS- AND IFAM U TRY TO SQUERM OUT OF IT CUZ I AR ANONNYMOUSE, THEN "FOUR SHAME" AS I ARE A PEEPLE TOO, JUST TEH ANNYNONOMOUSE KIND!

      :p:p:p

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    7. Dude. Zak is nothing but a troll, in case the "pig fucker" business didn't make that abundantly clear. Don't feed the troll.

      Delete
    8. CONFANITY TAHT MAY NOT BE A TRUE, ZAK HAS NOT A REPLY YET TO SPOKE HIS CASE.

      IMA JUST COME OFF MY MEDS AGAIN AND SO (OF CORSE) AM ARE BACK IN TEH OSR SCENE! NOW IMA FOUND OUT WHAT THISWEEKS TIMPEST IN TEACUP IS ALLABOWT.

      SUMMRY: A DEWD SOMEWAIR WRITING ABOUT ZAK LIED OR MAYBE WRITED A MISTEAK.

      ZAK HAS A HATE AND OUTS HIME AS A PIGFUKGUY FOR A GOOD OF TEH RPG NATION.

      I PROPOSE A MOSION BE MAID BEFOARE A UN COUNCIL ON FRP GAMES FOR A MORATORIOUM BE PUT IN PLACE:

      ONLY ORIGINAL DEEANDEE 3LBB'S AND INDPENDENT LULU PUBLISHERS MODYEWL'S BE FORE SALE FOR 10 YEARS SO TAHT TEH BUTHURT TEARS OF ENRAGED RPG PEEPLE BE STAHPED OR UNTIL TEH INTERWEBS GRO'S TEH FK UP.

      LET US ALL PRAY TO ST. GYGACKS TEH MOSION BE CARRY'D.

      :{
      -NUNYA

      Delete
  10. I have always considered it easy to criticise others or to praise them. Putting something of mine out there is something else, and risks criticism or being ignored (occasionally it gets praised, but I don't consider it a risk). The times I have written a post getting angry about something or someone else in the blogosphere. Anyway thanks a lot for sharing it.

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