So we got some references to Bannon talking about gamers, writer comparing the Communist Party members that had to go underground because of Mccarthy and the feds hunting for them to D&D nerds that met in their parents basement as LARPing revolutionaries playing make believe in their heads as Stalin ate all the grain in the USSR, and some kind of dumb shit about how hero worship is bad and pagan and why hero worshipping Jesus is good amd wholesome

  • JohnBrownsBussy [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think that this article is pretty weak. It tries to conflate two pretty different things (multiplayer online gaming and fantasy tabletop gaming) with two other very different things (Jan. 6 protestors and membership in the US communist party). The article is sufficiently infused with capitalist realism that the author can't help but characterize involvement in real political struggle (for good or for ill) as anything but LARPing. Other than an off-handed Bannon quote, the author fails to present any other evidence or cases that link populism to role-playing. The only solution offered is the trite and tired "y'all need Jesus."

    It's a bad article, and the content doesn't even really match or support the headline. I think that the only notable aspect is the good ol' anticommunism shoved into the middle of the piece.