Post by trashcanman on Jun 25, 2017 19:31:36 GMT 2
www.polygon.com/2017/6/23/15864590/fbi-dungeons-and-dragons-unabomber-gary-gygax-foia
OK, maybe not YOUR tax dollars if you're not from the USA, but this is a funny little snapshot of Reagan's America as I remember it. FOX News and talk radio remembers "morning in America" back when it was still great, but I remember being constantly told rock n roll (did you know that it has backwards messages?) and fantasy games (there are both dungeons and dragons in the Satanic bible!) were only for devil worshipers with evil magic powers and everybody was on drugs. Ironically, I'm pretty sure the ones doing the drugs were mostly the ones saying shit like that. But yeah, in addition to banning punk rock shows, harassing Suicidal Tendencies for titling a song "I Shot Reagan" (they changed the tile to "I Shot the Devil" and kept the offending lyric intact), and assaulting Jello Biafra in his own home while they bent their resources to drive the Dead Kennedys' record label to bankruptcy, the FBI was also building a case that the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, was the Unabomber and that the game itself was a front for a drug cartel. A cartel named (bum bum buuuuuum!)...The Dungeons and Dragons Group. Terrifying.
Their evidence? Well, the guy was a libertarian. I mean, come on! A libertarian, guys! Some kind of nut! The really funny thing is that republicans who for whatever reason want to sound not cliche call themselves libertarian now. Except now that's a cliche too. 'Murica. Anyways, that's not all. He exercises his 2nd Amendment right to bear arms and got divorced, the bastard. Gygax also did what every rich asshole does and got a foreign bank account to avoid taxes. And he maybe did drugs according to somebody. Worst of all, he repsonds to people who write him from prison. How does any of this mean he sends people bombs in the mail? I don't know, but clearly this motherfucker was both eccentric and frightening.
And then they tracked a D&D group to my stomping ground in CenCal and wrote some vague shit about them being paranoid and what they were maybe fantasizing about. I mean, fuck, this is the legendary Federal Bureau of Investigation? I knew they harassed people with awesome hobbies due to nonsensical public outcries, but I would expect something at least somewhat competent. This shit is like a satire, right down to describing RPG gamers (referred to as "war gaming enthusiasts") as "overweight and not neat in appearance". Not neat? Really? That's just comedically clumsy english. Oh, and they are conspiracy theorists too. Not like the people investigating a fucking game as a drug cartel with a serial killer for a creator with no evidence at all to back any of that up. If at any point there is anything in there that suggests the possibility of violence or drug trafficking, it's redacted. Just a bunch of hearsay and baseless assumptions. But the players were the conspiracy theorists. Riiiiiight. I wonder just how much of my money goes to shit like this. I guess in 20 years or so, the insane bullshit of today will be declassified and we'll find out about how anime fans were sexually aroused by cartoon images of young girls, grew facial hair on their necks, wrote unpleasant things about women on social media, and were therefore the leaders of ISIS.
OK, maybe not YOUR tax dollars if you're not from the USA, but this is a funny little snapshot of Reagan's America as I remember it. FOX News and talk radio remembers "morning in America" back when it was still great, but I remember being constantly told rock n roll (did you know that it has backwards messages?) and fantasy games (there are both dungeons and dragons in the Satanic bible!) were only for devil worshipers with evil magic powers and everybody was on drugs. Ironically, I'm pretty sure the ones doing the drugs were mostly the ones saying shit like that. But yeah, in addition to banning punk rock shows, harassing Suicidal Tendencies for titling a song "I Shot Reagan" (they changed the tile to "I Shot the Devil" and kept the offending lyric intact), and assaulting Jello Biafra in his own home while they bent their resources to drive the Dead Kennedys' record label to bankruptcy, the FBI was also building a case that the creator of Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax, was the Unabomber and that the game itself was a front for a drug cartel. A cartel named (bum bum buuuuuum!)...The Dungeons and Dragons Group. Terrifying.
Their evidence? Well, the guy was a libertarian. I mean, come on! A libertarian, guys! Some kind of nut! The really funny thing is that republicans who for whatever reason want to sound not cliche call themselves libertarian now. Except now that's a cliche too. 'Murica. Anyways, that's not all. He exercises his 2nd Amendment right to bear arms and got divorced, the bastard. Gygax also did what every rich asshole does and got a foreign bank account to avoid taxes. And he maybe did drugs according to somebody. Worst of all, he repsonds to people who write him from prison. How does any of this mean he sends people bombs in the mail? I don't know, but clearly this motherfucker was both eccentric and frightening.
And then they tracked a D&D group to my stomping ground in CenCal and wrote some vague shit about them being paranoid and what they were maybe fantasizing about. I mean, fuck, this is the legendary Federal Bureau of Investigation? I knew they harassed people with awesome hobbies due to nonsensical public outcries, but I would expect something at least somewhat competent. This shit is like a satire, right down to describing RPG gamers (referred to as "war gaming enthusiasts") as "overweight and not neat in appearance". Not neat? Really? That's just comedically clumsy english. Oh, and they are conspiracy theorists too. Not like the people investigating a fucking game as a drug cartel with a serial killer for a creator with no evidence at all to back any of that up. If at any point there is anything in there that suggests the possibility of violence or drug trafficking, it's redacted. Just a bunch of hearsay and baseless assumptions. But the players were the conspiracy theorists. Riiiiiight. I wonder just how much of my money goes to shit like this. I guess in 20 years or so, the insane bullshit of today will be declassified and we'll find out about how anime fans were sexually aroused by cartoon images of young girls, grew facial hair on their necks, wrote unpleasant things about women on social media, and were therefore the leaders of ISIS.
