Don’t ask a man in a gorilla suit how to deal with a bellyache. He’ll tell you to put a lime in a coconut; then call him in the morning.

I've discovered over the years that listening to that song at 1.5 speed is a somewhat amusing way to spend about two and a half minutes of your life.

I encountered this video and I think it's worth linking. I genuinely do not mean to rile anyone up or make any over statements, but as it relates to the idea of world build and social reach, it's worthwhile to mention.
https://youtu.be/vkPUFH9kLfQ

There are some good points in the video, but I certainly don't agree with all of it. Also, the comment section looks absolutely toxic.

It's a YouTube comment section, it goes without saying it's going to be toxic.

Yeah, I considered writing my response to the video in the comments, but realized it was probably not worth it. That's why I wrote it here instead.

To be fair that has less to do with it being a youtube comment section and more to do with it being a public discussion space about a current political topic.

I've heard the rumors about rpg.net, but jesus christ what a horrifying place. The conversation about pronouns felt like a bit of a non-sequitur from the main topic though.

I glimpsed the video's title at work and argued in my own head about its possible messages and arguments all day because I'm built against self-preservation.

I expected too much.

I spent the better part of an hour seeing parts of the video and jotting down notes. I probably shouldn't have. Because as a Tumblr snowflake, I have the term used to describe what the video rails against: purity politics. The conduct of judging people by how hoops they can jump through to satisfy your personal ethics. Sadly, as many people convinced that storytelling should be an innocent and "almost whimsical" hobby, they identify the effort of improving inclusivity and respecting minorities with the demands for impossible perfection.

I have a few points to make. Unlike Aaarrrgh, I consider to have spent too much time and energy on this to put it in a spoiler. I apologize for the venom dripping from my words, it's a subject I care deeply for and I have little patience for what I consider to be simplistic, lukewarm takes; that said, probably I myself have too high of a standard because of all the effort I'm willing to put in analyzing this issues. Still, if you put on your Youtube channel a video tackling a subject, I assume you're confident in your words... or you're deliberately luring hell into your comment section for **** and giggles, but that doesn't seem the case.

Back to the point.

1. Having a rationalization doesn't mean that a work is excused to come off as clearly discriminatory. And if the whole body of the text doesn't help matter, if you need to go into Extra Lore to know you're not doing minorities dirty... maybe that's a problem you should consider. (by this of course I don't mean "burn Tolkien's books beause they are PrObLeMaTiC", even though it should be obvious, more on that later)
2. Energy toward research should be proportional to the global effort. Someone looking to make an interesting (science-)fantasy race for his D&D group doesn't need to hire sensitivity readers and spend 40+ hours on research. A triple-A game company can and should be held accountable because they HAVE the money to spend. I admit that a public forum is an interesting middle point, because you may be talking to a small group, but you are sharing it to the general public. Completely unrelated, but **** soulcrushing crunch times with a rusty knife.
3. The video seems to hint at the fact that because perfection is unattainable, you basically shouldn't try. Which sounds like the crap it is once you put it into plain words. Perfection is unattainable, that's obvious, so what can you do? As an audience, you should be mindful of the effort put into the work. As a creator, you should be mindful that you'll always have something to learn. Again, those with larger resources (aka big companies, not single celebrities, that's a whole other can of worms) have more responsibility to do better because they can and should. If you put money into shooting mechanics, you put something toward not being casually racist too. People can and should drag your game through the mud if your mechanics are crap and you got more bugs than an apiary. People can and should drag you if you have a crappy story/worldbuilding with no respect for the minorities you're talking about.
4. While I can see how neopronouns may be off-putting, the use of "new gender stuff is gibberish because I don't understand it" and the trope of the screeching SJW does not help his case. You shouldn't expect people to immediately rewire their language to accommodate every step of the ever-evolving queer discourse. At the same time, you should put some effort to recognize their struggle when you can, and for example, welcoming the slight repurposing of the singular them is a simple step that not everybody's willing to make.
5. The video takes the (Half-)Orc description and drives the PC argument into absurdity by using a post that the PETA, of all organizations, shared. Completely missing that there's a few interesting issues like 1. using language specifically meant to be derogatory (there ARE neutral terms to describe physical features and they're not that outlandish believe you me) for a whole race 2. of uniformly Evil creatures. Yes, mandatory wokeness and purity politics are ****. Would you kindly acknowledge that maybe there might be some work to do on stereotypes thoughtlessly leaning on the first fantasy book for adults in history?

In short: **** myself for spending a whole hour writing this. I just hope it helps something.

True tl;dr: yes, purity politics are ****. Dismissing efforts to understand minorities when talking about them, or using relevant coding, is also morally questionable. Care for the people, not for the words.

Oof, being left hanging for such a long time sucks supremely. Crossing my fingers for you, friend.

It looks like I'll be looking into downsizing my deck collection since there are just so damn many of them that I seriously doubt will never see the light of day anymore.

The big question will be which ones won't make the cut.

Happy birthday, Ruwin! I don't know if you swing by here anymore, but if you do, I hope you have a good day (or had, if you read this later).

Second that sentiment!

Thirded

Fourthed!

Just wondering, does anyone happen to have Luna's phone number? Kinda feel like we should be checking on him.

Sent off an email considering it's been about two weeks since we last saw him, and with the weather being what it is, seemed a good idea.

I've got nothing of the sort, unfortunately.

Got in touch with Luna.
Weather didn't substantially disrupt his life.
He's safe, just been burnt out so he was taking some time to himself (what I expected)
It was just the weather in his area that had me the most worried.

That's really good to hear. I have family down in Texas who did lose power, but fortunately I have OTHER family in Texas who didn't, so they were able to stay there.

Man snow in Texas, snow in Athens, and I think it was at the same time that everywhere in Canada recorded a temperature below freezing.
Somebody must've done something real offensive to that polar vortex.