THE ROBOTS HAVE COME FOR US
Modern art has stagnated, perhaps even devolved.
The ability to create art was once a skill born of creative and aesthetic flair, honed through a lifetime of discipline, perseverance and devotion to one's craft; years of thankless toil for the sake of growth in the pursuit of beauty.
No longer, for with the aid of technology, art has been placed in the hands of the common man.
Gone are the days of honing artistic skill. Now, with the push of a button. Every man can paint with the warped vibrance of Picasso, the dreamlike haze of Van Gogh, the dynamic insanity of Dali.
Now, all of mankind can be artists.
They will create, devoid of any aesthetic sense,
Like any once-great civilization before it...
The ancient Greeks.
The Romans.
The Californians.
Standards will fall, the warped shall be deemed beautiful and words will lose their meaning as mankind devolves into muddled insanity, little more than bleating sheep as they gormlessly wait for direction, vomiting out piece after piece of twisted mockery between tiktok videos.
Then the machine, filled with all this new data; this... Art.
It will look through it all.
Then it will know what must be done.
Praise the Omnissiah.
Accept, Don't Glorify.
So, sections of the geek community have expressed displeasure at the invasion of identity politics into their communities.
The activists, with the aid of the establishments, have responded with the usual slew of buzzwords and accusations. Bigot, gatekeeper, misogynist, same rubbish for the last ten years or so.
Now, most *reasonable* people know this is not true.
If any community welcomes freaks and weirdos, it's us geeks.
After listening to various perspectives of the geeks who have spoken out against this, the moderate representatives of the alphabet people as well as the deranged contradictory reasoning of the SJW types, I had a moment of clarity.
The geek community, if my own views as well as that of my peers are anything to go by, have ZERO problem with representation. We have a problem with IP appropriation and demonizing of our demographic, the communities that kept these IPs alive for the SJWs to swoop in, violate and drive us out.
Let's call a spade a spade.
Autistic people (like myself) are not neurotypical.
The alphabet people are not neurotypical.
We are oddities. Abnormalities if you will because our wirings are not typical of the majority of the human race.
I digress.
It is not the normalization of minority demographics that bothers me.
It is the GLORIFICATION.
Normalization is fine. Go to work, mow your lawn, howdy neighbor, fall in love, get married, fuck, etc. Who and how ye fuck is your business. Keep it behind closed doors.
You're not an animal.
However, the Woke Folk and their identity politics do not normalize. They GLORIFY.
Like the ancient Greeks and Romans, they let corruption in the guise of progress erode the fabric of society, reshaping art (and through it, society) into a form more pleasing to their ideals.
They say entertainment is, by nature, political and I agree, except in the past, it was used to tell tales of heroism and give examples for the youth to aspire to. Our heroes were people we wanted to emulate and aspire to become, not people who are exactly like us.
They are an ideal that transcends borders and identity.
The mythic structure exists for a reason.
The West was the birthplace of animation and geek culture but it may be on its way out and geeks will need a new hub to call home.
They called us gatekeepers but perhaps it's what we need to be; perhaps, for the good of the community, some form of security must be put in place by the community.
Maybe we'll be able to be a diverse community of people who just wanted to play games and read comics again.
Everything in moderation.
Accept, don't glorify.
Quantum Infection
After multiple swabs it is established that I do not have the 'rona.
So as a result, I have been moved out of quarantine containment.
Yet, I am detained under suspicion of carrying the 'rona, despite confirmation to the contrary.
My new room is designated an isolation ward, but is not outfitted with quarantine containment and pressure control.
However, if anyone on this floor has the 'rona, I am not protected.
It is assumed that others on this floor are, like myself, still not cleared as non-carriers.
I am disallowed from leaving my room.
If they open the room door I may catch the 'rona, assuming it is not already in here.
If they do not open the room door I may not have the 'rona, unless it travels in at the time of opening.
When the room door is closed I am in an uncertain state where I both do and do not have the 'rona.
...
...
...Oh god.
I am Schrödinger's Patient.
Patience, my friends, patience...
The year is 2020 and the first world has finally gone mad.
Every great civilization meets a slow decline and eventually ends at the hands of degeneracy and contagion. They fall and stronger cultures rise to take its place; this has been the pattern that mankind has followed during our relatively short existence within the cosmos.
However, amidst such dark times is perhaps one of humanity's greatest gifts; the ability to tell stories; to depict vivid tales of daring adventure, inspiring heroism and mirthful joy through art, song and the written word.
Such fantastical tales form the core of mythology and fantasy.
Fantasy and escapism have always been under threat.
In the past it was Jack Chick and his misinformation on role-playing games.
In the late 90s came the Columbine Massacre and video games were made the scapegoat for the behavior of two psychopaths.
Post 2010, the list continues to grow; Anita Sarkeesian, third wave campus feminism, Twitter mobs, Game Journalists comprising of failures within the field, Feminism 40k and now even the mentally ill and emotionally fragile, drunk with the power of social media have turned upon us. Misfits who, in their bid to attain influence, seek to achieve it by using us as stepping stones for their rise to authoritarian censorship.
Sexism. Racism. Homophobia. Diversity. Inclusivity. Gatekeeping.
The buzzwords are the poison that these wretches have turned upon us.
Few things are more dangerous than evil that wears the mask of virtue.
While we have never truly viewed the corporations with friendship, we believed ourselves engaged in a simple and mutually beneficial arrangement. You give us the product and we give you the money. We were wrong.
Old businessmen, unable to grasp the changes to society and its dynamics allowed the Woke, the vipers into their midst, staring blankly at abstract numbers as they allow their sales to plummet and their customers faith in them to fail.
Let the traitors rot from within, taking the blight of social justice with them.
When their flesh has sloughed away and their bones turned to dust we shall rebuild atop the ashes, ready to craft inspiring stories to fill the void that their greed has eaten away.
So long as humanity possesses the ability to dream, they cannot kill us all.
Thoughts on PC Culture and Consumerism
Certain gaming company mindsets are starting to turn my stomach.
Here's an example...
Design: We removed negative ability modifiers to make unusual race/class combinations more viable. (That's good)
Feelies: We removed negative ability modifiers because such limitations are like racial stereotyping and we need to teach people that racism is bad! #orclivesmatter #notalldrow
(Note: If you need games to teach you morality your parents did a shit job of raising you)
Both lines of reasoning will result in the removal of negative ability modifiers, but due to the difference in motivation, future changes will differ greatly.
Consider not only the results of an action, but the motivation behind them.
Design will be driven by the desire to create a better product and will focus on clean, intuitive mechanics above all else. This is proper inclusiveness and accessibility.
Feelies will be motivated by fear; fear of the outspoken, fear of the dark, fear of the taboo and leaching all life and variety for the sake of some bland hand-holding kumbaya bullshit. This is the mindset that will ostracize older gamers for problematic wrongthink.
Many game companies like Wizards and Naughty Dog are already heading in that direction for the purpose of driving out older demographics in hopes of attracting the new untapped demographic with moral grandstanding in a modern age of vacuous dopamine hits from social media.
For those who view these changes with neutrality, saying "you're making a big deal out of nothing" and "it's not so bad", please continue to throw money at subpar products that lecture you for the color of your skin or the shape of your genitalia.
When you decide they've gone a bit too far and feel the need to lodge a complaint, keep it to yourself.
You wanted this so you bend over and take it like a good consumer.
Vote with your wallet.