Maybe He’s Just Another 4th-Edition Hater?
[T]his is at least the second or third time [official John McCain-campaign blogger Goldfarb has brought up Dungeons and Dragons. As nothing is accidental with these clowns, why this choice? Is it to build up McCain’s macho street cred by attacking the nerdy Obama and his supporters? Are the religious nuts still convinced D&D is a tool of satan? Is there some sort of anti-D&D demographic out there that is the new soccer mom? Or is Michael Goldfarb just an idiot and forgot to vary his schoolyard insults?
It’s an especially good question because I don’t think all that many Americans know what "Dungeons and Dragons" is. Roleplaying, God love it, is a fringe hobby; the cartoon was 25 years ago; the movie bombed. It’s definitely the game you mention when trying to explain to genpop members what that hobby of yours is (otherwise, they suspect your enthusiasm for "roleplaying" is sexual), but in my experience, even "Dungeons and Dragons" is likely to draw blank or semi-blank looks.
Maybe Goldfarb doesn’t realize that he wants to be snarking on World of Warcraft – perhaps blogs are the only thing about the internet he’s figured out. Or maybe he’s just a White Wolf guy.
I do counsel against the Obama spokespeople firing back that "John McCain just wants to treat the United States as one big Dogs in the Vineyard town."
Comment by Grant Gould —
August 19, 2008 @ 9:00 am
Particularly rich coming from the campaign that supports actual dungeons. Do you think that they are thinking of feeding the terrorists to dragons once they’re done torturing them?
Comment by Bryant —
August 19, 2008 @ 9:15 am
The key phase is “mom’s basement.” It’s just another code term for unwanted geeky outcasts; real men don’t play D&D.
Comment by Professor Coldheart —
August 19, 2008 @ 9:39 am
EXTRA CREDIT: Interpret the presidential race between a failed Naval pilot and a black Senator from Chicago in light of Greg Stolze’s Unknown Armies. Show your work.
Comment by Jesse Walker —
August 19, 2008 @ 10:06 am
I assume that Goldfarb, like the other neocons, spent his teen years playing Risk. Since that pastime provided everything they ever needed to know about geopolitics, why shouldn’t they sneer at all the other games?
Comment by Timothy —
August 19, 2008 @ 11:06 am
I usually explain my D&D hobby as follows: Every Sunday I spend a couple of hours sitting around my dinner table with some friends rolling dice and pretending to have magical powers.
Comment by joe —
August 19, 2008 @ 11:14 am
Actually, the McCain spokesman is probably right, given that the story was originally broken a few years ago by someone on Free Republic. Mommas boys, in the basement? Oh yeah.
Now, as for the guy who broke the story on DailyKos recently – I’ll let him speak for himself:
John McCain’s campaign should really show a little more respect for navy vets.
Comment by mds —
August 19, 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Yeah, this is just the administration of more noogies to the nerds from the crowd that brought us spoiled self-entitled purveyor of cruel humor George W. Bush, and is turning it up to eleven with John “Rape jokes are hilarious” McCain. I doubt they even know that it could be a dog whistle to fundamentalists of a certain age. And why bother? The applause at Saddleback Church made it clear that McCain can simply shit in their faces and they’ll call it the Bread of Life; no subtlety required. He’s their new anointed for Christ’s Great Commission to kill anyone who even looks sidelong at America or our proxy of the week (See Dumbfuck 9:23).
Comment by Brett Peters —
August 20, 2008 @ 5:46 am
snork!
Comment by Soullite —
August 20, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
He won’t attack WoW. WoW has millions of subscribers. There’s an entire sub-culture involved with it. IF he did that, those people would come out and vote against him.
D&D? Shorthand for dork, just like WoW, but with only a few hundred thousand players. Thats a safer target.