McCain Campaign Bashes Gamers, Reminds Me Of High School Bullies
On an article posted to John McCain's website yesterday in response to plagiarism charges from the liberal blogosphere, McCain's campaign bashes gamers in a venomous ad hominem attack tucked into the last paragraph:
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.
Right - because gamers can't quite possibly understand the sacrifice our troops make to keep us safe. Good job, ignorant and bitter McCain campaign staffer; you've shown the same amount of savvy that a typical High School bully shows as he kicks around the little guy in the classroom.
In that one sentence you've not only insulted gamers like me who have utter respect for our troops, but you've insulted those members of the military who themselves enjoy rolling the dice and dungeon crawling as an enjoyable hobby. There are at least three members of my regular gaming group who are service members, and you just insulted every single one of them.
Way to go.
Smears the Left Can Fight For [McCain]
Den Den Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 19 August 2008
· Comments (14)
Other stuff like this: gaming, McCain, politics, smear
Hmm... I'm not sure why you would be offended by this. I think its clear, based on the context of the full statement, that this was not a blanket insult to all gamers. To be honest, I think most gamers would seperate themselves from the D&D crowd.
His point is that left wing nut bags who sit in their basement and blog all day about a world they rarely venture out into are totally clueless. Its about time people start giving it to these bloggers who present their opinions and specualtions as fact.
Can we get over being offended by EVERYTHING... please?
my Dungeon Master who is also a Desert Storm Veteran and a private business owner would have some words for McCain's publicity people! They played D&D all the time over there in Kuwait and it was a perfect way to make light and enjoy social time amidst the hell of war.
what does this have to do with D&D and gamers?
If it's about gamers - then go spend a few hours online and see how many vets are out their playing Call of Duty and Halo.
Truly ignorant and out of touch.
Either way this guy is just running into one spike after another. I wonder why he's even bothering to run in the 1st place and waste so much money. Although, bush did "win" twice in a row lol.
Woah, wtf. That was really low.
@Emery: Even if his point was about "nutjob left-wing bloggers" what the heck does that have to do with people who play D&D? It was just a cheap attack on a trite old stereotype: the gamer who lives in his mom's basement and has no social skills. Nothing to be offended by there, huh? At least as long as you can separate yourself out from the group being maligned.
But what about when they talk about "Faggy liberals"? Most liberals can separate themselves out from the "Gay crowd" right? So maybe there's nothing to be offended by there, either.
Emery:
Not sure where you get off, since right wingers are the ones fighting an endless war against science, equal rights, and telling the truth when they drag their country into war.
And if you want uninformed opinions being passed off as objective fact, there's no better source of bullshit than conservative media outlets like Fox News.
McCain is a fucking idiot. Half the time he doesn't even know where the hell he is until Lieberman whispers it into his ear.
And as admirable as it is to serve one's country, being a soldier does NOT qualify anyone to be the leader of an entire nation.
I have a friend who's on a Navy submarine right now. He plays D&D and Magic: the Gathering on a regular basis on that submarine. What are McCain's people trying to accomplish?
Cute.. real cute. Great, but then again coming from a man who most media did not even pick up on until Hilary dropped out of the race of politics I guess this is one of the only ways to get attention.. like a spoiled brat in a department store.
Just so you know... they apologized.
Emery makes an incredibly solid point, and obviously he gets jumped all over, I did in fact notice he never even mentioned right wing nutjobs, so I fail to see how that fits into the context of what he [I assume he] said.
There are a truckload of left wing nutcases and right wing nutcases out there blogging like crazy, anything to stem their tide is great in my books.
I also agree with Emery on the been bemusedly obsessed with finding reasons to be offended is somewhat tiresome and does "The Cause" no good whatsoever, people are apathetic towards gay rights as it is, the more you find reasons, they'll eventually backlash.
Coercion is the key, cohesion is what's needed, not hammering nails home that nobody cares about.
Seriously, some of you guys need a massive, massive reality check.
I think he underestimates how many young people are into 'geek' things like gaming and blogging and so on. By insulting them on their own medium (blog), it's rather working to isolate himself from that key 18-30 crowd.
@Emery:
The issue is that members of the McCain campaign are doing the same tactics that the Bush campaign did: paint your opponents as the "other". Anyone who criticizes McCain is a "basement dweller". They're "unpatriotic". They're "latte sipping elitists".
And it's just as wrong as it was four years ago and eight years ago and 16 and 200 years ago. What happened to the McCain who promised to have a "clean" campaign on the issues? Why denigrate a group of people by saying "Oh, you know those anti-social internet nerds don't like our guy - haha" instead of saying "OK - here's the issue and our position."
And, to be blunt, your little snit about "left wing nut bags who sit in their basement and blog all day about a world they rarely venture out into" is part of the problem. There are those of us who go out every day and work at hospitals with veterans, or go to the factory, or work on computer security, or any number of things who have hobbies and opinions. To lump people who disagree with you as "wing nuts" is called "prejudice."
If you have an issue, let's debate it. The McCain campaign was complaining they were caught lying. Instead of whining, they should man up (or cowboy up, or whatever), say "OK - we weren't in the cone of silence, sorry if we gave that impression", and go on with life. Instead, they tried to paint their opponents as losers, basement mouth breathers.
Good job. Insult the people that you want to help you become the leader of all people in the nation. Way to "reach across the aisles."
Hey, things happen and people say some stupid things. We just need to make sure that we hold them to what they say. :P
That'll teach people to say what they mean and mean EXACTLY what they say.
Um, so exactly which political bloggers with a liberal slant are D&D players?
I think this is a repeat of the whole "Starbucks-drinking liberals" thing.
While none of the Republicans I work with ever picked up on the Manhunt.net debacle, they did mention this D&D thing yesterday. I don't bring up politics at work because, well, I work with Republicans, but they did bring it up. All of them considered it a minor mistake (but still a mistake) on the part of the McCain campaign.
Maybe that's because none of them were bullies or fratboys back in school or maybe it's because they're blue-state Republicans (though some of them play video games, I wouldn't call them gamers), but it shows the story did get out to the non-geeks.