Nerd culture has seldom come off as progressive for well-deserved reasons, but I think it's relevant to point out that these scandals are simultaneously coming to light in churches, sports franchises, academia, Hollywood, and politics. Massive, mainstream establishments all. I think we're well past the point that we can declare this a ubiquitous, endemic problem. That's not to take any responsibility off the gaming community -- old-school gamers like me have long known the TTRPG community has had chronic issues with sexism -- but I think getting insular about the problem has prevented us from seeing the forest for the trees. "Nerd culture is sexist" is a serious issue but it feels limited in scale, seems manageable with incremental improvements, but if it was that easy why's it taking so long. I sense it's because we're all thinking small about a VERY big problem, like cleaning up a local beach when it's the ocean itself that's polluted.I heard about this the other day. Damn, really sucks - with the recent White Wolf scandals and now D&D facing issues it shows that the tabletop hobby has just as many issues to contend with as other parts of nerd culture.
We're now going through a cultural shift signaling that the way we handled these issues in the past -- by ignoring them -- is no longer acceptable. So far from being an exoneration-by-association for the TTRPG community, it's a crossroads. Some factions have decided that abuse is A-OK. Others are going through a purge of sorts. So FWIW I'm not saying, well it's everywhere, so gamers don't have to do anything in particular. To the contrary, if tabletop gamers -- or nerds in general -- want to join the rest of society in the 21st century, they'll want to jump on the #MeToo bandwagon. Because I think this community (overall) is too small to make a significant difference, even with the best of intentions.
The reason I'm saying all this is because by an amazing coincidence, this isn't the first Zach Smith abuse story I've seen recently.
http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...nt-zach-smith-clarifies-details-police-report
Ohio State's football coach also had a Zach Smith that was abusive. They knew he was abusive, and they protected him. Eventually they were forced to fire him, which was easy because he was bad at his job, but unfortunately, the program otherwise suffered no discipline . Smith wasn't charged. Urban Meyer (Smith's boss) was untouchable in Ohio, but more disturbingly, barely anyone tried to touch him.
What this tells me is that the anti-abuse movement (FFS we need a movement to end abuse, don't we) is still too fragmented relative to the problem. Those of us on the same side all have a common enemy, but each institution is still dealing with the same problem in their own ways, and this is resulting in losses I feel can be avoided. Because to me, there is no flippin' difference between Zak Smith and Zach Smith, and I don't mean the similarity in names, yet one of them has already been swept under the rug as an aberration.
I probably sound crazy (if it looks, acts, and rambles like a crazy guy. . .) but if this is allowed to be handled "in house" and not part of a larger problem, I get the sinking feeling WotC will do the same, cut loose one guy to save face, and nothing will change.
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