This Curious Culture War

I remember Nov. 8th, 2016. I was talking to my fiancée about how Hillary’s win would be the four years people needed to see how bad politicians were. Trump’s defeat would lead to a crackdown on freedom of speech. It would happen in the US, leading Canada to enact the same laws.

I was glad to be on Twitter, fighting against the social justice warriors (SJWs) pushing all kinds of stupidity. What exactly was the 3rd gender, let alone the 70th, or as one of them put it, 7 billion genders – well, I guess almost 8 billion genders now. They were useful idiots bringing the New World Order, shouting for censorship. They wanted to silence our voices.

When Trump won the victory, I was shocked. Maybe the “globalists” are okay with Trump and “they” will use other ways to enact their social-communistic order. But I saw violence for over a week. People attacked elderly citizens for voting for Trump. Antifa was setting fires setting the nation ablaze. When I heard about the Autistic teenager who was tortured for hours on Facebook for wearing a MAGA hat, it hit me hard. It still hurts me.

Hating the “Left” was easy when you saw the violence they enacted on their political enemies in 2016 and early 2017. And none of the big news outlets did anything about it. They were empty thrones. Who cares about the rule of law and ethics when they were out to destroy Trump and “us”. As Trump said, the media is the enemy of the people.

I wrote blogs and created comics trying to get people to realize how stupid the “Left’s” positions were. There are only two genders. Women have all the same rights as men. The world was essentially a good place, but nobody would listen.

When Mass Effect: Andromeda came out, I planned on showing how utterly pathetic the “SJW” BioWare was. Their shitty animations, their poor graphics, their story, etc, etc, etc. They were more interested in hating white people than making a great game. I wanted to strike at them – it was the enemy I wanted to fight. And while the game did not sell well, and it was in need of another 6 to 9 months of polish, and they needed to take the story back to scratch, I still enjoyed it. It was a 3-star out of 5, not the usual 4.5 or higher for BioWare.

When I realized this, I became scared. What will everyone think? 

They were all aligned, BioWare Bad, Mass Effect Andromeda Bad. If I did not think it was the most horrible piece of turd in the world, what will people think of me? 

So I spent six weeks dealing with my fears and anxieties. And then a scene from Babylon 5 came to me. Have I forgotten the first rule of the fanatic, “When you become obsessed with the enemy, you become the enemy.”

I realized I do not have to agree with everyone. If you always agree with everyone, you could agree with some bizarre things. Should I have fun and enjoy my life?

When I came back, I was going to be different. I pointed out how “our side” could be wrong about things. I would stand on what I believe, not just with the agreed to talking points. I would be the man in the Nazi photo, refusing to salute.

The more I separated from writing blogs all the time, the more I knew I wanted to do something creative. I realized I could never gain any traction because I sounded like everyone else. If 10,000 voices say the same thing and you start singing with the choir, you are the 10,001st voice in the wilderness. Nobody cares about the 10,001st voice, the crowd only cares about the originals. So, what could I do to help the movement?

When Jordan B. Peterson talking about stories and culture, my creative side started to come out. Especially after I read Dangerous by Milo Yiannopolous – create something that pushes boundaries. So, I created a game development channel, Make Gaming Great Again, and I started to work on GamerGate Trolls, a fun CRPG about a small group of Internet people fighting against censorship and manipulation on the Internet to save MAGA town from the Swamp and Antifa.

Yes, I went there. And for the first few months, I was making some serious inroads. I remember earning 100s of views a week on BitChute with my socials were going off the chart. I felt great about it. I almost felt invincible. That invincibility led me to make some mistakes that cost me.

When I pushed GamerGate Trolls and Make Gaming Great Again, many people on the Left pushed back so hard and dozens of people pushed, pushed and pushed to say how much they hated what I was doing. It was like a whirlwind, but that is how the “Lobster” acts. They were incensed by someone who thought differently.

When the dozens of angry people came after me, I receded. I was not in the right place mentally to fight.

I asked how I could do things differently, because things were starting to get to me. I decided to change things because being so on the nose in my antagonism led to a black lash.

So I decided to rebrand my work as Amazing Gaming Productions. It was a nod to Amazing Grace. If I was going to continue, God would be my focus, not fighting. There had to be some way to bring both sides together. Both sides are only trying to do what is right. One side believed in freedom and the other side in treating people with respect. I also dropped working on GamerGate Trolls.

I started to work on Tales from Trinity City in September 2019, working on something strictly for myself. My dark sci-fi tabletop game, where people can create any superhero in their imagination.

I started to write the game, and finished the first draft of the rulebook by the end of 2019. I got involved with the writing community. I did not push too much politics because it was getting people nowhere.

I realized that both sides kept pushing everyone on a hamster wheel, going around and around with each controversy. Do not let them get to you. With my new attitude, I meet quite a few people in the writing community, including the queen of YouTube Writers, Jenna Moreci.

I watched her videos and decided to give her the Patreon nod. I would support her and become a community member on her discord server to connect with other writers.

One night, my eyes lit up because Jenna surprised me. I commented that gaming was a great visual medium for writers who want to see their stories on a screen. Many indie game companies probably do not have a writer on staff, so if they wanted to see one of their works on screen, gaming was perfect. Look at what happened with the Witcher. It was first a book, then became a game, and now it is a Netflix series.

Well, Jenna had words about the series. It was a neck bearded cliche that should not exist, but the producers were pandering to people who liked Game of Thrones, which was also problematic. Seeing the buzzwords meant she was just like any other leftist ideologue, but she was reasonably talented and kept the insults off the Internet, except for her private servers.

I shake my head because Netflix told Geralt’s character growth from rejecting responsibility to accepting his duty to protect Ciri so well I could not see why any progressive would hate the story. Geralt was about as toxic as a man could get at the start and as healthy as you can be by the end.

I quickly ended my support of Jenna and left Twitter after I saw how messed up things became after George Floyd’s death. There was a trending topic with 399k tweets saying President Trump had blacked out the Internet in DC to kill 1000s of protestors with the Army. No matter what you think of Trump, that was fake news. The fact many people bought it and were talking about it was more than enough to tell me Twitter is not the place you try to build a brand. Maybe Elon can change that, but it has a long way to go.

To fight back, I joined Parler. Once I got it configured, I met many people there, including the original owners. After talking to the brother of the owner, a musician and artist, I think I impressed them. I said, who can sell anything on Twitter because only political fighting gets any traction. I was making inroads with people in the writing community. And there was a writing community there in 2020. I enjoyed it so much, responding to writing prompts, working on Tales from Trinity City, and so much more.

And then I got involved in the culture war again. There was a post by Jenny Trout, “The Authors of Parler” blog. She said authors using the platform were okay with people wanted to kill half of America. Yes, that is what she said. Then she listed the 100s of authors who were there to smear them and get others to blacklist them. They wanted to ruin their careers.

So I said, after I saw my name was not on there, put me on it. I wanted to be just like Moses, feeling the pain and suffering that the Egyptians caused the Jews under bondage. With back and forwards, I eventually told her the only thing I see is a paranoid person who has no connection to reality. Nobody on Parler wants to kill anyone, you are mentally ill and need help.

And then Jan. 6th happened!

Parler died right after it. Amazon pulled the plug on it. People accused the platform of organizing the riot, so nobody wanted to touch it.

I was upset because I realized that paranoia and fanaticism had destroyed my internet home. People were so obsessed with the enemy they needed to annhiliate Parler. So, I decided to write Webtastic Stories. I knew the story would drum up controversy because it was the truth. Con artists and grifters will exploit people’s biases and fears for fame, clout and money. Supporters will endlessly fight against the evils they are being told about, and social media companies benefit from it. I announced that I was going to write the book in 2021.

I left a final meme, where Amazon as Darth Vader was chasing after the Millennium Falcon, Parler Users with the last sentence, see you at the Rendezvous point. Eventually, that would become Minds. I worked hard to create a community there. I am an Introvert, so it was a daily struggle to help out my fellow creatives there. At first, things were going great. I posted and boosted a list of creatives every week, a creator of the week, and my work. I grew successfully there.

Then I encouraged one of the community members, Ian Kirkpatrick, or Kirkpattie Cake, about doing a live book review of “The Cyborg Tinkerer” by Meg Latorre after I showed every time Meg ignored her advice on a video she was reacting over.

Everything went “well” until Kirkpattie Cake read Why Not Witchita. She ripped it to pieces. But Pete Catania, the author, was a friend of mine. Despite wanting to see the perpetual conflict end, I supported it. One of the Loinstreamers said, “some people on Minds are going to really hate this review”.

That weekend was a whirlwind of emotions and action!

First, I set up rules for the chatroom I set up. No tearing apart people. The perpetrators said I was an SJW, not realizing how much I did not even care anymore. It is better to be your own person and surround yourself with people you have mutual respect.

I blocked them, and suggested that to other people.

At the same time, Covid was and still is big news for conservatives online, even though Canada has lifted almost all restrictions now and and is recovering economically right now. But to them, Canada is not only a Covid iron curtain, but everyone will “die suddenly”. Since things are not as bleak in Canada as they suggest, and there was never a police state here, I knew they were lying about my country. These people reject the choices of the people they fight against, so they are as obsessed as the people they fight.

I realized aligning with any internet movement was dumb. People are so used to attacking each other that they can not see what is in front of them. They would rather destroy their lives by constantly fighting and chasing after the next piece of drama. Who cares what someone other than Henry Cavill thinks of him quitting the Witcher NetFlix? What does your Covid Vaccine Status have to do with being a conservative? What is the difference between the Patriarchy and the New World Order? How long will you claim you are a victim of these things and not create your best life?

Since I left the “Culture War” behind, I have only focused on building my life and mental health. Both have improved. I have got a good full-time job, which I did not have while I played “Culture Warrior”. I am paying down my debts and saving money every month. I have published Webtastic Stories, and you can buy it off Amazon, or download it free from my website. I am almost ready to release Tales from Trinity City next year, and you can download the rulebook and lore book here. Next year, I am releasing three source books and the first campaign.

Fighting online will never help your life. It is a perpetual cycle that will never end. You will be upset at the next controversy, and that will be just down the corner. If you reject the cycle, you can start to build up a brand like Iconic Comics – creators of the Soul Finder series, Kamen America, and Black Hops. Or you can be fighting all the time, wasting your time and money even!

Your choice, but I have made mine. The “culture war” is stupid.