Tag Archives: politics

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Why I’m Not at Gen-Con This Year

I’ve been a staple at Gen-Con, a massive four-day gaming convention in Indianapolis, for a decade. I’ve tabled in Authors Avenue in the vendor hall since 2020, but even then, I taught a pair of online panels in the free online version held during the off-year. I’ve networked with many authors there, sold hundreds (if not more) books there, expanded my readership there, and met some amazing friends there.

But this year, I’m staying home. In fact, I canceled my vendor hall table in June.

Why? I’m not allowed to be there. Not because of something I did, but because of something I didn’t do.

This year Gen-Con required COVID vaccination cards to get in the door. This decision wasn’t finalized until two months before the convention. I’d reserved a table in February. I only got half of my money back when I canceled—because I’d chosen not to get vaxxed.

Before I continue, let me make several things abundantly clear:

  • I am not anti-vax.
  • I am not anti-science.
  • I have simply chosen not to get the vaccine. I’m admittedly a little hesitant with how fast the vaccine was produced, but I’m incredibly healthy and hygienic. I’ve gone for 2 ½ years without getting COVID (unless I was asymptomatic).
  • I’m not here to argue about the medical science of COVID and the vaccine. That invariably turns into a quagmire because everyone can site sources that seem to back up their position. Honestly, the science is immaterial to the issue with Gen-Con.

What I will argue is still potentially dangerous. I could lose readers and/or friends over it. (Welcome to the world we live in). It might even be considered grounds for “cancelation.”

But I must speak up.

This vax card requirement by Gen-Con makes no sense. The COVID-19 pandemic is over, for all intents and purposes. In my home state of Indiana (where Gen-Con is held, in case you forgot), we have returned to what feels like 90-plus-percent pre-2020 normal. Last year, Gen-Con held a half-size show while the pandemic was ongoing but subsiding. Precautions were taken, such as requiring masks. It was “diet Gen-Con” in many ways, but I can vouch for it being a success. Heck, I made more money in Authors Avenue than I ever had before! I expected Gen-Con would relax their restrictions in 2022.

Instead, they’ve done the opposite.

Why?

I suspect politics.

It’s no secret that Gen-Con’s management are leftists. In 2015 when then-governor Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the CEO of the convention threatened to break contract with the city of Indianapolis and move the show out of state in protest. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, but it showed the organization’s true political colors. Now politics are influencing how they manage their business. It’s at best misguided virtue signaling and at worst a thinly veiled attempt to identify the political demographics of Gen-Con’s customer base and, I would argue, bar some from attending based on those politics. The problem is some people—such as several members of my family—haven’t gotten the vaccine because of their politics but because of pre-existing health conditions that would be aggravated by the vaccination. Why should such people be prohibited from attending Gen-Con along with the “evil” antivaxxers if they want to be there?

This decision makes Gen-Con an outlier. While I’m sure there are other cons that have such requirements now, I can’t think of one. (Feel free to mention any in the comments below). This year I’ve attended both Indiana Comic-Con (which is in the Indiana Convention Center, the same venue as Gen-Con) and G-Fest (which is held in Chicago, a city that only recently relaxed its stringent COVID restrictions), neither of which required vax cards. And guess what? Everything went fine. No one said anything one way or the other. Nobody died. The attendees just enjoyed themselves. Gen-Con could’ve compromised, as many venues and shows have done in the last year. A negative COVID test within three days of the con? Sure. A mask mandate? Fine. Social distancing and other precautions? Understandable. But a vax card requirement is a bridge too far.

I’ve debated if I still would’ve attended Gen-Con if I was vaxxed. While I can’t say for sure, I think I would’ve canceled on principle and as a sign of solidarity with friends who couldn’t or wouldn’t attend because of this decision.

After the success of last year’s Gen-Con despite reasonable restrictions, this vax card requirement is a baffling, presumptive, and seemingly prejudicial decision. It’s bad for PR. While I don’t wish failure on this year’s con, I do hope that the powers-that-be at Gen-Con corporate get plenty of pushback about this and drop the requirement for next year’s convention. I’ve spoken with other Gen-Con fans who’ve been unfairly excluded by this. We aren’t going to get a COVID shot just to participate in “the four best days of gaming.” There are other cons who don’t have these restrictions who will be happy to have our time and money. It’s not 2020 anymore. We’ve moved on.

Gen-Con should, too.

Blog

The Journal of the Plague Fortnight, Day 1: Reputation, Lockdown, and Excuses to Leave

The foggy scene outside my apartment on day one of the Indiana lockdown. (Photo by Nathan Marchand).

As I mentioned on my social media, with my home state of Indiana in lockdown and my university going to online only classes, I’ve decided to increase my creative output to entertain (and hopefully enlighten) all of you True Believers while in quarantine. We could all use some relief, and this is one way I can help with that.

When I wrote my blog last week, I hesitated to put in my political commentary. I make no secret of my political leanings (I’m a conservative), but I don’t make a habit of broadcasting them to the world because it always invites trouble. That’s the climate we live in now. But I left it in because it was part of my frustration. Predictably, I was accused of being flippant, propagating misinformation, and not taking the situation seriously. I ended up adding a “retraction” of sorts to the blog and posting it as an addendum. This came after I did some more reading and learned a few things I didn’t know before about coronavirus.

The criticism ignited an old fear that has dug deeper roots in recent years: perception is reality when it should be truth. In other words, the actions and decisions of others have more control over my life than I do. I could be objectively qualified for, say, a job, but the employer could still not select me. In the case of my blog, I didn’t mean to spread misinformation or offend anyone. Given that I’m something of a public figure (and the internet is vicious), damage to my reputation could cost me big time. I’ve seen the destruction wrought by gossip. I know firsthand how ungracious people can be. That’s why I went into “damage control mode” to mitigate the problem. I should’ve known everyone, including myself, is on edge with everything happening. It’s only natural to respond defensively. I stay up-to-date with the latest reports on the crisis, but there’s a lot of unknowns out there. Humans fear the unknown more than most things. That’s why coronavirus is terrifying but the flu isn’t.

Sadly, I saw the internet tear someone else apart this week over this. J.D. Lees, the editor of G-Fan magazine and the organizer for G-Fest, sparked the controversy of the week in the kaiju fan community when he posted coronavirus stats on the event’s Twitter page. Yes, it was a bad PR move, but I’ve rarely seen such instant hate in this fandom. People called him a “clown” and a “villain” and said they would cancel their magazine subscriptions and their G-Fest tickets. I know J.D., so I know he meant no harm, which is why I did try to stem the hate. That and my recent experience made me sympathetic to his plight. At least no one bit my head off for it.

So, now almost everywhere I would go is closed. School, the dance studio, bookstores. Heck, even my church had to start livestreaming services. To say I feel isolated would be an understatement. It makes me glad my brother Jarod moved in with me or else I would die of loneliness. I’ve distanced myself from online communities to focus on real-life relationships, and now they’re all I have for the time being.

At least I was able to do some work for InstaCart, and they seem to be staying in operation. At this point, I’ll take any excuse to go outside.

On my first day of quarantine, I drove to BioLife to donate plasma like I normally do. The stuff is desperately needed, and it’s good money. Appropriately, fog as thick as peanut butter blanketed the city at 9AM. It made me think of the people’s blindness and how fog would deter travel. Beyond that, I spent the day raiding my overfilled cupboards, watching UltraSeven with Jarod, doing schoolwork, catching up on my TV viewing, and gaming online with my friend Bill.

One of the goals on my whiteboard is, “Add more adventure to your life.”

That just got more challenging.

What are you doing to pass the time in self-quarantine? Comment below!

Blog

Polarization: The Insidious Plague of ‘Us Against Them’

Brace yourselves. War is coming.

Not just any war—a flame war. Many are already being waged.

All joking aside, I’ve noticed that since the last presidential campaign season, during which people dug their heels into the ground for whatever candidate they supported, the tendency toward polarization has spilled over into other areas. In particular, seems to have become more prominent in the fandom/nerd/geek community. No longer is it a friendly rivalry where people can agree to disagree. No, now those who disagree must be smeared and the supposed “right opinion” presented with pretense.

Image courtesy of www.patheos.com.

While these “factions” have existed for years (Marvel or DC? Star Trek or Star Wars? Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat?), I’ve never seen such vitriol in the past. Divisions have even formed within fandoms, and thanks to the anonymity of the internet, a “civil war,” of sorts, has waged.

The situation that brought this to my mind is Capcom’s newest fighting game, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Because the game wasn’t living up to everyone’s expectations leading up to its release, interest waned for the game. Then another company, Arc System Works, announced a similar game called DragonBall FighterZ. It was then the camps formed. Hardcore MvC fans held out for the former game while defectors, “casuals,” and DBZ fans formed around the other game. They created copious memes, both photos and videos, denouncing Capcom or MvCI and proclaimed Arc Systems and DragonBall FighterZ the greatest things ever. Personally, what passing interest I may have had in the DragonBall game was killed by their pretentiousness.

I follow several YouTubers, like Maximilian Dood, who make videos on fighting games, and they soon found themselves enveloped in the firestorm. Max in particular has said he’s been accused of being both a shill and a hater. In other words, both sides dislike him. He’s actually taken what I think is an honest and realistic approach to things. When MvCI was released, he criticized some aspects but praised it for others. I’m sure that drove some people on both sides crazy.

What gets to me is how quickly people rally around what’s honestly unimportant things. These are games. They’re entertainment. It’s not life or death. And yet the human desire to fit in and belong to a group compels them to form factions and fight for their cause, no matter how trivial.

This needs to stop.

Not just in fandom circles. Everywhere. For everything.

I heard many stories about families dividing over politics last year. Groups and movements have sprung up over the years that claim they want to bring equality, but all they do is create hate for “the other side.” What they don’t realize is movements based on hate can’t last. All they do is create a self-perpetuating crazy cycle. But all it takes is one person to break it.

Be that person, True Believers.

Have you witnessed polarization over things besides politics? Where? Why? What have you done to break the crazy cycle?

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English Grammar is Racist?!

So much BS in 140 characters.

(Note to my readers: I’m getting back into the habit of blogging on my normal basis. It’s proven to be difficult with my busyness. My apologies).

I’ve heard, read, and sometimes written a lot of BS in my life, but yesterday I heard something on a local radio talk show that has officially on my top five list of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard:

Proper English grammar is racist.

Really?

Really?

REALLY?

It was part of a press release from the University of Washington Tacoma’s Writing Center, which said, 

“Linguistic and writing research has shown clearly for many decades that there is no inherent ‘standard’ of English. Language is constantly changing. These two facts make it very difficult to justify placing people in hierarchies or restricting opportunities and privileges because of the way people communicate in particular versions of English.”

The Center’s director, Dr. Asoa Inoue, went further by asserting that racism has created unfair standards in education itself. “Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations, and guidelines that make up our classes, school, and society.”

I read this press release, the statement itself, and the response from the university when the controversy ignited. While I don’t normally get political in my blogs, this so annoyed me because it touches on something important to me, and I thought I should say something.

First, all of UW’s claims seem to be generalizations. There are no specifics offered. I assume they think people make racist assumptions based on how others talk and write. In other words, if they don’t use “proper” grammar, they presume they’re uneducated and/or stupid based on how they communicate. If they have a certain accent and are of a certain ethnicity, this reinforces certain negative prejudices. At least, that’s how I understand what UW is saying. The statement goes so far as to say that English grammar is somehow full of “microagressions.” How it does is never explained in clear detail. Honestly, the statements seem to have more to do with education than language itself.

The problem with this is it ignores reality and cast a shadow on those, like myself, who pride themselves on communicating clearly with good grammar. Yes, English is constantly changing and evolving. Listen to a few episodes of “The History of English” podcast to see that. But something else you’ll learn from that podcast is that accents and dialects denote someone’s upbringing, culture, and education level. It’s simply a fact. (Yes, I know there are plenty of intelligent people out there who speak in dialects that use less-than-perfect grammar). The problem isn’t language and grammar; it’s people who don’t take the time to get to know someone based on how that person communicates. This is equivalent to blaming a murder on the gun and not the murderer. Does it make me some pretentious racist because I say, “My friend and I,” instead of, “My friend and me”?

UW released another press release responding to the controversy probably because the “blogosphere” brought up an obvious problem: if proper English is racist, why teach it? UW’s Writing Center said,

“The Writing Center statement is not about changing the standard for how UW Tacoma teaches commonly accepted English, grammar and composition. UW Tacoma students achieve thorough proficiency in grammar and English expected in higher education and the workplace. Faculty demand a high level of writing proficiency. Our graduates are successful in a wide array of fields.”

Sounds like backpedaling to me. They claim that teaching proper grammar makes people racist because they assume those who don’t use it and instead speak in a dialect will be seen as ignorant, and since most dialects are used by minorities, it reinforces racism. Yet they say they will teach students English to help them be successful. In other words, they know students need to learn good written communication skills to excel in their vocations despite it fostering racism. So, does that mean all great orators, writers, and communicators are all racist? Isn’t the university teaching racism by teaching proper grammar? They can’t have it both ways.

If I met a black person who talked like Snoop Dogg in this commercial, I wouldn’t understand him. I’d probably assume he listened to rap music and might possibly be a thug along with some other presumptions. Why? Because that’s what is commonly associated with people who talk like that. That doesn’t make me racist. It’d simply be reality. Now, would that stop me from talking with the person? No. Would I be surprised to find out he wasn’t a gangster? Probably. But I wouldn’t be so closeminded as to assume this person couldn’t be an intelligent, upstanding member of society.

Language is part of one’s self-presentation. People will make judgments for good or ill based on how one speaks. That is a fact. Labeling people “racist” because of this will only breed more tension and resentment. Must we all speak in the same dialect/accent/language? That is impossible to do. That is, unless, you suspend all English education. It’s much easier to speak in broken, dumbed down English. Doing that, however, will only create chaos because communication will be hampered.

All of this just seems like yet more propaganda insisting there’s still an epidemic of racism in this country, and that people are racist without knowing it. Haven’t you noticed how more and more stories keep hitting the news claiming innocuous things are somehow racist? It seems to be a determined effort to either make some people feel guilty for being “racist” when they aren’t or to convince others they’re victims of racism when they aren’t. That’s as much as I want to say on the subject because going further would require more words and time than I can give right now. I’ll simply say that nothing lasting can be built on a foundation of guilt, anger, and/or hatred.

Thanks for reading this blog full of “racist” English grammar.

What are your thoughts on this? Is proper English grammar somehow racist?

Blog

The End of the Election

I don’t usually get political in this blog or on any of my social media sites. It’s not because I’m apolitical—I’m a staunch conservative, in case you didn’t know—but because I have no desire to join the firestorm-beset wasteland that is “internet discourse.” I’ve been a troll magnet in the past, and let me tell you, while I can endure the abuse (and even laugh at it), it is tiring.

Regardless, the strangest election cycle, well, ever, finally came to an end Tuesday night. Or rather, Wednesday morning at 2AM. I voted, but it was with reservations. I wasn’t excited about either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. I was a Ted Cruz supporter during the primaries. Heck, I even attended one of his rallies when he came to Fort Wayne, Indiana (it was the first political rally I ever attended). If he hadn’t won, there were several other candidates I would’ve gladly voted for. I was disappointed to see Trump come out on top, and thanks to my state, no less. I honestly thought his appeal was largely a cult of personality (cue mandatory reference to the ‘80s song) fueled by angry people fed up with the government. Although, admittedly, it did give me some reassurance to see him nominate my state’s governor, Mike Pence, as his running mate.

There was a period in my life where people seemed to assume I was a Republican in my political beliefs, and they put me into the “box” they’d constructed for what that meant, most of it based on inaccurate stereotypes. Even when I tried to explain that I considered myself a conservative, not a Republican, that didn’t always seem to stick. For me, one’s political beliefs should be based on ideas and philosophies, not party affiliations. Just because I, or anyone else, tend to identify with one more than the other because they usually espouse similar ideas doesn’t mean my first loyalty is to that party.

I'm not the only nerd who made the connection. :P
I’m not the only nerd who made the connection. 😛

That’s why, especially in the last few months, I’ve tried to make it clear that I was interested in the truth above anything else. I’d defend Trump if I felt someone was regurgitating misnomers that were being spread about him, but again, that didn’t mean my loyalty is to him. (I’d have done the same for Hillary, but, well, the truth is either hard to find about her or it’s unpleasant). I had no pretensions about who these candidates were. I was never all-in with Trump. He’s not the pseudo-messiah some of his supporters seem to think he is, nor is he the reprobate his haters think he is. I, like the majority of Americans, I think, was somewhere in the middle.

There’s a reason I joked on my Twitter and Facebook that this election could use the same tagline as the first Alien vs. Predator movie: “Whoever wins, we lose.”

Now all we can do is pray for President-Elect Trump and hold all of our leaders accountable for how they govern.

In meantime, enjoy these Star Wars memes I created for whoever won the election. 😛

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