Republicans out Democrat in 'World of Warcraft' witch hunt | Hacker News Reader

Republicans out Democrat in 'World of Warcraft' witch hunt

nbcnews.com

46 pointsroguecoder55 comments

A small minority of Americans have extremely conservative religious views, and firmly believe that everything in our world is a battle between the forces of God (which they are on the side of) and people controlled by various demons on the side of the Devil (which they are opposed to). Members of this minority tend to view everything through this lens. If you come from this perspective, it is clear that a game where people pretend to be evil beings killing people HAS to be inspired by forces of evil. And people who play those games are in danger of their souls being captured by those evil beings.

The same minority applying the same logic come to other conclusions that surprise the more secular majority - such as that Harry Potter is the work of the devil and should be banned. (Again, if there are only 2 sides that control everything, the world described in Harry Potter clearly is not inspired by the Bible and must be the work of the Devil.)

This minority is strongly attracted to the Republican party, and has proven influential within it. (Both Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann publicly identify with this minority.) However their views do NOT reflect the majority of the Republican party.

I can completely understand how some members of the Republican party who have this world view would conclude that this "outing" is a good idea. That said, it is no more fair to attribute these opinions to Republicans in general than it is to attribute, say, Shirley Maclaine's views on reincarnation to all Democrats.

I went to a Christian school growing up, K-12. This is very much true. (Or at least the vocal Christians, the neocons/Pentecostals)

I'd also add that there's very much a persecution complex going on too: they believe that the world is out to get them, as Christians.

Be that "persecution" Harry Potter "encouraging witchcraft", a fear of RPG games ("these kids pretend they're wizards and cast actual spells!") to "they took the 10 commandments down in the courtroom - more proof of an evil, Godless country..."

The more they see these things the more they cry out, "help, help we're being repressed!" and then it bounces around the echo chamber and feeeds their belief as a whole.

Yup. A feeling of persecution is very good for reinforcing a faith that believes that you are being persecuted for your faith.

As another example reinforcing that is that members of missionary religions (like Jehova's Witnesses and Mormons) commonly admit that the personal value of being a missionary isn't so much that you convert anyone - on average you don't = but how much the challenges of missionary work reinforce your own faith.

Never point out to them that their favorite book is about a psychedelic trip through the desert involving all their favorite people doing all the things they claim to abhor.

Talking to burning bushes while in an altered state of conciousness, giving your teenage daughter to a group of gay men to do as they please, killing your kids cuz god told you to, having curses placed on you, hanging out with hookers. If they ever found out what kind of welfare state Jesus was running they'd plotz.

The bible would make an awesome zombie game. One could make a killing rebranding Left4Dead as Rapture: Left Behind.

Honestly I see no problems with dredging up such comments. If it works for votes, then have at it. I hope to see more of it from both sides.

why?

Because people need to realize how little anonymity they truly have. There is no privacy online. Anyone with the time and resources is going to find out if you have an online presence and what you have been doing.

Politics is a dirty game. Candidates and their sycophants are constantly digging up facts about opponents and would be opponents. National campaigns employ teams of people just for this purpose. Every utterance, whether direct or an alias is subject to being found.

That it is happening to a politician is all the better. Both sides feed on prejudices, apparently this group thinks that playing fantasy games is a bad thing.

This situation is "good" from a "raising awareness of privacy issues and concerns" standpoint.

From the standpoint of the individual in question, who we should of course feel empathy for? Awful.

From a "quality of political discourse and health of the democracy" standpoint? Gag.

Yea, it would be a workaround, not a fix.

What's truly sad here is that American politics has stooped this low. It's practically treated like a football game rather than a serious discussion on issues.

It hasn't "stooped". It's always been like this. Always.

It's a complete and total myth that politics in the past was more high-minded. It most certainly was not.

Ugghhh...

I feel like the word "Republicans" is starting to refer to a weird, faceless, unrelatable entity. Like some weird urban legend. I'd probably believe it if I was told that they live in burrows underground.

Then again, I do live in SF.

This is why I'm happy to connect with my more conservative friends over social media. It helps me understand that even if the Republicans in Maine are doing stupid shit like this, that not all people who identify as Republican are like that.

Unfortunately, it's not the people doing the stupid shit you have to worry about. It's the people who believe stupid shit like this...

Even then, it's good to remember that people who believe that World of Warcraft is an existential threat to our country are still real people and that they can change their perspectives.

When I was in high school, one of my close friends refused to see The Nightmare Before Christmas with me because she thought it was Satanic and dangerous. Now she loves the movie. Sometimes it just takes... 19 years.

Sure. If you were partisan, you would feel that way. If you had political leanings the other way, the word Democrat would evoke the same feelings. shrugs

I say this as an admitted partisan, but I see Republicans say and do a lot of pretty awful things. They range from the stupid, which is what this tactic is, to the downright deranged, as when Michelle Bachmann said that should she lose the election, she hadn't ruled out violent overthrow of the US government. Call me blinded by my political beliefs, but I don't remember the last time a Democrat threatened violent revolution.

Similarly, I don't remember Democrats blowing up buildings of people they disagree with or going to Republican funerals to say what horrible people they were.

Just drive 90 minutes East. You'll know you're in red territory when every Prius on the road suddenly becomes a huge truck.

I'm well aware - that's where I was raised! :)

You mean East bay? Places like Berkeley? :-)

Well, we do have John Yoo over here in Berkeley. shrugs

Avoid the Muni Metro.

Sounds like a pretty good example of why people who really "have nothing to hide" still need and deserve privacy.

It wasn't that she was "outed", but that the Maine GOP used the (public) fact that she plays a game enjoyed by millions as the basis for a shameful smear campaign.

If the people in Maine decide that playing WOW is enough to decide their vote, then I guess they'll get the representatives that they deserve.

The comments that they dredged up were technically public, though I assume she made them under the assumption that people outside that immediate audience wouldn't be reading them.

Even if she doesn't lose the election because of this, it is a shame she has to deal with this kind of crap at all.

It's a shame that she has to deal with this kind of crap at all, although she should have known better. If you're going to run for office, you should just assume that anything you do on any public web site (even a de-facto private one like that) will be taken out of context and used against you.

I can see some poor campaign intern, years from now, slogging through all of my HN comments to find something to use against me while I run for local office. Poor kid.

> I can see some poor campaign intern, years from now, slogging through all of my HN comments to find something to use against me while I run for local office. Poor kid.

Be smart: rotate your online accounts regularly. Do it on reddit, HN, any place where changing your identity is relatively cheap (FB unfortunately is not one).

Also unfortunately, pg doesn't allow deleting accounts on HN. Who knows why. So for HN, just stop posting on your current account, and start a new one, hoping pg wakes up and lets us delete our accounts in the future.

I see the benefits of online account rotation, but I've decided to just stick with my real name and try not to say anything too stupid.

It's like walking a tightrope without a net.

I don't see this turning out well for the accusers. The audience that they are reaching online via a website, plus the bloggers and other news sources that are going to cover this are more likely to have a sympathetic outlook toward someone that plays video games and will feel the accusers are the ones who are not in tune with the real world.

I wish I could agree with you, but I see this working very well for the accusers. Like it or lump it, most people regard playing video games as childish and immature. The comments, etc., give it an air of legitimacy; a patina of "we're criticizing her views", but the heart of this looks like it's a simple "look at the child, playing dress-up and running around in a fantasy world".

When non-technical people I know find out that I play video games, the reaction ranges from amused tolerance to condescension. Frankly, the reaction of most technical people I know is not far off from that either.

I kind of expect this to turn out like a minor version of SOPA...

They are targeting her for doing something that SO MANY people do that you're going to make all those people take her side when otherwise they probably wouldn't have cared. Worst campaign move ever... don't those guys know this is the 21st century and online games are normal?

What is being highlighted are the things she said in comments. Go look at the page.

They don't harp on the game very much. They do a little, probably because they see it as juvenile (not saying I agree). Mostly it's about the things she is saying.

Yeah but anyone playing a mmo is going to say stuff like that. It only looks bad to the people who have never gamed before.

I don't think most anyone playing an mmo is going to say they are going to drown Grover Norquist in their bathtub.

This isn't game talk.

I've seen that and far worse in Trade...

I think outing someone for playing one of the most popular online game out there is ridiculous. What you do in game doesn't impact what you do in real life, and killing a sheep in Elwyn Forest doesn't mean you like to kill animals. However, I did look at the site and some of the comments she wrote go further than the game itself. She posted that she "wished she wasn't at work and could play instead" and that she was "slacking off" at work. I see nothing wrong with bringing those comments to potential voters.

> killing a sheep in Elwyn Forest doesn't mean you like to kill animals

What GOP member would speak against hunting?

Are you being intentionally obtuse or are you making a joke?

The clear answer is: Among many others, fiscal conservatives who don't care about hunting.... Am I missing something?

edit: huh... I suppose if you don't tout one political party's line here, you get downvoted. Good to know. I was just trying to point out that there are, in fact, people with diverse views that do not fit into the boxes many people presuppose. Kind of disappointing for a group that I had assumed was open-minded.

I don't agree with the downvotes, but I'm going to take this as an opportunity to mention that there is a meaningful correlation between conservatives and the gun lobby, and that the people who are happy to see their candidates out hunting are dramatically more likely to skew Republican.

Is this the first taste of the future of politics? Smear websites dredging up every silly / facetious / dumb comment someone has ever made?

The smear site is linked to in the article and can be found: http://www.colleensworld.com/

The whole site is made up of pictures of her comments from reddit. I suppose older folks will probably be very unhappy with many of her comments, but she just sounds like a normal person who uses the reddit and plays WoW.

Actually scratch that, having played WoW she is definitely far above average :). Too bad I don't live in Maine though!

I guess we can only hope that this stuff isn't convincing to people who actually use the internet, and that in the future it won't work.

You think that this is a change?

Not long ago I listened to http://www.npr.org/2012/09/19/161436246/political-consulting... which discussed the origins of modern political consultants. One tactic included taking the worst things that a person ever said, and then running ads where you just quoted that person and tied them to those quotes.

Context did not matter. For example in a 1934 campaign they smeared Upton Sinclair with quotes taken from his fictional characters in his books. Of course any good author will include fictional characters who are very dislikable, and they will say things that the author does not agree with.

Smear websites are just a minor update on this age-old tactic.

oh definitely agreed. Smear tactics/hit ads are nothing new, but this is (I believe) our first taste of this form of it in the future. We have all seen attack ads on TV and in print, but this is the first time I have seen a website pulling quotes from reddit (at the moment).

I think the largest change is in the distribution. Upton Sinclair was a internationally syndicated author whereas this woman is simply a redditor who is now running for public office. The real change is in the ability of a single person to reach the universe.

I suspect the primary difference is that now everybody is a published author. Even if you avoid the internet, you can have your "works" globally published by merely showing up to a party and having the misfortune to stand in the wrong place when someone takes a picture. In the past those sorts of things would likely be forgotten, if even ever developed. Now people publish them seconds after taking them.

Yes, I expect it is. As we get candidates who have 'grown up' in the Internet world, political spin doctors will take comments made in your teens and accuse you of holding the same opinions today. I imagine that the 'Internet Brand Management Consultant' will become a staple of folks who seek to hold public office.

Yes, its sad. Like the whole "I didn't inhale" rebuttal by President Clinton.

I want to hope that everyone who grew up using the internet or take part in it now will not fall prey to dirty tactics like those. It is probably foolish, but perhaps if people realize that they are in the same boat of saying/writing/doing dumb things as they grow perhaps they can see through it?

I think this really leads into a much deeper societal question of 'what is private?' If we become a more open society, perhaps silliness like this won't work.

I'm likely being far to optimistic/idealistic.

Yea, this is the right solution!

It's a state senate election, which relatively few people pay attention to. Or even care about, though they really should. So a tiny advantage could make a difference.

Quick! Name your state senator! Name their opponent in this year's election!

But when I think this through...why shouldn't voters be made aware of things she said in public? If that's how people want to decide how to vote...well, people make decisions about voting based on equally irrelevant things all the time.

I don't think that her playing WoW is a problem, but some of the comments she made certainly could be.

the website linked in the article is mainly made up of dailykos comments. how are they not fair game? The WoW stuff is a little ridiculous (and I would bet ineffective) but postings on a political site definitely matter.

Waiting for the Snorg T-shirt "I'm a Democrat but I play for the Alliance!"

For the last year, I've been thinking about what my longtime involvement in certain very popular gaming sites would mean for me if I ever chose to run for office in the future. (It's pretty easy to connect me to the account) There's a somewhat reasonable chance that I may try my hand at public service 20 or 30 years from now.

This article basically proves the worst of my fears, and makes me wonder if I should try to divorce my "real life" identity with online gaming identities going forward. :(

Hopefully 20 years from now things will be better.

Why is this on the front page of HN? If anyone needs evidence that the quality here has suffered, this is exhibit 1.

"On-Topic: ...anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon."

I don't consider this some interesting new phenomenon and would be surprised if others, when pressed, would really think this was. This is a "weird news, politics" story.

I'm conflicted. It's easy to read this as partisan flamebait (because it is) but also brings up the kinds of questions about things like identity, privacy, online community, digital media, real-name policies, and anti-gamer bias that at least a few people care about.

News isn't exclusively about what has just happened, it can also be about what has been happening.

I find that incredibly funny.

It would be funnier if it wasn't so sad and pathetic.

I hope she'll bury them in the election over this, but I'd be surprised if it had much effect.

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