Convictions Without Courage: Would-Be Revolutionaries of the Religious Right

Every so often a prominent Christofascist will either warn of or call for a “revolution” in response to the advancement of LGBT+ equality, women's rights, immigrants' rights, or any positive social progress which offends them. Here's a clip of one of the latest calls/warnings, this time from Mat Staver, Chairman of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law:

He envisions this so-called “revolution” as being akin to the American Revolution, but is careful to add the disclaimer at the end that he hopes it would be a peaceful revolution, though, wink wink, one never knows what will happen.

Fear-mongering is a tried and true tactic of the religious right, of course. It's been in their tool kit from day one, long before they hacked a weeping hole in the abdomen of politics and started fucking it for all they're worth. They have little reason to abandon this approach; it has proven effective for countless generations. Even when they trot out their newest favorite, playing the victim, there is a strong undercurrent of fear-mongering, if not an overcurrent.

Fear and loathing, indeed, appear to be their primary modes when interacting with and commenting upon the world at large. There are a plethora of reasons for this: they're effective ways to rile up their base for votes and money, they neatly plug in to their bizarre fondness for apocalyptic prophecy, and they make for great sound-bites and click-bait. Hysteria sells, so it's no wonder they start babbling about revolutions every time it occurs to them that civilized society is swiftly passing them by.

When your life is characterized by incessant extremism, it starts to seem rational after a while. This is why they can make the most ridiculous statements with straight faces; they are literally blind to their own lunacy. It would nearly be sad if they weren't legitimately dangerous.

And make no mistake, they are dangerous. For every bigoted fool who utters violent inanities on television or writes them in a blog, there are dozens even dumber who are willing to turn thoughts and words into actions. Mat Staver may not be a physically dangerous person in and of himself, but the unfocused halfwits who cling to his every word, many of them are. What the fringe right lacks in numbers, it makes up in rabid fervor. They fancy themselves modern Spartans, defending the gap against overwhelming odds. They know, within themselves, that the battle is lost, but they will go down fighting nonetheless, and their sole goal is to take as many decent, patriotic Americans down with them as possible.

Many of my fellow bloggers on the left make a point of showing their readers the revolutionary battle cries of our enemies, some to spur counter-action, some simply to publicize these statements in hopes of arousing disgust, and a precious few poke fun at these histrionic armchair soldiers. Those are all excellent motives, of course, useful, helpful, socially acceptable. They are righteous and good reactions.

But that ain't me. Not today, at least. For these would-be revolutionaries, I have two words:

Bring it.

And now, a few more words, because I'm a wordy fatherfucker.

Grab those guns. You know, the ones the government still hasn't taken from you yet? Go grab 'em. Slip into your finest Duck Dynasty camo. Gather all of your burly, non-cognitive buddies together. Hoist your rebel flag on the back of the pickup truck you plan to ride into battle, but pretend it's not emblematic of failure. Blare audio clips from Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, and Matt Barber on crackly, thirty-dollar Wal-Mart speakers to rouse and rally the troops. Get good and fired up, and then nut up and march (or, you know, trudge) to the battlefield.

No, I don't know where the battlefield is. You're the ones crying out for war, so that's your responsibility. Pick a target. You don't have to worry about thinking too much about it; most of the country is against you at this point, so the enemy truly is everywhere. Just go forth, brave, Christian soldiers, and spill some blood in the name of the Lord and Dead Jerry Falwell. (Probably not in that order.) This is a revolution, boys! Go prove you're real men! Real men don't sit around wringing their hands and talking, after all. Real men do stuff! Don't they? Your cause is righteous, isn't it? The Lord will protect and strengthen you, won't he?

Or maybe, just maybe, you're all a bunch of chickenshits. Maybe you already know that, outside of your overwrought echo chambers, you're a dying breed. Maybe you understand, at some primal level, that your worldview is fading, with more bigots dying each day than being born. Perhaps you lack the courage of your convictions, and prefer to sit comfortably in your intellectual ghettos rather than risk losing life and limb for your cause.

Because, make no mistake, even if you somehow muster the gumption to actually do anything beyond whining and griping, you will still lose. Women, LGBTs, racial and religious minorities, the poor, the downtrodden, we're survivors. Our continued presence in this world proves it. You've been trying to destroy us for years, and still we rise. You knock us down, and we stand once again. You try to put us in our place, and we are only emboldened. You assemble to vote down our rights and our dignity, and we take our rights anyway. We are not shrinking violets, taking what we're given and liking it; we are Warriors.

And you know it. And that is why you talk the talk but sit the walk. You fear us.

And if you would come against us, you should.

Blood-Sucking Freaks?: Sensationalism, LARP, and Jake Rush

Geekery is in fashion right now, what with big-budget comic book movies dominating the cinemas of the nation and fantasy epics like Game of Thrones capturing the public consciousness. We have entire television networks devoted to video games. Cosplayers become memes. Most people even know now that dice can have more than six sides. Being a geek is cool, and everyone wants to be one.

However, even in this era of geek chic there are certain subcultures within the geek community who remain maligned and misunderstood. Role-playing gamers, and particularly live-action role-playing (LARP) enthusiasts, are often consigned to being the butts of jokes told by non-geeks, and even fellow geeks. This truth has been thrust into the spotlight this week, with the revelation that Florida Congressional candidate Jake Rush, a Republican running as a “straight shooter within the law enforcement and legal communities,” is himself a LARPer.

Jake Rush, in character as Chazz Darling

Headlines referring to his “bizarre double life” as a “sexy vampire” have been de rigeur throughout the media reporting on the story. Rush is affiliated with a group called Mind's Eye Society, a gaming and charitable organization devoted to games from White Wolf Publishing, specifically their World of Darkness collection. World of Darkness is a collection of role-playing games featuring vampires, werewolves, mages, fairies, and other assorted mythological creatures, in modern and historical settings. Though it is primarily a table-top gaming system, it is also known for an extensive and enthusiastic sub-culture of LARP fans.

In LARP, players dress as their characters, use props and real-world settings, and employ acting and other theatrics to enhance their gaming experience. To that end, a typical LARP session for a World of Darkness game will typically feature players clad in leather and lace, corpse paint and corsets, and a plethora of other looks with a distinct gothic/industrial/fantasy bent. Knowing this, the pictures making the rounds showing Rush dolled up in black leather and novelty contact lenses as one of his characters, Chazz Darling, wouldn't be terribly shocking to the average person. The amusement appears to stem solely from the fact that Rush is a GOP candidate and a self-proclaimed “practicing Christian.”

Numerous commentators have accused Rush of hypocrisy, as though either his political or religious beliefs somehow preclude him from enjoying LARP games, vampires, leather, or...something. This is a patently nonsensical line of reasoning, to put it bluntly. Role-playing and, by extension, LARP makes no distinction where such factors are concerned. The entire purpose of role-playing, at the gaming table or in the gaming space, is to bring people together so that they can play at being someone else for a few hours and tell an interesting and exciting collaborative story. Anyone can join, anyone can play, and everyone can have a good time. Plenty of conservatives play and plenty of Christians play, though perhaps not many politicians do, I will concede.

Some have also taken issue with the controversial turns storylines can take in a World of Darkness campaign, specifically pointing to an online bulletin board post written by Rush in which his character expresses a desire to rape or invite the rape of the character of another player. Taken at face value, it is absolutely a shocking statement and I am not remotely surprised by the condemnation it has garnered, though the fault for that lies partially with those writers who neglected to mention that Rush was writing in-character.

Having been involved in several online role-playing groups for over a decade, I can attest that my characters were frequently guilty of words and actions which I, myself, would never engage in. I've written my own attempted murders, animal sacrifices, sexual seductions for selfish ends, and countless other unsavory and despicable acts, all in-character. A story needs a villain, after all, and villains are known for nasty deeds. To write a villain as a villain does not necessitate or imply that the writer has fantasies of doing such things. The only thing it means is that the player is portraying a villain as being villainous. Role-playing is, at its core, collaborative fiction writing.

This is not to say that Jake Rush warrants no criticism. A brief visit to his campaign site will tell anyone that he is anti-choice, anti-immigrant, and anti-Obamacare, a free market capitalist and a gun nut. I'm sure he has plenty more abhorrent positions to go along with those listed. Those positions, however, are not a reflection of the LARP community. He may well be a truly vile person, but it isn't because he occasionally likes to dress up as a vampire and play-act occult ceremonies.

I would encourage the media to take a step back from sensationalism and novelty at the expense of thousands of decent, upstanding gamers and, instead, dig into something meatier where Jake Rush is concerned. Click-baiting headlines, shoddy research, and “scandalous” photos are the norm of the day, but that does not make such practices superior to legitimate reporting and writing of substance. Picking on an underdog community to garner hits is both easy and low. We should all be better than that.