Just before bed last night, I opened an email with this statement. It outlines Gary Con's mask requirements for next year's convention in March.
Having just suffered under Dane county's mask mandate with GameHole Con last weekend, my series of Gamehole blog posts starts here, I'm not about to put myself in a similar situation. From experience, I can tell you that masked gaming conventions are a bad idea. Especially, if the convention already forces attendees to be fully vaccinated!
Aside from the discomfort, hassle, and increased noise, we human beings use our faces to communicate with each other. While it's vital for Game Masters to be heard, emote, and comfortably breathe during games, it's just as important for our PLAYERS to do the same - we need their full participation, which can't happen if their faces are covered.
Covid-19, thanks to the Chinese Communist Party and their gain-of-function research, stole many gaming opportunities from us over the last 18 months. If it wasn't virtual, it probably wasn't happening. This past summer, there were a few bright spots I was looking forward to, that kept me going when times got tough. Those were GameHole Con and Gary Con.
I wanted to "sleep on it" before making a decision. Well, it's the morning and I've made my decision. I can't go through that again. What I experienced with masking at GameHole has soured me on masked conventions for all time. The frustration outweighs my love for running games publicly for friends old and new. So, I'm forced to say never again!
If Gary Con continues its current mask policy, then please cancel my games. I'm out. It's just not worth it. To anyone reading this, the decision is yours, but my recommendation would be to NOT attend any tabletop gaming convention requiring masks.
If we don't fight back, this won't end. It'll continue to happen under the guise of "the new normal" as we, yet again, keep lowering our expectations. Our freedom will dwindle away a little bit at a time until we have nothing left, except for impotent compliance. The time to start fighting back was months ago. 15 days to flatten the curve is turning into 2 years of authoritarian control.
Individuals who feel the same are welcome to join me as we collectively oppose these draconian mask mandates. Stay strong, hoss!
Sincerely,
Venger As'Nas Satanis
High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing
p.s. I'd be remiss for not mentioning my own old-school, OSR, and traditional RPG convention happening in Madison, WI next Summer (July 2022). Details right here. Gamers have asked and I've told them straight-up that I will do everything in my power to prevent both proof of vaccination and mask requirements at VENGER CON, even if that means civil disobedience!
thank you
ReplyDeleteI'm with you.
ReplyDeleteI support you 100%. there is no quantifiable data that supports or indicates that masks do anything to impact covid. That's not what they're designed to do.
ReplyDeleteFor the gaggle of idiots responding negatively to you in this thread, I ask this...
ReplyDeleteIf masks work, why aren't masks working?
If this "masks work" position is correct, then I assert that I never need to wear one. I only interact with humans f2f every 2-3 weeks (aka if I'm out and about, I've quarantined for the length of time the 100% mask use, 100% vax, vax the kids, ... crowd says is enough to know you are not sick). I'm not a risk to you.
DeleteCheck. Your move.
MG is correct (albeit you both are being crude in your comments)- if one looks at infection or death rates for various regions and plots mask mandates/mask compliance/etc. against them you can't tell, even when allowing 2-4 weeks for masking to reduce the rate and another two for it to in turn reduce death. Nearby locales or ones with similar climates (so comparing the Dakotas not SD to CA) show very similar trend lines (might shift a week to one side or the like, but the long term totals converge).
At this point, God's waiting room (aka Florida) should have surpassed NY and NJ given its lax protective measures, right? The "mass spreader events" (Sturgis, stadiums of football fans) should have spiked those area's rates through the roof.
Final datapoint- talk to me about all the Democratic politicians caught violating their own mask wearing mandates. Before castigating those that don't think masks work as well as we are being told, should we not figuratively crucify those that do but fail to mask anyway? When Biden, AOC, Lightfoot, Newsom, et al step down for their failure to mask, then we can have a talk. Until then, the masker's optics are poor.
@Pwdin blew, I've been vaxxed since March. And I wear a mask when I have to, but covid isn't going away. However, these authoritarians who want us masked for years and years will eventually be overthrown... and I'm here for it.
DeleteYou may want to look at Florida numbers, fucko.
ReplyDeleteCarry on Venger. You can ignore the Totalitarians who are offering death wishes. Their words will come back to them, and in the end, they will regret them. But for those who are standing against them, what can their be but conviction, determination, hardship and liberty? Carry on.
ReplyDeleteThanks, hoss!
DeleteI disagree with your opinions on masks for fighting covid, but I also respect your right to turn down a public venue based on your opinions. I think your response is far more mature than those who will try to force their way into public venues without a mask just to "uphold their rights". I too am sick of wearing a mask and want it to end, but I can't support those who want their rights to trample the rights of others .
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to be fair to both sides. I was locked the fuck down ALL THROUGH 2020, and now I'm done. I see elected Democrats giving lip service to masks while flouting their own rules. Several top Democrats were highly skeptical of the vaccine while Trump was still President... even though big tech and the media try to memory hole that shit. Enough is enough!
DeleteTo help Venger understand, I'll use a sex analogy. This was some time back, with the contraceptive methods available, but there were some who said, "Why use contraceptive foam, if you've got a condom?" Foam was incredibly messy and inconvenient (for the woman, but what the hell, I care about women's feelings sometimes. Don't quote me!) We used it because condoms were only 95% effective, and foam would fight the remaining 5% of times. Likewise with a vaccine which is not perfect. About 5 of every 100 vaccinated at the con might still succumb to being infected. Their symptoms may be less severe, though, and they get to keep their lung-linings if they survive. Masking is a "back-up" method.
ReplyDeleteNow, admittedly this makes gaming less sexy. You won't be able to breathe in the faces of players to demonstrate the hot breath from a dragon's giant nostril. Something is lost, admittedly, just like with foam.
And "gain of function"? Come on, man! Tune out the lowbrow anti-vaxx conspiracy stories! There are hundreds of virus labs all over the world which get blanket funding from all the rich countries, in one big pot, and not for weaponizing existing viruses either.
The average Joe Blow is facing a new situation where he is being shut out. This is INEVITABLE. It used to be there was a crisis like the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Joe Blow could argue about it. There was no Internet, so he tried his buddies at the barbershop. He argued should we go to war, should we not, while getting his buzz cut.
But now more and more crises are scientific ones. The crises are only detected by the eggheads with the microscopes and the temperature monitoring stations or whatnot. They spent the years and the skull-sweat and they hit the books to be smart about it. Joe Blow can't have an opinion: he was flunking science and quit it in tenth grade when it was no longer a mandatory course. He's not trained; his opinion doesn't rate. Not even politicians rate! You don't have to be smart to be a politician (shocker!) All you need to do is glad-hand and be more popular. That does zero for scientific problems.
So we're going to have science councils and science bureaus, and they will enact emergency measures and the politicians rubber-stamp it. They went up through a meritocracy, we have no choice, there is no one else who can even SEE the foe.
Even if they change their minds. Even if they're wrong. Joe Blow can't add to this debate.
Your analogy is kinda flawed IMO. Vaxing is permanent (or at least long term). Masking is short term, has to be replaced after each use, has high variability on its "filtration" effects (aka both can have holes, slip off while in use, be contaminated, etc.).
DeleteThe con is effectively requiring (via the vax mandate) that all parties have had a tubal litigation (I think that is the right term) or vasectomy- ignoring that some folks are past child bearing age, not yet of child bearing age, or are sterile. This is the "long term" protection.
Then, to be extra sure that there are no accidental pregnancies, both parties have to wear anatomically appropriate condoms aka "short term" protection.
I mean sure, this will, given a large enough number of folks, prevent at least one person getting sick (odds are these remediations will also, given a large enough number of folks, kill or maim some too). It is well past the diminishing returns level at this point. I mean, geeze, we tollerate tobacco, alcohol, pot, and cars that can go over 5MPH, all of which kill or maim folks including those that aren't smoking, drinking, or driving. At some point you have to recognize that the world has dangers that will kill some of us no matter if we do X or avoid doing X.
Yes, "if it only saves one life" can be applied to driving, alcohol, junk food, and abortion... but God forbid the Fauci freaks accept those limitations.
DeleteAlcohol, tobacco, and drugs are not allowed at cons either. Should we start? Maybe the cars driving along the con corridors! Just kidding!
DeleteI meant in life, not just cons. Masks aren't be required at only cons. Also, tons of alcohol at gaming conventions.
DeleteOrigins After Dark (cough). Not too many years ago there was an Origins After Dark track for the 21 and up track in an out of the way part of the con (carding required to enter). Alcohol was explicitly available, with the con's blessing. Sure, Origins isn't GenCon, but I think it is one of the larger cons.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteA couple things...
ReplyDeleteDon't expect everyone around you to protect your lady from getting pregnant. Not our job from here to eternity. Next, we'll be pretending men are women and women are men in order to make people with mental disorders feel better about themselves.
Second, the experts, scientists, and doctors don't have all the answers. A lot of common sense folks had it right when the egg heads got it wrong. Intelligence does not equal wisdom.
“Next, we'll be pretending men are women and women are men in order to make people with mental disorders feel better about themselves.”
DeleteYES'!!!!!!!!!
Yeah! Get your vaccines and stop the surges! This article proves the opposite! Wait huh?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8481107/
Did my stuff post multiple times? That was unintentional, you can erase the extra times.
ReplyDeleteOh, the levels of intelligence involved are like expecting trained adults to get something wrong about a financial decision and getting a correction from a 3-year-old toddler. Not very very likely.
The sad thing is, decades from now people will still be trying to figure out what was really going on in this time period 😑
ReplyDeleteSigh. I bailed out of a Con for this reason as well, PLUS they wanted a v4z form or a negative test result from within 72 hours.
ReplyDeleteOf course, we all know that even the v4zzed can get infected and spread the thing, masked or not.
Because masks only work in environments with hospital-level protocols (change the mask after every interaction with a person, wash hands constantly, don't touch the mask, etc).
I find it hilarious that so many mask-worshippers use the same mask for days, putting it in their pocket or purse between uses!
The best analogy is that they want me to wear a life preserver so the other people don't drown.
(oh, and I had the r0na earlier this year, with no ill effects, so I have the natural immunity. Not gonna get the jab!)
Finally, it says right on the box that the mask does not offer protection from the r0na:
https://media.wusa9.com/assets/CCT/images/415abc93-737d-45e9-abff-cce373b54f17/415abc93-737d-45e9-abff-cce373b54f17_1140x641.jpg
YouTube is taking down my comments as soon as I post most things, so I'll try here. You mentioned one phrase, "gain of function". This is a catch-phrase of the anti-vaxxers. This hit me like the phrase "Applied Scholastics" would raise alarm-bells in the mind of a parent if their school board was pushing it (it's a front for the Church of Scientology).
ReplyDeleteAnti-vaxxers latched onto a story that President Biden was allocating funding to the Chinese virus lab that engaged in research to add extra virulence to viruses, so they latched onto the "gain of function" catch-phrase. That's debunked here. There are HUNDREDS of virology labs in the world, set up to look at early outbreaks anywhere, and they get funding mainly from the rich countries in one big pot. There IS research being done but the purpose is not specifically about "weaponizing" viruses. But of course some wagging tongues have latched onto the catch-phrase.
Wherever you got that from, I exhort you to tune out dodgy sources about virus information.
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/05/the-wuhan-lab-and-the-gain-of-function-disagreement/
Maybe you'll change your tine when Fauci resigns in disgrace. Don't know if that'll happen, but Rand Paul showed us how Fauci hid the truth. I don't use a single news source, neither should you.
Delete* tune
DeleteThese conspiracy stories never pan out. Like Operation Jade Helm. U.S. military exercises all over the U.S. South led some to say the military planned to seize the South, impose martial law, and send all Bible-believing Christians to the gallows, leaving only Cath-a-licks and Jooz. What happened to that?
DeleteAlex Jones is on record saying all who take the COVID vaccine will die in ten years. That's called "kicking the can down the road". You believe that?
On the leftist side, the news media annoyed us for 22 months with anti-Trump stories of "Russian collusion", a falsehood that crowded out real news that American society needed to understand itself. That too didn't pan out.
No one will miss you. Either at the convention or when you die of blood clots.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100%. It's clearly about more than public health at this point. A European Parliament member recently gave a great speech where she voiced my sentiments exactly:
ReplyDelete"Always question everything any government does or does not do. Always look for ulterior motives. And always ask cui bono?, who benefits?
Whenever a political elite pushes an agenda this hard, and resort to extortion and manipulation to get their way, you can almost always be sure your benefit is definitely not what they had at heart. ...
I will not be reduced to a mere guinea pig by getting vaccinated with an experimental drug, and I will most assuredly not get vaccinated because my government tells me to and promises, in return, I will be granted freedom.
Let’s be clear about one thing: No one grants me freedom for I am a free person."
Read the whole speech here: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-meps-protest-oppressive-vaccine-passports-question-why-political-elites-push-agenda
That's the crux of the matter: I am a free person, and I don't consent to it being taken away like this. This issue really separates people who value freedom from the control freak totalitarians. It's like the glasses in "They Live!" -- a great truth revealer.
You can't use the line of "untested, experimental drug" forever. The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for general use, not just emergency use. I suddenly see anti-vaxxers crowing that the FDA is a corrupt organization (what, that manages to fine big corporations billions a year anyway?)
DeleteBut anti-vaxxers are hypocrites. They made FDA approval a standard a year ago! They didn't say the FDA was corrupt back then. Now Pfizer has approval, which means the vaccine was always good retroactively, and anti-vaxxers talking about "untested drugs" have egg on their face because the FDA tested and said it was okay generally, not as an emergency measure. Just like silly anti-GMO types talking about dire unforeseen effects when it's been 30 years already. Tune out these unscientific pinheads!
There's a big difference between forecasting dire consequences in the future ("kicking the can down the road") and giving some proof NOW that there's a problem. Conspiracy theorists use it to sell their grubby books and DVDs, fill their suitcases with money and leave town, and move on to the next conspiracy theory. So don't tell me it's "not fully tested", tell me how it's harmful now, ater billions of doses administered. Will they qll drop dead in ten years, as Alex Jones said? Shouldn't we see an early wave of deaths now?
For me none of that really matters. I simply refuse to give a government that level of intrusive power over my body. My resistance is not at the level of your abstractions. At a very visceral level, I DO NOT CONSENT, just as I wouldn't consent to, say, government-mandated sterilization--no matter how good the abstract arguments for it sounded or how credentialed the experts advocating it were. The rest is just conversation.
DeleteThat argument was lost years ago. You drink fluoridated water out of the tap, and yet cavities aren't transmissible like a virus is. A government body has made health decisions for the common good for a long time now.
DeleteSo, okay, do not consent, but others don't have to consent to admitting you anywhere. There'll be one hour of shopping for you at the end of the day only, so they can clean the floors where you were to avoid potential contamination.
The argument wasn't lost if I'm making it. I don't drink flouridated water, I have a well. I have no problem shopping at any time even in my covid aggressive state; are you suggesting that there should be even more restrictions? Listen to the language you're casually using to demonize and control people. I am seriously baffled by people like you; are you a sociopath? have you lost your humanity? Once you start speaking of people as a contamination, start dehumanizing them in this way, you open the door to some real totalitarian horrors.
ReplyDeleteNein! Alles ist in Ordnung.
DeleteYou're projecting. I not once spoke of people as a contamination, but wherever an unvaccinated person was is a potential source of contamination. How do you know? Only trained scientists with microscopes can even SEE the foe! With such a vast difference between the ability of scientists to detect dqngerous microscopic organisms, and the regular public who can see nothing, it's best for the regular public to coast and to follow all the directives of the scientific folk, whether good, bad or indifferent. Does the blind man confidently cross the street anywhere he wants? Or does he get a guiding forearm to grab? Most people are scientifically blind.
DeleteYou know I've been wondering if you've been being satirical since the start, but what the heck I'll play along.
Delete"but wherever an unvaccinated person was is a potential source of contamination"
Sorry to burst your bubble but... https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/cdc-warns-vaccinated-people-can-pass-covid-to-others/ss-AAMFl1F
Sorry, you don't get to wave a "Scientist" badge around and get everyone to follow your dictates. Doesn't work like that. Scientific consensus has been badly wrong and outright nefarious many times in the past. And the science around covid has been confused, to say the least. It's also corrupted by the influence of Big Pharma and other money and power interests (see Fauci). So this idea that scientists know best is not scientific, it's authoritarian. Scientists may be able to see micro-organisms, but they seem strangely blind to human corruption. And that is precisely the problem here.
DeleteThe data is irrelevant to me. I don't care if masks work. I don't care if masks don't work. I only want to hang out and game with people who are not ruled by fear, and I can see them smile. Otherwise I would just as soon go fishing. I think that is what I will do. Go fishing. It's fun.
ReplyDeleteDraconian would fit right in with the early 20th century eugenicists.
ReplyDeleteLet him keep talking. He's making better arguments against his own side than anybody else could.
Deletewow. And these guys think THEY are the good ones?
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteRead your post.
Decided you're a pick
Thought you should know.
Regards,
Eric
I support your stance, Venger.
ReplyDeleteGood on you, man!
Well with all the masks at least you won’t have to look at all of the men dressing as women. I don’t know why the gaming industry and the gaming conventions have such a higher percentage of trans-whatever’s among their members.
ReplyDeleteAre there actually a higher percentage? Or is it something to do with the small size of the gaming world and twitter and such magnifying voices that makes it seem that way.
DeleteAccording to the enlightened people, All of us who choose not to wear a mask should have been dead by now....
ReplyDeleteInstead, people who mask up are still getting it and spreading it. Instead of taking personal responcibility, they blame the everyone who is not vaccinated and maskless for their own failure to protect themselves