Zak

Questions have been posed to Zak in the past about weather or not is is appropriate to support (or buy from) people who do bad things or have bad beliefs (racism was the example given.) He effectively said no. That doesn't seem much of a stretch, especially today where wearing blackface decades ago is enough to get you fired today (doing a perceived bad thing = losing support). So, I have seen enough to make me not want to buy or publicly praise Zak Sabbath products. To be fair, someone who publicly claims to be an anarchist-satanist, who praises the work of Marx is also probably on my no-buy list. So now will I be tared a right-wing extremist? I digress.

The question that comes up now: is the fact that I have been inspired by Zak's ideas regarding gaming also a bad thing? Am I a worse person because I thought some of his very specific thoughts were good? No. In fact I dare say that I Could continue to be inspired by his game creativity. Vladimir Lenin, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Adolf Hitler all very much loved dogs. I love dogs. Therefore it is possible and probable that I will agree with very specific thoughts of the very, very, very worst people. The worst part about this is that these worst peoples are also in position to do things like build dog sanctuaries... Which I might want to financially support.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could spot narcissists and sociopaths at first glance? Then we could put them away quickly, maybe even help them. As a past victim of the worst of these, I am tempted to say yes--end their influence before it begins. The problem with that is that giving up fundamental trust sucks. I don't want to question the good folks at the Burger King who might have spit on my food. Inquisitions are unenlightened.