Tuesday, September 28, 2004 - Propaganda Nightmares
I have a confession to make. I'm 31 years old, and I still play Dungeons and Dragons. This topic came up in a comment I made on Wendy's blog, and she responded by giving me links to a site that is just a propaganda nightmare.
I suspect you don't believe any of this crap, Wendy.
When I looked at the pages at first I thought they were hilarious. Then it occurred to me - people actually think this way. People actually believe this propaganda to be true. This is scary stuff. May whatever deity you believe or don't believe in save us from ignorance and stupidity like this.
Here's the links:
Dark Dungeons
Are Roman Catholics Christians?
3 Comments:
I don't believe this stuff anymore but as a kid, that's a different story. I was 10 or 11 when I first saw these and they might quite an impression. Those pamphlets are pretty powerful and scary, especially to a child.
I steered clear of the role players (as well as the metal heads, the Catholics and the readers of Stephen King) until I met my husband who (I discovered later) was all those things. I've spent the past 10 years catching up on my reading, my music and what religion really means. After everything, I am now going to hell because I let my son read Harry Potter.
What is so silly about it all is that it is simply a matter of semantics. D&D gets the wrath because of "spell casting" and "summoning." The same is true of Harry Potter. It involves "magic," "wizards" and worst of all "witches." Had each of these things created unique universes with unique terms not having any basis in folklore (like many other roleplaying games and fantasy stories) no one would ever say a word about them.
Well, that's the trick to the propaganda, isn't it? Catch 'em while they're young and impressionable. I could definitely see how a child would be frightened by all of it.
Harry Potter has taken its share of abuse too, but most people have the sense to say, hey, it's a *fantasy*. It's not real, and it can't be real. And it gets kids to read. Yay!
The Catholics say that everyone is a sinner, all the time, until you have been absolved of all your sins at the end of your life (a simplification, I know). If letting your kid read Harry Potter is the worst thing you do in your life, then I wouldn't worry too much.
I'm probably inviting wrath from the masses by discussing religion at all, but that's ok.
I think that sometimes religious groups grab onto something to preach about simply because the TRUE evils in this world are not so easy to recognise let alone stop.
The Sunday school teacher who passed out these tracts to us on Sunday would spend the rest of the week beating up his wife. That's evil.
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