The soft bigotry of low expectations

Had an interesting weekend of stuff. Knocked out The EW 3 and the new Void Knight quest. Started but didn’t finish Love Story.

Since I didn’t do much in RS this week I finally put together a post on something that I’ve been thinking of .

Most (nearly all) of the people that I have met are actually pretty wonderful people. I’ve been in a bank where someone needs help and a random stranger volunteers to help them. I’ve teled into a bank poisoned and had someone hand me an antipoison. And this has happened many times. I think as a community we focus on the willfully ignorant, the oblivious and the troublemakers because they stand out. But most people, quietly, are just doing their thing.

But we notice the true troublemakers. The person who harasses others in a dungeon, the guy spamming hateful messages, the girl spamming sexual comments. And more often then not we shrug and walk by and say “it’s kids being kids” or “it’s just a game” or “I was joking”. Those are all excuses for bad behavior. Yes, all may be true, but it doesn’t make it ok. But by being silent when these things happen we leave the impression that behind those pixels we are snickering and giggling at their antics. That we approve of the harassment and the inappropriate comments.

Every time I post on this topic I get a bunch of comments about how I should be more understanding and that it’s just a game. Chats will be spammed, dungeoneering teams will get ditched, people will get insulted with a (jk) after it. So what?

No matter what we do those things will continue to happen. I’m not so Pollyanna to think it won’t. But it doesn’t mean we, as a community or as individuals, need to sit back and let it happen. People will fulfill the expectations you set for them.

And in case you didn’t read it click here:

(Merch Is  Right.....)