The Pointless Accusations of Evil Game

By Mark Morgan

Online debates are much more fun if you play them for points. Here is a game I think we can all participate in: Pointless Accusations of Evil.

To play this game, you must spend enough time observing your online opponent(s) to identify some group they are associated with, such as Christians, Wiccans, environmentalists, or scientists. Or--even better--identify some opinion of theirs that you can link in some fashion to some opinion held by somebody in Nazi Germany. Then, make a post of the general form "You are evil, because you are (Christian, Wiccan, Nazi) and when they were in charge, (some horrible thing) happened. Points are awarded by the following system:

• 0 points for the post (base)
• +1 point for mentioning death camps
• +1 point for mentioning torture
• +1 point for mentioning a specific official of the evil group by name, except,
• +0.5 point for mentioning Hitler (I mean, he believed in everything--that's too easy)
• +1 for mentioning witchburning, witchhunting, McCarthyism, or "the burning times."
• +1 point for mentioning the Trilateral Commission, the Illuminati, the CIA, the KGB, or any other conspiracy-related groups.
• +1 point if you can fit in the Martin Niemoeller quote:

  "In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

• +1 for using the term fascist
• +1 for mentioning the Klu Klux Klan
• +1 for insisting that your opponents are liberal scum
• +1 for insisting that your opponents are conservative scum
• +1 for any use of the term neo-*
• +5 for demanding your critics leave the site.
• +1 for any reference to 1984

Play continues until the flames have completely driven off the regular posters.

Let me repost an instructive example of how to creatively play the game:

"All you non-white, non-male, non-Mark, non-Morgan, non-atheist, non-paid-to-work-at-your-house, non-Oregonian, non-brown-haired, non-in-your-thirties, non-skinny, non-goateed, non-lazy, non-iMac-owning people are all evil and responsible for the horrors in the world. To Hell with you all!"

It's a fun game. Join us!

(This game was inspired by musings on Godwin's Law. Why end the discussion at Hitler when that's when you can start having the most fun with it?)

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