Classic Rant: Anatomy of a Pundit-Hater

Today let's examine the makeup and sad fate of the archetypal Pundit-hater.  The reason that they can say with a straight face that I'm "The worst thing to ever happen to the RPG Industry" and then that I'm "insignificant" is because all of this is just vicious guttural reaction to the fundamental offense they're taking: I'm talked about, and they aren't. It's this massive, massive, envy complex. 

A Pundit-hater is not like a regular Swine, who will hate me because I have an ideology that is problematic for them, or because I have often thwarted their larger designs, or because I insult them regularly. No, a Pundit-hater is someone for whom neither what I think nor what I say nor what I do actually matters at all; its my renown and success they object to.

They are, in their lives as much as online, insignificant non-entities that worry that if they post something no one will read it; and they see this figure whose every word gets paid attention to, to be praised or criticized, enjoyed or despised, but it is always read. And they can't stand it, or understand why it is so. So they hate me because I challenge their fundamental sense of insecurity about their own relevance, and they do it so very publicly because they hope that by denouncing me to all and sundry they will gain a measure of significance themselves.

Let me assuage your fears, Pundit-haters: if you're worried that you might be insignificant and your existence in this world meaningless, don't be. There's absolutely no doubt that you are insignificant. 

Sadly for you, no amount of crying or screaming at or about the Pundit will change that. Some people are just not made to matter. And your strategy is doomed to fail; the more you rant about me, the more significant and memorable I get to become. 

But you? No one will remember in two seconds, whether it was daedalus or fun tyrant or truthsayer or.. well, I can't remember any of the other's names, but there were dozens and dozens of them through the years. From the retrospective of history, you'll all just get lumped into a big pile of the "pundit-haters". 

You'll only even be defined or remembered as this anonymous amorphous blob that only matters in reference to ME, which is the most delicious irony of all.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Neerup Billiard + Image latakia
(Originally Posted February 9, 2011)