M.A.R. Barker, author of Tekumel, also author of Neo-Nazi book?

[J.Quondam]

Nerd culture in general seems to have gone from broadly Right-Libertarian decades ago, to broadly Left-Liberal today.

Seems to me that it's just more accepting of a vastly more diverse group than the straight, white, STEM-oriented, anglophone males that ruled the roost 40-ish years ago. That is to say, it doesn't strike me as "broadly left-liberal," so much as just "no longer defined by exclusive white guys."

 

[aramis erak]

From a religious and moral angle, a charitable read still isn't good: ignorance and stupidity, unfortunately, are not viable options for parsing his actions, given that Barker was a certified genius and highly educated professor of history and language. Malice is the only logically remaining option.

You lack imagination.
being on the board of directors of a problematic publisher? Given the culture into which he placed himself, he may not have shared the views of the editorial staff, but not been willing to make waves.

I mean, looking at my own life: I was on the board of directors for a mental health agency where the clinical lead was sexually abusing patients and embezzling. I was not party to, nor beneficiary of, any of that. When I, as a member of the board found out, we first made certain we had a place to transfer our non-clinical clients, then dissolved the corporation. I was not evil for being on the board; I was unaware of the behavior of the staff when I was appointed to the board. And, until the executive director/clinical lead was arrested, was unaware of his behaviors. Failure of oversight? Maybe, but HIPPA made the actual level of oversight needed to catch him problematic. The board didn't even have access to the full client list until we were dissolving.

So I'm really opposed to "Guilt by association" based claims, and the "He's smart so he can't be ignorant" argument is just plain making naughty word up. Lots of really smart people are clueless about certain aspects.

 

[Parmandur]

You lack imagination.
being on the board of directors of a problematic publisher? Given the culture into which he placed himself, he may not have shared the views of the editorial staff, but not been willing to make waves.

I mean, looking at my own life: I was on the board of directors for a mental health agency where the clinical lead was sexually abusing patients and embezzling. I was not party to, nor beneficiary of, any of that. When I, as a member of the board found out, we first made certain we had a place to transfer our non-clinical clients, then dissolved the corporation. I was not evil for being on the board; I was unaware of the behavior of the staff when I was appointed to the board. And, until the executive director/clinical lead was arrested, was unaware of his behaviors. Failure of oversight? Maybe, but HIPPA made the actual level of oversight needed to catch him problematic. The board didn't even have access to the full client list until we were dissolving.

So I'm really opposed to "Guilt by association" based claims, and the "He's smart so he can't be ignorant" argument is just plain making naughty word up. Lots of really smart people are clueless about certain aspects.

There is a major difference between your story (where, yeah, sounds like you did nothing wrong) and Barker working with a Holocaust denial publication: I assume that the mental health agency was not advertising itself as a sexual abuse and embezzlement scam, and that probably they did things other than embezzle and take advantage of patients.

The private publication that Barker was involved in was openly Holocaust denying and anti-Semitic: that was the point. Similarly, nobody made him write a novel with an obvious self-insert as a secret SS hero fighting the "democrats and Jews" to save the "white race." Really, these things are out now, and it's bad.

 

[Bilharzia]

I'm sorry, but taking Nazi action in a side hustle is still pretty terrible.

As a response to an accusation of being a neo-nazi, that has to be a spectacularly weak one...
"He was only a neo-nazi in his spare time! As a hobby! You know, for fun, not professionally!"

On the idea that the novel was a joke or a satire. If you are poking fun at neo-Nazis, you have to go where they are, and the obvious choice has to be literary fiction.

 

[Bilharzia]

As someone who's been familiar with Temumel for two decades now this is what I suspect was the biggest influence on MAR Barker when he did these things. He was a convert to Islam, and took on board antisemetism from that route rather than via US-based neo-Nazi groups.

Before you get too excited by the thought that he was inspired by extremist Muslim conspiracies, it's worthy noting that MAR Barker's father was a member of the Silver Legion of America, a US Fascist group active in the 1930s.

 

[Parmandur]

As a response to an accusation of being a neo-nazi, that has to be a spectacularly weak one...
"He was only a neo-nazi in his spare time! As a hobby! You know, for fun, not professionally!"

On the idea that the novel was a joke or a satire. If you are poking fun at neo-Nazis, you have to go where they are, and the obvious choice has to be literary fiction.

Yeah, what I've read...this isn't satire, it's wish fulfillment. Which is hella creepy.

 

[Blue Orange]

Seems to me that it's just more accepting of a vastly more diverse group than the straight, white, STEM-oriented, anglophone males that ruled the roost 40-ish years ago. That is to say, it doesn't strike me as "broadly left-liberal," so much as just "no longer defined by exclusive white guys."

It's an interesting side question, though. As late as the mid-2000s libertarianism was pretty common from what I saw. I kind of wonder if it was the 2008 crash that soured a lot of geeks (and everyone else) on laissez-faire. Timing seems about right.

Depressingly, an awful lot of the people who didn't go left went fascist.

 

[Parmandur]

It's an interesting side question, though. As late as the mid-2000s libertarianism was pretty common from what I saw. I kind of wonder if it was the 2008 crash that soured a lot of geeks (and everyone else) on laissez-faire. Timing seems about right.

Depressingly, an awful lot of the people who didn't go left went fascist.

Could also be the invention of the smartphone broadened the conversation.

 

[Tantavalist]

Before you get too excited by the thought that he was inspired by extremist Muslim conspiracies, it's worthy noting that MAR Barker's father was a member of the Silver Legion of America, a US Fascist group active in the 1930s.

The number of such Fascist groups active in the USA in that period (the KKK only being the best known) was so high that this alone doesn't signify anything. As a percentage of the adult male population they probably accounted for more Americans then than the percentage of such involved in the TTRPG hobby today. (No, seriously, look it up if you feel inclined to doubt this.) So that's nothing in and of itself.

I was considering how, exactly, a setting like Tekumel (which his father's group would likely have condemned just like the Proud Boys today would) and Serpent's Walk could co-exist in the creative mindspace of the same man. This seems the most likely answer to me.

But wherever he picked up these views, they are absolutely not acceptable. This goes beyond Lovecraft's actions even absent the excuse that one lived in a time where these views were widespread. And fact that he wrote the book under a pseudonym and went to a neo-nazi press to publish it shows Barker was well aware that mainstream society would not accept him doing it.


One thing I'm not going to accept, though, is the accusatory word excited which suggests that I'm grasping at straws to find excuses for what Barker did. I'm not looking for excuses because there are none; I'm looking for explanations which are not the same thing. Please refrain from suggesting otherwise because having just discovered these things about the author of a setting I've loved for decades I am not in the mood to be polite with people making hints that I'm tarred with the same brush.

 

[Parmandur]

The number of such Fascist groups active in the USA in that period (the KKK only being the best known) was so high that this alone doesn't signify anything. As a percentage of the adult male population they probably accounted for more Americans then than the percentage of such involved in the TTRPG hobby today. (No, seriously, look it up if you feel inclined to doubt this.) So that's nothing in and of itself.

I was considering how, exactly, a setting like Tekumel (which his father's group would likely have condemned just like the Proud Boys today would) and Serpent's Walk could co-exist in the creative mindspace of the same man. This seems the most likely answer to me.

But wherever he picked up these views, they are absolutely not acceptable. This goes beyond Lovecraft's actions even absent the excuse that one lived in a time where these views were widespread. And fact that he wrote the book under a pseudonym and went to a neo-nazi press to publish it shows Barker was well aware that mainstream society would not accept him doing it.


One thing I'm not going to accept, though, is the accusatory word excited which suggests that I'm grasping at straws to find excuses for what Barker did. I'm not looking for excuses because there are none; I'm looking for explanations which are not the same thing. Please refrain from suggesting otherwise because having just discovered these things about the author of a setting I've loved for decades I am not in the mood to be polite with people making hints that I'm tarred with the same brush.

Lovecraft was just a loon, and didn't hide anything. Barker was clever enough to hide his views.