Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 4446326" data-attributes="member: 54877">Wasn't Jim Jones and that mass suicide in 1977--people drinking Kool-Aid they knew was laced with, what, cyanide?&nbsp; That's where the expression &quot;drinking the Kool-Aid&quot; for cult-like behavior arises.&nbsp; This was fresh in peoples' minds.&nbsp; So, certainly there were a handful of people that attributed this to &quot;demons&quot; or what not, but the real fear was that D&amp;D was a cult-like thing that would lead to their youngsters believing all kinds of crazy stuff from some &quot;leader&quot;, and following him off the deep end.&nbsp; (&quot;Hotel California is about cults, not drug abuse as I heard some idiot D.J. spout just last week.&nbsp; That was one song that even parents knew well in the late 70's, early '80s.)&nbsp; &nbsp;You've also got to remember that there is a certain segment of the population that would describe Jim Jones as &quot;demonic&quot;, and mean it literally.&nbsp; Not that someone got crazy with a spell, he got took over in a flash of brimstone, and such--but rather that demonic influence is real, and people that invite it are susceptible to it.&nbsp; I have known quite a few people with those beliefs in my time, some quite well.&nbsp; I even had one in my D&amp;D game for awhile--before he quit because of other priorities--not his religion. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; The kind of things they discuss as &quot;inviting demonic influence&quot; are not at all what D&amp;D is about--not even close--but it didn't take many instances of Jim Jones and D&amp;D hysteria to give D&amp;D a patina of being related, at least not to the uniformed.&nbsp;BTW, another reason I never had anyone give us flak, was that I had a loud, public, and repeated invitation for anyone, including parents, grandparents, ministers, teachers--anyone--to sit and watch any session, any time.&nbsp; What really sealed the deal though, was when word got out that my Mom &quot;caught me&quot; doing a research report on mining techniques, not for school but to enhance my dungeon creation abilities.&nbsp; There were a bunch of parents that wanted that influence on their kids. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 4446326, member: 54877"] Wasn't Jim Jones and that mass suicide in 1977--people drinking Kool-Aid they knew was laced with, what, cyanide? That's where the expression "drinking the Kool-Aid" for cult-like behavior arises. This was fresh in peoples' minds. So, certainly there were a handful of people that attributed this to "demons" or what not, but the real fear was that D&D was a cult-like thing that would lead to their youngsters believing all kinds of crazy stuff from some "leader", and following him off the deep end. ("Hotel California is about cults, not drug abuse as I heard some idiot D.J. spout just last week. That was one song that even parents knew well in the late 70's, early '80s.) You've also got to remember that there is a certain segment of the population that would describe Jim Jones as "demonic", and mean it literally. Not that someone got crazy with a spell, he got took over in a flash of brimstone, and such--but rather that demonic influence is real, and people that invite it are susceptible to it. I have known quite a few people with those beliefs in my time, some quite well. I even had one in my D&D game for awhile--before he quit because of other priorities--not his religion. :) The kind of things they discuss as "inviting demonic influence" are not at all what D&D is about--not even close--but it didn't take many instances of Jim Jones and D&D hysteria to give D&D a patina of being related, at least not to the uniformed. BTW, another reason I never had anyone give us flak, was that I had a loud, public, and repeated invitation for anyone, including parents, grandparents, ministers, teachers--anyone--to sit and watch any session, any time. What really sealed the deal though, was when word got out that my Mom "caught me" doing a research report on mining techniques, not for school but to enhance my dungeon creation abilities. There were a bunch of parents that wanted that influence on their kids. :) [/QUOTE]

Verification