The tragedy in Norway has been on my mind, much like everyone else. As is quite often the case, right wing thugs have taken to violence to advance goals that aren’t enacted quickly enough for their tastes. America has a long history of serious right wing terror. Well, political terror in general, alas. An Anarchist killed McKinley, and Lee Harvey Oswald’s politics have never been clear, but the deadliest acts of terror, and I include starting the civil war, have been at the hands of angry wingnuts.
The problem is that we, as a society, never actually examine what might be behind these outbreaks of violence. Maybe some of these people are just crazy, as is the typical diagnosis, but it seems more reasonable that they’re rational actors making an informed decision to fuck shit up in order to advance their goals. But we can’t admit that racists organize, or that right wing fanatics blow up federal buildings hoping to start a race war, or that anti abortionists kill abortion doctors because they don’t believe in the rule of law. It would offend the passive assholes who won’t turn to violence but tacitly support terrorism committed by people they agree with and destroy the precious illusion that Americans are basically perfect people with no flaws. So we pretend that terrorists crazy, that something else made them do it. Bad music. Insanity. Violent movies. Whatever. Better, I suppose, than trying to do something to root out right wing extremism or defend the right to choose in strong, unashamed terms.
Anyway, I mention this because I have a new piece up at GameFront about this very debate.
I’m not saying this is what is happening. BUT, if you were, say, a science fiction satirist writing about a cabal of villains dedicated to slowly, with minimal violence, taking a formerly prosperous, upwardly mobile society and turning it into a medieval feudal state, you couldn’t come up with a better plan than the one set in motion when self centered assholes in the 1970s passed Prop 13.
The Legislature passed an austerity budget Tuesday night that would cut from universities, courts and the poor, shutter 70 parks and threaten schools but would not — by officials’ own admission — restore California’s long-term financial health.
The UC and Cal State systems would face about a 23% funding cut, among the steepest in the proposal. Cash grants for the needy would fall, a program to help thousands of teen mothers get an education would be suspended and hundreds of millions of dollars would be siphoned from mental health programs…
It’s interesting how easy it is to completely ruin a society simply by removing the ability of a government to tax the wealthy.
I’ve been so lazy that I didn’t even capitalize the full title!
But yes, it’s been too long since I’ve updated the site, and considering that I’ve literally had something posted elsewhere daily, I’m bringing that to an end, so let this be a self-whoring posting. I’ve got a new GameFront feature aaaand a new post at LA Weekly. So let’s link:
…but I just wanna say this is the worst remix of all time
See the real reason for the Chilean Miners’ survival over at File Front.
I haven’t shamelessly self-promoted in a while, so here are links to some of the most recent stuff I’ve written elsewhere.
I Am Aware Of All Internet Traditions is the very essence of what makes it so goddamned difficult to talk to people who even now insist they’re independents even though they hold the same political positions as every other republican. Nothing comes close to reaching that level of hilarious, prideful ignorance. Until now.
I’ve been playing StarCraft 2 a lot. Luckily, it’s been somewhat productive. Here are three how-tos I’ve written.
Note: these were totally learn-by-doing affairs, so enjoy, and feel free to make fun. I swear I’ll be way wonkier in a month.
Is there anything more tedious than an op-ed by an aging writer with a giant stick up his a** who wants you to believe putting the stick in was the best decision he ever made? Here’s how these articles work (we’ll get to the video games part in a second):
Ross Lincoln is a freelance writer and wine-soaked dilletante based in Los Angeles. He writes about console and PC games for 
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