The Culture: Things Bros Are Taking Off The Table (Part Two: Lifestyle Consumerism)

"What are you talking about?"

Pop Cultists like this guy.

Movies, shows, comics, apparel, novels, Lego sets, Magic the Gathering - the list goes much farther. DND has been more than a game for decades and resembles a game less every day. There is incredible opportunity in this if we as a community can move passed fear and claim it. https://t.co/XZ5GxTLr8i

— J. Scott Garibay 🧢🐲🚲🇺🇦 (@jsgaribay) March 27, 2024

Run through his Twitter feed and you'll soon see (a) he's a real-life Soyjack and (b) he embodied, exemplifies, and champions this meme.

And I do mean he's a Pop Cultist as well as a Conventional Play Cargo Cultist. He ticks the items on Brian's list:

• Cult: Conspicuously consume Movies, TV shows, comics, and games blessed by the high priests at the six media companies. Attend the holy conclaves. Don the sacred vestments–ironic pre-faded tee shirts and cosplay. Go forth into the comments section and social media as a brand evangelist. (Again, read that Twitter feed and then watch his videos. He is all about THE BRAND and he worships THE BRAND and uses THE BRAND as the core of his identity.)
• Code (See the meme above.)
• Creed: None; "...the PopCult doesn’t offer any answers. It’s pure escapism. The problem is it’s an escape from self-mastery and virtue into the clutches of soulless megacorporations.." (This leaves himself open to subversion into the Death Cult (see Brian's post linked above). Yes, despite his public professions of Christianity, he exhibits this emptiness. Hasn't said anything yet to merit a Witch Test, but he's going to slip up sooner or later if he's not careful.)

Everything about this man is CONSUME BRAND PRODUCT.

Got a problem with your game? CONSUME BRAND PRODUCT. Product doesn't work? CONSUME BRAND PRODUCT. Only BRAND matters. BRAND is all there is; if it is not BRAND it is crap.

In short, this man is LIFESTYLE CONSUMERISM wearing a man's body as a fleshmech.

All of his objections to people like the Pundit (because we are not yet on his radar; that will change soon) come down to "NETWORK EFFECTS, SON!" and "BRAND GOOD! GROG BAD!" when not otherwise talking in terms of Narrative-framed Conventional Play norms.

The Bros are going to give this man an existential crisis followed by a heart attack, given his past and present posturing.

from Imgflip Meme Generator

You don't need to buy new products. You need to master the tools you already have, assuming that you have proper games and not analog crippleware designed to push consumerism and use that as a Death Cult stalking horse- which this soyface champions as Teh Bestest EVAR!

Players don't need to spend a penny; sharing PDFs is now as well-established as sharing books and booklets were before that. Combine how the real game works with not needing publishers for anything and you have everything you need to restore the Tabletop gaming hobby back to its foundations as a non-commercial pro-social hobbyist pursuit focused around local clubhouses and their specific campaigns.

Y'know, like how things were when this began 50 years ago.

Oh, and I can't wait to see the look on this guy's face when he groks that guerilla printing is a thing. "They can just take it down" is not going to work anymore.

As the word spreads about the Bros, how the game really works, and that you don't need to spend a penny to join the hobby (so you don't need to submit to any external party such as a Publisher or any other party) expect more Pop Cultists/Brand Evangelists to lose their shit and act like the unpaid corporate lobbyists that they are.

In the Clubhouse, there's no tolerance for Muh BRAND!