I suspect that many folks here may have caught the tail end of the Ed Show last night. Ezra Klein was filling in for Ed, and he ended the show with a little segment about Sean Smith, or Vile Rat as he was known to me.
See, I'm a nerd. I like internet spaceships. I enjoy games about spaceships in space. I play EVE Online. (Internet spaceships are serious business you know?) While I can't make any claim to having known Sean Smith, or even really having interacted with his character, Vile Rat, I certainly knew that name. I knew what Vile did. He was like me... A guy who liked spaceships in space.
This afternoon, when I learned that Vile was one of the four Americans killed in Libya, I felt a great sense of having lost a fellow internet-spaceships-nerd...
So here I am this morning. I'm sitting here as I type this, trying to figure out why knowing Sean Smith was Vile makes this tragedy any more "real" for me... Or why I went from being saddened to learn that Americans doing their jobs had died, to feeling like I had lost a friend...
Because as I said, I didn't know Sean Smith as anything more than the powerful diplomat/spy he played in a silly game.
I think what's begun to sink in for me, is that dipstick Mittens (no, not that Mittens - EVE players will know the other Mittens of which I speak) has decided to use Vile's death as some sort of cheap shot attack on President Obama. Certainly, many far more capable diarists have described and commented on the utter disaster that has been Mitt's preemptive foreign policy faux pas du jour. I doubt I could add much more to the discussion of what this all means in a grand political/presidential election cycle sort of way.
What I'd like to do with this hastily planned diary (my second I think?) is simply point out how fantastically Mitt dropped the ball in one regard. Or at least, the one regard that's hitting me this morning.
Mittens is using the death of four Americans - good, honorable people - to score political points. Cheap political points at that. I'm sure his statements were huge hits with the mouth breather crowd that he's already got locked up tight. But where is the concern and sympathy for the four grieving families?
I ask that question because of what I've seen from my extended EVE Online family. My fellow internet-spaceships-nerds have done far greater service to the memory of one of those four dead Americans. A bunch of internet gamers seem to "get it" more than a man who wants to be the President of the United States.
EVE can be a harsh game. It applauds and rewards chicanery, underhandedness, and evil deeds. It has a reputation of being a game for the hardcore player, as compared to the casual gamer. In EVE, you trust NO ONE, not even your friends. Hell, you trust your friends least of all!
And yet, this harsh, cruel game, full of scammers, and pirates, and bad guys has come together to show more concern, love, sympathy, and respect for Sean Smith than the republican nominee.
I can say this morning, that I'm very proud to be an internet-spaceships-nerd.
RIP Vile Rat.
And thank you Sean Smith for your service to this country.
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Assuming I don't screw this all up, I'm going to try to embed the Ed Show segment on Sean.
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For those who may care to read a more personal reflection on Sean, check out The Mittani's remembrance (he's that other Mittens I mentioned).
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And lastly, a little picture tribute from inside EVE I caught on my twitter feed. #RIPVileRat