Elon to Me: “Burn in Hell”

How I Angered the World’s Richest Man

A lot of folks have reached out over the last few days to express good wishes and support. I thought I would provide a general Tondro update and talk about the lessons I've learned. And, because this is me, all this comes in the form of a story.

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PART I: HOW THIS BEGAN

Earlier this year, a book I led came out: The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a Preface for it. In it, I spend about a page talking about the benefits D&D has brought to people and the world, and the huge influence it's had. But then I address some challenges with the book: early D&D books had a lot of language that is insulting to anyone who might be old, fat, disabled, queer, not conventionally attractive, not white, or a woman. That's unfortunate.

My observations, and those of Jon Peterson (who curated the book's materials and wrote essays throughout) were noticed by a small but vocal group of people who claimed I was disparaging Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, the creators of D&D. I was accused of slander and libel. People made videos saying lots of things about me, and a lot of people watched those videos and made written comments about me.

That was months ago. But recently, The Making of Original D&D went on a 50% off sale (perfect Christmas gift for the nerd in your life!) and some people who didn't notice the book the first time suddenly read it. One of these people got the attention of Elon Musk who posted the tweet above.

"Nobody, and I mean nobody, gets to trash E. Gary Gygax and the geniuses who created Dungeons & Dragons.

What the fuck is wrong with Hasbro and WoTC??

May they burn in hell."

That's it. That's the tweet.

PART II: FRANK SINATRA HAS A COLD

In 1966, Gay Telese wrote a profile of Frank Sinatra called "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold". It's amazing writing, but we're gonna focus on one very small part of it, in which Sinatra—who has a live prime-time special coming up, a career relaunch which he is justifiably anxious about—decides to take out some of his stress on a Young Harlan Ellison, who happens to be playing pool in Sinatra's club. Sinatra decides he doesn't like Ellison's alligator-skin boots. Ellison is all "Why are you hassling me, man?" And Sinatra kicks him out.

It's important to remember this is Young Harlan Ellison: 28 years old, just arrived in Hollywood and selling scripts to TV shows. He was not the iconic iconoclast he would later become. And Telese's point with this anecdote is to highlight how asymetrical Sinatra's relationship is with, well, just about everyone. Young Harlan Ellison will remember for the rest of his life, and presumably tell the story of, the night Frank Sinatra kicked him out of the club. But Sinatra forgot about it a minute later and would never think of Ellison again.

Or, in the immortal words of Raul Julia, "For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday."

Elon Musk is Sinatra and Bison, in this story. And I am Young Harlan Ellison (and Chun-Li apparently, which is awesome). But what I find interesting is that the story does not really end there. Because Young Harlan Ellison grew up to be Old Harlan Ellison, who went on to win pretty much every award that exists in fantasy, science fiction, or horror. And I promise you, if he told the story of Sinatra kicking him out of his club at all, it was as merely one in a long life of amusing anecdotes illustrating how The Man is full of shit and high on his own anxiety.

PART III: LET'S TALK ABOUT ME

Musk did not think 10 seconds before writing about me. He does not know who I am or care, and has probably Xit (a Xit is the X version of a Tweet, and it's pronounced "shit") a thousand times since then. And yet dozens of people have reached out to me to check and see if I'm okay, to offer support. I actually got chatting with a bunch of other gamers the right-wing hates for similar reasons—Jon Peterson, Mike Selinker, Ben Riggs—and suggested we form a Justice League of people hated by the anti-woke crowd. Mike suggested we call it the Social Justice League and promised to bring the capes. But a dear friend reminded me that such a League would need "a really big table," and he's absolutely right.

In contrast, I have gotten no harassing messages or threats. None. Why? Because my social media is highly curated. I am not on X/Twitter or TikTok, I don't use Instagram, I don't listen to gamer podcasts, read ENWorld or Reddit, or watch gamer videos on YouTube. I don't read comments, and the only reason I'm still on FB is because my mum occasionally sees jokes and memes she thinks I'll like and she tags me. I would like her to be able to continue to do that. Its a thing we do.

I spend my days making D&D books. It's an incredible privilege, it brings me great creative pleasure, and I get to work with some of the most talented people in the world. I have an apartment I love. I can walk to the grocery, the pet store, or a dozen places to eat. On Sundays, I cook. Otis, my dog, is a delight. I'm in 3 different gaming groups right now, and they're all friends I would have over for dinner. Most days, I lay down for an hour in the afternoon. Life is pretty good. In fact, these are the Best Years of My Life (So Far).

Social media often makes us feel like everyone else's life is perfect, while we know our own life is painful, and that makes us feel like shitty losers. I am not gonna contribute to that. Life ain't perfect. Rent is too high. Otis ate something bad and had the shits all night. Wizards is notorious for Christmas layoffs, so my position is precarious by definition. I am one of 38 million Americans who lives alone, and that ain’t by choice but it is a direct consequence of decisions I have made, so there you go. That's fucking life, man. This is how it is.

I choose not to give Elon Musk or his million followers the power to make my life worse. I do not give him permission to live in my head. I spent yesterday visiting dear friends. Today I'm back to making a pair of Forgotten Realms books that are gonna blow minds. They are the Best Thing I Have Done (So Far).

And I have, over the last 48 hours, got so many comforting reminders of how wonderful all of you are. Thank you, my dear friends. You are amazing and I love you all. I am so grateful.

Best,

Jason