Tipper Gore on RPGs

--- Forwarded message follows ---
Subject: Tipper Gore
From: drac@wbb.com
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 95 15:48:30 EST

IR>Does she have a sign on her forehead?  Do you have any quote you can cite (
IR>and not this bullshit a friend of a friend told me - I want a publication
IR>name, date and page number).
IR>Please, just shut up.

IR>Ross A. Isaacs

Here is the quote:

RAISING PG KIDS IN AN X-RATED SOCIETY

by Tipper Gore

(Abingdon Press; 201 Eighth Ave. S.; Nashville, TN; 37202, publ. 1987)

Chapter 6: Playing with Fire: Heavy Metal Satanism

p. 118:

"But like a cancer, satanism has come a long way since then, as heavy metal groups capitalized on a growing fascination with the occult. From THE EXORCIST to the Dungeons and Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Americans chased one occult fad after another. The popular Dungeons and Dragons game has sold eight million sets. The game is based on occultic plots, images, and characters which players "become" as they play the game. According to Mrs. Pat Pulling, founder of the organization Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons, the game has been linked to nearly fifty teenage suicides and homicides. Pulling's own son killed himself in 1982 after becoming deeply involved in the game through his school's gifted students program. A fellow-player threatened him with a "death curse," and he killed himself in response."

This is only typical requoting from other anti-D&D sources, and spot-welding D&D into the matrix of "teen satanism". However she also publishes an extensive appendix of the pressure-groups out to ban stuff, including BADD, the National Coalition on Television Violence and its Canadian affiliate C-CAVE. BADD's address is given in the category DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS along with the mention: "Assists parents in dealing with children involved with the game Dungeons and Dragons". I have already mentioned how the father of William Flatt "dealt" with his son after exposure to Pat Pulling's seminars...

If Tipper Gore has such an extensive list of addresses then presumably Pat Pulling got her cause mentioned in Tipper Gore's PMRC newsletter, so now anti-D&D misinformation has crossed laterally to groups similarly involved against rock music. Pat Pulling never missed an opportunity to disseminate information, so that one time at university I was quite surprised that anti-cult lecturers for a "Cult Awareness Week" included a slide of D&D books during their talks...this happened twice in two different years, with different lecturers. I did NOT sit mute, but protested on the spot, and both those "Satanic-cult" windbags (Dale Griffis, ex-police officer from Ohio with a diploma-mill doctorate; and the Canadian Robert Tucker) are no longer in business in general.

While many find Drac on the extreme side, he did provide the Tipper Gore quote as requested.
Eclipse's RPG & Politics Links
Tipper's husband Algore

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