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Let's talk about how Cards Against Humanity's core gameplay teaches abuse & predator tactics and was created by a abuser/predator https://twitter.com/tiffanyleigh/status/1275416826038702081
The Psychology Today article “The Stealthiest Predator” (May 2018) discusses “social” predators & their “uncharged” misconduct. That is, stealth abusers don't violate actual laws but hide in plain sight, exerting silent power & acting out inappropriate or manipulative behaviors
Abusers love edge cases. And CAH is the edge-casiest edge case of them all.
Grooming is one example of social predation and abuse. From the Psychology Today article:
Grooming is one example of social predation and abuse. From the Psychology Today article:
Sound familiar? Testing & pushing boundaries is the very soul of Cards Against Humanity. You purposefully choose, play, & pair NSFW cards to the table in surreal, garish, and intentionally inappropriate NSFW ways
These CAH cards took 30 seconds to find on the CAH website from their free print-and-play deck (NSFW):
Players see and play dozens of cards in a frantic subliminal slideshow of iffy “punchlines."
Over the course of a game it's easy to become desensitized to their ugliness, and quickly one’s boundaries and sense of safety just winnows away
Over the course of a game it's easy to become desensitized to their ugliness, and quickly one’s boundaries and sense of safety just winnows away
More from the Psychology Today article:
Cards people play test the other players. How people react to them tests other players.
Every card and combo asks and answers the question “who is okay with these boundaries I’m setting and pushing?”
Every card and combo asks and answers the question “who is okay with these boundaries I’m setting and pushing?”
Cards Against Humanity is the textbook definition of grooming and of predatory and abusive behavior. It’s a literal toolkit. They gamified the abuser’s grooming tactics
And it tracks that The Hateful 8 – CAH designer Max Temkin (white, cis, male) & the other seven co-designers (white, cis, male) – didn’t “realize” the game they made was actually Grooming 101: The Card Game
Their whiteness and cisness and maleness was a cognitive dissonance. None of them are considered marginalized. None are statistically in the groups that are most victimized by groomers, abusers, and predators
All of them went to school together so likely had the same frame of reference, background, and experience.
Just as likely: all would protect and be protected by the patriarchy (whether conscious of upholding it or not)
Just as likely: all would protect and be protected by the patriarchy (whether conscious of upholding it or not)
And the devil’s chef’s kiss: The Hateful 8 can take zeor responsibility and can pass off CAH as “humor” & “punching up”
The CAH cards in and of themselves are contextless. They have “submitted without comment” energy. They're just words on cards
So the Hateful 8 can claim that it’s *players* that read into the words on the cards & create toxic combos.
It’s *players* that vote on them.
It’s *players* that laugh along and encourage potentially toxic behavior and invade boundaries all on their own
It’s *players* that vote on them.
It’s *players* that laugh along and encourage potentially toxic behavior and invade boundaries all on their own
CAH is a box of toxic raw ingredients and a recipe without a manifesto. The first batch is even free on their website. But it’s the *players* that build the actual bomb
CAH's Hateful 8 can claim immunity & plausible deniability. But they have been complicit in profiting off a game that is a predation and abuse simulator created by a known abuser
CAH is marketed as "A party game for horrible people." And it totally, totally is.
But not w/the snark or irony that the designers think. The game's object is not getting most points or laughs, or even to "win" – but to learn & adopt the best abuse tactics w/the most fluency
But not w/the snark or irony that the designers think. The game's object is not getting most points or laughs, or even to "win" – but to learn & adopt the best abuse tactics w/the most fluency
