Freaks n' Geeks

The worst part about any protest, as most who have attended them know, is how often they are co-opted by the whackjob element who faithfully show up to such things and inevitably become the sideshow that obscures the main message. This was my worry when I was planning to participate in an anti-Iraq war march; the Free Mumia people show up to EVERYTHING, and lord knows what other causes would have followers there trying to jump on the bandwagon and recruit marchers to other causes, and before you know it suddenly you're on the news being portrayed as part of some "Free Clitoral Piercings on Demand NOW!" brigade rather than whatever it was you actually showed up to support or protest.

Well, I didn't end up making it to either the DC March or the one here in Atlanta. But after seeing this post at Wonkette I'm actually somewhat relieved, because in addition to the usual freaks this "March" apparently also included a strange little geek element: 120+ avatars in some strange online virtual roleplaying thingee staged a "virtual march" that they kindly videotaped so that everyone else could make fun of them.

I have a few mild geeky tendencies, but I draw the line at roleplaying games and virtual worlds and such. I don't do the pretend shit. And the notion of having an online virtual protest is so utterly asinine to me that I would be bothered by being associated with it in any way. What the hell were those people thinking.