Slate Remembers Incredibly Lame Example of RL Politics in Second Life -- Here's 3 That Are Way More Interesting

Above, Slate confusing everyday griefing for a noteworthy RL/virtual world event

Ho hum, Slate just published this throwback election season reminiscing of griefers attacking an unofficial John Edwards headquarters in Second Life leading up to the 2008 election. This is exactly akin to someone setting up a Tumblr page devoted to Bernie Sanders, accidentally posting the password, then getting it defaced by wingnuts overnight -- douchey behavior, but not exactly worthy of a Slate post. FORTUNATELY, there's far more interesting examples of real life political headquarters and persons in Second Life that deserve more attention. Such as:

That time then-Presidential hopeful Mark Warner (Governor of Virginia back then) made an official whistle stop-style appearance in Second Life in 2006.

That time Newt Gingrich gave a speech in Second Life which was protested by green fairies and other oddball avatars, but who was protected by a team of stylish avatar bodyguards.

And finally, that time Front National, the powerful far right French political party founded by Donald Trump fan Jean-Marie Le Pen, opened up an official headquarters in Second Life (in 2007). Which led a few weeks later to this:

It was besieged by political protestors armed with machine guns, flying hallucinogenic trains, and exploding pig grenades. Which given the even greater rise of anti-immigrant extremism in the Europe and the US now, still seems relevant today. And which is also griefing of some kind, but explicitly political, and unlike the Edwards case, actually involved members of the actual political party wandering over to their computer saying stuff like, "Why is our beautiful virtual headquarters covered in poop explosions?", or however that's said in French.

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Comments

[sirhc deSantis]

This from the people pushing 'The Things Kurt Cobain Left Behind'. What, they almost caught up to this decade?

[Brookston Holiday]

merde

[Rin]

The SL political landscape of 2006/7/8 was way more interesting than it is now ... compared to those years now it is dead with the old groups defunct and silent and those most active in those circles long gone.

That is rather sad, even when considering how silly a lot of the people behaved back then (*coughs* SLLA *coughs*). But at least the FN has been driven out where ever they appeared and tried to set up their new HQ.

Given the many difficult challenges the world sees today and the various opinions and ideas floating around it is rather surprising that we do not see a prominent return of those political debates again ... or maybe it would surprising if not for the fact that the 'no talking politics' attitude has been growing stronger over the past years almost everywhere and many people seem to automatically shy away from any controversial topic or lost their ability to discuss things without insisting on extreme positions.
And coupled with years of one economic crisis leading right into the next made the 'escapism' part of our virtual existence most likely much stronger then it has ever been. And that again leaves the field open for those who will throw out any notion of compromise and discussion out of the window in favor of absolute extremes. But that is sadly something more and more prevalent no matter if on- or offline.