1) A thread from @Imperator_Rex3 about Benghazi. But drinks down everyone. I got one more tale to tell in this. Some may have seen this shit before, so sorry in advance.
2) Going into 2016, I said, I'm not voting for Clinton. I didn't care if Trump is half the mega-Hitler the media wanted us to believe he was, Benghazi guaranteed I would never give my vote to Clinton.
3) The reason? A good guy had died there in Benghazi. 4 good people died there, but one I know for goddamn certain was a good guy, a patriot, and someone who should have done great things, who by his unknown accomplishments should have been Secretary of State. No hyperbole.
4) Sean Smith. Also known as Vilerat. Known by hundreds of thousands worldwide for accomplishing something that few on Earth could have accomplished, maybe none other.
5) He brought diplomacy to an anarchic system for which there should have been no diplomacy, where before none had existed.
6) As a State Department employee his job was to go to far-flung embassies and consulates worldwide to make sure their secure servers and communications were up and running. Without people like him, we wouldnt HAVE consulates and embassies.
7) He would go to shithole countries where mortar attacks were constant to make sure those fellow Americans could do their job, could function, could call home to their families.
8) He did it because he knew this job of his was important. He knew diplomacy was so important, that he had what some would call a crazy fucking idea.
9) Enter Eve Online, a game where heists of 10's of thousands of dollars of in-game items (there is an exchange rate) were regular. Where trust didn't exist. Rule 1 was you had no idea wtf you were doing, and rule 2 was everyone was going to try to fuck you over because of that.
10) Where dozens, hundreds or thousands of players would band together in shaky alliances. And none of these alliances trusted each other, fighting was constant, it was primordial chaos.
11) Human nature with social norms, morality, consequences ripped away. It was carnage. Playing that game CHANGED you on a deep instinctual level.
12) And this crazy mother fucker? He says, "I want to create diplomacy." Fucking God walking into this game would have said, "Nope, fuck this, its the 7th day, I'm out." But this guy? Decides he wants to create a diplomatic system, diplomatic structures.
13) He creates Jabberlon 5, a riff off of the name Babylon 5, the old sci fi show that was based around a space station that was a kind of galactic UN. Hosts it on a Jabber server. Then, he goes to these warring alliances, and starts inviting representatives
14) Big alliances would always have someone there. Smaller alliances might pop in for a few quick conversations on topics they were involved with the big alliances in
15) When the company creating the game put together a council of players to provide input on the game's development, it was from here the big alliances chose their representatives they would back
16) Wars were planned, stopped, and started here. Coalitions were formed and destroyed. Markets of necessary goods were created and crashed. He had done it. He had made an actual diplomatic system that has never been replicated in any game since. Trust me, I've looked.
17) I had one interaction with him. A small alliance I represented was waging a guerrilla war against a larger coalition. There were rumors Vilerat's alliance was about to move in and invade. I was sent to figure out wtf was happening, and to forge an alliance if possible.
18) It took a week of haranguing, threatening, annoying, and trash talking before I was given an invite into Jabberlon 5. In a private room was Vilerat and a few randoms. I presented my alliance's case, and tried to pry information out of him.
19) I won't repeat the content of that conversation, but through NO FAULT OF MY OWN the invasion didn't happen, and months later there was a leak of vital passwords for key installations of the coalition.
20) which through an unknown probably drunk proxy was handed to the Russian alliances, who invaded the coalition's territory and toppled it in record time.
21) That was 2012. Vilerat, Sean Smith, died in Benghazi that September. I found out a few days afterwards Sean Smith was Vilerat. I blame Hillary Goddamn Cheating Lying Stealing Responsible For God ONLY KNOWS How Many Deaths Fucking Clinton. And now I know I'm right.
22) Vilerat wasn't a friend. I had one conversation with him years ago that lasted maybe 15 minutes tops. But I know, I fucking know, America lost one of its best that day, and we are so much fucking poorer for it. /end
