If you're new to the tabletop gaming scene and have just found out how Zak Smith was attacked, you might ask yourself, "Should I really care about all this?"
The answer, of course, is yes, you should.
But why?
Because an innocent person was attacked and his life was ruined, and that's a terrible thing.
It happened long ago and it doesn't matter now!
No. It's happening right now. In many RPG-related platforms promoting, discussing, even mentioning Zak is forbidden, unless you write something harmful about him. Which means that he cannot defend himself, people who support him cannot defend him, and people who just don't like baseless accusations cannot speak against attacks on him.The subreddit dedicated to OSR, "Old School Renaissance", D&D-based games which Zak's works are an important part of, is one example of this.
Are you saying we should defend abusers?
No. I'm saying we should defend people who are wrongly accused. Zak is not an abuser.
Are we really sure he's innocent?
We are. There is a thing called "presumption of innocence". Until we have proof that someone did something wrong, the person is innocent. There is and have never been no proof of Zak being an abuser. He is innocent.
But is there any proof that he didn't abuse anyone?
There can be no proof that something didn't happen. But there can be proof that something else did happen, which makes the first thing impossible. Like this: I can't have any proof that I didn't eat this apple, but I do have a video of my sister eating it, and a witness who supports the claim that she, indeed, ate this apple. And since I couldn't eat the same apple that someone else had eaten, it proves that I didn't eat it.
There are proofs that Zak was in good relations with the woman that accused him of abuse. There are records of their phone and Internet messaging, there are witnesses who knew both Zak and his wife closely, there are close relatives of Zak's wife's family who knew them closely, and it all supports the claim that Zak and Mandy had a non-abusive relationship.
Are we sure there's no proof of abuse?
Fairly sure. Zak has been taking it to court for years now, and some of the people who accused him of being an abuser had been ordered by court to publicly apologize and to pay a compensation fee to Zak. If they had proof of abuse, that would support their accusations and the court wouldn't have found them guilty of slander.
How do I know there's really proof and there are really witnesses that support Zak's position?
You can ask Zak, who, unlike the accusers, has made answering the question his principle. You can ask in comments of his blog, https://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/ , or you can write him at zakzsmith AT hawtmayle dawt calm.
Okay, I get it, Zak's innocent and he was wrongly accused and it's a bad thing. Many people are treated terribly, should I care about all of them?
Frankly, yes. It's normal to care about terrible things and people who become victims of terrible things.
It sounds frustrating.
Because it is. Life is frustrating, and the more you know about the world, the more terrible things you find out. But when you know about them, you can help fix them.
Riiiight. Could you give me just another reason?
I guess. Do you care about art? Zak is a damn good artist, and his career is being destroyed by a hateful mob.
Do you care about literature? Zak is a damn good writer, read his articles in his blog about literature, art, cinema, architecture, they're great. And his life is being destroyed by a hateful mob.
Do you care about making society a better place? Zak supported Black Lives Matter movement, he was arrested by the police, he gathered money to help his friend who is a journalist and had her eye permanently damaged by a police bullet. And his life is being destroyed.
Yet another reason that Zak suggested:
I think a larger issue is a lot of :
1. Actual creators, and
2. Useful conversations about games
are in a situation where they aren't as good as they could be because they're afraid of the same people who did this attacking them
As long as -the people who did this- are still being treated as respectable, the issue is way bigger than me: they're a mob that can and does make doing better work and having realer conversations much harder and often impossible.
So, basically, if you don't do something to protect the people who do something you like, they'll stop doing what you like because they're afraid to be attacked. And once again, it's not because they do something wrong. We're still talking about attacking the innocent.
Okay. I guess I should care. What do I do about it?
Find out more about what happened, don't just trust me. Zak has made a blog with official statements about what happened and what he did and what he didn't do and who supported his position and who accused him and what are the proofs. Here it is: http://officialzsannouncements.blogspot.com/
When you know stuff, don't be silent. Talk about what happened. Oppose people who lie and fling false accusations.
Join with other people who don't want to let the innocent suffer.
Ask Zak what you can do to help.
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