Thompson Welches On Charity

Apparently old BatJack wasn't being serious when he tried to emulate Swift's Modest Proposal. According to Joystiq, it was a satirical attempt to“highlight the patent hypocrisy and recklessness exhibited by the video game industry’s willingness to target cops, women, homosexuals, and other groups with some of their violent games.” Despite a group actually trying to create his game, he's refusing to pay up.

Swift's Modest Proposal is one of the most brilliant examples of irony in the history of human language. It was so misunderstood by his peers that Swift almost lost his patronage over the deal. By suggesting that poor children would make better sausages than serfs, he highlighted the plight of the poor while also illustrating the problematic attitudes towards them.

Swift was a genius.

Jack Thompson, apparently, is just an asshole. Instead of doing anything like that, he mimics the very traits in people he claims to despise and then offers a bounty for charity which he had no intention whatsoever on paying out on. Satire is not trying to be a bigger hypocrite than what you're highlighting. That's being an asshole.

It's a lot harder to write like Swift than just putting "Modest" and "Proposal" in the title, Jack. Next time, I'd like suggest simply not trying. You're embarrassing yourself.

BONUS ROUND: Penny Arcade donated $10,000 to the ESA in Jack's name. It's great to see that the gamer community can actually increase the level of Jack's hypocrisy over time.