One man and his twisted mind. The face of the community? From the mind of Ben Lesnick.

laserit

Be Careful of everything you say and do on the Internet kiddies.

It may just come back to bite you in the ass

GrumpyHobbit

I find it rich that so much of this is a personal attack about comments made on the internet and an obsessive compulsion to post loads of stuff about a subject...precisely what is being done against SC and their staff for the last 2 years. 

Sure he may have posted some bad taste jokes....isn't that the entire premise of the SA site that keep making accusations against SC?

Sure he may have posted some pretty out there things...isn't that exactly what the anti SC people have been doing for the past 2 years. 

The whole thing is sort of ironic.

Do I think this guy should have kept such bad jokes off the internet? Sure. 

Do I think he will lose his job? Probably.

Do I think it is a personal attack because certain people are obsessed with bringing harm to the game development and so are really scraping the bottom of the barrel and getting personal because they cant do it against the game? You bet.

End of the day there are a lot of people who should be looking in the mirror and growing the fuck up. 

Adjuvant1

In Lesnick's "journal", I see alot of posts by a person with a decided lack of empathy. He's a problemed person. He's found some degree of hope for positive turns in his life, finding companionship, landing his dream job, so "he feels he's not that person anymore".

So what "is" he?

He's a person who "was" that person and under certain criteria he can continue to be that person when he feels justified or clever. You're not "changed" just because you "change targets". This guy is a very public face of a project, into which hundreds of thousands of people have pledged positive sentiment. He's instrumental in the decision process, what is a legitimate complaint versus whining versus FUD. He is disseminating propaganda in an attempt to impress on people, it's a good idea to pledge more money to this project.

He's not just a guy with a job.

I was thinking this morning how I'd feel if Charlie Sheen was community manager of Disneyland. Should it affect his ability to professionally present his position? Well, come on, who hasn't, at one point or another, been a big fan of hookers and drugs. Clearly he's an ok guy if he only "used to" do this.

Not everyone was/is representative of the person in Lesnick's "journal". Why should anyone take his word what is or isn't acceptable. Why should anyone take his word what is a good idea? Should the inner dispairing, broken parts of us empathize for him? Sure, to a point, but not so much a point we consider his authority somehow valid.

He's just a troll of a different color, and he's in charge of something. I don't believe in that something, and I'm not impressed with him.

Deathenger

The issue here is hes is a community figure head, the face of a community. If it was some Joe Schmo random programmer on the project, nobody would care.

Wasn't Paula Deen fired and lost her cooking show for some crap she said like 20 years previous? People in the public eye are always heald to a higher standard. Ben may not be "as public" as Paula Deen, but he is one of the figure heads of a community supposedly over 1 million strong. That's plenty public for scrutiny!

bartoni33

rodarin said:

But really what is most shocking is how so many pro SC guys have run out to this guys defense. It does really show how Chris Roberts has been able to manipulate and pull money from these people. That isnt hyperbole either that is the way I really think about this. Because even if it is 'just the internet' NORMAL people dont act that way and normal people certainly wouldnt defend it. The best approach anyone with a soul would and probably should take is to just shut up and stop typing in defense of the guy. They obviously shouldnt pick THIS topic to suddenly come to the defense of SC. Which again is what I find so puzzling.

1: This has nothing to do with CR/RSI/CIG/SC at all. Can we stop saying it does? TIA!
2: What is "normal"? Who is a "normal person"? When is satire a psychological condition? Or humor?
3: No one is defending what he said. We are defending his right to say it without punishment.

Daikuru

Am i the only one who gives a **ck about what somebody said years ago? Even if he is a community figure head.

You guys are really skilled in making a mountain out of a molehill.

Distopia

GrumpyHobbit said:

I find it rich that so much of this is a personal attack about comments made on the internet and an obsessive compulsion to post loads of stuff about a subject...precisely what is being done against SC and their staff for the last 2 years. 

You know there is a lot of BS posted about SC and it's employees, this isn't one of those BS postings, this is real, it's proven, and it is eye opening toward the person who made such comments. Any professional would know this kind of thing will bite them in the ass, hence why they wouldn't have such a display of character for someone to dig up.. The guy admits he was at a bad place in his life, yet still invites people to come read "there's some great stories in there". That's almost as idiotic as not taking these things down and burying them long ago.

GrumpyHobbit

Adjuvant1 said:

In Lesnick's "journal", I see alot of posts by a person with a decided lack of empathy. He's a problemed person. He's found some degree of hope for positive turns in his life, finding companionship, landing his dream job, so "he feels he's not that person anymore".

So what "is" he?

He's a person who "was" that person and under certain criteria he can continue to be that person when he feels justified or clever. You're not "changed" just because you "change targets". This guy is a very public face of a project, into which hundreds of thousands of people have pledged positive sentiment. He's instrumental in the decision process, what is a legitimate complaint versus whining versus FUD. He is disseminating propaganda in an attempt to impress on people, it's a good idea to pledge more money to this project.

He's not just a guy with a job.

I was thinking this morning how I'd feel if Charlie Sheen was community manager of Disneyland. Should it affect his ability to professionally present his position? Well, come on, who hasn't, at one point or another, been a big fan of hookers and drugs. Clearly he's an ok guy if he only "used to" do this.

Not everyone was/is representative of the person in Lesnick's "journal". Why should anyone take his word what is or isn't acceptable. Why should anyone take his word what is a good idea? Should the inner dispairing, broken parts of us empathize for him? Sure, to a point, but not so much a point we consider his authority somehow valid.

He's just a troll of a different color, and he's in charge of something. I don't believe in that something, and I'm not impressed with him.

Do you really think you deserve any time when you are NOW being more disgusting then he was 10 years ago?

Enough with the personal attacks against someone who is not here to defend themselves. I hope your get a permanent ban for being such a horrible person.

GrumpyHobbit

Deathenger said:

The issue here is hes is a community figure head, the face of a community. If it was some Joe Schmo random programmer on the project, nobody would care.

Wasn't Paula Deen fired and lost her cooking show for some crap she said like 20 years previous? People in the public eye are always heald to a higher standard. Ben may not be "as public" as Paula Deen, but he is one of the figure heads of a community supposedly over 1 million strong. That's plenty public for scrutiny!

This is just a witch hunt against an individual. You should be ashamed. 

bartoni33

Deathenger said:

Wasn't Paula Deen fired and lost her cooking show for some crap she said like 20 years previous? People in the public eye are always heald to a higher standard. Ben may not be "as public" as Paula Deen, but he is one of the figure heads of a community supposedly over 1 million strong. That's plenty public for scrutiny!

Yes she was fired for saying an "off color (no pun intended )" joke in private. A very sad day for America IMHO.

That does not make it right though. I hope that CIG will stand by their man unlike the sponsors and networks in the Deen case.

Adjuvant1

bartoni33 said:

1: This has nothing to do with CR/RSI/CIG/SC at all. Can we stop saying it does? TIA!
2: What is "normal"? Who is a "normal person"? When is satire a psychological condition? Or humor?
3: No one is defending what he said. We are defending his right to say it without punishment.

1. It does. Ben Lesnick represents CIG.
2. Reductio ad absurdum
3. You're confusing "protected speech" with "acceptable speech". It's a convenient conflation. It doesn't pass in real practice.

Shodanas

GrumpyHobbit said:

Do I think it is a personal attack because certain people are obsessed with bringing harm to the game development and so are really scraping the bottom of the barrel and getting personal because they cant do it against the game? You bet.

End of the day there are a lot of people who should be looking in the mirror and growing the fuck up. 

This is nothing new to the people in question. We've seen this before and you can bet that we will see it again.

Character assassination is their game. As i wrote above the creator and a number of repliers on that reddit page are DS's blog frequenters.

I believe everyone here can assume certain things.

H0urg1ass

I said and did a lot of shit when I was 10 that I looked back on at 20 and thought "Holy shit I was a moron".

I said and did a lot of shit when I was 20 that I looked back on at 30 and thought "Holy shit I was a moron".

I said and did a lot of shit when I was 30 that I look back on at 38 and think "Holy shit I was a moron".

In fact, I really hope I continue to do this my entire life so that I don't end up backed into a corner and clinging to idiotic ideas at 60 years old just because my 20 year old self said or did something stupid.  Productive members of society are constantly reevaluating their lives and revising their belief systems.  I would hope that because I was obsessed with my girlfriend at 20 years old wouldn't effect my marriage of 16 years to another woman.

Deathenger said:

Wasn't Paula Deen fired and lost her cooking show for some crap she said like 20 years previous? People in the public eye are always heald to a higher standard. Ben may not be "as public" as Paula Deen, but he is one of the figure heads of a community supposedly over 1 million strong. That's plenty public for scrutiny!

This is because we live in a micro-aggressive hypersensitive victimhood culture where everyone has so much useless free time on their hands that they literally walk around looking for ways to be offended.  This shouldn't be the standard, it should be reviled and seen as disgusting.  Who gives a crap what someone said 20 years ago.

Deathenger

bartoni33 said:

rodarin said:

But really what is most shocking is how so many pro SC guys have run out to this guys defense. It does really show how Chris Roberts has been able to manipulate and pull money from these people. That isnt hyperbole either that is the way I really think about this. Because even if it is 'just the internet' NORMAL people dont act that way and normal people certainly wouldnt defend it. The best approach anyone with a soul would and probably should take is to just shut up and stop typing in defense of the guy. They obviously shouldnt pick THIS topic to suddenly come to the defense of SC. Which again is what I find so puzzling.

1: This has nothing to do with CR/RSI/CIG/SC at all. Can we stop saying it does? TIA!
2: What is "normal"? Who is a "normal person"? When is satire a psychological condition? Or humor?
3: No one is defending what he said. We are defending his right to say it without punishment.

Oh he can say whatever the hell he wants. This Merica after all. As for punishment, well i think its safe to say he's not getting arrested for his words. Once again I'll say that when you are in the spotlight as a figurehead, or Representative of a company or institution you're always held to a higher standard that some random dude on the street. Good character is paramount.

I can guarantee 100% that if the school he was working for got wind of those comments back when he was working there he would have been immediately fired, no questions asked. You cant work at a school and tell people how you would like to bang a 12 year old be it a fictional character or not!

Also, once again he was 25, not 15. Shit I was already a home owner by then. Most people are already out of school and working their careers at that point as well. Trying to play the he was 25 card isn't going to fly.

GrumpyHobbit

Distopia said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

I find it rich that so much of this is a personal attack about comments made on the internet and an obsessive compulsion to post loads of stuff about a subject...precisely what is being done against SC and their staff for the last 2 years. 

You know there is a lot of BS posted about SC and it's employees, this isn't one of those BS postings, this is real, it's proven, and it is eye opening toward the person who made such comments. Any professional would know this kind of thing will bite them in the ass, hence why they wouldn't have such a display of character for someone to dig up.. The guy admits he was at a bad place in his life, yet still invites people to come read "there's some great stories in there". That's almost as idiotic as not taking these things down and burying them long ago.

People say bad shit all the time. 

Frankie Boyle is one of my favorite commedians and some of the stuff he says...boy it is bad. But it is funny, it's his right to say what he wants and if he hasn't harmed anyone then what is the problem. 

Being offended is your right, but so what?

Like I said, I expect he will lose his job. I personally think that is unfair but when someones personal life is dragged through the mud it happens. But you have to admit the reason it is being done is very sad and pathetic. 

rodarin

Adjuvant1 said:

In Lesnick's "journal", I see alot of posts by a person with a decided lack of empathy. He's a problemed person. He's found some degree of hope for positive turns in his life, finding companionship, landing his dream job, so "he feels he's not that person anymore".

So what "is" he?

He's a person who "was" that person and under certain criteria he can continue to be that person when he feels justified or clever. You're not "changed" just because you "change targets". This guy is a very public face of a project, into which hundreds of thousands of people have pledged positive sentiment. He's instrumental in the decision process, what is a legitimate complaint versus whining versus FUD. He is disseminating propaganda in an attempt to impress on people, it's a good idea to pledge more money to this project.

He's not just a guy with a job.

I was thinking this morning how I'd feel if Charlie Sheen was community manager of Disneyland. Should it affect his ability to professionally present his position? Well, come on, who hasn't, at one point or another, been a big fan of hookers and drugs. Clearly he's an ok guy if he only "used to" do this.

Not everyone was/is representative of the person in Lesnick's "journal". Why should anyone take his word what is or isn't acceptable. Why should anyone take his word what is a good idea? Should the inner dispairing, broken parts of us empathize for him? Sure, to a point, but not so much a point we consider his authority somehow valid.

He's just a troll of a different color, and he's in charge of something. I don't believe in that something, and I'm not impressed with him.

As an aside, and not to derail the thread. I was and still am a big believer that ALL the Charlie Sheen antics were a complete work. He used his (in)famous issues and played them up and polarized people. And polarization in this day and age is the key to making a big splash.

So he made some crazy comments, smoked and drank on a webcam. But everyone already 'knew' or had their (pre) judgments about the guy, so what harm did any of that really do? He was all over every media outlet legit and tabloid for how long? How many people predicted his imminent death? Hell even his father came out and made an appearance.

What happened? Nothing except he got more work offers than he could handle. Set record on all sort of social media outlets, and got another TV series that gave him 100 episodes and lifetime syndication money.

Now all that being said I a not sure I would want him as a spokesman or 'face' of anything. Except now maybe for something HiV related.

MikePt

Brain fart

Distopia

GrumpyHobbit said:

Distopia said:

GrumpyHobbit said:

I find it rich that so much of this is a personal attack about comments made on the internet and an obsessive compulsion to post loads of stuff about a subject...precisely what is being done against SC and their staff for the last 2 years. 

You know there is a lot of BS posted about SC and it's employees, this isn't one of those BS postings, this is real, it's proven, and it is eye opening toward the person who made such comments. Any professional would know this kind of thing will bite them in the ass, hence why they wouldn't have such a display of character for someone to dig up.. The guy admits he was at a bad place in his life, yet still invites people to come read "there's some great stories in there". That's almost as idiotic as not taking these things down and burying them long ago.

People say bad shit all the time. 

Frankie Boyle is one of my favorite commedians and some of the stuff he says...boy it is bad. But it is funny, it's his right to say what he wants and if he hasn't harmed anyone then what is the problem. 

Being offended is your right, but so what?

Like I said, I expect he will lose his job. I personally think that is unfair but when someones personal life is dragged through the mud it happens. But you have to admit the reason it is being done is very sad and pathetic. 

I'm not offended by it in the least bit, growing up around Death Metal, Grindcore etc.. kinda leaves someone with a thick skin. Offense isn't the point, it's about making stupid decisions, and leaving a trail to dig them up. A professional should know better than to have such a thing readily available for use as ammunition. 

bartoni33

Adjuvant1 said:

bartoni33 said:

1: This has nothing to do with CR/RSI/CIG/SC at all. Can we stop saying it does? TIA!
2: What is "normal"? Who is a "normal person"? When is satire a psychological condition? Or humor?
3: No one is defending what he said. We are defending his right to say it without punishment.

1. It does. Ben Lesnick represents CIG.
2. Reductio ad absurdum
3. You're confusing "protected speech" with "acceptable speech". It's a convenient conflation. It doesn't pass in real practice.

1: He did not represent CIG when the statements were made.
2: Congrats! You can Google dead languages.
3: I did not say anything about freedom of speech in regards to the Constitution . I said that we are defending his right to not be fired for something he said 10+ years ago when he was not a employee of CIG. What you and your ilk find unacceptable many will not agree with.

Brenics

This is not about what a stupid 25 year old adult wrote and said 10 years ago. This is about a guy that admits to doing it and then saying it is funny and "Probably the best thing I'll ever do!"

http://banditloaf.livejournal.com/105991.html

No excuse for him to say this. What he should have done once he was outed was to take the page down and say something to the effect yeah I was a pretty stupid adult back then.

But not one of us should ignore this, more so if anyone has children that go to where he works. No am not calling him a child molester there aren't any facts to that. But I would not trust him alone around any of my kids. 

Yet this shows me how ill this person is. https://t.co/dWUYqgfyE8

I wish he would have deleted this a long time ago, but he should have deleted it yesterday once it hit. His actions do not show a person of any intellect. 

What i do laugh at is one of our nominees had something like this online no one would be saying oh he was young we all say stupid shit. 

All I can say is yeah he was a young adult and said stupid stuff about 9/11, Jews, Hitler but this is how he thinks and who he is no one can take that away from him.

Except Ben! I hope he gets professional help.

Adjuvant1

I wouldn't be surprised if Disco Lando leaked this, anyway. He had the motive, capacity and insight how it could be damaging in just the right fashion.

Deathenger

Adjuvant1 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Disco Lando leaked this, anyway. He had the motive, capacity and insight how it could be damaging in just the right fashion.

Haha I love that video. It actually makes me like Lando

Distopia

bartoni33 said:

Adjuvant1 said:

bartoni33 said:

1: This has nothing to do with CR/RSI/CIG/SC at all. Can we stop saying it does? TIA!
2: What is "normal"? Who is a "normal person"? When is satire a psychological condition? Or humor?
3: No one is defending what he said. We are defending his right to say it without punishment.

1. It does. Ben Lesnick represents CIG.
2. Reductio ad absurdum
3. You're confusing "protected speech" with "acceptable speech". It's a convenient conflation. It doesn't pass in real practice.

1: He did not represent CIG when the statements were made.
2: Congrats! You can Google dead languages.
3: I did not say anything about freedom of speech in regards to the Constitution . I said that we are defending his right to not be fired for something he said 10+ years ago when he was not a employee of CIG. What you and your ilk find unacceptable many will not agree with.

That never matters... it doesn't matter when he said it when it comes to this kind of thing, few companies are going to support an employee under such circumstances, especially when that person is in a position of community relation. They don't want that person to be guilty of every "ism" in the books, as well as to have a written document of those "isms" on public display while still inviting folks to "come read"... That's just bad for business. Especially when considering the public stance on such things in 2016.

bartoni33

Brenics said:

This is not about what a stupid 25 year old adult wrote and said 10 years ago. This is about a guy that admits to doing it and then saying it is funny and "Probably the best thing I'll ever do!"

http://banditloaf.livejournal.com/105991.html

No excuse for him to say this. What he should have done once he was outed was to take the page down and say something to the effect yeah I was a pretty stupid adult back then.

But not one of us should ignore this, more so if anyone has children that go to where he works. No am not calling him a child molester there aren't any facts to that. But I would not trust him alone around any of my kids. 

Yet this shows me how ill this person is. https://t.co/dWUYqgfyE8

I wish he would have deleted this a long time ago, but he should have deleted it yesterday once it hit. His actions do not show a person of any intellect. 

What i do laugh at is one of our nominees had something like this online no one would be saying oh he was young we all say stupid shit. 

All I can say is yeah he was a young adult and said stupid stuff about 9/11, Jews, Hitler but this is how he thinks and who he is no one can take that away from him.

Except Ben! I hope he gets professional help.

Damn it Brenics you got yourself arrested again?

In all fairness to the Anti's/Bars of Shame crowd I do have to agree that it was a bad idea to link the journal/blog to his Twitter account. It's OK to own up to the existence of it. Deleting it would do no good because it's been saved on many computers to be thrown up at will. A simple mea culpa (see @Adjuvant1 I can speak Latin too!) would have sufficed. But to go full retard (trigger?) and Tweet a link to it is almost tantamount to career suicide...

WAIT! I see now what's going on! E.L.E. coming soon right? He's forcing his way out before the big one hits!

Brilliant!

bartoni33

Distopia said:

bartoni33 said:

1: He did not represent CIG when the statements were made.
2: Congrats! You can Google dead languages.
3: I did not say anything about freedom of speech in regards to the Constitution . I said that we are defending his right to not be fired for something he said 10+ years ago when he was not a employee of CIG. What you and your ilk find unacceptable many will not agree with.

That never matters... it doesn't matter when he said it when it comes to this kind of thing, few companies are going to support an employee under such circumstances, especially when that person is in a position of community relation. They don't want that person to be guilty of every "ism" in the books, as well as to have a written document of those "isms" on public display while still inviting folks to "come read"... That's just bad for business. Especially when considering the public stance on such things in 2016.

Quoted for unfortunate truth.

I can/will still stand up for him. I hope more will do the same.