Steampunk Balkanization

Coming to blows with the issues leading to the pending civil war in the Northeastern Steampunk community.

Eric Renderking Fisk | July 16th, 2018

One of the most disturbing trends I’ve seen recently in the steampunk community – especially during the months of May and June – is an effort by some to try and find ways of sneaking Jeff Mach back into the community such as having him work merely “behind the scenes.” Case in point; Dale Handel of the “Blackthorn Steam” event a month or so ago. It had been revealed by Tammy Shipp of “Silver Phoenix Society” through emails she released to the public that Mr. Handel had hired Jeff Mach to ‘market and promote’ the event.

Tammy Shipp dropped out of the event and then it was announced that the wife of an admitted Jeff Mach apologist – took over the preparations of the event.

During the past couple of months since this controversy began and “Steampunk Weinstein” started posting again on Facebook there have been people who made comments such as “Jeff, you didn’t do anything wrong – you’re a good guy,” and “we can’t wait to have you back,” with people actually telling him that he’s the injured party and that the countless other people who have come forward with their experiences are “clearly in the wrong.”

There are plenty of other people like them who clearly want to see his return back into the community and pick things up where he left off and run “spectacular” events. These are the same people who went kicking and screaming to social media yelling about people “taking away our playground” as his events were canceled as these disclosures were made public.

And as I wrote elsewhere, these are the people in the “Victorian Sci-Fi Dress-up Happy Time” crowd who just don’t care, or they really like the evil activities going on behind the scenes. These are the same people who think of Steampunk as a mere gateway to the fetish, BDSM lifestyle. They need his events because there isn’t anywhere else where they have the opportunity to hook-up with underage goth chicks tanked up on date-rape drugs.

Seriously, where else can these folks live out their rough sex fantasies with under-age sex partners besides his events?\. As pointed out elsewhere in one of my rants, “Steampunk Weinstein” has a sure-fire way of “getting nerds laid” and some of these nerds believe that there is no other place for them to find sex partners outside his realm of influence.

Just as there were people who were outraged the Dale Handel hired “Steampunk Weinstein” to market and promote “Blackthorn Steam” and canceled their plans to attend while calling for a boycott, there were many more people who showed up to that event in droves. They either didn’t know or didn’t care. Those people represent the “Pro-Mach” fraction.

It’s shocking to just come out and admit this, but there are actually those among us who don’t care about basic human rights of others when that might stand in the way of them having a good time over a long weekend. They don’t care about issues such as rape or sexual assault, malfeasance or corruption when the accused is someone who does something for them or is someone they admire.

This is exactly like the countless supporters of this current or former Presidents of The United States who have been accused of rape or sexual misconduct but give that President a pass because he “votes the right way on the issues that matter to me the most.”

There’s another faction in here in the Steampunk Community in these Northeastern United States who will not go to any event run by “Steampunk Weinstein” or anyone associated with him. To these people, “Steampunk Weinstein” is “persona-non-grata” and can never and will never find his way back into mainstream steampunk events.

There are event planners and organizers who have made it perfectly clear that they have nothing to do with JME nor his apologists and will go so far as to say that their events are “Steampunk Weinstein” even before asking.

As of this writing, there are at least 8 to 12 different events here in the Northeastern United States that have been announced in the past two weeks alone, I can’t even keep up with all of them, all of whom have pounced on the issue like a cat on a laser pointer. “JME Drama Free” will become as ubiquitous as the “Orgainic/GMO Free” label at Whole Foods.

Let’s call this faction “The Normal But Deeply Concerned People.” Because – despite being really into Steampunk – that’s what they really are. They’re not adverse to the possibility of hooking up at one of these events, they just want it to be conceptual and not need to endure a rape kit and a tenses shot afterwards.

Between these two factions in this region and seeing what’s happened these past couple of months with people choosing sides, demanding their friends choose sides, and some people playing both sides against each other (Jenny Bjork, I’m meaning you) we are on the brink of a total civil war. I’m not even talking about a “LARP” Civil War with people pretending to dress up for battle in their cosplay outfits. This is a fist fight in the parking lot of a future Steampunk event with actual fists hitting actual faces, breaking actual teeth and drawing actual blood.

I’m seeing one group of people who are so devoid of morals and common decency taking arms against people who want to take their kids to a Victorian style cosplay event. Because one group looks at the other groups offspring as mere prey, I see genuine violence in the not too distant future.

Why do I write these things, how can make the connection that the “pro-JME” faction are one hit of extasy away from becoming full-blown rapists and maybe even child molesters? It’s the only way that makes any sense to when explaining why people love “Steampunk Weinstein” and he’s such a cult figure to them despite the chorus of people who have reported to the community horrible things that have been documented elsewhere.

According to one of my friends about this issue, It’s the only way to explain why one of his accolites from the now defunked "Jeff Mach Events" can say that it’s OK if Jeff Mach had sex with an underage girl if she was 16 because of the age of consent in New Jersey one day, and start a ‘public figure’ Facebook page the next day.

Too far? Not far enough maybe. It’s like what a second friend of mine said during the same conversation…

It’s like nobody gets what he did is like a high crime in our community. You don’t get to come back! There is no redemption. Your out! You are done. Maybe you keep your vanilla job. But, Jeff he didn’t know how to keep his shit compartmentalized. Nope... everything was all meshed together…

And another friend of mine said…

This will be the next thing jeff supporters will say... ‘he is no longer in the kink business and won’t have those temptations in front of him. He never was a predator at spwf. He made bad business decisions and we are here to help him.’  You heard it here first

I will leave this rant with this question or thought; why do these people want to bring Jeff Mach back into the Steampunk Community, knowing what everyone should know by now? Other than they want to give him more opportunities to corrupt the genre and exploit the uninitiated into the world of “Steampunk Kink?”

If I'm off base, then I would like a rational explanation why these people are trying so hard to sneak Jeff Mach back into the community other than what I’ve already speculated?

A couple of days ago my wife found this article that she wanted me to read, in an effort to make sure that I don’t go down the wrong path myself in covering this and other things that are happening in the community. The gist of the article was “Are you dealing with an evil person?”

Are you addicted to drama and strife? Do you find excuses to condone horrible behavior? Do you get joy off the suffering of others? Do you blame other people or situations for your mistakes or misdeeds? To you blame your own ‘mental illness’ or ‘personal trauma’ for your problems. Do you show genuine signs of narcissism, and truly believe in your superiority over others despite success?

All these signs – and more – indicate that if you answered yes to most or all of these questions than the answer is yes – you are an evil person. Could it be that the reason why these people want Jeff back is because they, too, would answer yes to all of these questions. Could it be that in the steampunk community there is genuine evil?