This is JD Vance’s Villain Origin Story

Vance’s wife Usha had also volunteered during a recent “Fox & Friends” interview that her husband had a “dorky” streak — including an interest in Magic: The Gathering, the fantasy card game popularized in the 1990s. It was, Vance said when asked, a phase.

“The big problem with transitioning from being a 13-year-old who likes Magic: The Gathering to being a 15-year-old who likes Magic: The Gathering is that 15-year-old girls do not like Magic: The Gathering,” he said. “So I dropped it like a bad habit.”

That said, he did reveal his “embarrassing” favorite deck from his playing days.

“Yawgmoth’s Bargain,” he said.

– Shelby Talcott, “JD Vance talks Tim Walz, Ukraine, and Ohio State football with Semafor”

• He says he gave up something he liked to make himself more palatable to others
• That thing meant something to him, evidenced by the easy recall of his favorite deck years after quitting
• He believed all girls shared a monolithic negative opinion about M:TG
• He likely still believes this, based on the way he states his opinion from the past as a persistent fact, and not “when I was 15 I believed…”
  • So this 40-year-old man likely still believes there are no girls who like Magic: The Gathering
• In an attempt to change the narrative from the reappraisal of his previous statements, the choice was made to talk about the rejection of his “embarrassing” and “dorky” activities
• You can’t play M:TG alone. Were there friends he also dropped “like a bad habit” who kept playing without him?

I’m only a year older than this guy. We’ve had very different lives. But we were experiencing some of these things at the same time. I know that urge to hide the nerdiest parts of yourself. That worry that you’re too much. To wear the mask and follow the crowd and hope it works out the way you want.

I’m not trying to make this into more than it is, but something about this tugged at my brain. Because it makes me wonder if that insecure 15-year-old boy would’ve made different choices if he was told he was already enough. If he believed he was already enough.

And I wonder what he tells himself now, in his head, when he’s alone. Is he still chasing the desire to change into someone else in the hope others will like him more?