frankthedm said:
Why is that a bad thing? IMO ONLY those who feel that strongly truly have what I consider "beliefs". What others consider a "fanatic" I consider a person who actually believes in their cause.
That's perhaps a bigger question that ENWorld's rule prohibit answering specifically. Buty in the context of D&D, as per this thread: because we get together to play a game with each other. The last thing you need on top of late players, someone whose misplaced their character sheet, players who keep making a joke about your oddly-named NPC rather than take him seriously, delays while people find the right dice and all that is someone telling you that unless you're explicitly for their political views, you're against them, and thusly a terrible human being who must be reminded of this fact every session at least one.
D&D, at heart, provides me with escapist fun, and I suspect that's how most people view it as well. Forget work, forget your late electricity bill, forget the news article that got your blood boiling, forget the fact one of your friends has dumped his girlfriend and gone out with another friend's ex: you can kill some kobolds, charm some dukes, explore an untapped elemental plane, or whatever, and not have to worry about the "real" world for a bit. Politics at the table, especially with someone whose rabid in a belief one way or the other, risks turning your sessions from "escapist fun" into "another place where arguments happen"; and as HellHound made clear in his first post, that ain't fun to be a part of.
Sure, my friends and I discuss politics all the time: but at an RPG sessions it often feels silly to me, like suddenly opening up your newspaper to find Garfield has joined Delta Force and is hunting time-travelling Commie-Nazis. And, IMHO, the fact that D&D players often have somewhat suss social skills to begin with only gets worse when someone makes a politics reference: I mean, you've smelt those guys at cons who seem to be allergic to soap, how do you feel knowing they have the right to vote?