Politics and the LGS

[Dausuul]

Furthermore, I have yet to encounter any political view that I would consider 'a direct attack' on anyone (the only example I can think of is extremist genocidal politics or something similar).

It wasn't so long ago that the gaming community itself was the target of a viewpoint that accused us of being Satanists and driving teens to suicide. That's something I consider a direct attack. And it led to real consequences for quite a few of us. Books were burned over it; people were harassed and punished for playing a harmless game. Ask the folks on this very board if you want to hear the stories.

In the grand scheme of things, the Satanism craze of the '80s was a passing mania fueled by a handful of cranks. Even so, we gamers only caught the edge of it. There were people who did prison time because of that mania. Now consider that there are similar views out there which have a much wider base of support, a much longer and uglier history, and people with much bigger megaphones promoting them, both in and out of the political arena. Take a moment and I'm sure you can think of some.

There was a time when I would have agreed with your statements above. I have the luxury of not being personally a target. A number of my friends, however, do not have that luxury and they must cope with wholly justified fears because of it. There are things far worse than having your books burned.

And, again, I feel that you are losing out by not subjecting your own viewpoint to criticism, even if it is just derived from differring opinions expressed in a book.

I subject my own viewpoint to criticism all the time. That doesn't mean I feel the need to subject it over and over to the same criticisms; there comes a point when I conclude that I have examined Criticism X sufficiently, found it invalid, and don't need to reconsider it every time somebody trots it out.

I follow politics closely and spend a lot of time reading opinion pieces from across the political spectrum. I seldom have trouble distinguishing between somebody with something new to say and somebody regurgitating the same old boilerplate. I'm not saying that's what Mr. We-All-Know-Who-He-Is does in his books (like I said, the writing put me off them before I ever got to the heavy political stuff), but when I run into regurgitated boilerplate, I don't feel I'm losing much of anything by tossing the book aside.

Finally, I don't think that your premise is valid where you stated that 'anything you buy is going in part to fund those promotions'. In fact, I would estimate that less than 10 % of the people who share any given view would also supply an organization promoting said views with funding.

If the store is putting signs in the window promoting political view X, and I am buying from that store, then my gaming dollars are going in part to pay for that window and that sign. Depending on what the sign says, I may have problems with that. There are cases in which those problems are big enough for me to not buy from that store.

I don't have time to investigate the political activities of every company I buy from, but if they shove it in my face, I'm not gonna ignore it.

 

[jaerdaph]

I don't have time to investigate the political activities of every company I buy from, but if they shove it in my face, I'm not gonna ignore it.

I have to agree - that's how I am too. If it's brought to my attention (either by the company itself or in the media), it's hard to ignore.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Leon at the HairyT in Toronto is clearly on the left to far left side of the political spectrum. This is in Toronto, Canada mind you (which probably makes this store seem to be a front for the Comintern if you are from the right side of the spectrum in a more conservative America). The point to take away is that the store is located in downtown Toronto near Ryerson University and directly across the street from the Zanzibar strip club. It's been there for years. Of course it's on the left side of the political spectrum.

After all, if you were shopping for gaming stuff near the campus in Berkely, California, you probably wouldn't expect the FLGS there to be flying the Stars 'n Bars inside the shop, fair to say?

Moreover, when you are shopping in the downtown core of Canada's largest city, it is not at all shocking to expect that the nature of the political affiliations of the store owner are going to reflect the location and culture in which he does business.

I do think, however, that Canadians probably have a different view of these things than do many Americans. *shrug*

 

[Sunseeker]

There are 3 LGS in my area that I frequent. 2 of them openly speak their political affiliations. The 3rd can be inferred quite easily(dress, manner of speech, ect...).

The first, the one I go to the most, more states his political positions, rather than political affiliations. Which I'm cool with, having a degree in political science and a soft spot for small businesses, I find what he has to say interesting, though I rarely state my own in response. On a scale of 1-10, he's probably about a 4 on how often and how loud he talks about this stuff.

The 2nd, which I go to the least, constantly has right-wing radio playing in the background, which sometimes annoys me. The owner however, is another of the small-business types and we have a good chat about any given issue. For all the politial garbage being spewed from his radio, the guy is pretty level-headed about it all. Probably put him at an 8 on my scale of talking about politial stuff.

The last store I frequent has her kids running the shop most of the time, and they don't say anything politial one way or the other. She very clearly fits, by appearance and language(and window stickers) into the more left-leaning crowd in the area. Though she never talks about it.

 

[jaerdaph]

The 3rd can be inferred quite easily(dress, manner of speech, ect...).

Never judge a book by its cover. I recently met a couple with tribal tattoos and piercings and pro-cannabis stickers on their car, but their political affiliation was not what I assumed it would be.

 

[Korgoth]

Interestingly, as of this posting, there are 10 responses in the 3 middle options (LGS politics has no effect, it encourages, it discourages); the responses there are 6-1-3.

 

[Corathon]

I've never been to a game store where the politics were "in your face". I think that a store owner expressing different politics than mine wouldn't bother me - unless the views were abhorrent rather than merely different. I have friends on both sides of the political spectrum, and we disagree agreeabaly.

I have been to a store where the counter man began bad-mouthing my religion (without realizing that both I and the friend with me were members of that sect), but I didn't stop going to that store since It was only an employee who did this, not the owner. Come to think of it, I don't believe that I ever saw that guy again, they may have fired him when somebody complained. If the owner had behaved this way I would've left and never come back.

Store owners have every right to speak up about their views on politics or religion (or on anything, really). Customers have every right to decide to spend their money elsewhere.

 

[billd91]

Interestingly, as of this posting, there are 10 responses in the 3 middle options (LGS politics has no effect, it encourages, it discourages); the responses there are 6-1-3.

I don't know about anybody else, but I didn't really find a single choice that made sense for me to select. There are two choices there that aren't mutually exclusive that I could select, but am forced by the nature of the poll to select only one.

 

[Diamond Cross]

It all depends on the nature of the disagreement.

I will not shop at a store run by an extremist or racist.

But many other things, I just don't care if somebody agrees with me or not.

 

[Mallus]

So I think that I should be responsible with that money by not giving it to those who proclaim their support for "the enemy", and also in that act I find myself pleased that I have the opportunity to stand on principle.

Hopefully I'd use such a situation to stand on another, time-honored principal, namely "I may not agree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it".

I say 'hopefully" because I'm not sure I would, I can be as partisan as the next partisan guy. But I don't think labeling people with different political views as "The Enemy" is a smart idea, tempting as it may be from time to time .

Let me ask this: if we should remove politics from the public square (or at least the local retail section of it), then where is it's proper place? Alone in our cars, listening to hyper-partisan political radio personalities --ie, entertainers and assorted rodeo clowns-- perhaps? I think we need more and better public political discourse here --ie, America-- and I don't see how that's served by refusing to patronize a shop because the owner voted for The Other Guy (and has his or her poster posted on the wall).