D&D (2024) How did I miss this about the Half races/ancestries

[Remathilis]

You can start with half-triton/half-aarakocra and go from there. .

Chicken of the sea?

 

[Bedrockgames]

But because we also call our racism in fiction media!? Prove it?

I don’t want to get into real world politics but I think history is complex so I am not saying calling out media tropes as racist is the direct cause of big cultural movements in the present. I am saying it is part of an approach to criticizing media and language that is weakening the power of the term racism (which I think makes it harder to fight racism in the real world)

 

[Bedrockgames]

This is well meaning, but ultimately it’s just tone-policing and telling people that if they get too rowdy they’ll lose the moderates.

people can call it tone policing but you are losing the moderates. And you need the moderates. And you don’t just lose the moderates, you are losing people who are firmly on the left abd eoukd otherwise be your allies. I consider myself on the left

 

[Bedrockgames]

No, we have not. We describe behaviors and systems as racist, and a vocal but tiny contingent lose their minds because they’re too stupid (or pretend to be too stupid) to distinguish between “this thing you’ve done was racist and you should recognize that and do better” and “you’re a racist monster who shall be shunned!”

it is a very powerful word, or at least it was. But by applying it to those things, what people hear is ‘racist’ and no one wants to be racist. Then they see you are talking about orcs, then they second guess what you mean when you call a nazi racist. You can call it stupid but when words have taboo power like that applying them to things that aren’t as nefarious of evil weakens them. You are expanding the meaning. It was once a word we used to describe bigots. But now ‘that’s racist’ could mean anything from a stupid joke on a sitcom to evil orcs or structural issues in a system that produce or contribute to unequal outcomes.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I am fine with evil orcs having babies, I just think it is hard to justify murdering babies because one day they might pose a threat to a human.

I do appreciate that orcs are wickedness and violence personified but the issue with the orc baby killing is that is also an act of wickedness and violence. And even in a cosmology where all orcs are evil, I think you still need to leave room as a good character for the possibility of exceptions (even if it is just for the sake of their own soul)

Again, I am fine with orcs as the automatic bad guy. There is just something about killing an orc baby that seems impossible to justify as a good character (and I am not saying players who do so are reflecting their real world morality, I just have trouble calling those characters good guys if they do that).

Oh, I think I get where you're coming from now. You mean it's hard to justify killing a potential threat before it becomes an acute danger.

I have players like that. Like, they'll refuse to kill ghouls from ambush because they just don't feel comfortable killing anything which hasn't actually tried to kill them yet. It makes their lives harder (and mine easier) but it's a valid lifestyle choice.

 

[Bedrockgames]

They’ve done that since the 60’s, at least.

In the 60s it was still socially acceptable to be a racist. But that changed and by the time I was in my teens, being a racist was one of the worse things you could be. There were hold outs of course and it was a transition (I spent time as a kid in the 80s out west for a bit where I encountered a lot more racism than I encountered on the East coast). And it was always still around. But people didn’t want to called racist. The word developed power. Now people don’t react the way they would to being called racist today that they would have say ten years ago. I would argue that is because the word’s meaning has been overly broadened

 

[Bedrockgames]

We tried courting the moderates and being nice about this stuff, and the fascist came out into the sunlight, and who coulda guessed it, sunlight doesn’t disinfect after all it just helps things grow.

The resurgence of anti semitism in the US is one of my gravest concerns. Particularly because it really felt like it was on its way out. Part of why this issue is such a concern for me is I think the some of the attitude expressed in this post has actually contributed to the danger by giving cover and by ratcheting up the tension and violence. The people violent racists harm are the ones I am worried about. Yes you should defend people who are under threat but you also shouldn’t escalate the violence or the danger by cranking things to ten in all cases

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Chicken of the sea?

A penguin?

 

[Maxperson]

Chicken of the sea?

Dang it all! Now if these rules make it to print I'm going to have to make one of those and name it Charlie.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

people can call it tone policing but you are losing the moderates. And you need the moderates. And you don’t just lose the moderates, you are losing people who are firmly on the left abd eoukd otherwise be your allies. I consider myself on the left

To paraphrase MLK, the moderates can get bent.

You show me three guys in white hoods and one guy who regularly drinks with them and who wants me to be polite to them, and you’ve shown me 4 klansmen.