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Message: <blockquote data-quote="C. Baize" data-source="post: 3115161" data-attributes="member: 4571">[nit]I did caveat that with "for myself, that portion of the podcast struck me as"[/nit]And no. I actually wasn't offended, but simply wanted to call attention to the way it came across to me. And I'm glad you understand better where I'm coming from. As a pagan, however, it's in my mind how these things come across. In real life, I have to deal with people thinking that adherents of my religion are neo-Nazis because of the symbolism used by the Nazis, thus it is usually in my mind, and it's a near-constant battle. I only want you to realize where I'm coming from. I'm honestly not offended, but I'd rather err on the side of combatting ignorance than spreading it. I discussed this very subject with another author I edit for, while editing his product. I didn't consider it a "huge uproar" then, and nor do I now. And honestly, including any demographic in your game is your prerogative. Gods know I've done things in game that would be pretty controversial in a conversation or public broadcast, and thus I'm not in any way confused as to the separation between gaming and reality. The only real point there is when you put your words out for public dissemination, someone is likely to either take offense, or call you to task on something. There's quite simply no pleasing everyone. Which would also irritate, honestly. I think there's one word that could make the whole thing correct. "Extremist"Believe it or not, my goal is not being a jerk or anything like that. It's more to educate on how easy it is to mean one thing and say something completely different. I've been on both sides of that problem, myself. I would be quite hesitant to talk about a community of people threatening good honest folk, unless they were definitely bad guys in toto. KKK, Black Panthers, Aztlan, Stormfront, Al-Qaeda, etc... for real world types. I wouldn't hesitate to discuss extremists of any group because there's no question that you're talking about the lunatic fringe, but when the contrasting antagonist/protagonist demographics are neo-Pagans and good honest folk.... well... I honestly hope you can see the problem from my perspective.Perhaps not, but they do let you know exactly how I feel about it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Certainly. But, as I said, I also wouldn't contrast Christians with good honest folk, or Jews with good honest folk, or Muslims with good honest folk. That contrast is what furthers the ignorant stereotype. Most adherents of all those religions ARE good honest folk. It's the extremists that are the problem. Honestly, as you're a Christian, would you want folks thinking of all Christians as book burning, bible thumping, snake handling, clinic bombing extremists who cause all those around them a great deal of discomfort by their very presence? As Paganism of any stripe is only just coming back out of the shadows, relatively speaking, we (Pagans) need to nip the negative stereotypes in the bud whenever we encounter them. Enh... I could go into the definition(s) of Paganism but as a modern interpretation, I'll take it as you've put it. Though, really, in the modern sense, a Pagan is a polytheist, normally which would exclude most Buddhists and Sikhs that I've known. But that's a whole other discussion. As for the "good honest folk" portion, it's that very contrast that is the real root of my problem with the whole thing.Why more careful if you were talking about "The Siege"? Ah. But there's the rub. There's a difference between:"A community of Christians threatening good honest folk." And:"A community of apocalyptic Christian survivalists threatening good honest folk."I'm certain you can see it.One denotes your average everyday Christian and the other denotes the lunatic fringe.Really.. if you'd said, "Well, what about the theme of a community of separatist neo-Pagan survivalists...." or "... extremist neo-Pagan separatists..." or any of a number of other caveats... there would have been no question in anyone's mind. Only because Pagans are not a politically vocal force, and the podcast wasn't broadcast or discussed in the kind of circulation that the other folks' were.Now you've gotten my point. To a point. Any discussion of any villain based on real world average folks is going to have an impact on some individuals. Neat thing about discussing the lunatic fringe of any group, though, is that few people (if any) in those groups consider themselves the lunatic fringe. I don't consider any mention of bad pagans to be discrimination by any stretch of the imagination. I do consider contrasting neo-Pagans to good honest folk to be a marginalization of good honest Pagans (and not the lunatic fringe... they deserve all the bad press they bring upon themselves).While I have not a single doubt that's true, I know many Pagans who wouldn't knowingly be caught dead in the same room as a gaming book because of the negative stereotype, but then, I'm active in that community and thus my experience with them covers a very broad spectrum ranging from the average good honest Pagan, to the lunatic neo-Nazi, to the lunatic eco-Nazi, from the ultra-conservative to the ultra-liberal and all shades between.</blockquote>

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