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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 7511118" data-attributes="member: 57112">That's fair.Also fair, and I can easily imagine where you would go with that, given our previous conservations.Yeah, that was a pretty shoddy argument on my part.Of the ten definitions & sub-definitions listed in the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politics" target="_blank">Miriam-Webster Dictionary</a>, all of them. But the one I'm focused on, because it's the one that most people are arguing "aren't politics" or are "a different kind of politics than what we're arguing here" is 5a: "the total complex of relations between people living in society". Because that is a key component of, really, all of the other kinds of "politics" no matter how much people want to dig their heads in the sand and ignore it.So when people make the argument their game that they play with entire races of intelligent mortal humanoids with writing, language, art, religion, culture, but are nonetheless irredeemably evil and open season for heroic genocide is apolitical, I then make the argument that no matter how much you might not intend it to, or want it to, it does contain politics. Politics that spring forth from cultural norms, that, whether you like or not, makes a statement, and one that you might not want it to. Again, I'm not advocating that everyone stop playing with always evil Goblins or switch over to Eberron, where this specific concern doesn't exist (as much as I love Eberron, personally). I would, however, hope that asking people to, you know, think more about where the norms and tropes within our favorite genres come from, and about why we make the choices we make in our own role-playing games, wouldn't be so controversial. On a message board. Dedicated to thoughtful discussions. About role-playing games. I get that probably the more controversial statement is that this amounts to "politics", but... it's true? Like... personal-level, little-p politics, but it's still politics. Or perhaps the more controversial statement is that it's impossible to be apolitical because the choice to not engage with politics is a political choice, but... that's also true. The choice to say "nope, I don't care about this" is a choice that is, whether intentional or not, whether explicit or not, an endorsement of the way things are. It's a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" approach to politics in which for most people, are only attracted to politics when they themselves are impacted by them. Otherwise, the status quo gets a tepid thumbs up. That's a political choice.As to the other half of this discussion, the idea that any of us can claim that we aren't somehow influenced by our personal politics when we create our campaign worlds or campaigns or adventures or NPCs... well, that's hubris at best and disingenuous at worst.</blockquote>

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