D&D General Why Do People Hate Gnomes?

[CleverNickName]

We need to remind ourselves, every day, of what elves really are.

...food?
They're food, right?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Most people? Possibly. RPG nerds? They all read the books.

Nah even the mainstream it was hugely popular and well known and referenced. All the examples already given upthread, but also just a fun anecdote, my local state college, Cal State U Bakersfield, has all of it's dorms named after places from Middle Earth. Always has, and even the newer dorms IIRC are named that way. My buddy lived in either Rivendell or Lothlorien when he went there in the late 90's.

Rename Rock Gnomes to Forest Dwarf, Forest Gnome to Fey Dwarf. Svirfneblin can be Deep Dwarf.

Give dwarves the same countless brands like elves do!

I'd rather get rid of dwarves in favor of the more interesting gnomes, but either way, I'd be all for making them more closely related and making dwarves small, with mountain dwarves getting powerful build.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

...food?
They're food, right?

View attachment 252851

Never forget the atrocities committed in the name of food by the Keebler Elves.

NEVER.

FORGET.

 

[FrozenNorth]

1984 is a common GCSE set book, so loads of people in the UK have read it because they had to. The same goes for Of Mice and Men. I've skimmed both of them for teaching purposes, they are pretty short*. The best bit of 1984 is the opening line.

In the spirit of starting a flame war over something trivial, 1984 really isn’t that relevant. It can’t happen here is a much more realistic depiction of how a democracy could descent into a dystopia.

 

[Vaalingrade]

In the spirit of starting a flame war over something trivial, 1984 really isn’t that relevant. It can’t happen here is a much more realistic depiction of how a democracy could descent into a dystopia.

It drastically overestimated how easy it is to just straight up lie.

"We were always at war with Oceana."

"Here's a video of you saying the opposite, sir."

"You lie. Next question."

"Oh. Well I guess I'm just delusional. How can the lay person at home kill Oceanans with their bare hands?"

"What are you talking about? We've never been at war with Oceana."

"... I guess you're right."

 

[Mind of tempest]

Put more simply, and to answer the OP's question ...

No one hates gnomes. Instead, all supposed gnome antipathy is actually the work of BigElf(tm).

That's right. while agent provocateurs are milling about planting false and defamatory stories about supposed "Gnome Hatred," while humming Nickelback, no one is paying attention to the creeping horror that is Elvish colonization.

Even this move to "lineages?" That's just so that the ELVES can take it all without people noticing. "Oh, I'm not an Elf on the Shelf. I just have ELEVATED ELVISH LINEAGE."

Let me ask you- has an elf ever made it as a wise man? Has an elf ever cut it as a poor man stealing?

I THINK NOT!

We need to remind ourselves, every day, of what elves really are.

the fact I oddly like that song brings me to shame but makes this joke work all the better.

There is a deep philosophical discussion we could have on this. It's like the one about the tree falling in a forest and there's no one around.

I am fully trained in the basics of western philosophical art I will crack open my textbook to win this if I have to, I live only to win pointless debates.

...food?
They're food, right?

View attachment 252851

everything is food if you are sufficiently unfettered or a lizardfolk but that is a tautology.

It drastically overestimated how easy it is to just straight up lie.

"We were always at war with Oceana."

"Here's a video of you saying the opposite, sir."

"You lie. Next question."

"Oh. Well I guess I'm just delusional. How can the lay person at home kill Oceanans with their bare hands?"

"What are you talking about? We've never been at war with Oceana."

"... I guess you're right."

long term it would not work as endless non-stop war on a single planet eats vital materials like nothing else then you have to pay for all the internal stuff it could bearly make a century if luck as science would scrap to a crawl as truth is the great food of science and they baned truth.

 

[MGibster]

In the spirit of starting a flame war over something trivial, 1984 really isn’t that relevant. It can’t happen here is a much more realistic depiction of how a democracy could descent into a dystopia.

If I was being snarky, I'd say somethink like, "What? I couldn't hear you over the sound of how relevant 1984 continues to be!" We still use phrases like thought police and big brother and concern over a loss of individual freedom and surveillance continues to be relevant in 2022. Just because it's not realistic doesn't mean it's not relevant.

 

[FrozenNorth]

If I was being snarky, I'd say somethink like, "What? I couldn't hear you over the sound of how relevant 1984 continues to be!" We still use phrases like thought police and big brother and concern over a loss of individual freedom and surveillance continues to be relevant in 2022. Just because it's not realistic doesn't mean it's not relevant.

Except neither “the thought police” nor “big brother” tend to actually be used for soviet-style centralized totalitarian secret police. We’ve spent 40 years worried that totalitarianism would come to the United States, while it seems that a lot of today’s problems are more due to populism and hyper-capitalism.*

Both Brave New World and It can’t happen here deal with dystopias that follow from hyper-capitalism and populism, but are not taught in schools because 1984 is so transcendent in its brilliance. Allegedly.

To put it a different way, do we use “thought police” and “big brother” because they are most accurate reference, or only because 1984 is the only dystopian novel everyone reads in high school?

Note: I do recognize 1984 remains extremely relevant to anyone who actually does live in a totalitarian state. It just seems to me that in North America, we’ve spent 40 years teaching kids to defend themselves against zebra attacks when horses are a lot more dangerous (to attempt an apolitical reference).

 

[Mind of tempest]

should we bring it back to the topic of gnomes?
where should gnomes go if they are in any form to stick around?

 

[Chaosmancer]

There is a deep philosophical discussion we could have on this. It's like the one about the tree falling in a forest and there's no one around.

Sure, but as long as you accept Object Permanence is a thing, then you have to accept that objects you haven't seen exist. I've never seen Mount Fuji. I accept that Mount Fuji exists. Philosophy that tries to tell me Mount Fuji doesn't exist because I haven't seen it is bringing into question far more than I am willing to question.