To be clear I was replying only to the part I quoted from you.
And disagreeing with that part in specific.
Yeah, and I am telling you if you want to escape politics and the discussion of life from other people, guides would be a better options. Otherwise you deal with people, and those people react to the world in different ways which may lead to discussions you don’t like because what is some weird abstract thing to you is something they deal with and is part of their lives every day. That’s not something that’s required or even possible to shed for everyone just because now they’re talking about games and movies and TV.
There is only one person on this entire forum I consistently butt heads with and that disagrees with every word I write.
I am guessing that person is not a man and not white… right?
No idea. All I see are avatars and user names.
Edit: wait wtf are you implying I am a sexist and a racist?
I hate all the political and industry threads in games. I have very strong opinions about all of these subjects, and can argue and defend myself - that’s not my issue. My issue is the same one I have with Facebook - I’m not interested in having my opinions of people I otherwise respect tainted by what I consider to be willful ignorance. It’s not my job to educate you or change your mind.
That said, I don’t really care. It’s not very common and it’s very easy to spot.
I think it can be an very easy position to take when you’re the default. I don’t want politics. I don’t want anything outside the game. I don’t want to talk about these things in my game or have these topics or be exposed to these other things I don’t like and don’t feel comfortable with or don’t appreciate being around. When you’re not the default, whether it be sex, gender, race, religion, or anything else… it’s not that easy and sometimes not possible. You don’t put one some sort of default skin that’s not yours to talk about games and media, pretend. It’s not that prevalent. It’s kind ridiculous to say it is in gaming… some topics will include elements of of that.
Some people claim we have a brick-wall, a firewall… there might be blinders but this hard fast rule, it’s not true. And it’s not meant to be an affront to anyone. It’s a natural part of discourse.
Pretty much this.
With the addendum that all people wanna do is argue. There is zero rational debate and genuine, earnest persuasion on these mediums.
As you well know, I manage to successfully use Twitter without doing politics, nor letting politics engage me there (some feat!). Just Wargaming and Military History.
I don’t do Facebook. That’s a cesspool of kitten pictures, drunk photos and screetchy politics.
The swatting thread should have been moved to P&R.
I’m not sure if this was a comment to me, but if it was, I don’t think that’s what I’m saying.
Note: these are my personal feelings and opinions about the subject, not trying to write a thesis.
I don’t mind discussing these subjects and they don’t make me so uncomfortable that I won’t talk about them. I spend a lot of time writing about personal subjects for my column. On the internet at large, it seems that people don’t want a discussion. They want to type a long screed of stuff and then log out. There’s nothing super useful about that other than signaling to other people what you believe. That’s cool, but it’s just not valuable. Is that the case here in my opinion? Sometimes. (and before anyone gets upset, I’m not thinking of anyone in particular)
I would, honestly, welcome good faith arguments where people can talk without getting hurt feelings. I think, for the average person, you have to be able to read body language, judge tone of voice and have a basic understanding of the person you’re talking to. It’s that way for me, more often than not. This is one reason I’m not a fan. I don’t trust myself to read what’s written with the correct intent. That can lead to me misunderstanding where the person is coming from. I lack patience with people I don’t believe are being intellectually honest. To be clear - this is my failing, not the rest of the world. It’s very presumptuous to assume that someone is trying to pull debate maneuvers or some sort of “trick” to fool you, but sometimes I just can’t believe the positions people take are genuine.
Again, as I said earlier - these are my personal opinions. I was just replying to Tom’s original question.
All that said, I still don’t have an issue with it in Games for the most part. I just skip it. Like I always avoid talking about how awesome the GOP is at Thanksgiving with my uncle.
If it was only kitten pictures, I’d be OK with it.
The drunk pictures can be pretty good too :)
It was not directed at anyone particular, just an overall statement about this idea that somehow you can wash away politics from discussions as some sort of default for everyone.
That’s not possible. I would think it doesn’t have to come up in every subject, but you can’t, and shouldn’t, want to completely remove it. I was assuming this was a discussion about one overtly political thread that we already have a P&R topic discussing.
I just aspire to do what’s inclusive, and think it would probably be more inclusive to keep P&R and Games as separate as possible, just as a matter of principle.
There’s an emergent property of social media that everything is everything is everything. To some extent keeping politics out of games helps break that momentum toward, what you might call, “user consolidation”, ie, if you disagree with the groop about one thing on the forum you disagree with the groop about everything in the forum, because any place on the forum is every place on the forum.
It’s not so much the discussion of politics but the implications of politics, the identity politics of politics, and in a time with both sides increasingly furious and intolerant of one another, to disagree is to attack, and to attack is to be proved a monster.
All inclusive for whom? Identity politics is a made up term that just tries to make a negative of some politics but just allow other politics to be just politics for others.
Inclusive to anyone not comfortable with the politics being discussed, or the idea that you have to confront politics at every turn.
Some people just want to eat roast beast at Thanksgiving, and others want to confront everyone because everyone is wrong and this is important. Who in the end gets to define the discourse? The ones who won’t take no for an answer?
Well in the case of the swatting topic, if someone wants to avoid something uncomfortable, they could’ve just not read it. The only thing weird about it, like I said, was a couple of random people dropping in to say take it to PR. There was nothing really uncivil going on in there… at all. It’s not even under the topic of a specific game. I think it’s fine to talk about games in games, whether that’s politics, art, or whether or not you really hate or love loot boxes, but this case…it makes no sense. If you don’t want to talk about police killing someone and their role in killing someone, don’t open the topic.
I really don’t get the “problem” here. There was a thread started [edit: correction, the SWATing that resulted in the death was later in the thread] about a guy getting killed because some douche SWATed due to a video game dispute. The subject is:
This is what happens when a Twitch streamer gets “swatted”
Just glancing at that title, I could guess that it might lead to a discussion about police behavior, perhaps even gun control might be brought up at that point. If I don’t want to hear what people I disagree with have to say about those things, I just don’t click on the thread? And if I don’t want to keep seeing it pop up, Discourse allows me to Mute it so that I never see it again.
So why should it be moved to P&R, just because it might be a game-related topic that touches on politically sensitive topics? By itself, the topic is not political. It’s about the SWATing issue that’s been happening in the gaming/streaming scene.
The video games being played are the least interesting topics of the thread. So it should have been moved to P&R.
[edit]
Just to be clear, I am not saying the thread should be split, with one part staying in Games and the other moved to P&R. I think the whole thread should be moved to P&R.