Someone please explain

[Ronster]

Why do I even come in here?
Honestly.
Though I like you good people, I have found that I have less and less in common with anyone in here.
Your every thought that isn't game related is tinged with your politics and I keep finding myself wanting to respond and occasionally doing so, but it is just trading blows and no agreement/reconciling of viewpoints. (admittedly I am quite stubborn)

It is a feeling like being married to someone with whom I am either perpetually arguing or having to hold my tongue...

I was drawn here by a random episode of the podcast which aired on the " RPG Podcasts " podcast and I found the show and the forum pretty welcoming.

I have since noticed that although the podcast has continued through the Summer and made several improvements chiefly adding Aidan there have been other changes that have turned it sour for me. Language is probably at the top of the list. I can handle podcasts that are left leaning (no this is not centrist it is definitely left) but I tire of the stain of politics upon it. That and the f-bombs heard regularly. It may not be mandated to have an explicit label, but I do not want to share this with kids or friends for those two reasons.

In a nutshell ALL of this is too political for me...and now I see the first line of this post....and it isn't all rhetoric for me.

If anyone can answer that I will be sure to read it.

I feel like when I come in here I am visiting friends in the terminal cancer ward...it makes me sad because I know here is a point where I will stop altogether...

[DMDarcs]

You're hopeful that maybe someone will start a thread that isn't based on politics? Or you're hopeful that someone will post up an interesting game?

[Phoebe]

I feel bad that you feel this way about it. I probably contribute to any overemphasis on political topics. Maybe you should start threads on other things you'd like to talk about, which would likely be appreciated. It is also good to be able to talk to people you like who have different political views, even if that means we sometimes have to ignore chunks of what they say.

[Kyle]

I agree that the boards have become largely boring for me because of the focus on politics. I simply don’t read those posts and many of the people that contribute in them are people that the forums block for me. The political discussions simply don’t interest me and it seems like when you attempt to engage it quickly becomes more of a chore for me than an enlightening or enjoyable experience. But the people that do regularly engage in those discussions seem to enjoy it and get something out of it. So why should I care?

That said, I simply don’t read those threads. I read and participate in what interests me and ignore the rest. I don’t presume that everyone needs to contribute and participate in the community the way I want them to.

If your issue is the language used on the website or the podcast- I don’t know what to tell you. We’re all adults here. And even if we weren’t, I don’t really know that I care or would change anything. But I get that’s a personal decision- I just can’t relate to it.

[Phoebe]

Many people? Huh.

[WillyGilligan]

I'm hardly a regular around here, but forums tend to gel around the topics being introduced. It's a small number of people who generate topics and everyone else following the lead. If you've got other things you'd rather talk about, start throwing out some ideas and see what get's attention.

[Bonefish]

I would love to talk about... Anything really.

Lately I have been reading up on human evolution, and climate change. There is a phenomenal amount of cool shit going on there. We are currently producing about 50 times the carbon emissions as thhe paleocene maximum, which is frighteningly impressive.

But one thing that intrigues me is that the Holocene optimum coincides with the explosion of agricultural societies around the world, and it's end coincides with the late bronze age, which is the height of the palace centric, chariot dominated culture a s around the world. Interestingly, those societies kinda collapsed around 1200 bc, somewhat mysteriously.

I kind wonder if cooling temperatures through Central and northern Europe caused mass migrations of Celtic groups, who in turn pushed out previous groups. There is also a sort of decline in the artifact culture of this time period, with long bronze swords being replaced with shorter swords in the burial cultures.

Into the common era, there's a lot of historical epochs that match up with climate changes, like the weakening of the Roman Empire after the end of their warm period. Notably, once again, mass migrations occur in Europe during the time period of decreasing temperatures, with at least one contemporary source describing the Rhine freezing solid, or at least enough for the mass migrations of numerous germanic groups. I wonder if, once again, changing climates lead them to abandon previous hinterlands.

When the climate warmed again during the medieval warm period, there is an explosion of population and a burgeoning and successful industry. Then... Comes another cool period around the 14th century.

[Mike]

[bralbovsky]

Without knowing who anybody is or what their perspective is, it's tough to solve.

I never read the TV movie posts, what are you watching...because I don't watch anything. So, if a post is labeled PENCE, stay away. It's probably not news about fishing.

Post what you want. I'm sure someone has the analytics, but the same crowd posts and the rest of us just respond.

A note about politics: we, right now, are watching an ugly transformation. Whether you think that means we're watching the country slowly turn brown, demographically, or whether you think treason is being committed on a grand scale, it's pretty clear these are hot times. Politics is going to be on the table. I don't see the forum itself as taking sides. Anybody can post anything.

[Mike]

For what it's worth, I'm thinking about it, and I don't think it's as simple as that from Ron's perspective. People have shared experience and vocabulary. When I hang out with a group of MAGA conservatives (which I do often), the idea that Hillary Clinton is a criminal and a murderer is not a political statement for them. It's just an established fact. Everyone knows it, and people who voted for her did so in spite of the fact that she's a murderer. Anyone who truly believes she's not a killer is either a fool or a liar. So Hillary becomes just an accepted punchline to a lot of things... more punctuation than anything. When they bring it up, they truly don't think they are saying something controversial (at least in the MAGA circles I travel in).

Same thing for liberals talking about Trump being a liar and a bully who is using his office to enrich himself and his friends. It's obvious fact to anyone who actually looks. Right?

But more subtle than that... you want to talk about fishing, start a thread about fishing. Of course my conversation may include how seasons and locations have altered since I was young due to climate change. To me, climate change is an easily observable fact. I mean nothing political by bringing it up. To a conservative, climate change is a politically motivated lie, so mentioning how we haven't had thick enough ice to go ice fishing on the lake for the last 11 years because of warming is (to them) a political statement.

I often reference my privilege as a caveat to things I say. White privilege, male privilege, cis privilege. That is not political or controversial to me. In fact I see it as me trying to be considerate and respectful. But many conservatives see the word privilege as being politically loaded, and assume that the person speaking will label them as bigoted for thinking that. Even the word cis, which is really just a handy descriptor, is taken as politically charged.

Different vocabularies, different frames of reference.

[DMDarcs]

[Tahlvin]

In the end, you need to do what makes you happy.

Like DMDarcs, there have been times when I have curtailed my activity on the site because I wasn't enjoying certain aspects of it. When, besides the Runelords and unkillable threads, I ignored the rest of the stuff on the site. And there are countless times when I've drafted responses to posts, mostly in those politically-skewed threads, and deleted them without posting them because I don't want to get sucked into the conversation, called out for my position, or feel it's not really going to help advance the conversation at that moment, and that won't bring me the happiness I want from this forum.

Participate in what you want, if you want, and ignore the rest. And if that means you ignore the whole boards and stop participating at all, because that's what makes you happy, then so be it. And I don't say that in a "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!" manner, so please don't think I'm trying to get rid of you. It's a "you need to do what works for you" thing.

[Kyle]

Such an underrated movie.

[Phoebe]

This thread makes me sad, but, it's something I've never understood and probably never will understand. All I know is that real-life, in-person experiences of group discussions of serious issues are radically different from what happens in the online space. I'm convinced the online format alienates people from the human factors that normally help us interpret people's meanings and attitudes, and therefore online discussion gives rise to its own unique problems where people survey a bunch of written words and draw conclusions that have no relationship to the truths about the people who wrote those words or the ways they were intended. However, I'm feeling a little biased at the moment because, you know, people making observations above have recently unfriended me on social media for reasons I still don't understand. Whatever, dudes. I'm a flawed person, like many of us, but also don't think I deserve the level of hostility I have inspired in this space and others. Eh, life rolls on and is busy with things to do.

[Ronster]

Thank you everyone who posted...it was nice to read what you had to say and it made me feel a lot better about things.

I think I will bypass some topics and just focus on the fun and friends I found here.

Great advice from you all and especially from Tahlvin and DMDarcs.