Quote from: Haffrung;1100583I'm just asking why it might be that if the market for D&D is 15 per cent progressive activist, at the publisher level it's 85 per cent progressive activist in outlook.

All that is required for evil to triumph is that good men say nothing.
Basically, as an organisation or community is Converged, the non-radicals mostly learn to hunker down and mouth the platitudes. A few tall poppies get cut down, like James Damore.

Quote from: Shasarak;1100598I heard someone say that recent statistics show that parents would rather their children marry someone of a different race or religion then someone with a different political view.

Strange times indeed.

Why would that be strange?  

Race, particularly, is something that you are born with and in no way represents your character (or lack of it).  I would certainly prefer that my daughters marry someone of a different race than someone that doesn't respect them as individuals, was abusive, or disrespectful.  In so far as political views are reflective of personal values, I would absolutely prefer that they marry someone of a different race than someone that dismisses or is antagonistic toward their values.  

I think there is some distinction to be made between a 'true believer' and someone that grew up on 'team x'.

Quote from: jhkimIs there any reason why creators should share the same political values as customers? I think it's more normal for businesses and customers to have differing political values.

Quote from: Haffrung;1100583Presumably, people who create and publish the content for an entertainment medium are drawn from the same population as the audience. Folk festival organizers are a subset of folk music fans. People who run comedy clubs probably enjoy alcohol and raunchy humour. Publishers of sci-fi miniatures games are likely Star Wars and Star Trek fans.

It would strike us as odd if folk festivals were organized by heavy metal fans, comedy clubs run by prudish teetotallers, and sci-fi miniatures games published by literary snobs who looked down on genre fiction.

I don't agree with the presumption that creators are representative of fans. Yes, I would expect that D&D content creators would be interested in D&D - but I don't think that they would necessarily be like fans in ways unrelated to D&D.

Per your music example, I wouldn't expect that the people who organize and finance folk festivals are necessarily similar to the fans who go to the festivals. If it's a real company, they're professionals who do real work for money. A bunch of the company might be folk music fans, but possibly not all of them. For professionals, there's no reason that they should necessarily be like fans, any more than strip club workers should be like strip club patrons. They're both interested in stripping, but they might not have a lot of common ground otherwise.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1100617Why would that be strange?  

Because it just sounds really dumb when you say out loud that you hope your daughter does not marry a Republican or Democrat.  Like Retardation levels of dumb.  Like something that someone who has suffered literal brain damage would say.

So thats why it sounds strange.

Quote from: ShasarakI heard someone say that recent statistics show that parents would rather their children marry someone of a different race or religion then someone with a different political view.

Strange times indeed.

Quote from: Shasarak;1100622Because it just sounds really dumb when you say out loud that you hope your daughter does not marry a Republican or Democrat.  Like Retardation levels of dumb.  Like something that someone who has suffered literal brain damage would say.

So thats why it sounds strange.

Well, to be fair, it also sounds really dumb when you say that you hope your daughter doesn't marry an Asian person.

Your original statement was that people thought differences in politics is more important than differences in race or religion.

Quote from: jhkim;1100626Well, to be fair, it also sounds really dumb when you say that you hope your daughter doesn't marry an Asian person.

Your original statement was that people thought differences in politics is more important than differences in race or religion.

Being Racist is dumb but being a Politicist?  Now that is just Retarded.

Do you disagree?

Quote from: Shasarak;1100628Being Racist is dumb but being a Politicist?  Now that is just Retarded.

Do you disagree?

Yes.  Political views are more important than race.  Not labels, but actual positions.  Politics is about how we organize society and allocate resources; a fundamental mismatch in values there is more likely to cause marital stress than race.  

Religion is something that is likely to cause more stress, but it tends to depend on how actively religious the people are.  A non-practicing Baptist and a non-practicing Catholic aren't likely to have as much problem as an Evangelical Born Again Christian and a Devout Muslim.  But yeah, politics seems like a bigger stumbling block than race in my mind.  

It is an issue.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1100640Yes.  Political views are more important than race.  Not labels, but actual positions.  Politics is about how we organize society and allocate resources; a fundamental mismatch in values there is more likely to cause marital stress than race.  

Religion is something that is likely to cause more stress, but it tends to depend on how actively religious the people are.  A non-practicing Baptist and a non-practicing Catholic aren't likely to have as much problem as an Evangelical Born Again Christian and a Devout Muslim.  But yeah, politics seems like a bigger stumbling block than race in my mind.  

It is an issue.

I think the politics part depends just as much on how actively "fervent" the beliefs are held and expressed. Many people place individual relationships over politics. I know the political leanings of several of my friends, but I don't really care about them all that much because they're not assholes about their politics!

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1100640Yes.  Political views are more important than race.  Not labels, but actual positions.  Politics is about how we organize society and allocate resources; a fundamental mismatch in values there is more likely to cause marital stress than race.  

Religion is something that is likely to cause more stress, but it tends to depend on how actively religious the people are.  A non-practicing Baptist and a non-practicing Catholic aren't likely to have as much problem as an Evangelical Born Again Christian and a Devout Muslim.  But yeah, politics seems like a bigger stumbling block than race in my mind.  

It is an issue.

Well I hope for your sake and peace of mind that no dirty MAGA hatter has their eye on any of your children then.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1100066What kind of moron would ship Einstein over to China to have him take an intelligence test in a foreign language? How often do real world intelligence tests do this?

Virtually never. It is a disingenuous way to suggest that IQ tests are intentionally marginalizing foreigners. IQ tests have the highest correlation of anything in the social sciences, if they are not valid, none of the rest of the social sciences are even close. It's an uncomfortable truth that there are about 10% of the population whose IQ is so low that they are considered unteachable by the US military, such that they cannot induct anyone with an IQ lower than 83. IQ is one of the best predictors of success in the modern world, so to conclude they are invalid points to a bias against uncomfortable truths rather than a lack of validity in intelligence testing.

Every day I rejoice that I don't have children, but if I did have kids, my hope would be they would partner with a wonderful and supportive person, regardless of any other characteristics or voting choices.

Quote from: S'mon;1100566Mind you in Britain middle class and working class cultures are also miles apart, and this reflected in how we played dnd

Explain!!!

How (and why) would different classes play D&D differently?

Quote from: Spinachcat;1100660Every day I rejoice that I don't have children, but if I did have kids, my hope would be they would partner with a wonderful and supportive person, regardless of any other characteristics or voting choices.



Explain!!!

How (and why) would different classes play D&D differently?

Well it's hard to explain and this is just my personal impressions, but from what I've seen middle class UK gamers' games tend(ed) to be cooperative, party based, and generally more 'nice'. They tend to think of Tolkien as the default. With my working class chums they took a more Gygaxian, swords & sorcery approach with lots of Evil PCs, intra-party conflict, lots of assassin PCs. Middle class likes their women to look like Arwen (edit: actually, more like Eowyn in the PJ version), working class wants Red Sonja (boobs!) - it's the difference between the Times or Guardian and the Sun or Daily Star. A slight obsession with the Third Reich was also common, which I never saw among the middle class.

The homegrown RPG stuff coming out of White Dwarf/Jackson & Livingstone in the 1980s tended to be from Games Workshop's lower middle class culture, and had some elements in common with both, but was notable for its gritty grimy & frequently bathetic feel compared to US material. Working class gamers actually living in often very grimy & unpleasant surroundings didn't particularly want to play turnip-scavengers in Kislev; US style sword & sorcery Conanesque/Fafhrd  & Mouser escapist power fantasy was more popular.

The Elfish Gene has a good account of D&D in the '80s that matches my experience very closely, even though I was in Belfast not Coventry. Both working class cities.

Quote from: S'mon;1100662The Elfish Gene has a good account of D&D in the '80s that matches my experience very closely, even though I was in Belfast not Coventry. Both working class cities.

A great book, although a little bitter-sweet at the end.

Quote from: Shasarak;1100648Well I hope for your sake and peace of mind that no dirty MAGA hatter has their eye on any of your children then.

Are you calling MAGAs pedophiles?

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1100640Yes.  Political views are more important than race.  Not labels, but actual positions.  Politics is about how we organize society and allocate resources; a fundamental mismatch in values there is more likely to cause marital stress than race.  

Religion is something that is likely to cause more stress, but it tends to depend on how actively religious the people are.  A non-practicing Baptist and a non-practicing Catholic aren't likely to have as much problem as an Evangelical Born Again Christian and a Devout Muslim.  But yeah, politics seems like a bigger stumbling block than race in my mind.  

It is an issue.

Nah, actual positions aren't relevant, only labels.  When you show college kids a list of Obama and Trump quotes and policies and they label them all incorrectly, it shows positions aren't the problem.

Politics is about how to deal, prioritize and tackle the problems we face as a society.  Intelligent, committed adults can agree to disagree on this.

Increasingly, political tribal party affiliation is about what problems we completely ignore and which ones we brand as the Ultimate Evil.  Politics as Fundamentalist Religion allows for no debate, for you are of the Body or you are a Heretic.