Political Themes and Discussions

Do you discuss politics?

  • I don't participate in politics

    Votes: 4 26.7%
  • I don't talk about politics, but I participate

    Votes: 3 20.0%
  • I discuss and care about politics, but I don't write with political themes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I discuss and care about politics, and I write with political themes

    Votes: 8 53.3%

  • Total voters
    15

VerbalAbuse

Seditious Venus
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This isn't a question for the admins, I know where I'm at

How do we feel about discussing politics here? In general, of course, not necessarily just in Iwaku. For that matter, within Iwaku, do any among us use political themes in our stories and play?

I'm gonna have to beg y'all to not start info dumping about your political ideology, I honestly don't want to find out if you guys have an opposing ideology to mine because I might say some things you'll regret. However, if you care to provide an example for a time you used a political theme in your writing, that would be wonderful!
 
I'm a history buff so politics sort of came with it. I don't check the news everyday, but I like to duck my head in every once in awhile. See what the buzzword of the month is.

I love political intrigue in my stories. I used to pop my friends into governing positions in RPs just to see where they'd go with it. One got really in depth with customs and complex family politics since it was a monarchy. The best part was the other player was winging it because they'd never dealt with trade deals or giving grants before. I remember their best out-of-character moment was the first assassination attempt and they were like "Assassins too!?". Yeah, assassins too. This is why we pay guards.
 
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Political intrigue is always fun, although I generally don't get that deep - I'm more about the battle than the administration, and this draws me to playing the part of an embattled minority - a mutant in a world that doesn't care about them, or a witch in a world that hates them - usually working towards progressive goals and gaining acceptance, often by force.

I once opened a roleplay with the first few lines of the Communist Manifesto, abridged to fit the narrative of the story, because it fit with the theme of oppression surrounding my character.
 
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Political intrigue in roleplays is fun!
While it might surprise some people, I pay a lot of attention to politics and I vote in basically whatever will have me. However, politics in real life is touchy and can blow up faster than lighting a match in a zeppelin. I simply do not enjoy conflict and find that especially when it comes to politics, people say vicious things and I do not enjoy partaking in such discussions because the other person is almost always either very set in their views (agree to disagree) or not willing to play nice.

I've had some fun political intrigue leanings in roleplay with @Pahn and @Jorick that I can think of off the top of my head - power plots, schemes and maybe even a little uprising.
 
IRL, I discuss politics. I heard once "Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean politics isn't interested in you." And I realized as I got older as an LGBT person, I needed to be more vocal. I can't just stand by if someone is telling me I don't deserve full rights you know?? Plus I work at a very politically involved company so I have to be an advocate for those who can't say out their beliefs! I do understand the fear of conflict tho, I guess I just don't have that 8)

As for roleplay, it depends. Some stories don't need that extra element, but sometimes I like politics as a plot device. I have characters that range from American flag burning activists to raging xenophobic nationalists, so I suppose I don't really insert my own beliefs. I have a few stories that are completely around politics and some that are just influenced. For example my fav story I'm trying to create is a story of two socialists starting their revolution in post-world war two Italy!

I think it's fun 8D
 
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I do understand the fear of conflict tho
I'm not necessarily afraid of conflict, mostly I just don't want to start a shitstorm on one of my favorite websites and end up banned for bringing it up. Personally, I'm the sort that feels that force is an effective means of political action, so conflict isn't something I shy away from.
For example my fav story I'm trying to create is a story of two socialists starting their revolution in post-world war two Italy!
I don't even know what the scope is and I'm in
 
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I only ever talk about my own political ideologies with friends. Otherwise, it's just more headache than it's worth. I like political intrigue roleplays though.
 
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I get waaaaaay into political things both IRL and in roleplay. I'm the kinda guy who's down to talk politics even with strangers I vehemently disagree with, because learning what other people think about those issues and why they think them is fascinating, as is challenging their thoughts to see if they can mount a reasonable defense rather than resorting to platitudes and logical fallacies. I'll even play devil's advocate and debate things with people who hold my actual views, because getting in that opposition headspace makes me think about my own political point of view more deeply and makes me actually consider the merits of the other side rather than dismissing them as incorrect because they're in disagreement with my thoughts. This process has left me with a mixed bag of political opinions from across the spectrum, so depending on the topic at hand I could very easily be demonized as a loony socialist on one hand and an alt-right shitlord on the other, because in today's hyper-polarized political climate there are tons of issues on which otherwise reasonable people will declare there are only the good guys (their side) and the bad guys (the ones labeled with one of many flavorful and pejorative descriptors). 8D

That said, I've elected to not bring up real world politics for the most part here on Iwaku. Early on in my time here, after coming from a very argument-heavy forum, I was part of a pack of assholes who talked politics all over the place here in General Chatting. And by 'talked politics' I really mean 'argued in stupidly endless circles,' as is often the reality of political talk on the internet. It was a horrible mess. It got so bad that the old 'debate' thread prefix got removed and lots of warnings were handed out to get people to chill the fuck out and not turn this place into a political war zone. I highly suggest keeping real world politics off of Iwaku so it can remain the chill place we all know and love rather than risk returning to the hellscape that was General Chatting circa late 2014/early 2015. Go deep in the political themes in roleplays though, that's always been fine for the most part.
 
Early on in my time here, after coming from a very argument-heavy forum, I was part of a pack of assholes who talked politics all over the place here in General Chatting. And by 'talked politics' I really mean 'argued in stupidly endless circles,' as is often the reality of political talk on the internet. It was a horrible mess. It got so bad that the old 'debate' thread prefix got removed and lots of warnings were handed out to get people to chill the fuck out and not turn this place into a political war zone.
And that is exactly why I said in the thread not to discuss our political ideologies themselves. Talking politics online is never really productive - you have to know somebody personally and deeply to change their mind, or to allow them to change yours. Aside from that, it can cause major rifts in smaller communities like forums, and as much as I have members of Iwaku I don't care for, I care about the community as a whole a lot more.
 
I'm all about knowing about and talking enough about the various ideologies, factions, current climate to seem smart in surface-level conversations but being very careful to never take a stand in case I want to caboodle with the other party

only kind of being facetious
 
Talking politics online is never really productive - you have to know somebody personally and deeply to change their mind, or to allow them to change yours. Aside from that, it can cause major rifts in smaller communities like forums, and as much as I have members of Iwaku I don't care for, I care about the community as a whole a lot more.

^Dis.

If I may; from what I've witnessed in life, political discourse as a commonplace practice among us plebs is pretty useless, and is more likely to sow division among those that sit across from each other on the political aisle, or reinforce shallow bonds between folk on the same side-- plus everyone involved is very far away from effectually legislating anything anyways. It seems to me like filler in place of interacting on a deeper level :/

Even if you're dealing with someone who has terribly formed opinions that you know are incorrect, they formed those opinions based on their personal experience in life, and that matters. When you try to verbal judo people, acting like some political shepherd trying to deliver them to the wealth of better opinion, you kinda forget there is a person behind there who has formed those opinions based on a lifetime of experience and emotion.

Idunno. I'm just a sensitive person to people and their energies, and when people are talking politics heavily, those energies don't feel good. Most people never ask me what I support anyways xD And maybe I don't care about political discourse because my girlfriend was a city counselor for like 5 months before resigning. It was a terrible experience, according to her. We'd rather just do fun shit shrug
 
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