2025-07-22 I cannot ignore politics
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When I read something like Kumbaya where James says that "not every
game choice is a political act" and how he misses that he and his
friends back when they were kids just talked about games and how these
days it feels more like "excommunication", I wonder. I was happy to
read Gern Blanston's comment where they suspect that things weren't
political back then because we were kids and didn't know. It's
definitely true for me. And now that I'm am adult, I can't look away.

I can't ignore politics because I feel that politics is about being
part of society. Politics is about how society is organized. How one
wants society organized is a moral choice. Needless to say, I only
want to spend time with people that don't do or support morally
reprehensible things. Not everybody feels that revulsion, but I do.
And maybe it's not always easy to be good people, to know what's right
and what's wrong, but I believe that we should strive for it – and
that means looking at the moral choices made all around us, at the
politics here and now. And that also means that political choice has
consequences.

Furthermore, we're blessed with alternatives. We don't have to play
Barker's Tékumel since there are so many other good games and settings
out there. I can separate the work and the artist but I don't have to.
I do not feel that art is a goal in itself. Instead, I feel that art
is an expression of a human, and usually that means that there is a
political layer somewhere. Sometimes the politics contained within
might be big and in your face and sometimes it might be small and easy
to ignore. But I still think that political choice has consequences.

And if the word "politics" gets your hackles up, think of something
else, like animal abuse. I don't want to buy books by somebody who
mistreats their cat, who speaks out in favour cat mistreatments, who
financially supports cat mistreatments, I don't want to play their
games and I don't understand the people who support them.

#RPG