"The culture war" Topic

The culture war in the US, while being a source of great anxiety to many, would also make a great topic for a board game. If taken in a slightly light hearted fashion, I think it could be a hoot.
Thoughts?

It could be a two-player game representing two political parties. The goal is to bankrupt the country while making yourself rich. When the country has bankrupted the player with the most money wins. It sounds pretty realistic to me.

Wolfhag

Or it could be about influence- moving the Overton window. Act too aggressively and risk a backlash, random events, etc.

Go ahead and make it multi-player, add in some "foreign nationalist factions", the Illuminati, big media, big pharma, military industrial complex, big religion, anti-social socialist, etc. Maybe have the factions available as add-ons or expansions to the core game.

Each faction tries to sway public opinion (maybe measured in tweets). I can see it monopoly style, with different types of locations allowing different cards to be played. ie. Landing on a "government job" square allows you play a "lobby for pay raises" card that gains you tweets from gov't employees but looses credibility with businesses.

Hmm, you may need different "currencies", impressing businesses gains you money, impressing youth organizations gains you tweets, impressing political factions gains you favors.

You can strive for a balanced approach, gaining tweets, cash and favors, or focus on just one faction.

As long as the game itself makes fun of all sides it can be fun. There is a culture war board game (found it after making this post) but in it the authors openly state that the conservatives are the "bad guys" and have caricatured that side but not the progressive one.

Here is a good example of a culture war:
YouTube link

The police were about 2 blocks away and did not get involved.

Wolfhag

As a parent, the culture war makes me sick with worry for the future. The thing is, we're wargamers- that means we turn human tragedy into fun and games. At this point, I'd rather have a bit of a laugh about this stuff to break up the tension.

For the conspiracy side:
link

It's always tough to deal with current issues as there is often a lack of perspective. Plus when you start looking at US history, "culture" often means a justification of a history of racial discrimination, oppression, and state sanctioned violence. Even now, events like the Charlotesville rally murder continue to highlight the violence is not contained or metaphorical. Mahud Villalaz (a US citizen) had acid thrown on him with a demand "go back to (his) country." And don't forget the last lynching in the US was in the 1980s. Meanwhile, hundreds of children sit in cages separated from their parents, often in inhumane and sometimes fatal conditions.

The US culture war has long been "hot", with the casualties one sided. The danger in trying to bring levity is that it's hard for those on the receiving end to laugh about the situation.

Wolfhag probably has the best take- exploit the nation to ruin while selling it to voters under the guise of morality, patriotism, and compromise. Turn the system into modern feudalism to get yours! But then the game is basically just a US econ/political sim.

Is it any harder to laugh at than, say, the eastern front of ww2? Or the Vietnam war?
The tragedies of life come for us all, is rather laugh. That's not to say that we should minimize those tragedies but rather that we should seek alternate emotional releases to the things which worry us.

Jamemurp,

Don't want to get into a political discussion, but it goes both ways. You didn't mention the Antifa beatings of reporters, or the silencing of alternate views on college campuses, etc.

And wasn't the last lynching in the US just a month or so ago? Epstein didn't hang himself!!

I'll try to be non-partisan:
Some details for culture war game is for one side to use hollow promises of free stuff while using the mass media and Dept of Re-Education as a propaganda tool to turn people into "Useful Idiots" thinking they are going to get free money and services from "rich" people.

The opposing side tries to counter this by declaring an international trade war to artificially pump up the economy and stock market while flooding the economy with fiat monopoly money and tax breaks to give people the delusional impression they are getting "rich".

After 16 quarterly turns (4 years) an election is held with both sides attempting voter fraud. Each quarterly game turn starts with fundraising. Each quarter you can use "Dark Money" to improve your position but the more you use the greater the chance of getting busted. The side that controls the media gets to make false allegations which if the "Useful Idiots" believe it they'll get more votes.

The FoW can be simulated with event cards like "The _______ Collusion Delusion", blackmail from a compromising video, bribery from a defense contractor, love child showing up on the Dr. Phil Show, street thugs/shock troops causing riots, allegations of deviant sexual practices, deep fake videos, accusations of police brutality, enlist foreign leaders for money and endorsements, hack party databases and/or voter rolls, attempt to destroy evidence, use public funds for personal and family purchases/vacations, the Fed raises or lowers interest rates, spy scandal, etc.

Wolfhag

magical monstrous steve:
Nope, and people still get prickly over those subjects. Germany still has laws regarding display of certain emblems, for example. But they are also further back in time and the US didn't see the same devastation, so our attitudes are a bit different. I am certainly not saying you are minimizing them- just that proximity plays a big part in reactions.

pzivh43- It absolutely does not go "both ways". I didn't include those because they don't represent views traditionally pushed by the power structure and don't represent systemic violence. "Beatings by Antifa" seems to be a single (reprehensible and absolutely criminal) case. Far different from generations of racial killing, often embraced by communities and/or political leadership.

As for silencing of "views" by colleges, that is a whole different category (see also corporate speech restrictions) and not comparable with a history of violent oppression.

Even if Epstein didn't hang himself, it is not a lynching and, again, such an equivocation reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how violence has been systemically used to enforce discrimination. It is only recently that our nation has even been willing to *acknowledge* its violent history of oppression. And you can't fix a problem that goes unacknowledged. Talk of "our culture" and "real" America is just the latest in exclusionary rhetoric that has a very bloody past and is still yielding tainted fruit. It is a time honored tool to keep the working class divided as the upper echelons continue to profit. Gotta keep those plebs scrambling for scraps so they don't recognize they have more in common with each other and turn on their overlords!

This is why it gets touchy- people are actively being radicalized and mislead leading to very real suffering. Lots of people feel victimized. Which is not a healthy system.

The only way to play this is absolute black comedy and gallows humor. Pick your faction- Subversive Technocrats, False Prophets, Foreign Authoritarians, Corrupt Corporate, etc. Pick popular talking points to hide your agenda. Buy off the media (or start you own outlet!), bribe political leaders (or grow your own idealogues), pack the courts, all while calling you opponents the bad guys. Send in spies to dig up dirt! Watch out though, as your agents and dirty tricks can be exposed (usually by another faction) forcing you to go into damage control by attacking the source (fake news!) or manufacturing a distraction (But look at these e-mails!). Do you burn your agent (he was never a "real" one of us) or try to ride it out (everybody does that-no crime!)? And watch out for agents going rogue and switching factions!

That sounds like a really good game

So, a modern re-skin of "Illuminati"…

Also, it goes without saying – CHEATING IS ENCOURAGED!

Wolfhag

We do need a Culture war boardgame. I'll raise your "Fake news" with my "intersectional educational program".

Just remember, one side is all good and the other is all evil – you know, like when Nazis and communist fought during WWII.

A balancing mechanic could be that aggressive actions create radicalization on the other side. Once there is too much radicalization in total, society collapses, game over, both players lose.

>>I'll raise your "Fake news" with my "intersectional educational program".
+
>>Also, it goes without saying – CHEATING IS ENCOURAGED!

I can see those playing out:

IEP? Does anyone even try that strategy anymore? Oh well, I guess you do have a Professor with OPINIONS, but, I have both the Head of Ed (Political Op) and Perpetual Outrage so that will go nowhere AND net me Talking Points to hit you with a good ol' Conspiracy Theory! What do you mean I am cheating?

It's not cheating because I changed the rules with Questionable Motives and Maneuvers in response to the previous turn's Rampant Corruption. What? Now that lets you play an Expose' and flip or dismiss some of my Political Operatives? HOW DARE YOU USE THAT RULE AGAINST ME! MY PETARD!

***

Mutual loss should def always be a risk, but can be minimized or reduced by taking decisions that benefit society at large rather than your factional interest. Of course that nets you far fewer points/money/influence/whatever. Basically the game should encourage increasingly complex shenanigans with the risk that it all comes tumbling down.

Also VCarter- what an odd example of two authoritarian regimes who at first worked together while ignoring the democracies also involved in the subsequent conflict (the ones that didn't elect a fascist). But a great example of 2 nations who used institutionalized violence against political opponents and ethnic minorities that have repercussions to this day! And one went on to become a western democracy that both acknowledged and abandoned its horrific, fanatical past no less (after said fascist genocidal government was thoroughly crushed, of course). So there is hope!

What would this game be called?

What would this game be called?

Sex, Lies and Video Tapes?

Wolfhag

That's so 1990s. how about "winning!"?

How about "My extremist hate group is better than your extremist hate group".

VCarter- that is way too honest! More like Power Struggle:Good* v. Evil <small print>*Good Not Included</smallprint>.

"Confirmation Bias:The game we're all already playing but won't admit to."

Social conservatives lost the "Culture War" long ago which is why what is actually the basis for the game is the conservative cultural counter revolution where the rule of law and truth are trampled on in a desperate attempt to restore parity.

Some of the game cards that were left out earlier were a Right Wing media conspiratorially inventing stories, a conservative mindset that pretends that stealing one dollar is actually worse than stealing a billion dollars and that being a stubborn ignoramus is actually being a superhero-like patriot.

William F. Buckley's book; "God and Man at Yale," was published in 1951. That provides a case for the culture war having existed for much longer then many would imagine. I suggest that it will also continue for many years to come and that the notion that one side or another "lost" is premature.

Nothing like citing a 70 year old book (Even if it was written by the great Bill Buckley) to underscore that social conservatives have lost the culture war.

The proof is in conservative behavior trying to pack and flip the courts because they think judges shape morals demonstrates there is a real lack of education among the rank and file of conservatives about what the constitution and federal laws are supposed to be and a refusal to absorb why they had to change from Civil War times.

Additionally, If conservatives hadnt lost the culture war they wouldnt have to go on and on about the "Liberal Media". This and dozens of other indicators point to a desperate conservative counter reformation.

Someone above mentioned the Invasion of the body snatchers like mania of college campuses silencing alternative views. I would love to hear what views are getting silenced but more to the point:

A. I suspect they are mostly deeply intellectual conservative viewpoints such as "Evolution doesnt exist".

B. Students are not tasked with upholding the Constitution but presidents are. Does anyone know a president who threatens the 1st Amendment just about every day? Anyone?

We all know them students are the real dummies. Actually, lets be frank for a moment; people who never attended are the true intellectual heavyweights because they've never been polluted with socialist concepts like "fresh ideas" or "different cultures" and instead they heed the voices they hear in their heads or the feelings in their guts. Let's face it, blind faith is the only real wisdom and this is how the West was Won!

The original point was to talk about designing a game based on the absurdity of the culture war with the aim of taking that conflict less seriously, not "winning" that conflict here.
Minipigs, you win the culture war here. Bask in the glory of your side's victory.

War is not over until one side gives up. Yes, bask in the glory of San Francisco with its sex, drugs, human feces, increasing crime run by the masterminds of the elite establishment that dwell in their gated communities. Your "victory" is collapsing on itself around the world.

"I have not yet begun to fight"

Wolfhag