"A Politics Problem?" Topic

Does your gaming group or club have a problem over political discussions?

I suspect that all groups will have internal political differences. Perfectly normal.

However, many gamers (not all) are bright enough to know that those with firmly held views will never change. Therefore they avoid politics when gaming as there can be no successful outcome.

Those who believe that their perspective is superior to those around them will often end up in a club of one.

In the UK and Europe (mostly) there tends to be a range of political parties that folk follow. This helps settle things down. I have voted for four different parties over the last 40 years and do not identify my life with one party.

martin

During Brexit, and to a lesser extent the Independence referendum, yes we had a problem. A few people were just too vocal – not appropriate at the club. Generally, no.

Not with my group, since I have no group. But it's a steady annoyance here.

No. It's left at the door.

Nope. We're all of the same mind set. Not by choice…just happened over the years.

No, we accept that people have different political views, but we don't tend to talk about it as we play in a pub and its one of the three things that one should never talk about in pubs :)

Politics have been banned at our gaming sessions.

Occasional remarks/comments but no general discussion.

they avoid politics when gaming as there can be no successful outcome.

I disagree in that my definition of "successful outcome" isn't someone changing their mind/position, but everyone understanding the position of those around them.

Our rules are no politics. Everyone strays momentarily but no retaliation. Tenuous sometimes but the truce still holds. H

We do our best not to discuss politics when gaming.

We did lose a potential group member for our D&D session when I sent him some pics of the game room and the paint room, and he showed them to his wife, who is a "non-gaming, couldn't care less" type. She was completely uninterested until she saw one of the pics of the painting room which had a picture of Ronald Reagan on the wall and a picture of Pres. Trump below it. It flipped her switch and she exploded on him, who then turned around said that "His wife told him that he wasn't allowed to play at my house, and that she doesn't think we should be friends."
Sigh…
So it takes all kinds…

Left at door.

We have too much in common to accentuate where we are different. The only thing you can change by discussing politics is how you feel about each other. No politics allowed in our group. (We started gaming together in 1995.)

Steve

It happens a little bit, I think most adults tend to be sensitive enough to realize that when others are keeping their mouths shut, it is because they don't want to argue. Unfortunately this tends to be limited to in person events, digitally is something else, well like TMP.

We have some political discussions at the club, but agree to disagree over some topics. As was said above.

The old adage prevails- 'A man convinced against his will is of his own opinion still'

We don't talk shop in the mess.

Had a couple of debates during Brexit as it was such a divisive issue, and a bit of covid silliness more recently.

Generally we steer clear though. Our group has a very broad spectrum of political opinion, but we share a common interest. It is good to get out of the echo chamber, but I'm there to play games, not set the world to rights.

Nope. We're there to play, not argue.

The old rule of thumb was you don's discuss politics or religion. It was a good rule that worked. But social media has broken down the barriers and release the assh*oles into the world.

At the gaming table we discuss the game or various aspects of the hobby. Time is too short to talk about other stuff.

My experience is like USAFpilot's.

We have political differences, so we tend to focus instead on the things we have in common. That works much better. To be honest, my gaming buddies tend to be my closest friends and I want to keep it that way.

We don't bring up politics. We generally only speak of history or gaming. My old club would talk sports. There are no sports fans in my current club. Which I find an little strange but that's okay.

I would suspect that simple self-selection and opt-out would, over time, lead most private groups to have great similarities of culture, education, and politics.

Club groups would have more internal variability, but even there, over time the group would achieve a general consensus. If not, there would be some social friction. Of course, in areas where there is a low density of gamers, desperation might make for more accommodation.

The only groups in my observation where arguing and snide poltical humor doesn't exist are those where everybody is in general agreement. They are then stable, and such issues are not a factor-just war-games.

I have seen groups morph over time, one way or the other. And a few times change comes from a fiat of the majority, but that's rare-usually there is a split into a new club group.

This process exists in Book Clubs, communities such as the Villages in Florida, and certainly drinking groups, as well as other ostensibly non-political social groups. Birds of a feather…

Oddly enough it is perfectly ok to argue 1000 year old politics, but mention our President……… boom!!!!