Alora Fane

Bleh. Politics.

I haven't posted a personal entry in like a month! I've started writing a couple of different ones, and I keep coming up with ideas, but haven't finished anything for various reasons.

Last week, I was really busy and motivated and felt actually GOOD for the first time in ages! That was wonderful! I got loads done on the Atonal Dreams script, and finishing that seemed on the horizon. This week, though... It's Thursday morning now, and I've done maybe one or two hours of work all week. And I feel awful about it.

Why have I done so little? No reason at all! The same reason I felt so good last week. Mental weather. Sometimes there's a chain of lovely days, other times it just keeps raining. It'll change again, I know, but it's annoying making plans to go out on a long hike only to find that it's pouring with rain.

What can we even do in situations like this? I don't know. I wonder whether forcing myself is a good idea or a bad one. Maybe I'd get something out, but would it be any good?

I suppose these doubts are why I'm failing to get anything done in the first place. Procrastination comes from the feeling that you have to achieve perfection, but the doubt that you'll actually be able to do that, so you hesitate, don't try at all. It's much better to just crap something out and tweak it to perfection later, but knowing that doesn't make the mental block disappear, annoyingly.

Bleh.

I should be doing work, but the US election's ongoing as I write this, so I want to say something about that since why not!

It's something I'm more invested in than I ever was in my own country's election (I don't even know when it was or who the candidates were, or if they're even called that here; come to think of it, who's the current Prime Minister?? Uh... Boris Johnson? Oh, I did know that, but I had to think about it). What with America being the World Police and all that, who are more present online than anyone else. I browse Reddit all the time so it's annoyingly impossible to avoid this stuff.

I don't know or care enough about politics in general to fully understand how it works, but googling "us election results" brings up a convenient info thing, which makes it clear that each state is worth a number of 'electoral votes' and that someone needs 270 to win. I kept checking it throughout yesterday, and for a while it was tensely close. As I write this, Biden's on 264 and Trump's on 214, though if Trump wins all the states still counting, he'll win overall? I think? I don't know.

I do know that I was worked up enough about it yesterday that I woke up from a nightmare about it this morning, in which it turned out that the evil Orange Man had won. Oh no!

And it's surprising to me that such an apparently evil buffoon could get such a huge amount of votes despite the last four years. Makes me wonder whether in an election between Eculox, an enlightened alien being who was offering to grant everyone everlasting peace and superpowers were he to be elected (and had demonstrated the ability to actually do so), and Totthrottler the Baby Rapist, who literally violated toddlers on stage during his rallies and debates and whose policies included daily nukings of cities chosen by tea leaf divination, a not-insignificant number of people would be screaming to put Totthrottler in charge because 'at least he's honest' and Eculox was 'untrustworthy'. Or something.

Or at least that's the impression we get from our bubbles. While I'm not interested in politics, I am interested in psychology, especially the psychology of belief and group dynamics. As I think I've mentioned before, psychology studies have shown that groups form ridiculously easily, and members favour other ingroup members while dehumanising outgroup members. A classroom of children assigned one of two colours based entirely on a random number generator or the position of their desks would quickly come to see 'their group' as more of every positive quality, and the 'others' and more of every negative quality. They'd be more likely to help out ingroup members and less likely to trust outgroup members. Even if their groups were based on absolutely nothing.

We're a tribal species; we evolved to be like this because it helped us survive. But it's concerning seeing it at play in the modern world where we're more connected than we ever were when these mental tendencies first developed.

Reddit is extremely left-wing, at least on the surface, so they're strongly anti-Trump. I looked at a few threads about the election to see what they were saying, and one quoted an example of how the morons in r/Conservative rationalised their evil to themselves. The quoted comment was long and thought-out, and I found it interesting how responses to that quote were things like "This guy can make sentences and is conservative. Weird.", or assumptions that the only way someone could come to such wrong conclusions that they came to is because they'd been indoctrinated by propaganda, brainwashed by a cult.

Those commenters, of course, are intelligent, aware, perceptive, unswayed by lies. They know how it is, they see the truth. The only way that you could think otherwise would be if you were an idiot.

I read the comment they were saying this to (I wish I'd kept it open in a tab; annoyingly I didn't so I can't quote it myself), and I could understand - based on some immersion in the manosphere previously - where they seemed to be coming from. They're seeing the left as screeching 'SJW' types who constantly try to shame and control them and tell them how wrong they are for being the way that they are, giving them -ist and -phobe labels, ruining their reputations and getting them fired for their jobs, etc.

Control seems to be a big thing for them - hence the obnoxious, catastrophic resistance to wearing masks - though it seems so bizarre to me that they're also the group who embraces religion - which is all about following rigid rules - and have bullheaded views on abortion with no allowance for nuance.

I saw this apparently right-favouring video recently (titled "How Internet Politics Look to Normal Humans", with "normal humans" here being the right):

The left person is a ridiculous caricature you might find annoying or even offensive. But I find it interesting because in the minds of people on the right, that's what the left are like, regardless of how reasonable any given left-aligned individual might personally believe themselves to be. Many people would find it frustrating to be seen in such a distorted way, but I wonder if they realise they're likely seeing the other side through a similarly warped lens.

The vast majority of people see 'the others' as dangerous, inhuman monsters, while they themselves are reasonable humans who aren't clouded by lies and evil like they are.

That said, here's a clip from Borat 2 (which I've not yet seen) where conservatives cheer on the idea of chopping up journalists 'like the Saudis do':

Worrying.

My values (compassion, tolerance, understanding, etc) and personality traits align with the left - I'm high in Openness, ∞ which inclines people towards liberalism, whereas conservative attitudes are more related to high Conscientiousness ∞ - so I find the right generally distasteful. I don't like the extremism on either side though, which is essentially a forceful effort to control or suppress others in some way or another. I think a big part of why I find it so unpalatable is because I'm reminded of how I ran Fig Hunter back in the day... but I wrote a whole post about that kind of thing (one of the ones I've not finished/posted yet) and don't really want to talk about it more here. It's mentally exhausting.

Like I said though, I find the psychology side of things interesting. How people come to see others as less human, less capable of reasonable thought, than they or their allies are. We are the enlightened right. They are ignorant monsters.

I'm concerned that it'll lead to violence in America. Maybe Biden will get elected and then assassinated by some Trump nut. Maybe there'll be a civil war and America will fall. Both presidential assassinations and a civil war have happened in the past, though it's concerning thinking how they'd play out in this modern, connected world.

Or maybe nothing major will happen and it'll just be business as usual yet again.

EDIT: I'm updating this since it seems that Biden's just finally won... sort of? Or at least that's what the Google map thing is telling me.

I read back over this post, and I notice now (but didn't when I wrote it) how sarcastic I was in certain places, and I wonder if that was read as intended or not. Hmm.

I checked Reddit - which is currently buckling under the weight of activity on there about this - and saw a lot of anti-Trump sorts saying they were literally crying with relief, as if they'd just heard that the antichrist had been slain, or a comet heading straight for the Earth had been disintegrated. In r/Conservative, they're... surprisingly calm about it (though the fact that it's perceived as surprising says a lot about the general sentiments I see on Reddit's surface), saying things like "I'm so angry. I'm gonna get out of bed tomorrow. Storm to my car. And go about my day as usual".

I'm still concerned some people with serious mental issues and access to and passion for guns might do something drastic... but I'm also wondering how the sorts who blamed Trump for all their world's ills will redirect their mental attention!

Since I watched the video I included in this post, the algorithm's thrust in my face a couple of other videos by the same guy. Like this one:

Caricatured, for sure, but there do seem to be people like that out there, and I wonder what both types are going to do now!

I haven't responded to most comments on this post because I don't want to get into any political discussions; that's not interesting to me since I know very little about things like political policies etc, and I'd only end up offending people and making an idiot of myself. I'm more interested in psychology, but it's not really possible to talk about the psychology of political beliefs without seeming like directing or judging the ones that people hold, which I'm not interested in doing (though I suppose it wasn't much different when I talked about nostalgic attachment when writing about perceptions of a MARDEK Reimagining...).

It is valuable to have somewhere to vent about this stuff though; a lot of thoughts that'd been going over and over in my mind for days disappeared after writing this. I don't want to make a habit of it, though there are some other political-ish things I'd like to hear people's thoughts about, so maybe I'll finish the other post I was writing at some point after all... Maybe. We'll see.

Anyway, hopefully everything will just be boringly settled within a week and Donald Trump's removal from power will be smooth and without incident!

19 COMMENTS

kasheeste2133~4Y

Yeah... definitely not something to be discussing if you're trying to eventually market a product.

Tobias 1115~4Y

Unlike the other stuff I've posted for years on this blog which paints me as a wonderfully professional and stable-minded person.

kasheeste2133~4Y

Apples and oranges, you don't need to be professional but you do need to be respectable. Plenty of folks in the creative/artistic fields have been unstable, some to the degree of being absolute raving lunatics. Goya, Van Gogh, Carlo, Hemingway, literally any of the great existential writers... if I recall, Ezra Pound spent a few decades in the loony bin and that's just off of the top of my head. Politics crosses a bridge, it is a transition from an unfortunate soul offering a glimpse into their world into one looking to use their influence to affect those around them which most find generally distasteful.

Tobias 1115~4Y

Fair enough! I used this blog to vent, and I'm far more interested in the psychology of belief formation since I have a degree in that field and the stuff I'm creating plays around with it, but I suppose it's not really possible to comment about anything political without seeming like you're trying to judge or direct how people think.

TheFifteenthMember9~4Y

It’s a shame that’s how the world is. I found this post to be an insightful read and always enjoy reading Tobias’ honest perspective.

Tobias: You must be bummed out as a creator to have limits on what is acceptable to post about but if it’s any consolation, it bums me out as the reader too.

MontyCallay101~4Y

People getting partisan about politics? Say it ain't so!

Yeah, the past few weeks have been very heavy with US election coverage. I hope it will be over soon. My expectation is that Biden (who already leads the popular vote by 4 million votes, mind - not that that matters) will win the electoral college, and then things will gradually fizzle out - I don't think Trump is in any position to openly ignore or dismiss the election results, and I personally doubt that the supreme court would back what would essentially be a coup attempt. Though, as is my understanding, Biden won't win the senate, which will make the next government somewhat of a legislative lame duck. Maybe there's a positive side to that in that it'll force the parties to compromise in order to deal with the crisis at hand! Eh, but we'll see. I try to be an optimist in these things, where I can.

I've always found US politics to be the worst example of what a democratic political system could be like! The degree of partisanship in the eternal struggle of those two parties is just insane, to the extent where people would gleefully and enthusiastically vote for a president Totthrottler as long as it meant the other side wouldn't get their way. And when I say people, I specifically mean Republicans - one can only try to emphasise with both sides for so long when one of them is spewing the lion's share of fearmongering, violent rhetoric. The Democrats were stumbling over their feet in order to find the most bland, inoffensive "electable" candidate possible, for crying out loud! They're not a party of extremists in the slightest, no matter what the Orange Man may claim.

What you're saying is right though! People tend to be tribalistic, especially when it comes to closely held beliefs. But why, is your guess, is it so much worse in the US? Political discourse over there is indeed so poisonous that a lot of people seem to be incapable of understanding the other side's view, and that surely goes for both sides to an extent. I think that's fairly well established at this stage! Frankly, I blame the media for a lot of it. When people gravitate to their own political media bubbles, that's when things start to go wrong. The internet hasn't exactly helped with that either, to say the least.

From how you describe that Reddit thread, it sounds as if those people were just making some very cheap jokes at the expense of that conservative fellow! In reality, right-wingers surely would be a lot less dangerous if they couldn't also be smart, after all. I'm not even sure if I'd describe Reddit as far-left just because they have a lot of regulars with more liberal viewpoints. But maybe that's nitpicking!

People getting partisan about politics? Say it ain't so!

Yeah, the past few weeks have been very heavy with US election coverage. I hope it will be over soon. My expectation is that Biden (who already leads the popular vote by 4 million votes, mind - not that that matters) will win the electoral college, and then things will gradually fizzle out - I don't think Trump is in any position to openly ignore or dismiss the election results, and I personally doubt that the supreme court would back what would essentially be a coup attempt. Though, as is my understanding, Biden won't win the senate, which will make the next government somewhat of a legislative lame duck. Maybe there's a positive side to that in that it'll force the parties to compromise in order to deal with the crisis at hand! Eh, but we'll see. I try to be an optimist in these things, where I can.

I've always found US politics to be the worst example of what a democratic political system could be like! The degree of partisanship in the eternal struggle of those two parties is just insane, to the extent where people would gleefully and enthusiastically vote for a president Totthrottler as long as it meant the other side wouldn't get their way. And when I say people, I specifically mean Republicans - one can only try to emphasise with both sides for so long when one of them is spewing the lion's share of fearmongering, violent rhetoric. The Democrats were stumbling over their feet in order to find the most bland, inoffensive "electable" candidate possible, for crying out loud! They're not a party of extremists in the slightest, no matter what the Orange Man may claim.

What you're saying is right though! People tend to be tribalistic, especially when it comes to closely held beliefs. But why, is your guess, is it so much worse in the US? Political discourse over there is indeed so poisonous that a lot of people seem to be incapable of understanding the other side's view, and that surely goes for both sides to an extent. I think that's fairly well established at this stage! Frankly, I blame the media for a lot of it. When people gravitate to their own political media bubbles, that's when things start to go wrong. The internet hasn't exactly helped with that either, to say the least.

From how you describe that Reddit thread, it sounds as if those people were just making some very cheap jokes at the expense of that conservative fellow! In reality, right-wingers surely would be a lot less dangerous if they couldn't also be smart, after all. I'm not even sure if I'd describe Reddit as far-left just because they have a lot of regulars with more liberal viewpoints. But maybe that's nitpicking!

kasheeste2133~4Y

Rather spot on, you had me at "Frankly, I blame the media for a lot of it." It's gone substantially past Don Henley's Dirty Laundry to the point of them outright pushing an agenda. As to the last paragraph I'm also largely in agreement, simply put and as the results of the election show (look beyond the presidency) as a whole 'liberals' anymore are more in line with the right than they are with the the far left progressives. True liberals don't want violence or "reeducation camps"and denounce the whole neo-segregationist agenda the progressives are pushing. The only problem I have with your last statement is regardless of the inclinations of its users Reddit as an entity is absolutely far left as the countless examples of censorship, manipulation and other attempts at preventing the free flow of information and ideas will attest.

MontyCallay101~4Y

Certainly the media thing has gone out of control in recent years. The job of journalists should be, at least in part, to hold the government accountable - compare that to Fox News, which up until now has been gleefully acting as an amplifier and apologist for essentially everything Trump and his government have said or done. At least they seem to be having second thoughts right about now.

I personally have major doubts as to Reddit being a "far left entity". When they're banning people from their platform, they're simply enforcing their terms of service, and I don't see them as being unduly discriminatory in that regard. At the end of the day, they're beholden more to their own profits than any specific political ideals.

I hope you're not serious about the progressive "neo-segregationist agenda" and progressives pushing "reeducation camps", by the way. That's the sort of thing where believing that would make finding political common ground very difficult, and it doesn't seem in touch with reality to me.

I personally have major doubts as to Reddit being a "far left entity". When they're banning people from their platform, they're simply enforcing their terms of service, and I don't see them as being unduly discriminatory in that regard. At the end of the day, they're beholden more to their own profits than any specific political ideals.

I hope you're not serious about the progressive "neo-segregationist agenda" and progressives pushing "reeducation camps", by the way. That's the sort of thing where believing that would make finding political common ground very difficult, and it doesn't seem in touch with reality to me.

kasheeste2133~4Y

Far and large the largest example is the banning The_Donald, (proceeded by sending messages to its participants threatening the users themselves with bans for participating in the sub), then you have vastly different applications in various other 'rules' such as brigading and threatening violence. Prior to that you had the shaddowbanning and altered numbers regarding the subs members. (idr specific numbers but the sub had a claimed 100k members except for when it came to purchasing adds on it suddenly it had closer to a million) Prior to that blatant political attack, I don't know if you recall the interview from a few years age where Steve Huffman (CEO) admits to editing user comments to reflect poorly upon conservative personalities which quite frankly if there is any question at this point then I can't open your eyes to what you don't want to see.

As for the whole 'neo segregationalists' I get it, the prefix 'neo' is scary but you have the same resources as I do, look it up. Might I recommend the National Association of Scholars report of its occurrence at Yale. (I'm nice here it is, rather long:[LINK]%20at%20Yale/NeoSegregation_at_Yale.pdf ) Sparing so many sentiments, folks have been working on equality and integration for centuries and suddenly these progressives want to go back to 'separate but equal', critical race theory, safe spaces for different races, as we saw last month in that Washington(?) library holding different training programs for whites and others, just two days ago California proposition 16 (thankfully defeated) which attempted to REMOVE the clause in their state constitution prohibiting discrimination. Reach your own conclusion but I will state and stand by the assertion that it is absurd, immoral and an attempt to divide and a time when unity is needed most.

Side note to Mr. Tobias: doesn't it kindof defeat the purpose of the "Comment is awaiting approval" if you get the "someone has replied, here is what it says" emai instantly with no way to respond until said comment is actually approved? Not a huge deal and probably not worth fixing but pick a side and stick with it.

As for the whole 'neo segregationalists' I get it, the prefix 'neo' is scary but you have the same resources as I do, look it up. Might I recommend the National Association of Scholars report of its occurrence at Yale. (I'm nice here it is, rather long:https://www.nas.org/storage/app/media/Reports/NeoSeg%20at%20Yale/NeoSegregation_at_Yale.pdf ) Sparing so many sentiments, folks have been working on equality and integration for centuries and suddenly these progressives want to go back to 'separate but equal', critical race theory, safe spaces for different races, as we saw last month in that Washington(?) library holding different training programs for whites and others, just two days ago California proposition 16 (thankfully defeated) which attempted to REMOVE the clause in their state constitution prohibiting discrimination. Reach your own conclusion but I will state and stand by the assertion that it is absurd, immoral and an attempt to divide and a time when unity is needed most.

Side note to Mr. Tobias: doesn't it kindof defeat the purpose of the "Comment is awaiting approval" if you get the "someone has replied, here is what it says" emai instantly with no way to respond until said comment is actually approved? Not a huge deal and probably not worth fixing but pick a side and stick with it.

kidupiscean37~4Y

No matter how bad a democratic political system may be, it is still better than authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Suppression of freedom. Living in constant fear unless you obey the government completely. Hong Kong is dying as its democracy is fading.

Dingding32167~4Y

Hong Kong was colonial to begin with, not democratic-- the British treated the locals well only when it suited their political agenda. Each political system has their own advantages and disadvantages, especially when taken to the extreme. Politics is highly subjective and divisive because personal opinion has a chance to affect other people's behavior, which isn't really under one's control usually.

kidupiscean37~4Y

You're definitely correct to say that Hong Kong was not democratic to begin with. It was moving towards the direction of increasing democracy before the handover of sovereignty, but now under the rule of the CCP of China, it's back to the starting point and even way backwards in many aspects.

Spectre35~4Y

Welp. I'll say that talking about politics isn't going to help you sell a poduct because whichever side you're on, you'll upset some potiential buyers. Unless your target audience are on the same side with you.

I'm a centrist and I feel like the lefts on the internet are very good at pushing people away. They're not good at persuading people on the outside, at all. For every 1 name called from the right, I got 10 from the left. Another thing about these 'libleft' is that once they got some power, they'll abuse it and shut down the opposition just like the auths. AHS and animemes (the biggest subreddit drama of the year, probably) are good examples. Then we have the right doing crazy stuff since recorded history so there's not much to talk about them.

MF11~4Y

First, I think you'll find this really interesting, the "us vs them" mentality is present even in babies a few months old
[LINK]

Second, when talking about politics, people far too often get caught up in the more superficial aspects (which are usually also very important), oblivious to the fact that they're mainly determined by the material conditions of human existence. The current political situation in the US simply cannot be understood while overlooking the fact that the majority of the people have been increasingly struggling to survive/pay their bills over the last decades. (Meanwhile, the wealth of the upper class has skyrocketed). That results in all the hopelessness, discontent and hate we're seeing, please take a look at these two links:

[LINK] [LINK]

kalkra19~4Y

While I'm not a Trump supporter, nor did I vote for him, I don't think the alien vs. rapist comparison was exactly fair. Or if it was, I don't think it was presented correctly. A study showed that most Americans prefer Trump's policies to Biden's, and pre-virus most Americans thought they were better off under Trump than they were under Obama. Heck, a pretty significant minority currently feel they're better off now than they were four years ago. In all the previous elections, those were the best predictors of whether a president could be re-elected.

While there are a lot of people who genuinely love Trump (I'm assuming, the turnout at his rallies is massive), ultimately, conservatives vote more based on who they think would be a better president, and liberals vote more based on who they think is a better person.

Obligatory references to Bill Clinton, Hunter Biden, and Tara Reade.

With regards to the video, while it was obviously exaggerated, I think part of the point it was making was that most, if not all, of the "normal people" considered themselves to be on the left. I don't think it was saying that all leftists are like that, I think it was saying that there's a very vocal minority among the left who push everyone else away and can legitimately ruin people's lives through the power of outrage and cancel culture. So while it ended up being pro-right, it didn't even really address any of the actual issues.

That being said, that vocal minority is the only type of leftist a lot of people ever really see, so it's understandable if those people feel like they're representative of the entire group. I think a lot of people who supported Trump initially did so because they felt under attack and Trump was the only person they saw punching back.

Interestingly, this election Trump has been doing better than he did in 2016 among every race and gender except white men.

To clarify again, because people on the internet scare me, I'm not saying I like Trump, nor did I vote for him (I voted Libertarian), and I certainly don't think he's a good person, and I don't even think the election's that big a deal, because regardless of who wins, the system is designed to stop the President from wrecking too much, and four years from now we'll have someone else anyway.

Also, while I'm pontificating here, I'll mention that while I don't like anything about this election, I don't think it shows anything fundamentally wrong with the election system, and I don't think it's proof that we need to abolish the electoral college and the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court and add more states and establish a parliamentary system, as I've seen some people suggest.

While there are a lot of people who genuinely love Trump (I'm assuming, the turnout at his rallies is massive), ultimately, conservatives vote more based on who they think would be a better president, and liberals vote more based on who they think is a better person.

Obligatory references to Bill Clinton, Hunter Biden, and Tara Reade.

With regards to the video, while it was obviously exaggerated, I think part of the point it was making was that most, if not all, of the "normal people" considered themselves to be on the left. I don't think it was saying that all leftists are like that, I think it was saying that there's a very vocal minority among the left who push everyone else away and can legitimately ruin people's lives through the power of outrage and cancel culture. So while it ended up being pro-right, it didn't even really address any of the actual issues.

That being said, that vocal minority is the only type of leftist a lot of people ever really see, so it's understandable if those people feel like they're representative of the entire group. I think a lot of people who supported Trump initially did so because they felt under attack and Trump was the only person they saw punching back.

Interestingly, this election Trump has been doing better than he did in 2016 among every race and gender except white men.

To clarify again, because people on the internet scare me, I'm not saying I like Trump, nor did I vote for him (I voted Libertarian), and I certainly don't think he's a good person, and I don't even think the election's that big a deal, because regardless of who wins, the system is designed to stop the President from wrecking too much, and four years from now we'll have someone else anyway.

Also, while I'm pontificating here, I'll mention that while I don't like anything about this election, I don't think it shows anything fundamentally wrong with the election system, and I don't think it's proof that we need to abolish the electoral college and the filibuster and pack the Supreme Court and add more states and establish a parliamentary system, as I've seen some people suggest.

LevProtter42~4Y

Lol, the title is quite fitting. I refuse to engage in any of it. In my country we have had 3 elections fall through because nobody can form a coalition.

The mental weather thing has been weird for me. I found some of it lifting as winter arrived... Which shouldn't be the case. I think.

About politics, I personally find the dynamics of such large groups to be mind numbing and boring.
The moment certain problems get to certain scales, solutions are a no go, and emergent oddities are the norm. To me, small groups of humans are interesting, and can collaborate in interesting ways, while political masses are just a form of hijacked AI, constantly feeding itself at the expense of otherwise good people.

About game marketing (which does interest me a bit.), I saw a GDC talk that mentioned twitter in comparison to Email Newsletters (it was a wholesale endorsement of Newsletters.)
[LINK]

I found the talk to be interesting (though I am a bit skeptical about email in general...)
He brings examples of games that used things like character letters to fans, cross game promotional stuff, demos etc to 'engage' fans and get them to buy a game.
The approach made me think of how much of what you do can be adapted to that sort of marketing without too much effort on your part.
Things like lore tidbits, beasteary entries, character cards, old mardek walkthroughs...could all be part of a steady stream of Newsletter stuff.
Of course you first need people to sign up.

Anyway, blah politics, I think sports are just a better version of it which can scratch that same tribal itch.

Lol, the title is quite fitting. I refuse to engage in any of it. In my country we have had 3 elections fall through because nobody can form a coalition.

The mental weather thing has been weird for me. I found some of it lifting as winter arrived... Which shouldn't be the case. I think.

About politics, I personally find the dynamics of such large groups to be mind numbing and boring.
The moment certain problems get to certain scales, solutions are a no go, and  emergent oddities are the norm. To me, small groups of humans are interesting, and can collaborate in interesting ways, while political masses are just a form of hijacked AI, constantly feeding itself at the expense of otherwise good people.

About game marketing (which does interest me a bit.), I saw a GDC talk that mentioned twitter in comparison to Email Newsletters (it was a wholesale endorsement of Newsletters.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ5H6DeaKKs

I found the talk to be interesting (though I am a bit skeptical about email in general...)
He brings examples of games that used things like character letters to fans, cross game promotional stuff, demos etc to 'engage' fans and get them to buy a game.
The approach made me think of how much of what you do can be adapted to that sort of marketing without too much effort on your part.
Things like lore tidbits, beasteary entries, character cards, old mardek walkthroughs...could all be part of a steady stream of Newsletter stuff.
Of course you first need people to sign up.

Anyway, blah politics, I think sports are just a better version of it which can scratch that same tribal itch.

MaxDes45~4Y

Hmm.. as someone that’s very progressive, I’m very passionate about politics and I feel like it’s something that everyone should be invested in, because, well, politics affects everyone. I see your point about people on both sides getting too mean to others. Why can’t they just be nice? Why do they throw pleasantries out the window and lose respect for opposing sides? It’s so counterintuitive, but honestly I can understand where the left comes from when they do this. For a lot of leftists (including me), US politics isn’t about left-wing policies versus right-wing policies. Leftists see US politics as “respecting civil rights” versus “taking civil rights away from people.” I’m biased of course, but I think this is a very objective perception; in Trump’s four years, he has done a lot to remove civil rights from other groups. Trump’s administration erased civil rights protections for transgender people in health care- trans people can now be discriminated against in hospitals and the federal law won’t recognize it as discrimination. Trump has banned Transgender people from serving in the military, Trump fought to allow adoption agencies to discriminate against people who are LGBT, Trump has allowed children to be kept in actual cages at our borders (and terrible things have been done to these children!), the list goes on and on. I can’t imagine being in foster care and potentially being adopted only to not be because your organization decided to discriminate against a gay couple. You can’t choose which foster care system you’re born into!

That’s why I understand why leftists can get so angry at people on the right or centrists; for leftists, the issue of civil rights is a black and white issue. You’re either anti-racist, or you’re racist. When someone’s who’s politically knowledged doesn’t have a big preference between the left or right, it means “erasing civil rights” isn’t a deal breaker for them. (Erasing civil rights isn’t just a trump thing: it’s something in the entire conservative party. Trump is allowed to do these things because conservative politicians support him.) US politics has become such a personal thing for leftists because one party is working to take away civil rights.

As someone who is LGBT, I feel like not having a political preference or having political apathy is a sign of privilege. As in- you don’t need to worry about civil rights because your civil rights aren’t at risk at being taken away. *Your* children would never be put in cages. *You* will never experience the discrimination that trans people face in health care. So why would *you* need to concern yourself with something as mundane as politics?? (I don’t mean this as a slight towards anyone) Alas, this comment is probably off putting to some people. My apologies if I offended anyone. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind, but if you read this far, I hope my perspective has been at least a little helpful.

That’s why I understand why leftists can get so angry at people on the right or centrists; for leftists, the issue of civil rights is a black and white issue. You’re either anti-racist, or you’re racist. When someone’s who’s politically knowledged doesn’t have a big preference between the left or right, it means “erasing civil rights” isn’t a deal breaker for them. (Erasing civil rights isn’t just a trump thing: it’s something in the entire conservative party. Trump is allowed to do these things because conservative politicians support him.) US politics has become such a personal thing for leftists because one party is working to take away civil rights.

As someone who is LGBT, I feel like not having a political preference or having political apathy is a sign of privilege. As in- you don’t need to worry about civil rights because your civil rights aren’t at risk at being taken away. *Your* children would never be put in cages. *You* will never experience the discrimination that trans people face in health care. So why would *you* need to concern yourself with something as mundane as politics?? (I don’t mean this as a slight towards anyone) Alas, this comment is probably off putting to some people. My apologies if I offended anyone. I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind, but if you read this far, I hope my perspective has been at least a little helpful.

Wolf21~4Y

I think your political persuasion is likely pretty clear to anyone who has followed your work over time, especially your blog posts. You might be more a-political, or perhaps more of a centrist than you appear due to your tendency to look at your biases (as is pretty evident in this post as well), and your ability to comically exaggerate, but I think it's evident from your work across your games. Especially stuff like trying to steer away from fighting in your games - doubly so when you're known for a genre that relies heavily on combat - tends to be affiliated with one traditional political side than another.

I think it's important to air your opinions and have them challenged. It's all well and good for someone to make a snap judgement based on what you're saying but you've always been the sort of person that would take time to have a discussion with someone if they questioned WHY it was you believed in something- rather than quash that conversation.

Then again I'm fairly biased from being around for so long. It might be a bad idea, because people can come and make snap judgements based on the first post they read - and not see beyond that - and that might have an effect over time. I personally don't think so, but it's a choice you should make yourself. If you think of yourself as a public figure, which you are to a degree already, you should think of how you want others to see you and make judgements from there. I think the way you have presented yourself online over the years wins more friends than it does enemies, but you're always going to encounter people who don't like what you have to say - no matter how you comport yourself.

I think it's important to air your opinions and have them challenged. It's all well and good for someone to make a snap judgement based on what you're saying but you've always been the sort of person that would take time to have a discussion with someone if they questioned WHY it was you believed in something- rather than quash that conversation.

Then again I'm fairly biased from being around for so long. It might be a bad idea, because people can come and make snap judgements based on the first post they read - and not see beyond that - and that might have an effect over time. I personally don't think so, but it's a choice you should make yourself. If you think of yourself as a public figure, which you are to a degree already, you should think of how you want others to see you and make judgements from there. I think the way you have presented yourself online over the years wins more friends than it does enemies, but you're always going to encounter people who don't like what you have to say - no matter how you comport yourself.

Ptyrell37~4Y

I've had one thought stuck in my head this past week, which in a sense is similar to your group psychology interest in the election; after the last 4 years, including all the events of 2020, 70 million people voted for Trump. Sure a chunk of that are single-issue voters (just like there are single-issue voters on the left), but at least tens of millions of people think that 4 more years of Trump is what the US needs. It makes me think of how vastly different the human experience is for different people. Tens of millions of people whose lives and experiences led them to a point that when faced with the same evidence as me chose to make the polar opposite decision when evaluating who should lead this country. It is certainly a humbling thought, and forces one to really try and expand their understanding of others.