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Comment by phroobster | Hacker News Reader

I am so tired of constantly hearing about politics at my workplace. Politics have already made their way into the tv shows, music, video games, and online forums that I enjoy. At least let me disconnect from that outrage-fuel at work. It also affects team cohesion. I can easily collaborate with just about anyone when I don’t know their political beliefs. As soon as I find out someone holds opposing views on a topic I feel strongly about, I can’t help but dread my interactions with them. I would strongly prefer to not know what my coworkers think about (most) non-work related topics.

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Were your TV shows, video games, etc really lacking in politics before? Or was it just a different kind of politics? (Honest question.)

I think it boils down to lacking in writing. I used to watch shows that had a lot of political statements made through their worldbuilding and character interactions. These were good stories because to find a political message there you had to think about it and draw parallels yourself. More modern shows tent to just outright mention current political movements IRL or just straight up lecture people by characters doing speeches. It's very distracting because it clearly breaks away from the flow of the show. Even if the lecture is something I 100% on board with it may feel even worse because it feels like the show insults my intelligence.

It was less blatant. As another poster mentioned, the politics was part of the narrative. The GamerGate debacle was a big shifting point, where video games have become another cultural battlefield. I'm not picking on one side or the other, I just want to enjoy my video games in peace without people calling each other SJWs or racists or sexists.

Just as an example, there was a huge kerfuffle in Battlefield a few years ago because they added black and female playable characters. They proceeded to shove it in everyone's face so we could be in awe of how progressive they are, and then the counterparty threw a huge fit about how those people would not have been combatants in WWI. I don't particularly care either way about the change, because it doesn't impact my gameplay. I do care that for a while the entire community focused in on this one aspect that has almost nothing to do with the game itself. It makes me dislike both sides, because they're both getting in the way of the game.

The commmon joke goes something like this. Video gamers think there are only:

* Two races: white and ""political""

* Two genders: male and ""political""

* Two sexualities: straight and ""political""

* Two body types: normative and ""political""

Many modern US "conservatives" complain that Star Trek is political, and when it was Kirk and Picard it wasn't. It's hilarious.

They complained about Picard. I wasn’t allowed to watch it as a kid because my parents didn’t like the political agenda (my guess, though I’ve never asked them, is they thought it was communist/ anticaptitalist due to the absence of money).

Many modern US "conservatives" complain that Star Trek is political, and when it was Kirk and Picard it wasn't.

If you said that you didn't like Kirk, he's an unbelievable badly-written over-the-top Mary Sue character, noone would call you an anti-Semite because Shatner happens to be Jewish.

Now do Michael Burnham.

People bringing their biases is not the same as people ramming in their toxic politics.

It used to be possible to do new things without being toxic. E.g. Ripley vs the female Doctor Who.

Making you uncomfortable is the point. An opressed person doesn't get to opt-out of politics about opresssion.

Everyone is oppressed in some way. Unfortunately, everyone loses in the oppression Olympics. If you are oppressing others that you assume aren't oppressed enough, then you are an oppressor and the cycle continues.

If everyone is opressed in some way - I agree - then my conclusion is that we should realise we all benefit from being allowed to opt-into the politics of those opressions. Many of my employment rights were or are political arenas.

Agree and resonate with my personal observation. I've personally completely and utterly stopped following politics. I do follow local elections and things that affect me and my neighborhood (HOA, municipality decisions, etc.).

What we're seeing is an emergence of anti-political movement that is directly in response to the echo-chambered, uncivilized and nauseating social media that's profited from this rage. Twitter and Facebook along with the entire for-profit media machine is going to be historically marked as the dark footnote of human disgrace, greed and exceptional lack of responsibility.

I predict that the anti-political movement is going to take off and pick up steam in the intellectual circles. We're exhausted and I can feel it.

> I predict that the anti-political movement is going to take off and pick up steam in the intellectual circles.

Only in anti-intellectual circles could an anti-political movement take off. Anyone with even a shred of intellect understands how important politics is for everyday life and that being anti-political means "I will have to accept what others decide for me without any recourse."

Politics may be an uncomfortable topic, but it's still a very important one.

I've just received an email asking me for more for a work permit application to work in the netherlands in a few months. More cost, more expense, less agility.

This is a direct result of retired people voting to leave the UK.

Politics matters, and votes have consequences. Sadly with many votes, the consequences are disproportionately felt by the ones that lose the vote.

Oh no you have to fill in a form! You must lead a pretty nice life if that's a major concern of yours.

Sorry if I come across as an a-hole, but seeing what's been happening in the world in the last year you'd think people would become a little more resilient.

Imagine if someone in New Jersey had to apply for permission to work in New York

> As soon as I find out someone holds opposing views on a topic I feel strongly about, I can’t help but dread my interactions with them.

I'm of the opinion that all views that my colleagues have that are not related to the work at hand does not/should not affect how we work together at all.

I've been hearing my colleagues personal political opinion, the spectrum goes to both ends. I personally don't mind at all, I'm more sensitive to code quality and bugs.

So would you be ok with a colleague spouting far right Nazi propaganda?

Depend on how you define that.

I know for sure some would consider what I was hearing exactly that, but most wouldn't.

I've never heard a single personal opinion that I would consider actual Nazi or Confederate though.

I miss all those old video games without politics.

Nothing political at all about escaping from Castle Wolfenstein and killing Hitler in the process.

No politics in Final Fantasy 7, just some lively ecoterrorists saving the world from an exploitative totalitarian megacorporation that's destroying the environment.

Or indeed in BioShock, a game that certainly wasn't a satire of Ayn Rand libertarianism of the sort that enchants many a Valley VC/founder.

I miss playing Call of Duty/Rainbow Six/other shooters where you could just grab an assault rifle as a serving member of the US military and shoot a bunch of Bad Guys, which had absolutely no politics in it at all.

It sure is a shame the terrible awful SJWs made games political because they let you play as a girl, or put two gay characters kissing for ten seconds in a cutscene.

I'm going to stop playing games and instead go and read a book I've just bought called 'Animal Farm'. I'm sure it isn't a metaphor for anything. I bet Star Trek hasn't got any politics in it either.

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