Today, a little video about the SJW hypocrisies, including with regard to depicting non-European cultures in your RPG settings.

Also, what you should really do if you're using non-European cultures in your settings (hint: it's not 'listen to the SJWs').

Enjoy!


[video=youtube_share;ZbFqDWaNQD4]https://youtu.be/ZbFqDWaNQD4[/youtube]

"Today"...you liar. I already watched this last week.

But, yes, the underlying premise is sound. Never capitulate to SJWs because you can never win.

Correct; you can never win.

Just ignore the SJWs.

Eric Weinstein talked about these types of conflicting ideologies.  It is a great way to create cognitive dissonance in someone when you point it out.

Boomer talking points.

As usual, this is also creeping into board gaming too. Except with an added helping of segregation now with statements like "Only someone from (insert race or culture here) should be allowed to write about or do art for a product." Something to this degree was actually stated by people over on BGG.

So
You are racist if you depict the race right. Because you are appropriating their (insert race or culture here)!
You are racist if you use a made up race or culture. Because it is really (insert race or culture here)! Even when it is obviously not.
You are racist if you do either of the two above because you are not the right (insert race or culture here).

And if it hasn't happened allready it will eventually...

You are racist if you do any of the three above even if you are the right (insert race or culture here) because you are not the right (insert race or culture here) enough. You monster!

And if they cant nail you even then then they will just make something up.

"Oh you are very black and from Africa and this is an accurate representation of your tribes culture? Well you are RACIST because this tribe is REALLY representing the oppression of this other race we pulled out of a hat at random! You monster!"

You are so racist, Omega, for daring to discuss made-up racism :-P !

Looks like you reached 1K subscribers!

Quote from: Brad;1083334Never capitulate to SJWs because you can never win.

Mocking them is way more fun than capitulating.

Setting your game in the real world but ignoring real-world cultures tends to be either revisionist or outright racist.  Here's an article refuting claims by White Supremacists that medieval Europe was purely white.  Allowing Ahmed ibn Fadlan in your Viking game is a good thing and supported by both media and likely history.  Not letting people play real-world cultures they identify with isn't usually rooted in 'historical accuracy'.  A lot of people who don't know their history want white Romans speaking in British accents and forget people like Saint Maurice who was understood to be black and venerated until the Atlantic Slave Trade made an issue of his race (or rather, that ignoring him was easier than confronting the humanity of Africans which would undermine the basis on which chattel slavery was based).  

If you're in a completely fantasy world, having a wide variety of cultures, skin-tones and beliefs is also important.  Where it can stray to racism is if one group is ALWAYS EVIL, especially if they're easily identified by their race.  This is particularly true if a race is understood to stand in for a real race and is depicted in a way where they're universally despicable, that's a problem.  I've heard people try to explain how 'orcs are really blacks' and if that's your position, well, that's racist.  

When you're describing cultures broadly (as you must in any gazetteer), it's easy to fall into the trap of making the group TOO consistent.  For example, Americans have a reputation for being exceptionally friendly (ie, they'll talk to strangers and smile a lot), but that's certainly not true of EVERY American.  The most salient features of any group likely apply to only a subset of them; over-featuring those group traits creates a caricature.  Depending on the nature of it, it can seem mean-spirited.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1083541Setting your game in the real world but ignoring real-world cultures tends to be either revisionist or outright racist.  Here's an article refuting claims by White Supremacists that medieval Europe was purely white.  Allowing Ahmed ibn Fadlan in your Viking game is a good thing and supported by both media and likely history.  

Anyone claiming medieval Europe was completely white is an idiot. However, anyone who believes a village in Northrumbria in 1200 AD had the demographics of a Seattle Starbucks is also an idiot. Busy port cities in pre-modern times tended to be ethnically diverse. The countryside (where 90 per cent of people lived) did not. The vast majority of people never ventured further than 50 miles from where they were born. And any outsider who did arrive would be subsumed into the local populace within a generation or two.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1083541If you're in a completely fantasy world, having a wide variety of cultures, skin-tones and beliefs is also important.  

In cosmopolitan cities? Sure. In rural baronies and among the gentry? No way. It just doesn't make any sense. Again, the small numbers of foreigners from far away are quickly subsumed into the local population, and of course landed gentry don't marry outside the landed gentry.
 

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1083541When you're describing cultures broadly (as you must in any gazetteer), it's easy to fall into the trap of making the group TOO consistent.  For example, Americans have a reputation for being exceptionally friendly (ie, they'll talk to strangers and smile a lot), but that's certainly not true of EVERY American.  The most salient features of any group likely apply to only a subset of them; over-featuring those group traits creates a caricature.  Depending on the nature of it, it can seem mean-spirited.

But fantasy is a genre leans heavily on caricature and simplistic tropes. Dwarves love ale, wield axes, and have Scottish accents. Etc. I'm all for defying those tropes. But they're tropes not because of bigotry, but because of comfort and laziness.

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1083541Setting your game in the real world but ignoring real-world cultures tends to be either revisionist or outright racist.  Here's an article refuting claims by White Supremacists that medieval Europe was purely white.

You are using an article about a completely nutballs guy who liked Bernie Sanders?

Quote from: deadDMwalking;1083541Here's an article refuting claims by White Supremacists that medieval Europe was purely white.

Absolute drivel on par with that proposed UK textbook that turned a few African legionnaires, a small minority in the Britannia garrison, into "the first humans in the British isles were black".

QuoteAllowing Ahmed ibn Fadlan in your Viking game is a good thing and supported by both media and likely history.

Bolded is disturbingly ominous. The player might be excellent at depicting his character and fun for the table and the DM could allow the concept for those exact reasons, but having a Saracen present in a totally ahistoric context is not "a good thing" in and of itself.

QuoteDepending on the nature of it, it can seem mean-spirited.

Utter nonsense. Play a low-level forest gnome in my Underdark campaign and get eaten by a roper, play a low-level svirfneblin and walk safely away. That's not "mean-spirited", it's the nature of the world the characters inhabit.

If you don't have SJW freaks at your table, you never have to worry about this bullshit.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1083637If you don't have SJW freaks at your table, you never have to worry about this bullshit.

Greetings!

Indeed, my friend! Everyone that I play with at my private games have almost always been friends, family, or friends and other family members they have vouched for. Everyone that plays with me is very well aware of my views on life--and they are also largely in full agreement. I would never invite an SJW to my group--and nor would any of my friends or family. It's just a non-starter from the get-go, you know? SJW's have so much fucked up thinking and ideology, it seems like some kind of huge drama clusterfuck is guaranteed to happen, sooner rather than later. I had plenty of these morons at my college days; more than a few at work; every fucking day in the news and politics--I certainly have zero patience or tolerance for them at my game table.

I have one group that is made up of all military veterans, mostly Marines, though also others. All men. Drinking, smoking cigars. An SJW coming into that group would think they stepped into a tent full of Ghengis Khans. Can you just imagine the sobbing fit an SJW would have in such a group? All of these terrible monsters that are pro-gun, pro-America, and loudly and *relentlessly* anti-SJW in every way. Man, the non-stop, Drill-Instructor monologues about whining, feminized snowflakes would be never-ending! Of course, even without any SJW's around whatesoever, that group of mine routinely reminisces and commentates on current events and shit in a most brutal and unforgiving manner as a matter of course. Lots of laughs and fun, as you can well-imagine, my friend! The antics, expressions and voices some of my friends use, geesus, some of them missed their calling as comedians for damned sure!:D

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK