Mark David Johansen
Danielle ForéYour regular reminder that if you have a “no politics” rule, what you really have is a community that is only welcoming to straight white cis men
It’s like that joke, “Are you a straight white cis man or are you political/a porn category?”
Time@danirabbit did autocorrect get the latter part of that slash?
Shiri (she/they)@timecraft @danirabbit I'm pretty sure that's as intended, a short funny way of noting how minorities are often fetishized
We could probably add “neurotypical”, “able bodied”, and “affluent” to this list tbh. The world is really only made for a very specific subset of men
@danirabbit Also Christian
sarah gilbert@ajbrennan @danirabbit this was going to be my addition!
Flaming Cheeto@danirabbit Christian but not super Christian
KikoKate@danirabbit T. H. I. S.
Z@danirabbit false. I have a Discord server for a gaming community I maintain. I declared No Politics (though I'm thinking about withdrawing it), and the community has both trans people and women. There was zero problem about it, ever. I'm the only mod and nobody ever complained.
Do not project your own negative experiences to everyone in the entire planet. Life has niches.
@smicur @danirabbit just curious: are you a straight cis white man?
9th level spell slut@sarahgilbert @smicur @danirabbit the server i run for discussion of my game has a "no politics" rule and i'm not straight, cis, or a man. i just don't want to have to deal with people fighting about which branch of leftism is the best or whatever.
"no politics" can be used to enforce hegemony, but that doesn't mean it always is.
Sipuli911@hierarchon @sarahgilbert @smicur @danirabbit 100%. Could never be a part of a gaming community that discussed politics. I'm there to game, not to find out why everyone else except for you is voting wrong. The no politics rule is awesome for communities that aren't trying to deal with real life stuff.
@sarahgilbert @danirabbit I'd say my profile gave it away. 😁
It doesn't discredit or belittle my experience, though.
Kraftwerk-Das Model Collapse@smicur so what do you do when someone posts e.g. racist crap? Banning them is political. Not banning them is, too.
Damon Outlaw @smicur @danirabbit I was coming to second this. I too have a server for a gaming community. We do not allow political talk nor do we offer a venting channel. We try our hardest to make it a safe and enjoyable space for our members. We are open to everyone
Woodrow Douglass@danirabbit or maybe I want to carve out one place on the internet that's not relentlessly depressing. Is it too much to want to focus on things I'm interested in, rather than bickering and staring into the abyss? "No politics" means id like to talk about programming or movies or something, and id like to stop hearing about our shitty government for like 2 seconds. Anyone is welcome.
Southern Leftist@danirabbit
We must be woke.
Aware of injustice, inequity, and discrimination.
#StayWoke y'all.
KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO THIS COUNTRY.
valsombra@danirabbit I appreciate the sentiment, but I have generally found that since many straight white cis men are incapable of leaving their politics at the door, those spaces are often unintentionally queer and safe.
sneak@danirabbit i'm not sure this conclusion follows from the premise
Barry Parr@danirabbit to be fair, straight, cis, white women are having a field day on that apolitical hellscape Nextdoor
Jorkkeli@danirabbit BS. I'm in several communities with heavy LGTBQ presentation, including the administrators, and the "no religion/no politics" rule works to keep out the bigots.
If you allow political discussions in a space not meant for that, you always get infiltrated by Neo-Nazis doing their "I'm just asking questions, both sides, it's just a funni picture, joke joke 😏" subversion.
If you slap a blanket ban on political discussion, the alt-righters can't start their recruitment game and leave.
Lillian Violet@jorkkeli
I don't think that's true, no politics means people cannot talk about things that are politicised, say getting hrt or racism you encounter. You can make rules about the type of politics allowed based on an ideology of protecting minorities, which would disallow concern trolling and debate bros. Creating a safer space requires you to reflect on what you're actually banning and from what ideological background you're doing so, that's the point of the original message. Because the default POV in society is the cishet white man one.
@danirabbit
I don't think that's true, no politics means people cannot talk about things that are politicised, say getting hrt or racism you encounter. You can make rules about the type of politics allowed based on an ideology of protecting minorities, which would disallow concern trolling and debate bros. Creating a safer space requires you to reflect on what you're actually banning and from what ideological background you're doing so, that's the point of the original message. Because the default POV in society is the cishet white man one.
@danirabbit
tripuAs a “straight white cis man” myself, I don’t feel welcome in lots of places where political discussions run rampant, so I should definitely find those “no politics” communities you mention.
Thanks for the tip!
Stefan Scholl@danirabbit Is this part of some larger conversation that I have missed?
Vincarsi@Stefan_S_from_H @danirabbit There is somewhat of an ongoing conversation about how often "no politics" is used to enforce a heteronormative space. This is not a hard and fast rule, but a general observation that part of marginalization is the experience of having things that very much impact your personal life be rejected as "political". So that you are only welcome to participate so long as you can pretend those things do not in fact impact your life.
@Vincarsi @danirabbit I think I intruded here in something that I can't comprehend because of my background/identity.
Please excuse me. I refrain from further questions.
Dan Wentzel 🏳️🌈@danirabbit And the privileges that go along with that. It' must be nice for them to not always have their constitutional rights and legal equality on the line in every election.
Magitism@danirabbit I think it depends on what is enforced. It certainly often is the case; but my session 0 surveys for D&D often get politics listed as a hard or soft limit and it is exclusively by marginalized people wanting the game to be a safe space away from political rhetoric. It covers things like using political candidate personas as NPCs, having real life politics as quest topics, and hot issue political table talk. It has to be policed in a way that protects marginalized people.
naught101Boring straight white cis men
Samhain Night@danirabbit No Politics =We Support the Status Quo.
The Animal and the Machine@danirabbit is spot on. When there is an incumbent position, there is no neutral. All freedoms are politics so someone saying ‘no politics’ is someone actually saying ‘shut up’.
Tom Williams@danirabbit you also have people that don't realise the personal is political and to be 'apolitical' is political .. it should be left in the past with the "I don't see colour" brigade.
The Goddess@danirabbit white patriarchy is the standard, default. Hierarchy and exclusion. The #inclusive is the black & the feminine.
amy tech (bones)@danirabbit yeah completely true - also often means you ARE a straight white cis person because you then have the privilege to be able to ignore political struggle.
Kevin Karhan 
@danirabbit and is so full of neonazis that it's shitstain-brown not just on the floor...
Izzyzzie@danirabbit 100%. ever since I got a warning for 'politics' on a discord server for calling someone out re: pronoun usage I've known that 'no politics' is just shorthand for 'we support the status quo'
GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
Eva Chanda
𝓥𝓲𝓬𝓽🍓𝓻𝓲𝓪@danirabbit Yeah, even in the hobby groups that claim they aren’t political, they are. If I’m trying to discuss game accessibility (a need) or representative film casting (a joy), whether someone deletes my post or any nasty replies on it is political. Admins just decide if their politics are “acknowledging your existence as a minority is too much of a problem/work for me” or “We stay on topic, but I defend people from bigots”.
Rev. Doc Fleam@danirabbit "In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia." --George Orwell, "Politics And The English Language"
Romain 
@danirabbit no to mention this is in and of itself a political stance 🤷🏻♂️
Terrible Brain@danirabbit OR - I don’t want to be depressed and enraged about fucking politics all the goddam time.
I prefer to be depressed and enraged about other topics all the goddam time.
Rachel@danirabbit what you have is so much privilege that you never have to worry about your rights being stripped away one by one so you never have to even think about "politics" and don't understand people who have to think about it all the time because it's literally a matter of life and death