Magic the gathering, Warhammer, Video Games, even fantasy and scifi fiction, they all have had big I fights with right wingers in the last decade. The only exception I can think of maybe (MAYBE) would be DnD. Thoughts?
A lot of high fantasy ends up being a slippery slope towards fascism. I’m not saying that Tolkien is a fascist (I don’t even know), but popular fantasy does tend to draw fascists since romanticization of the past is a symptom of fascism. C.S. Lewis was also an open Christian apologist.
And as for sci-fi, a lot of that gets lost on people. We can only talk about capitalism in public through cyberpunk. We can talk about anti-racism and embracing of sexualities through Star Trek and some Bioware games when they were good. Star Wars was influenced by the Vietnam War.
BuT Im A ChUD. ThAt Ne0n PuRpLe STUFF IZ COOL.
Yeah… only through cyberpunk… slides copies of Iain M. Banks Culture series under the bed
wow, cool society!
counterpoint: leftism is nerd culture. what’s nerdier than reading a bunch of books written by dead guys lmao
Roleplaying games have had some rocky history too, there’s a much larger space for non-white non-cishet players and designers these days but that hasn’t always been the case. Early dnd was pretty reactionary and echoes of it are still felt (ed greenwood’s forgotten realms being the default setting is a part of this). The whole white feudal Europe but also magic, where you take the law into your own hands and theres institutionalized racism really appeals to certain people.
Recently wizards wanted to change racial stat modifiers to be less of a racist dogwhistle and more about culture or individual aptitude and there has been a huge outcry about it (orcs no longer having a negative Int in character creation rubs racists the wrong way for some reason). Its definitely changing a bit with how many lgbtq+ and poc are entering the space/being recognized as having always been here, but there’s still lots of weird fascists and bigots hanging around.
All social interactions mediated through consumer products and competition, attracting some of the most alienated individuals and only encourages more alienation and frustration so that they are better consumers.
