even mechanics can be unintentionally political. there was a really cool errant signal video years ago talking about civilization games. it was mostly about what the games idea of a "civilization" is and how the win conditions reinforced the idea that one civilization has to be the superior one to rule them all...

but also these ideas were further reinforced by the way barbarians were depicted. that word already has baggage but the interesting thing is that in civ4 they share a banner with wildlife. like, they're almost like animals or natural disasters and not people at all.

what conservatives don't understand is that you can think about things like this and acknowledge what they mean and still enjoy the game and or understand why these choices were made. they're not necessarily political choices as much as they're mechanical, but that doesn't mean we can't think about what mechanical choices might mean to the player, or what messages they send. if video games are art, they can—and I would say must—be critiqued.

fear of change is at the core of conservatism, and that drives their utter aversion to introspection, and also to criticism of things and people they like. and vice versa, they can't bring themselves to appreciate any part of anything they don't like. if they like a person they can do no wrong. if they like a game it must be perfect. if they dislike a song it's the harbinger of the fall of civilization (ooh look at me bringing it full circle).

in a world of absolutes, there can be no discussion. don't ask me to think about things please. leave your thoughts and opinions out of my fun time, lest my views get challenged. this is what's funny about the likes of ben shapiro pretending that they have the facts while liberals are too emotional. their entire world view is based on their feels, and their arguments follow those as justification.