I was gonna say this a while ago but didn't. But now seeing as I am STILL getting the whole "warhammer has Nazis" discourse on my tl.

I guess it's good of a time as any to say it. And it isn't strictly limited to warhammer but I can use that context here

And I guess the catalyst for it was during the Arch debacle. I saw a lot of people saying "i feel bad because Arch was my entry point to warhammer" and I wanted to address that ever since.

What I want to say is.

Just because you share a commonality with someone doesn't mean that you are obligated to somehow feel personally linked to the person. Whatever that commonality is isn't an imperative for you to like or associate yourself with the person.

Let's use a very simple example.

Let's say... you love wine. That's a shared commonality for you to talk to a winery owner. You share a common point of interest. Its an icebreaker to start a conversation. Share knowledge.

But that doesn't mean you two are friends. It CAN lead to friendship. But nothing says it must. You dont even have to like each other. You don't have to keep talking to them afterwards. You aren't obligated.

What does this have to do with Arch. Its very simple. You share a commonality with Arch. Which is Warhammer. But that doesn't mean you gotta somehow feel bad about yourself about that. And it also doesn't mean you gotta feel bad about having enjoyed his content before.

You aren't tied to one perspective of a person. People change. Circumstances change. New things are learnt. And so on.

And it's not contradictory to have liked one thing before but now not. Its perfectly fine.

Now to pull it back just a little to the present "Nazi" conundrum. And how what I am talking about applies here.

I've seen a quite few people react VERY badly. Some even viewed the statement as an attack on the hobby itself. And, therefore, also attack on themself

No.

Just because someone Is criticising the hobby doesn't mean it is directly criticising YOU for liking the hobby. Don't interpret or distort it as a personal attack. Its a criticism of the Nazis in the hobby. Not the hobby.

You aren't being lumped together with the people being critised. The criticism isn't about the commonality that you share. It's about those people and their conducts within the hobby. Its not you. It's not the hobby. It's them.

I feel like that should be a very obvious statement but judging from some people's reactions, one could assume that it isn't.

The reactions I've seen have been akin to... say there is a house fire in a city. And someone points that out. And then gets yelled at "NO YOU IDIOT, ITS A PERFECT CITY" or "I live in the city and I take offence to that"

It just sounds incredibly dumb. But thats the reality of the situation. And it wouldn't be if people just took a step back tiiiiny bit. And not be so personally attached to an idea of something.

I could add a bit more here and address the actual discourse. But that might make this thread a little bit more on the snide sidr.

So all I can say is

When someone say there is a fire, you don't say "no there isn't". You should say "Let's go put it out"