For years, I’ve had a biweekly get together with friends where we do tabletop gaming, or occasionally just sit around and shoot the breeze. As part of that type of stuff, you get to know people and develop a sense of trust with them. So when the talk turns to other issues, there are honest opinions, venting, and discussions of feelings. For purposes of the story, its also important to note that everyone else at my gaming table is firmly on the conservative side of the spectrum. A couple of moderate conservatives, a libertarian, and a less engaged but leans right independent. All four voted against Hillary, and I know two did not vote for either guy in 2020.
This Saturday, we were doing our usual long running campaign when I get a ping on Discord from a friend out in California. At first I’m annoyed because I thought I closed out the app since I didn’t want to be distracted, so I pull out my phone to deal with it and while I’m trying to close the app, I read the message:
“Someone just took a shot at Trump”
Instantly I pull up the news and confirm, yes, this was real. I’m distracted badly, going into media consumption overdrive, but we’re doing stuff that has quite a bit of down time while others are taking their turns and we keep our books electronically so no one notices. I’m collecting info, trying to make sure of some details before I relay it to the group. No good reason why, other than I think I still thought this might be something besides what it looks like. But as I get details, I realize this is real, and I need to share.
So after 30 minutes of power surfing news sites, when my turn in the game comes up again, I say I’m distracted by real world stuff and everyone should check the news. They do, and thats when the atmosphere at the table takes a turn.
Or at least it looked like a turn because I was not expecting where that road headed next.
“Oh shit. Well, thats what happens when you rile people up, I guess.”
“Yeah, was just a matter of time before his rhetoric came back to bite him.”
“Well, he’s alive, so whatever.”
“Oh wow. We sure do live in crazy times.”
Then we continue the game like nothing happened. No turn, no mood change, no concern.
The issue doesn’t come up again till we’re breaking for night to head home and making post game small talk. No one is ranting or raving, and I’m even having to play the tiniest defense for the TFG as one of the people says some nasty stuff about him and I’m pointing out that its a little in poor taste to be discussing stuff like that at that moment.
Folks, three of these people are passionate about politics. I’ve heard these people get upset about stuff in the world of politics and public policy. We had a 10 minute informed conversation earlier in the evening about Chevron being overturned. They aren’t the most engaged on a policy level but they do keep up. One of them is a passive anti-masker and anti-vaxxer (didn’t like it, but didn’t get confrontational about it). They gave this almost no thought. One even mentioned it wasn’t changing their plans to not vote for Trump.
I don’t know what exactly to take away from this other than maybe we all need to breathe a little more. Some of our fellow Americans who don’t see things the same general way we do are still rational people, and they understand what this race is about.
