Author: Wyatt Hall, Creator's Forge Staff I want to start this off with a series of questions: What is wrong with art having a message? I mean, isn't that the whole idea of art? To be an expression of one's self? Why is it that lately there's been such disdain for the political and moral messages in creative works? I can understand being against the whole issue of franchises pandering to progressives or "shoving politics down our throats," as I too oppose that. Work featuring political messages, in my opinion, should focus on the story first, with the political messages you want to convey coming second to that. For example, if you want to write an character who is LGBTQ+ in order to have a certain degree of diversity, don't make that the focus of their character. Write them as a human being, a character who people will love who just happens to be homosexual. Your focus should be writing a good story, not blatantly presenting your political beliefs— you don't want to alienate a portion of your possible audience. My issue with political messages in creative works is not the message itself, but rather, the way it is presented. I don't really object to LGBTQ+ characters in fiction at all— I object to characters written horribly and unbelievably. Here's the thing though... Unfounded HateIt's one thing to be against badly written characters who are made simply to push a political idea or agenda, but it's a whole other thing to label that as "politics in art." Politics in art, when done correctly can produce masterpieces like Star Wars. No, I don't mean the dumpster fire that was the sequel trilogy, but rather the original trilogy. The Empire was based off of Nazi Germany and Reagan-era America, yet it's perhaps one of the most known factions out there. Opposite ExtremesI've also recently noted people taking the aversion to politics in fiction to the opposite extreme. People afraid to share their work because they don't want to offend people or afraid to have any sort of political element in their work at all. This I feel is just as stupid as pushing politics excessively in media. If you're afraid to create what you enjoy because of the response, then why are you creating? Of course, if you intend on making money off of your work, keeping in mind your audience is critical. It's a tough balance to strike, but if you do it right, your work can be very successful. So what's your point?My point is we all need to calm down. Sure there are examples of politics in art being taken too far, but there's no reason why we need to get upset about politics as a whole because of it. It may be annoying to some, but it's perhaps one of the most important and ill-defined things in our world. Part of the problem I think is the negative connotation politics has nowadays. When people think of politics they think of arguing, corruption, and lies— not good faith discussion of real issues. We need to change that, we need more discussion and civil debates. That's why, in the Creator's Forge Discord Server, we openly encourage people to share their political beliefs, with relatively few rules and controls on it. All we ask is that it be kept in the off-topic channel and be kept civil, as we don't want people feeling alienated or hated for their beliefs.
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