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As far as I can tell, it's really just organized groups within these hobbies that have the political slant. I'm sure you could say something about long
hikesmarches through institutions, but I don't think it's necessarily swung the hobby as a whole. To point to your video game example, the game development studios, journalism, and awards groups are quite leftist, but the median gamer generally doesn't care while playing the latest Assassins of Duty.I don't play in public servers much, but has random voice chat improved that much from being full of slurs a decade ago? I think that's true of hiking too: the median participant is just hitting the trails, not reading about how the backcountry isn't diverse enough, regardless of their feelings on the matter. The median quilt group is a bunch of old church ladies, even if the media coverage is woke. Everyone right-of-center doesn't just sit around doing nothing all day, even if they aren't catching up on the best board games to play based on politically-issued awards.
I guess that line of thought is that the rebellion that happened in video games could easily happen elsewhere. It might take a different form, since not all audiences should be expected to react like the average gamer circa 2015 (young, male) quietly unsubscribing and continuing the hobby with their friends, making alternate groups, or just sighing and getting along begrudgingly.
You know, embedded in a conservative filter bubble, 0% of the people I know would seek out a new part of their favorite hobby(whether that be games, novels, what have you) on the basis of awards. For the 800 lb gorilla in the room, I think that’s why country music has such woke awards out of step with the audience- conservatives ignore the awards, and the people who watch the awards shows without being paid liberals with little preexisting interest in country music, but who will buy a song to support an emerging black artist or whatever.
I think it’s got a lot to do with how liberals like to take advantage of meta spaces that people use to talk about stuff. Most conservatives I know have almost no interest in the meta game of their hobby unless they have a specific question. A gamer looking for help in a game or wanting better gear for their sport pops in, asks the question and leaves. So the people who sit around talking about the activities all day would tend to be liberals and thus be better equipped to enforce their wills on the hobby or at least the hobby meta game.
I mean, boating and hunting forums are as much pro-Trump politics as they are boating and hunting… but outdoor gear awards tend to be geared towards the liberal side of the things they’d get used for.
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