Things you don't use in your campaigns Options

[Randian Hero]

Now, I realize that I'm in the minority in that unlike most people, I like my sci-fi to be realistic, where very little suspension of disbelief is required. As such, I've always thought certain things in Shadowrun canon were kinda hokey or tacked on for those people who couldn't get out of the fantasy rut. In a lot of ways, it seems like many elements were added simply to bridge the gap between D&D players and fans of the sci-fi genre. In others, it seems like somebody read a few chapters of history textbook about the Civil War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, and decided to run with it in the most ridiculous way possible. This is all personal taste, mind you, but here are some things that I try to omit as much as possible with my Shadowrun games:

1. Magic -- I realize it's kinda the whole impetus behind most of Shadowrun, but things like the NAN, street mages, and all that just make me sigh. I realize, of course, that a small degree of it can be useful (even cool if done right), but for the most part I avoid it like the plague.

2. Awakened monsters -- It's easier for me to deal with this concept if I think of them all as mutants, not "re-awakened" creatures from some mythical time, dragons being the exception (since I'm a Godzilla fan). I tend to put metahumans in this category as well, especially elves, with their pretentious "ancient" cultures (I still use them, but I make numerous references to how everyone regards elven nations as a giant farce).

3. Native Americans as a superpower -- This was about where I put down the book, let out a lingering sigh, and promptly skimmed a good chunk of the history until I got to the non-ridiculous part. The whole thing kinda reminded me of the "Cherohonkees" that permeate the US: people who are ghost white but clutter their houses with turkey feathers and hand-woven dreamcatchers because it's "cool to be a native". Now having been to an actual reservation, I can safely say that there is no way in hell that something like the NAN is even remotely plausible. Still, since it's Shadowrun canon and essentially very difficult to get rid of, I just treat that whole section of the map as a giant irradiated zone that nobody bothers to go into.

4. CAS -- Maybe someone can explain this one to me, but from what I gathered, the CAS secedes virtually without incident and the UCAS is kinda like, "All right, I guess. We just grabbed Canada so no big loss. Oh yeah, and we're tired of dealing with California so we'll let them walk too." You've got some congressmen and senators who secretly plot to secede from the union, and yet nobody seems really bothered in the southern states that this happened. With the UCAS reeling from the crash (*groan* and the NAN), I strongly doubt that they'd be willing to casually ditch some of their biggest contributors to their GDP without a fight. I guess the parable here was the collapse of the USSR, but it's kinda difficult to draw the same conclusions with a completely different system of government.

Anyone else have issues with these things, or even issues of their own that they like to omit from canon to suit their games?