I wonder if anyone else remembers this. It came to my mind because I was reading this story:
The owner of a clothing shop in Cedar Glen was shot and killed Friday night, Aug. 18, after a person made several disparaging comments about a rainbow flag displayed outside the store, authorities said.
The suspect was found nearby by arriving deputies, who shot and killed him, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said.
This is… horrible. I don’t even know how to describe it. For the first time in my adult life, I’m genuinely horrified and fear for my LGBT+ brothers and sisters, as well as their allies (which includes me, fuck).
2013 felt… different. Two years later in 2015 gay marriage would be legalized nationwide.
I remember thinking EA was trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I remember thinking that LGBT+ acceptance in 2013 was doing well. I remember thinking they were throwing up that people voted for them as worst company over LGBT+ inclusion as some kind of way to hand-wave away their awful business practices. Going back, though…
In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT+ characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT+ policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.
Does anyone else feel like me, and feel dumbfounded and like I just didn’t think conservatives were that organized at the time? More to the point, I just didn’t trust anything EA said and thought they were lying. I don’t think they were lying anymore. I was wrong.
I wonder, does that mean that far fewer people hated them than we thought, for their business practices? I mean, we’ve seen years of steady profits for EA, it’s not as though they’ve lost a ton of business…
I’m curious what other Lemmings thoughts are on this. I just kind of had a bit of an epiphany about it recently and came back around to thoughts on the subject because of (sigh) how awful everything is.
Conservatives have taught people that it’s not just okay, but patriotic to be a loud, obnoxious, hateful bigot. Meanwhile, way too many liberals tolerate their behavior instead of calling it out. As I see it, both sides contribute to the problem. Obviously, the aggressors are worse, but standing by silently just encourages them.
This is very true, and those of us that do call out the bullshit get called all sorts of names. I don’t care, I still call out assholes for being assholes. I’ve definitely gotten a reputation of being outspoken and too political, but fuck it, those assholes don’t care who they are, why should I care if I get call a snowflake?
The way I see it, if I loose a “friend” sticking up for myself, and basic human rights… They weren’t really a friend to begin with. I would protect my friends at all costs, if they couldn’t even be bothered to say something when I’m being harassed, who are they?
Unfortunately, there’s realistically not much to be gained by arguing, it’s not like they’ll change their mind. Also, for all their bitching about the allegedly hypersensitive left, they sure don’t love hearing different opinions themselves.
Although it would be nice to change their mind, that isn’t the only reason. They need to know that their behavior isn’t acceptable. Even if they still feel the same way, maybe next time they’ll keep their hatred to themselves and seethe quietly instead of harassing people. That’s not ideal, but it’s better than implicitly giving them approval.
Well they do but the problem is they see that and voting as the highest and most effective forms of resistance. Its not. Voting away their representatives and debunking their rationalizations won’t make them go away. There’s only one way to do that