I wonder if anyone else remembers this. It came to my mind because I was reading this story:

https://www.sbsun.com/2023/08/19/shop-owner-shot-killed-over-rainbow-flag-outside-clothing-store-near-lake-arrowhead/

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…

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/ea-executive-responds-to-worst-company-poll-we-owe-gamers-better-performance/

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.

  • Duamerthrax
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    1 year ago

    This is the most likely reason. Companies love reframing their earned hate as bigotry. Alt right goes along with it because it gives them validation.