I think Peter David forgot something.
I read this article, wherein the author writes about the Shadow Complex game and its ties to Orson Scott Card, who is an activist against gay marriage. The focus of the article is about boycotting. He doesn't ever makes heads or tails of anything, but it's more of an analysis on the hows and whys. Peter David totally missed this and begins preaching about the harms of boycotting. What he writes below had me both loling and rolling my eyes:
Instead of having a boycott, let's support this person financially because we want to show that we're bigger and better and more tolerant and more accepting than he is, and our business is with the type of material he produces rather than his opinions. Let's demonstrate by our actions what it's like to understand and accept that different people have different ways of life and shouldn't be attacked for it.
Yes! Yes, Peter David! During civil rights black people should have went shopping during easter with smiles on their faces and as they paid for their dresses and shoes they should have looked the cashiers in the face and said, "gee-wiz I don't quite agree with you oppressing us, but I really love this pattern on this dress and I want to prove I'm a bigger man here so please take my money". Lovely.
Seriously, Peter, you do realize that one of the major reasons why things changed for black people is because they BOYCOTTED. They didn't ride buses and they didn't go shopping down town, and this forced white people to make changes.
At the same time, I don't want to totally disregard what Peter wrote. I understand where he is coming from, but I believe his words are tainted with naivete and idealism. First of all, why the hell would the producer care what you think about his beliefs as long as you buy their product? They only care when you don't buy their product because they're not getting any money. Next, it is unfair to say that minorities who don't have all the avenues the majority has to make change shouldn't use every weapon in their arsenal in order to get their attention.
It's nice to dream Peter, but we have to live in reality. And this is the reality: We live in a capitalist society. If we keep purchasing a product from a producer we find morally reprehensible, the producer gets rich and they more often than not use that money to support their cause. You prevent this from happening by NOT buying their product. Yeah, you can buy a game by a homophobe and than donate the same amount to a charity that champions your cause, but then the charities that person supports will be as equally funded as yours.
And I can go on and on and on because what Peter wrote is JUST THAT STUPID.
ETA: You know what, Peter is probably still sore about the whole scans daily thing. I can't see any other reason for a person to be so ignorant.
Instead of having a boycott, let's support this person financially because we want to show that we're bigger and better and more tolerant and more accepting than he is, and our business is with the type of material he produces rather than his opinions. Let's demonstrate by our actions what it's like to understand and accept that different people have different ways of life and shouldn't be attacked for it.
Yes! Yes, Peter David! During civil rights black people should have went shopping during easter with smiles on their faces and as they paid for their dresses and shoes they should have looked the cashiers in the face and said, "gee-wiz I don't quite agree with you oppressing us, but I really love this pattern on this dress and I want to prove I'm a bigger man here so please take my money". Lovely.
Seriously, Peter, you do realize that one of the major reasons why things changed for black people is because they BOYCOTTED. They didn't ride buses and they didn't go shopping down town, and this forced white people to make changes.
At the same time, I don't want to totally disregard what Peter wrote. I understand where he is coming from, but I believe his words are tainted with naivete and idealism. First of all, why the hell would the producer care what you think about his beliefs as long as you buy their product? They only care when you don't buy their product because they're not getting any money. Next, it is unfair to say that minorities who don't have all the avenues the majority has to make change shouldn't use every weapon in their arsenal in order to get their attention.
It's nice to dream Peter, but we have to live in reality. And this is the reality: We live in a capitalist society. If we keep purchasing a product from a producer we find morally reprehensible, the producer gets rich and they more often than not use that money to support their cause. You prevent this from happening by NOT buying their product. Yeah, you can buy a game by a homophobe and than donate the same amount to a charity that champions your cause, but then the charities that person supports will be as equally funded as yours.
And I can go on and on and on because what Peter wrote is JUST THAT STUPID.
ETA: You know what, Peter is probably still sore about the whole scans daily thing. I can't see any other reason for a person to be so ignorant.