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[–]Horror-SwordfishI don't get how flairs work 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

I've been following this drama since it was first being talked about on KotakuInAction and I think it's just absolutely ridiculous.

I'm not a PC gamer (except for The Sims) but I'm still fairly certain that any games that have a multiplayer element would disallow the use of mods in the multiplayer environment, since one could obviously mod themselves into having an unfair advantage over other players. Even a mod like this, that just changes the environment, wouldn't be able to be used in a multiplayer situation, I'm willing to bet.

So, someone saw a bunch of pride flags in the new Spiderman game and made a mod to replace the texture with the standard US flag texture that also exists in the game. This effects literally no one other than the person playing the single player game. So why is it a problem, exactly?

I can somewhat follow the line of reasoning that says, "If we allow homophobic things in society, then homophobic people will feel comfortable having those opinions, or may even be emboldened into acting on those opinions, so therefore we must shut down anything that can be validating to homophobia." But let's be real: stopping a homophobe from replacing the pride flag with the US flag isn't going to enlighten them or make them stop thinking negatively about gay people, just like people are still racist against black people even though we can't say the N-word.

You can't stop bigotry without changing the minds of the bigots. And you can't change minds by shutting people down. Those people will continue to be homophobic and forcing gay celebration (not acceptance, let's get that clear; it's celebration) into their single-player game experience is not going to make them change their minds.

Say what you will about the mod creator's intentions. I think it's disingenuous for people to say, "Maybe he just doesn't like the look of the pride flag." I'm almost certain that mod creator's intentions were political, though I wouldn't necessarily go so far as to say his intentions were homophobic. That said, I don't see anything homophobic about replacing the pride flags. The pride flag is a divisive political symbol now, whether we want it to be or not, and the reaction to this mod even existing proves that.

Whatever happened to "live and let live"?

[–]IridescentAnacondastrictly dickly 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Those people will continue to be homophobic and forcing gay celebration (not acceptance, let's get that clear; it's celebration) into their single-player game experience is not going to make them change their minds.

Forcing acceptance only increases the hatred. You can see that happening very clearly with "Suck the girldick bigot" but it applies to LGB also.

[–]boypower 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You can't enact any meaningful change without force. Everything related to LGB acceptance and normalization, and activism, is by default forced.

[–]IridescentAnacondastrictly dickly 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If you want to change how people feel about you, you cannot do this by force.

LGB rights ultimately rest on how the larger population feels about us. All the legislation in the world won't create meaningful change if the general population views us as entitled, demanding and reckless.