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Blizzard has done a crazy amount of virtue signaling over the past few years. It should have been obvious to most that this was just marketing to get people to

Blizzard has done a crazy amount of virtue signaling over the past few years. It should have been obvious to most that this was just marketing to get people to buy their stuff, but it seems to work on a ton of people. You may or may not be surprised to know that they backtrack on a lot of their progressiveness in the Chinese market such as various characters being of certain sexualities. The sooner that people learn that almost every company ever is only out to make money and is not your friend the better. This has been a more difficult realization for some due to it being a video game company.

not2personal 7y ago
How to get people to stop complaining about you not paying taxes: Step 1: put out a rainbow version of your product during pride month. There is no step 2.
sanderjd 7y ago
I don't think awareness that corporations are out for profit and not your friend is incompatible with pushing back on corporations who are curating an image of support for certain causes and are then acting in ways at odds with that image. In fact, I think it is necessary in order to understand how to push back. They are not your friend so they don't care about your disappointment, but they are out for profit so they do care about the things you can do to affect that: personally boycotting, organizing boycotts, spreading bad word of mouth, etc. Maybe your perspective is that corporations shouldn't do this image curation thing, and yeah maybe so, but in a world where they do, it absolutely makes sense for individuals to push back on them when they are then hypocritical. Otherwise they get the benefits of standing for causes without taking on the risks inherent in doing so.
- vlan0 7y ago
  But, a business does not make decisions. The people of that organization make the decisions. We must pierce the veil and hold the individuals accountable. Start picketing their house, where they eat, everywhere they go. The folks that care should really be taking lessons from the anti-abortion people picket outside of a physicians home.
  - balt_s 7y ago
    > Start picketing their house, where they eat, everywhere they go. Certainly you will be the first to take time out of your day to do this....
    - vlan0 7y ago
      >The folks that care should really be Key words there.
  - falcrist 7y ago
    Eh... buisnesses are not just collections of people acting in a vacuum, though. The structure of the business drives certain decisions. I'm not saying it's a hive-mind, but pretending a business is just a bunch of individuals is too reductionist. Also, since ActiBlizz is a publicly traded corporation, there are people in that organization that are legally or contractually obligated to make decisions in the best interest of ActiBlizz.
    - vlan0 7y ago
      >The structure of the business drives certain decisions. I'm not saying it's a hive-mind, but pretending a business is just a bunch of individuals is too reductionist. Also, since ActiBlizz is a publicly traded corporation, there are people in that organization that are legally or contractually obligated to make decisions in the best interest of ActiBlizz. Sure, but at the same time executives in these organizations do have power. Twitter just walked away from that sweet political ad money for ethical reasons, for example. You just have to find the correct arms to twist.
  - marcosdumay 7y ago
    For not allowing a comment on their platform? Really? Go boycott the company. Make sure to make it clear that bad actions will have consequences. But please, do not go bully random people.
    - vlan0 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
linuxftw 7y ago
People can't apply this reasoning to companies because then they might consider applying that same reasoning to political parties. "How could these people that say things I agree with actually be bad?"
RomanBob 7y ago
Virtue signalling only works because people fall for it. So it is really not surprising that it works on a lot of people.
noonespecial 7y ago
Blizzard was, in fact, consistently following their core principles the entire time. We just got an education on what those principles actually were.

not2personal 7y ago

How to get people to stop complaining about you not paying taxes: Step 1: put out a rainbow version of your product during pride month. There is no step 2.

sanderjd 7y ago

I don't think awareness that corporations are out for profit and not your friend is incompatible with pushing back on corporations who are curating an image of support for certain causes and are then acting in ways at odds with that image. In fact, I think it is necessary in order to understand how to push back. They are not your friend so they don't care about your disappointment, but they are out for profit so they do care about the things you can do to affect that: personally boycotting, organizing boycotts, spreading bad word of mouth, etc. Maybe your perspective is that corporations shouldn't do this image curation thing, and yeah maybe so, but in a world where they do, it absolutely makes sense for individuals to push back on them when they are then hypocritical. Otherwise they get the benefits of standing for causes without taking on the risks inherent in doing so.

vlan0 7y ago
But, a business does not make decisions. The people of that organization make the decisions. We must pierce the veil and hold the individuals accountable. Start picketing their house, where they eat, everywhere they go. The folks that care should really be taking lessons from the anti-abortion people picket outside of a physicians home.
- balt_s 7y ago
  > Start picketing their house, where they eat, everywhere they go. Certainly you will be the first to take time out of your day to do this....
  - vlan0 7y ago
    >The folks that care should really be Key words there.
- falcrist 7y ago
  Eh... buisnesses are not just collections of people acting in a vacuum, though. The structure of the business drives certain decisions. I'm not saying it's a hive-mind, but pretending a business is just a bunch of individuals is too reductionist. Also, since ActiBlizz is a publicly traded corporation, there are people in that organization that are legally or contractually obligated to make decisions in the best interest of ActiBlizz.
  - vlan0 7y ago
    >The structure of the business drives certain decisions. I'm not saying it's a hive-mind, but pretending a business is just a bunch of individuals is too reductionist. Also, since ActiBlizz is a publicly traded corporation, there are people in that organization that are legally or contractually obligated to make decisions in the best interest of ActiBlizz. Sure, but at the same time executives in these organizations do have power. Twitter just walked away from that sweet political ad money for ethical reasons, for example. You just have to find the correct arms to twist.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  For not allowing a comment on their platform? Really? Go boycott the company. Make sure to make it clear that bad actions will have consequences. But please, do not go bully random people.
  - vlan0 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

linuxftw 7y ago

People can't apply this reasoning to companies because then they might consider applying that same reasoning to political parties. "How could these people that say things I agree with actually be bad?"

RomanBob 7y ago

Virtue signalling only works because people fall for it. So it is really not surprising that it works on a lot of people.

noonespecial 7y ago

Blizzard was, in fact, consistently following their core principles the entire time. We just got an education on what those principles actually were.