4 ms·

Because gun control is pretty much dead in the US. If 20 children being killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting wasn't enough to pass new legislatio

Because gun control is pretty much dead in the US. If 20 children being killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting wasn't enough to pass new legislation, 9 adults certainly wouldn't be. The flag has become an issue so politicians can be seen "doing something."

brobinson 11y ago
Sounds like an instance of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism
MBCook 11y ago
Yeah. No need to discus gun control, the issue with SC is clearly racism. And how do we get rid of racism? Remove the symbol. We'll get rid of the symbol and the racism will be fixed. We took action! We did something! It's solved! Time to move on. What's the point in discussing complicated issues of housing development or law enforcement and making changes that might not have a positive and noticeable effect for a generation or two? It's good we did something now. Now it's solved.
- mladenkovacevic 11y ago
  This one's a little different still. What you're describing is small-scale political misdirection and shortsightedness. Politicians always react in this nonsensical way whether motivated by powerful lobby groups or personal advancement. Here we also have large corporations that seemingly have no horse in this race other than some cheap, blatantly dishonest PR participating in this moral misdirection on a grand scale. For what reason? I doubt Apple's comical over-reaching in banning of these games is worth the liberal brownie points. Does this maybe have something to with using the confederate flag controversy to distract people from the Trans Pacific Partnership bill which is being rammed through without any significant challenges as we speak?
  - MBCook 11y ago
    Yeah, that comment isn't meant to apply to Apple, it was just a response/agreement with onewaystreet. I know this kind of thing always happens, but I was surprised how fast 'everyone' latched onto the flag as the core issue this time that will solve everything.
    - justizin 11y ago
      It won't solve everything, but it's about damned time it stopped being socially acceptable. The flag was re-raised in response to the civil rights movement. It's not the core issue, but I think it would be silly to say, in post-WWII Germany, that simply taking down nazi symbols won't stop people from thinking like nazis.
      - MBCook 11y ago
        I agree completely, I'm glad it's happening. I was surprised they were doing it in the first place. It's just too bad that's probably the only change that will come of this.
      - Nadya 11y ago
        A self-described anarchist that supports censorship from a governing body (not necessarily government body). Seems contradictory to an anarchists' ideals.
justizin 11y ago
> The flag has become an issue so politicians can be seen "doing something." I think that's a little more cynical than need be. Most of the politicians who are doing anything about the flag are Republicans and they are doing it despite the fact that it is upsetting some of their base, in a rare show of basic decency. The retailers who stopped selling merchandise are saying that they don't want to make money selling racist memorabilia. Apple is more or less saying that as well - though they could potentially reverse their opinion on this singular case. These decisions are made by relatively low-level employees following unwritten guidelines. I see nothing wrong with a bunch of Apple employees waking up one day, coming into work, and receiving an announcement that, "We're getting rid of the confederate flag."
- shaftoe 11y ago
  Can one ever be cynical enough when politicians are involved?

brobinson 11y ago

Sounds like an instance of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician%27s_syllogism

MBCook 11y ago

Yeah. No need to discus gun control, the issue with SC is clearly racism. And how do we get rid of racism? Remove the symbol. We'll get rid of the symbol and the racism will be fixed. We took action! We did something! It's solved! Time to move on. What's the point in discussing complicated issues of housing development or law enforcement and making changes that might not have a positive and noticeable effect for a generation or two? It's good we did something now. Now it's solved.

mladenkovacevic 11y ago
This one's a little different still. What you're describing is small-scale political misdirection and shortsightedness. Politicians always react in this nonsensical way whether motivated by powerful lobby groups or personal advancement. Here we also have large corporations that seemingly have no horse in this race other than some cheap, blatantly dishonest PR participating in this moral misdirection on a grand scale. For what reason? I doubt Apple's comical over-reaching in banning of these games is worth the liberal brownie points. Does this maybe have something to with using the confederate flag controversy to distract people from the Trans Pacific Partnership bill which is being rammed through without any significant challenges as we speak?
- MBCook 11y ago
  Yeah, that comment isn't meant to apply to Apple, it was just a response/agreement with onewaystreet. I know this kind of thing always happens, but I was surprised how fast 'everyone' latched onto the flag as the core issue this time that will solve everything.
  - justizin 11y ago
    It won't solve everything, but it's about damned time it stopped being socially acceptable. The flag was re-raised in response to the civil rights movement. It's not the core issue, but I think it would be silly to say, in post-WWII Germany, that simply taking down nazi symbols won't stop people from thinking like nazis.
    - MBCook 11y ago
      I agree completely, I'm glad it's happening. I was surprised they were doing it in the first place. It's just too bad that's probably the only change that will come of this.
    - Nadya 11y ago
      A self-described anarchist that supports censorship from a governing body (not necessarily government body). Seems contradictory to an anarchists' ideals.

justizin 11y ago

> The flag has become an issue so politicians can be seen "doing something." I think that's a little more cynical than need be. Most of the politicians who are doing anything about the flag are Republicans and they are doing it despite the fact that it is upsetting some of their base, in a rare show of basic decency. The retailers who stopped selling merchandise are saying that they don't want to make money selling racist memorabilia. Apple is more or less saying that as well - though they could potentially reverse their opinion on this singular case. These decisions are made by relatively low-level employees following unwritten guidelines. I see nothing wrong with a bunch of Apple employees waking up one day, coming into work, and receiving an announcement that, "We're getting rid of the confederate flag."

shaftoe 11y ago
Can one ever be cynical enough when politicians are involved?