LogFAQs > #971486699

the boycott itself, absolutely and directly has led to great conversations and growth that were *never* happening without the eyeballs

if you wanna know why communications can get toxic, being dismissive is a fabulous way to get it. I've always put a lot of thought into my posts and I truthfully do see slivers of understanding grow from it so to then just dump that into nah protest failed is really damn annoying because without it so many would continue to just leave us to ourselves

SirChris posted...

When I think of the failure benchmark for a 'boycott' I think of only the product's success, not the ripple effects from bringing up something that is important.

Then I would say that you have the wrong benchmarks. I can absolutely tell you being involved in discussions around the issue with trans people that the product's success was NEVER in the slightest bit of question, whatever the stance on playing or judgment. The ripple conversations are *very much* the important part of protest, because like I've said the gained insights were absolutely not happening without it.

SirChris posted...

There are many - not you - who I have seen with a lot of sway on the internet saying that if someone buys the game they are transphobic and don't ever talk to them again. I think perhaps as a trans person you don't realize - or don't care to comment on - that you appear to be rather moderate on this issue compared to many within the trans space.

I think this part is incredibly easy to misconstrue with simplifications and twitter never helps make these clear, especially for bad faith actors purposefully trying to spotlight the sloppiest takes. Because this take is a very simplified cartoonish stance but I have a much longer version of it (and gave it in probably my first serious post here) that totally understands why the decision is fair game to make people uneasy about someone considering factors like silence, ignorance, or divisiveness on trans issues. If a trans person doesn't feel safe in a content creator's community because of these decisions that absolutely makes sense to me - and I think people can look at that from the outside and get angry about being "judged" when the by the numbers reality say this isn't even the slightest bit significant. I mean look at the biggest streamers talking about this and I really don't think they have the slightest thing to worry about people blocking them.

And I think this is something easy to understand as you go on here...

SirChris posted...

A failure of a boycott does not equal a failure of outreach and certainly does not equal a failure on the heads of a minority group. I think on balance at the worst all of this talk annoyed some 'neutral' people (anyone more than mildly annoyed was probably never going to be an ally so fuck 'em) and as you say probably swayed many more to at least be more empathetic, which is always good for discourse. That is, however, not the aim for MANY very loud voices in trans spaces if their postings are anything to go by.

This. I agree entirely but then to me this is empty noise and that is always present in every direction not just for trans issues but any heated discussion. Like I said, people absolutely do try to get their laughtrack quotes to pass around in their spheres but like you say they're never actually engaged and disinterested to anyways. Twitter's twitter but amidst that chaos more intellectually honest people are fully capable of continuing the deeper conversation around it. At most I would just consider the chaos a wash, it's ever-present and goes both ways. Meanwhile in the tangible reality during the usual nonsense always passed about there are actually changes happening in our favour be it awareness, understanding, and truly pushing the needle even if through acquiescence.

Yeah you're right that cis and trans assholes exist but I think focusing on that is an incredible disservice to what's sincerely going on. I try to disengage from nonsense and to be entirely fair it's not a contest whether I'd be worried about the crazy bigots supporting our political erasure versus the easily ignorable overzealous trans people who by their own action would be blocking themselves out of an interaction anyways. There very much isn't a lack of support for cis folks accused of bigotry whether deserved or not to be entirely truthful, either by other transphobic people sure (I will admit love bombing is dangerous), but also parasocial fanbases frankly shelter people from criticism anyways. There's much less support available for trans people when we're more often greeted with "well look what you're doing wrong" from people only looking at the chaos.

MacArrowny posted...

Trans people sending death threats to streamers who play HL and donate all the revenue to pro trans charities is 100% a failure on their part.

I've got some wild news for you on what trans people have been getting but oddly cis people only pay attention to one of these.