Transdude1996 said:
Also, as an extra piece to point out, The Sims 4 is actually given an AO (Adult Only) rating in Russia because of the fact that it includes gay marriage
Russia has been censured (not to be confused with being censored or being smacked with a censer) by the international community, including the United Nations Human Rights Council for its current discriminatory policies regarding Gays and alternative sexualities. Russia's doesn't really serve as a good example of legitimate behavior regarding fair treatment of gays or other fringe groups.
Transdude1996 said:
You pointed out about how there's an issue in a state in the US about turning away customers due to the owner having a religious belief against homosexuality. Well, that's their own fucking right. Owners should have the right to turn away whoever the hell they want. It may not cause their business to do well, but that's the point. America is supposed to be a place where people can say, do, or believe whatever they want and not get attacked for it. We can't force people to believe something because we disagree with them, all we can do is not support the company or the person. The minute we start telling people how their supposed to think, we become no better than Germany and the Nazis in WW2.
Discrimination was rather common not only in Germany but worldwide in the 1930s and 1940s. It was common practice storefronts to refuse service against Jews, even here in the US. Also: blacks, Irish immigrants, Italian immigrants, pretty much anyone who looked weird, had a funny name or accent, or was followed by vicious rumors.
Discrimination is rampant in an unregulated market, and we've since realized that equal treatment is one of the market rules we have to enforce by law. The notion that we can let storekeepers set the policies they want works only in an environment in which there is perfect competition. (That is to say, there is a superfluous number of competing businesses, some of which do serve any given demographic, and all businesses are instantly accessible to a given customer.) In reality a customer's access to a market is contingent on limits of locality, on obstacles to new start-ups, on closed markets and price fixing, and on a countless number of other anti-competitive practices. So no, people often do not have access to goods and services they want when discrimination is allowed. If Mississippi businesses are allowed to deny service to someone on the grounds that they are gay, I wonder if they are also allowed to deny business to someone on the grounds that they are black or Jewish or a woman. If not, I suspect the laws that protect the latter demographics from discrimination should, by the same intent, protect gays as well...and gamers, and gun enthusiasts, and atheists, and pretty much anyone else who is non-mainstream.
Disclaimer: As someone who is overconscientious of social inequality, I regard
Tomodachi Life as being discriminatory for
requiring marriage to unlock further parts of the game (such as having children) let alone disallowing same-sex marriage entirely. By requiring marriage, it makes the (ages old) implication that one's legitimacy as a human being is based on whether or not the union of one's parents was authorized and blessed by the society around it. We should not be so judged, nor those who have children out of wedlock. The fact that gay marriage (and interracial marriage before it) has required such an arduous process for our societies to develop acceptance of it (still not completely here in the US), our community, our government and our moral institutions cannot be trusted to fairly adjudicate who should be allowed to love each other and form families, and who should not.
And Because social simulations are complicated, there is no escaping controversy and some elements of societal constraints in such games.
The Sims 2 (still the best Sims-series game in my opinion) allows for gay relationships, but gay marriages are still civil unions, representing the
separate but equal legal notions of its time. Similarly, Sims 2 only regards exclusive relationships:
every sim gets jealous if one of their lovers woohoos with someone else. Sims 2 also doesn't allow polygamy which, although it gets a bad rap from Mormon and Muslim
polygyny has shown to be more egalitarian when taken out of the context of misogynistic religious dogma (as per, for example, the Church of All Worlds' polyfidelity). So while it gives players a lot more latitude than
Tomadachi Life, it is not representative of a far-future ideal in which people can freely form relationship bonds with whoever they choose.
Mr. Sterling, you live in Mississippi? I'm so sorry. That state is a hotbed of hyperconformity and enforced conservative Baptist values. Have you ever considered moving to either of the coasts?
238U[footnote]As of this posting I have not received a US National Security Letter or any classified gag order from an agent of the United States.
This post does not contain an encrypted secret message
Monday, May 12, 2014 1:47:10 PM
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