Dev Diary: Black Lives Matter Beacon

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Comments

  • edited July 2020

    Luckily, your opinion doesn't really matter. This is how it's being done, and it is more than doing nothing. Raising awareness among the unaffected is an important part of systemic change.

    This does far more for both LGBTQ+ issues, and Black Lives Matter issues, than staying silent because you can't solve world peace.

    Silence is compliance. Ignorance is acceptance.

  • ItsutsumeItsutsume ✭✭✭

    I don't even know where to start here....

    Can't agree that making BLM beacons is better than doing nothing. By now only deaf and blind don't know about protests and riots that are happening in US and in some other countries and reasons behind them..

    Not really sure what it does for LGBT and BLM. First time I saw rainbow XM last year, I was wondering why it's like that. This year it was, "Oh, it's LGBT month again. Hmm, OK." I wonder how many people saw rainbow XM or BLM beacons and suddenly felt they need to become active about these issues. 5? 6?

    As for "silence is compliance, ignorance is acceptance" - is it about all other issues that Niantic doesn't raise awareness about because it's not as easy to implement as rainbow XM and is not really as hot topic at the moment as BLM? Because there are quite a few other issues that were before BLM and are also important.

    And as for my opinion that doesn't not really matter - I am not the only one who calls BS on this PR stunt. It's done, and now we're here to criticize. Maybe they should spend more time fixing the game - I still can't sort keys by name, and that's just one of several other issues.

  • RostwoldRostwold ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 2020

    I'm not a fan of the 'you're not campaigning on everything, therefore you shouldn't be campaigning on anything' argument. I prefer 'are you trying to make the world a better place or not?'

  • Vocally disagree with me and your opinion is as worthless as you are.

    Silently disagree with me and you're a ra-cist/bigot/na-zi whatever "oppressor" label my victim-hood culture designates you.

    In the end you will agree with me or me and group of "empathetic" comrades or we will re-educate you by "raising your awareness" of exactly how we've been victimized. (as if this very thing wasn't already plastered everywhere you look via corporate sponsorship, social media, and traditional news media on a daily basis)

    The cause is lost in the cult - which actually hurts those it professes to protect. Witness the birth of true evil - totalitarianism. This entire thread is a veritable well of irony.

    I wonder if Niantic is truly aware of the monsters they are creating and supporting with this movement or if they're just ignorant to just how dangerous openly supporting it is.

    BTW here is an interesting little tidbit of information for all of you. At the same time I got my email that Niantic Brian "Personally" deleted my account at my request in the exact same minute my wife got an email that her account was deleted as well and an old friend in one of my old Ingress groups had their account deleted as well and he hasn't played in years which is bizarre. I've only ever played one account and if that weren't the case I wouldn't even bring it up here - I just want this community to understand the kind of people who are supporting this movement. You WILL support the cause or else.

  • What many people don't realize is this is no longer an innocent and fun game its a social justice movement. It has nothing to do with supporting these causes it has to do with making sure that all of the population complies.

    What the majority of people who go along with this don't realize is their support is actually hurting and running counter to the exact cause they're trying to promote. Most of the the gay people I know want nothing to do with "pride", the parades and the marches - they want to be treated no different than anyone else. There is a growing sentiment in the black community against BLM as well. The REAL civil rights people who aren't race baiters stand in opposition to it.

    If you one of these people who supposedly has no "Awareness" of a particular issue and the people in this community were the first example of people trying to get you to support their issue do you think you would support them? If you were a reasonable person then no you wouldn't. It's happening all over the country and its galvanizing support against these social justice "warriors" and their "causes".

    As I said in my first post - this is divisive politics and Niantic is wrong for promoting it.

  • Social change is scary and I get wanting to limit it's impact on your own life because you've never had to think about it (definition of privilege). Or you'll have people that will mock it. Or others that will pick it apart or explain it away because you don't know what it'll mean for your place in the world. But whatever life experience you've had or whatever you've been taught is coming apart. It's scary! It's okay to admit it!

    And embracing that is the first step to understanding your privilege and having compassion and empathy for other people who are marginalized and brutalized. There are many groups that work on undoing racism which delineate these steps on an individual and macro level. There's a lot of evidence which demonstrates the reality of systemic racism and its negative impact on society (not just on those who are directly impacted).

    Therefore, if you've ever taken Sociology 101 you'll know that social problems require social solutions. Ingress is an inherently social game which is part of this society therefore choosing to simply make a beacon for BLM is playing some role in society towards undoing social problems. People have been pushing for this issue hard with recent estimates of 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations in the previous month, which is not counting similar demonstrations around the world.

    Also by focusing on BLM, it doesn't mean that other issues aren't important. It'd be like asking scientists to stop working on a vaccine for the coronavirus because you want a cure for breast cancer. Both are important but as of right now there's a lot of momentum on this one issue which impacts a good portion of the population. Some seem to believe that because human needs are infinite and never ending, that we should not respond to everything. That type of logic would result in the medical field doing nothing because medical needs are infinite and never ending. I would direct you to SOC 101 re: social problems.

    Change is scary! But this issue isn't going anywhere. So face it now or face it later but eventually you'll have to figure out what you learned or heard that is making you react so harshly to a simple message: black people's lives matter. They're not better, they're not special, they simply matter. They matter when they're being profiled, when they're brutalized, when they're disproportionately affected by coronavirus and other health issues, they matter when there's discrimination. Black lives simply matter and you come to recognize the value of a black life. Not just look away. That's it. Is that truly the worse thing you can embrace? Is it really that difficult to open up your heart and your mind up to that possibility? Because this mob

    If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. - Lilla Watson

  • Really? Your "black friends" don't care about police brutality. Then it's likely that you don't have black friends. Your LGBT friends don't care about LGBT rights? Um sure. I guess it's possible that people are outright choosing against their best interests, it happens. Certainly that'd be important for you that people of color or LGBT people, can't offend your worldview; your feelings are more important than social change or symbols of such.

    For someone who rants against social change, you sure sound like an expert on the subject. Speaking up and advocating for social movements hurts the cause? Is that type of insight and logic that you learned from your vast study and research on the subject? It's fascinating that this is the best argument you can muster. The mental gymnastics are just *chef's *****

    I'm very sorry for losing your safe space that Ingress was for you. Thoughts and prayers to you and yours.

  • The problem is in thinking a beacon in a VR game makes the world a better place at all.

    If you want to make the world a better place, go out into it and improve it. Help REAL people in your community who need it. Lead by example and do not seek credit or acknowledgment of your actions. The act of charity itself is the reward.

  • edited July 2020

    The problem with you people is you've been indoctrinated and never had a chance to develop critical thinking skills - you're too busy throwing around the terms you've been force fed during your time in academia like "Privilege" and you're too busy trying to force feed this hypocritical philosophy down the throats of everyone you meet to actually stop a minute and ever look at something objectively.

    I don't need to take a class to understand the human condition. You can't eliminate racism any more than you can eliminate profanity, greed, violence, theft, mur-der etc. Humans are flawed and will continue to be flawed long after you are dust. 

    Here is something to think about that you wont hear anywhere else because it doesn't fit the narrative being pushed. Systemic Ra-cism didn't **** George Floyd. In fact, race had absolutely NOTHING to do with his ****. The cop who murdered George Floyd worked with him before - he knew him and his race wasn't a cause of his **** but since Chauvin was white and Floyd was black and the entire incident was caught on camera all the race-baiters promoted it and injected it into their systemic racism narrative.

    I absolutely reject your entire premise of systemic racism. Every study and article I've read trying to support this premise has been intrinsically flawed.

    If you want to know why **** are disproportionately affected by Coronavirus perhaps you should look at the culture they embrace which is their choice. Why do they have a higher rate of diabetes, why do they have a higher rate of obesity and heart disease? The correlation between co-morbidities and an unhealthy lifestyle is plain to see - or is that due to racism as well? Personal responsibility is a thing that needs to be taught to ALL people in this country. Being a victim removes the culpability of the individual. 

    Now one good thing that COULD have come out of this that you and people like you have destroyed is the chance to address police brutality which IS a problem that could be worked on and improved with wide support. What about Daniel Shaver who was WHITE and was gunned down by police? There are countless other cases of police brutality and errors against people who are NOT black. It isn't a black issue but you and your race-baiting supporters make it one because it plays into your victimhood narrative. If we all are on the same playing field how can you divide us? 

    “Black lives matter,” taken as a sentence, is profoundly true. Every life on the planet, at every stage, matters. Every human being possesses full human dignity, and by extension, full human rights. With that said, Black Lives Matter did not emerge merely as a sentence. These words are a message and a platform making a political statement - one guided by Marxist ideology that seeks to revolutionize our society and culture - and this revolution is one which I vociferously reject and I would die trying to defend the free American society that exists today.

    Not defunding the police. Not instituting marxism or the destruction of capitalism, Not LGBTQ+issues which is an ever evolving and moving target. You said you can't solve everything at once but by lumping all of these issues into a single movement you alienate people because most of the things do not have wide support in our society but the entire movement hides behind the words "Black Lives Matter" which as a sentence is impossible to disagree with unless you are an irrational and illogical being.

  • Right, that's what everyone who disagrees with you has been arguing, that the BLM beacon solves racism. Is that what you got from reading opposing views? And then flip it and tell others how to make social change happen?!

    Bravo to you sir! If I had your level of confidence and self assuredness especially when being totally wrong and trying to be convincing otherwise. Bravo!

  • In the end you will agree with me or me and group of "empathetic" comrades or we will re-educate you by "raising your awareness" of exactly how we've been victimized. (as if this very thing wasn't already plastered everywhere you look via corporate sponsorship, social media, and traditional news media on a daily basis)

    Wow, slippery **** fallacy much?

    You completely missed the point. All of our opinions don't matter in as much as Niantic will do what it chooses to do. It might listen to some of us, but given their current stance, they definitely won't listen to the "Can't fix everything, do nothing!" idiocy.

  • Nice straw man you set up there putting words in my mouth. I never said I have black friends, you did (although I do indeed have people I call friend who happen to be black as well as gay). I never said LGBT rights I said "Pride", parades and marches. The gay people I know enjoy liberties equal to mine and experience no discrimination that they've ever complained of when I've discussed this with them.

    Plenty of people care about police brutality who are also black. I said there is growing sentiment against BLM in the black community. I happen to have been convicted in court 3 times over the course of my live by police committing outright perjury against me - completely falsifying events and the system is set up in a way that protects them from the consequences of these actions. Guess what? I'm not black. If I were, and were ignorant to the real world as well, I might be tempted to play the victim card and claim it all was due to race - but here's the kicker - Cops CAN BE corrupt. They can be bad people just like anyone else. We as a society had a chance here to identify some of these issues and make actual change for the better (Ingress still isn't the place to bring the issues up) but you and your social justice clamoring Marxists destroyed all that and you have only yourselves to blame. Support has and continues to galvanize against your little "movement" and in the end nothing at all will be done to fix the actual issues.

    Go back and study he civil rights movement of the 60s - if you think the "protests" of today bear any similarity you're sadly mistaken.

    Instead great evil has been done in the name of good and as a society we all will pull further apart because of it.

  • If BLM stood for supporting equality or rejecting racism alone I would support it but you and I both know that's not what its about.

    The sheep who are still uttering the words without understanding the movement might follow along but I know better and so I think do you.

  • "The problem with you people" is always a good way to start a discussion with others on race and racism when you want to sound insensitive and ignorant. And then add some "don't need to take a class" and you set up your arguments to sound like a bunch of rants from someone who feels their world coming apart because they're feeling loss and fear.

    Open up a book. Open up your mind. Open up your heart. I promise you that it won't hurt you in the long run. I hope that you can be in touch with a humanity which you purport to believe in.

  • "you and your social justice clamoring Marxists". Name calling? Some of that critical thinking that you expound?! Your argumentative skills are lacking. I don't know how old you are but clearly you still have a lot to learn.

  • It is both amusing and expected that you completely ignore my argument (because you have no rational basis to combat it) yet try to pick individual pieces of my post out of context to refute them as if some lack of severability you could invalidate the entire argument.

    I'm 40 but that we all still have a lot to learn should be true until the day we leave this Earth.

  • Hi folks,

    I'm closing this thread as the comments on it have veered off the topic of Ingress and the discussion is no longer productive.

This discussion has been closed.