I can’t force anyone else to think about trends and possibilities if they don’t want to.
(off topic: Do you buy stuff from Alibaba? I’m in the USA, so I don’t. I would have no legal recourse if I got ripped off.)
I have not bought anything from Alibaba, but ain’t I curious?
Alibaba is supposed to have a pretty good payment escrow system, but it’s generally business-to-business, so that’s just hearsay.
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That feels like a straw-man misrepresentation of my position, even though you didn’t aim it at me specifically.
It’s not about forcing people to “profit from racism”. It’s not about laws at all.
The people running companies like Amazon or eBay are human beings whose actions are constrained by their material interests, and, hopefully, by their ethics.
Some people adhere to an ethical rule (A) that says: “If you provide a public service that is mostly a good thing, and some people use it for bad things, then you should feel bad about it”.
I prefer the ethical rule (B) that says: “If you provide a public service that is mostly a good thing, you should provide it to everyone and refrain from judging.”
I’m no more calling for “forcing” the management of Amazon and eBay to sell stuff they despise than you are calling for “forcing” them to stop selling stuff you despise. Following rule (A) or rule (B) is the management’s choice, and we get to approve or disapprove of that choice.
But I do claim that everyone following rule (B) will lead to a more open and pleasant society than everyone following rule (A).
I claim that rule (A) will either breed conformism or it will foster a polarized two-party society, where there are right-wing companies with right-wing employees selling right-wing products, and left-wing companies with left-wing employees selling left-wing products to left-wing customers.
i have a lot of mixed feelings about all of the issues surrounding the different uses of the confederate battle flag. some of this stems from family experiences and some stems from my belief in the first amendment. i think that official state uses of the confederate battle flag should be ended immediately. for the most part they came up during the “massive resistance” phase of southern states’ defiance of various supreme court decisions and executive agency rules changes requiring the integration of schools, buses, restaurants and other public accommodations. they symbolize hostility to the idea of the equality of the races* put into place by the governments of southern states and municipalities. no state government nor city government should be allowed to put such a symbol up in the public sphere. private individuals have the right to freedom of speech and expression and should be allowed to make whatever political statement they wish to no matter how ridiculous or even evil we as individuals may find the expression to be. i further think that eliminating games which simulate the battle of gettysburg because it has a confederate battle flag on its description is as silly as eliminating a game simulating the battle of the bulge because it had a nazi flag on it.
whether some of you believe it or not many people in the south are so brainwashed by the constant repetition of the phrase “heritage not hate” and so indoctrinated by the standard textbooks about the civil war as it taught in the south (and was taught out of the south as well for many years) that they really do believe that the confederate battle flag can be used without referencing its history as the flag of the slave-holding, anti-black force that was the confederate states of america. knowing that i had ancestors that fought for the confederacy i have studied the civil war since i was a teenager and one of the first things i noticed when i began reading the various states’ articles of secession was that they all brought slavery front and center. they didn’t beat around the bush with mealymouthed platitudes about states’ rights they went straight to he point that they were leaving because they thought slavery was threatened. once i learned that i spent the next four decades arguing with my school teachers about it, arguing with college professors about it, and arguing with some of my coworkers about it (i’m a school teacher in texas). i have disappointed my mother because i have consistently refused to become a member of the sons of the confederacy. i have any number of friends and relatives who buy into the whole “heritage not hate” thing" without any thought for how african-americans might see it or how anyone from outside of the south might see it and will feel unselfconsciously aggrieved at what is happening now. some of them are truly racist while others aren’t.
it is well past time that these flags come down they do not represent what they are purported to represent and it is an intolerable symbol for a government to display.
*it is my belief that race is a social construct with no more inherent meaning than freckles or red hair. it is one of the greatest disappointments of my 54 years on this planet that race is still so divisive.
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