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Jun 18

People are mostly tired of having to consume corporate slop of uninspired stories made by corporations that see them as dollar signs rather than people.

That's LiveWire from My Adventures with Superman. It's actually a pretty fun take on the young Superman story. The animation is pretty on point too.

The problem with ^that caveat is that people can just arbitrarily decide whether or not it applies, and often do because there's no way to prove it either way.

Even if a producer/writer/artist said it wasn't for diversity alone*** and that they had a deeper reason, or a complex network of deeper reasons for making space for minority demographics in their work, the consumer could easily just claim they're lying and continue hating. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Which is why 'DEI'/'wokeness'/'whatever the buzzword was before' is an easy dogwhistle for bigots to latch onto: you don't have to justify or defend your position, just claim that the creator you don't like is being puppeted by the latest form of deviant groupthink, and reject any evidence that says otherwise.

...Honestly, it's not even a dogwhistle anymore; generally if someone is railing about one of these buzzwords, 9 times out of 10 they're an overt racist/queerphobe and you're better off just ignoring them. =/ People who want to discuss the nuances of these topics don't use those kinds of words-- for example, they're more likely to mention 'tokenism' specifically than to just scream about 'DEI' ruining all their favorite shows.

***IMO, the idea that "diversity alone" is an invalid reason, and that people who aren't cis, straight and white need some kind of permission slip (???) to exist in media is part of the problem that drives this "culture war" discourse. T_T
Yes, there ARE issues with blindly tossing minority demographics into your stories because you think it'll make you look progressive, but the mere fact that they're there, i.e. 'diversity alone', is not one of them. And while bigots cry about having to see people who don't look or act like them and pretend it's a harbinger of the end times, legitimate discussions about thoughtful representation and intersectionality in storytelling are being drowned out.

thats like i wanna add just how much it bugs me to see some of these words phrases that were made by the very same marginalized groups they seek to ostracize get coopted and redefined to be some bigoted call sign or something

like folks in the black community know how "stay woke" was mean to point out the need for caution of the actions of oppressors but now its anything not white cishet and I'm pretty sure that DEI was meant to refer to actions or movements relating to civil rights so its just.... idk weird frustrating confusing to bear witness to

but yeah i feel like folks who unironically use these words have zero intention to have genuine conversation about actual issues and just want a pat on the back for being bigoted like its normal or something

DEI was created by companies to push consulting and agenda for pay. It's not noble in any way. It's basically extortion.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Certain institutions/corporations maintain DEI programs, policies, or courses to teach people about ethnic and cultural inclusivity (sometimes for the sake of conflict resolution).

And on that note:

...This is starting to sound like a dogwhistle. T_T
A, what "agenda" are you talking about? B, who is being "extorted", and how?? All I see when I look up DEI programs are certificates and college courses; it all looks pretty damn optional to me...

DEI is not optional. Banks are giving loans out based on it. Investors are looking at your DEI score to see if they invest. Those certificates you speak of are bought from companies for you to be allowed to get said loans. There is now a cottage industry on making companies compliant. Go look up what DEI has done to the Oscars a what your movie has to do to qualify for an Oscar now. This affects everyone from large companies to independent films. It's not a dogwhistle as it's happening right now. The good thing is companies are scaling back on this type of stuff as it doesn't make money and is an overhead cost. In a good economy you can do stuff that makes no money, you can't afford that in a bad economy.

Also look at the wording. It's not equality, it equity. That is a different meaning people don't understand. Everyone is for equal chances, but equity mean equal outcomes. You can only make that happen with force. It morality through force which I don't agree with.

It's stands for Diversity, equity, and inclusion, when I took a class about healthcare, it was used to educate that some of the people you might be helping are going to be from different backgrounds than your own. It's also a helpful tool for educators who live in more diverse areas and how to meet the needs of people of different backgrounds.

Unfortunately, companies tried to jump on the bandwagon and like all capitalist things, they turned it into a marketing buzzword. We can't have nice things because greedy people try to exploit it for money.

DEI doesn't make media worse, greedy companies do. It's just that some people often blame minorities instead of the rich CEO pulling all the strings.

There is currently a lot of talk and potential lawsuit happening from the Black Myth Wukong devs who have claimed to be extorted by sweet baby inc. sweet baby inc says "your game is "problematic" but if you hire us we can make the problematic parts go away for 7 million" the devs rejected the offer and now placed like IGN are doing yellow journalism against the devs.

There is absolutely extortion happening in the gaming, movie, and general art industry. Like @NickRowler says, it's not minorites faults, it's greedy corporations. Usually corporations hiding behind "progressiveness" as a way to wash their hands of being shitty capitalist companies.

You can obviously not care about it but don't pretend that every company, union, charity or any other group of people seeking money for "altruistic" reasons is 100% good there is absolutely some shitty companies doing shitty things while saying "were def looking out for the little guy" when they don't

Please don't clump me in with the Sweet Baby Inc discourse. Like I said earlier, I do not give a flying fish about online discourse and drama. I don't care about that crap like at all.

@NickRowler you weren't associated to sweet baby inc or any of those online issues..... @TAMAnnoying was just quoting you on saying that is NOT minorities's fault, but the fault of greedy corporations.

The big issue is that some DEI are pushing to make and escalate online drama and call the presses on them to creating a problem that wasn't there to push companies into hiring them, which is basically extorsion.

Exactly! People need to remember that no one asked to be here and humans are always migrating. I don't live in California, New York or any major city and I've met and befriended all different kinds of people at school and work. No one should have to justify their existence. We're just here. Especially in made up worlds where you have total control over it's history and culture. People see diversity as unrealistic because they don't want it in their reality. Then there's the issue that diversity in fiction is only justified if it's a flawless 10/10

This, I live somewhere with a lot of people from different backgrounds. When that's your day to day, then you are going to add that into your work. I imagine that is the case with a lot of the writer who grew up and went to school in Southern California, which a lot of Hollywood tends to pull from. It's weird when people try to spin it into a conspiracy and not just local population.