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Stop using app icons for political activism

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Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#211

Post by Serenacula »

drewbug01 wrote: post #112

The author didn’t bother to state which political statements they were upset about; neither did they bother to say something like “all of them,” which would have been trivial. So we are left to guess which political activism they find annoying. Given the timing, there’s a very good chance that it’s related to Pride month here in the US. It seems even more probable when you consider the context: very few companies cha…

Okay, but aesthetic design is important. I am very much a part of pride, but I hate having my phone's homescreen totally redesigned at the whim of some dev somewhere. It highlights an already uncomfortable lack of control.

People have the right to make aesthetic choices about the things in their life. I would be pissed if someone came into my house and painted my walls without my permission. Even if I agree with the cause, it's my choice to make.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#212

Post by native_samples »

aaomidi wrote: post #131
zx10rse wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to know what your superiors think about your hiring process in your company. Where did you said you work ? G. ?

Good thing I don’t make decisions :)

As someone else who was an SRE at Google years ago, you should indeed be very glad that we made hiring decisions based on merit and not personal politics. The SRE team I joined shortly after the IPO was dominated by libertarians and arch meritocrats who would have considered your attitude a clear firing offence. It was those sort of people who built the company.

But who knows? Maybe we should have done background checks to keep your type out. Certainly, Google has become a shadow of its former self now, filled with employees who seem to be phoning it in and spending all day searching for meaning in hating their own users instead of creating great new products.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#213

Post by native_samples »

tadfisher wrote: post #163
zthrowaway wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What this really is, is showing political compliance. Just like what Italians had to do in the late 30s to prevent their businesses from being destroyed. How would you feel if most apps all over the App Store for one whole month used right wing political symbology to signal their compliance? I’m sure you’d get pretty angry about it. Try to put yourself in other’s shoes, and stop participating in this low-effort fasci…

Pride Month is not a left-right issue unless you make it one.

Claiming that hard left politics isn't really politics at all, is a silly and transparent tactic which fools nobody.

Imagine if half your app icons suddenly changed to incorporate dollar signs in celebration of Capitalism Month. Every day a new CEO is celebrated for their job creation prowess and you can't avoid it because it's everywhere. Would you simply shrug and say, well, we live in a capitalist country so it's not political? Of course not. The craziness that would unleash would bea sight to behold.

Luckily for you, people elsewhere on the political spectrum don't share your need to constantly sealion every conversation and space.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#214

Post by npteljes »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #67
rbanffy wrote: post #2

How about no? If it's my app, I'll use my logo. I consider the logo an integral part of the application's identity and I should control its identity. I promise I'll do my best to make it easily and readily recognizable, regardless of it using national colors, a rainbow or shades of white, pink and blue. If you don't like it, it's your problem, not mine.

> If it's my app Not picking on you specifically, because this attitude is extremely common among software developers these days, but I think this mentality of treating software running on users' machines as "yours" rather than "theirs" is at the core of a lot of problems with the modern software industry. Software should serve the interests of its users, not its developers. The advent of ubiquitous internet connecti…

Yeah, software turned into service. Especially when speaking of apps, they are much more like a service, as opposed to a traditional good that you can own.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#215

Post by Thorentis »

avocadvocate wrote: post #157
Thorentis wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure we are past the point where LGBT people need to be worried about whether a major bank will serve them or not. And yet the rainbow washing continues. Why is that?

Interesting you mention banks. > A 2019 study by Hua Sun and Lei Gao of Iowa State University found that from 1990 to 2015, same-sex couples were 73% more likely to be turned down for a mortgage than similarly qualified different-sex couples. In addition, same-sex couples who were approved for mortgages paid about 0.02% to 0.2% more, on average, in interest and fees. https://www.investopedia.com/mortgage-lending-for-…

I'm going to dispute "similarly qualified". Being married is a huge indicator of future financial stability, and for most of the cited time period, SSM couples could not get married. There are also many statistics which point to SSM relationships (regardless of marital status) ending sooner.

So if the banks are inputting this to a "go/no go" algorithm, the results do not surprise me at all.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#216

Post by Banana699 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #91
daenz wrote: post #28

I have been part of a dance/art community in a past life. There's a prevailing belief that "the personal is political"[0], which basically manifests as all things (art/products/etc) being unambiguously imbued with your politics, because politics doesn't end at the public sphere. This idea became mainstream at some point, and the result is that we must now signal what team we're on in everything we create. Abstaining…

Politicizing the person is something that happens to some people against their will. For example people don’t choose to be gay, it just happens like being tall or having blue eyes. But in Florida there is a law now saying teachers can’t talk about gay people in school. Totally still fine to talk about tall people, though. This is why “Pride Month” is a big deal but tall people month is not. Gay people didn’t choose t…

Is there no limit to the amount of "Standing up" or rules about when and with whom you do it? Because it seems to me that if some people reject your existence, and in response you politicise your whole existence and become an insufferable walking-talking political billboard constantly shouting the same things regardless of context or consent of the people you're shouting at, seems to me like that's walking right into their trap?

I can say, speaking from experience, that insufferable political advertising has the effect of making people who had no objection to your existence previously gradually start despising you.

Isn't the best revenge, as always, to live well and normal? Maybe save your moral grandstanding to the next one who says your existence is a sin, and not the user who wants to get shit done?

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#217

Post by ankushnarula »

drewbug01 wrote: post #112

The author didn’t bother to state which political statements they were upset about; neither did they bother to say something like “all of them,” which would have been trivial. So we are left to guess which political activism they find annoying. Given the timing, there’s a very good chance that it’s related to Pride month here in the US. It seems even more probable when you consider the context: very few companies cha…

The fact that you’re speculating about what the author may or may not believe rather than contemplating what he is saying IS the problem.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#218

Post by 6yyyyyy »

notriddle wrote: post #62
darklion wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that while you own your computer, you generally don't own the proprietary software on it, you _license_ it. That license entitles you to remarkably little beyond using the software as the software vendor permits.

I don't think FOSS protects you from political activism. Here's what comes up on my (Fedora, obviously) machine when I run VIM with no filename specified: VIM - Vi IMproved version 8.2.5052 by Bram Moolenaar et al. Modified by Vim is open source and freely distributable Help poor children in Uganda! type :help iccf for information type :q to exit type :help or for on-line help type :help version8 for version info Acc…

  set shm+=I

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#219

Post by rbanffy »

throwntoday wrote: post #102
rbanffy wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Software should serve the interests of its users, not its developers. It is my belief the software is serving the betterment of society if it offends the people who don't approve my activism ;-) More important than serving the individual users is serving society as a whole.

Yes virtue signalling serves society by identifying attention seekers.

Or those unwilling to be silent accomplices.

Re: Stop using app icons for political activism

#220

Post by rbanffy »

tadfisher wrote: post #163
zthrowaway wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What this really is, is showing political compliance. Just like what Italians had to do in the late 30s to prevent their businesses from being destroyed. How would you feel if most apps all over the App Store for one whole month used right wing political symbology to signal their compliance? I’m sure you’d get pretty angry about it. Try to put yourself in other’s shoes, and stop participating in this low-effort fasci…

Pride Month is not a left-right issue unless you make it one.

Narrator: "They made it one".
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