"Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott • Hacker News Board

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#51

Post by shiven » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:08 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #38

erikpukinskis wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm someone who has spent a lot of my life trying, often failing, to "be good". More and more, it seems like an impossible goal: On the one side you can retreat to the woods and live off of roots and berries trying not to do any direct harm. But then, depending on your privilege, you leave on the table so many opportunities to steer the ship of society in a less harmful direction. Or, at the other end of the spectrum…

'Not seeing a movie' is a pretty small battle. Did you act politically in favor/against the issue? Write a letter to your congressperson? Speak publicly on the subject? We must not imagine for a second that a personal boycott is a significant political/moral act to anyone but ourselves. I agree, you must do what you can, but the movie is a trivial point at best. Your posting on this forum is more significant than, pr…

Voting with your dollars is where it all begins. Don't underestimate the power of a single cent.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#52

Post by mercurial » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:08 PM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #46

ukoto wrote: post #36

Just like Chik-fil-A boycott? Oh wait they've seen record profits lately. Perhaps it's because the silent majority of people are sick of gay culture? Fortunately I live in Russia where we've recently and unanimously passed several bills defending traditional marriage.[1] I would much rather my child read an anti-gay author than a gay one, and Ender's Game is a classic that I will surely pass on after I have a real ma…

That rant is so tired, so inconsistent, so laced with hate-speech, its become wearisome to respond to its ilk. Let me just say, lots of older couples, infertile couples, 'normal' couples get married never intending to have children, even in your own religion, that that fundamental argument is silly. Why do you keep making it? You come off sounding desperate, defensive, selfish. You make sex sound mechanical, imperson…

No need to feed the troll.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#53

Post by beedogs » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:16 PM UTC

ukoto wrote: post #36

Just like Chik-fil-A boycott? Oh wait they've seen record profits lately. Perhaps it's because the silent majority of people are sick of gay culture? Fortunately I live in Russia where we've recently and unanimously passed several bills defending traditional marriage.[1] I would much rather my child read an anti-gay author than a gay one, and Ender's Game is a classic that I will surely pass on after I have a real ma…

Pathetic that these kinds of accounts are showing up even on HN.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#54

Post by sigzero » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:16 PM UTC

seivan wrote: post #41

I called for a boycott the last time a post about Enders Game was up, the guy is a total ass without the decency to admit he's being an ass. Even I do that.

To admit something, you have to believe in some way that it is true. He probably does not and so he doesn't own up to it.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#55

Post by sigzero » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:17 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #25

theorique wrote: post #5

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I don't like OSC's personal views about gays. On the other hand, it's Ender's Game . As a movie !

Pirate it. Best of both worlds!

Yes, do something illegal with it. That puts you on the HIGH MORAL ground. /s

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#56

Post by thret » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:19 PM UTC

AndrewDucker wrote: post #28

There's a lot of discussion of this going on. For instance, here's an ethical guide to consuming content created by awful people: http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2013/02/21/1619481/an-ethica...

I like the idea of moral offsetting; making a donation to an equal rights organisation to counter the money you spend on the movie.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#57

Post by dmansen » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:19 PM UTC

pron wrote: post #47

pron wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying that your view is wrong, but I should point out that it neuters almost every kind of political action. Almost every undertaking is carried out by a large group of people. Most of them are innocent. All of them are probably nice. But bad things are often done by nice people -- sometimes because they don't realize that they're bad. Sometimes because they don't care enough. There are no bond-villains in r…

Replying to myself: I haven't read Ender's Game, and I don't even know what it's about, but reading the Wikipedia article I've found something ironic: Radford's criticisms are echoed in John Kessel's essay "Creating the Innocent Killer: Ender's Game, Intention, and Morality." Kessel reasons that Card justifies Ender's righteous rage and violence: "Ender gets to strike out at his enemies and still remain morally clean…

I posted it above, but here's that essay if anyone is interested: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tenshi/Killer_000.htm

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#58

Post by clhodapp » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:20 PM UTC

EnderMB wrote: post #16

It seems like a terrible thing to do to the hundreds of potentially nice people that worked hard on this movie. People will boycott this because of peer pressure, and to follow the crowd. People don't boycott the countless movies based on Roald Dahl books, even though it's very common knowledge that he held strong anti-semitic views. Yes, I think his views are terrible, but that's not going to stop me enjoying his wo…

Most of those 'nice people' will not be affected by this, given that they were paid a flat salary or wage for their work.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#59

Post by dllthomas » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:25 PM UTC

dsr_ wrote: post #37

I liked Ender's Game when I first read it. Then I thought about it. Ignore anything else the author has done: in this particular story, he poses a conflict between survival and ethical behavior, and illustrates it repeatedly... by having characters choose survival over ethics. He makes them heroes for it. Well. That's a brave stance. Except... that every time a character is given that decision, it is also clear, whet…

Did you ever read the sequels? Society only judges Ender favorably in the short term.

Re: "Ender's Game" movie faces a boycott

#60

Post by yaddayadda » Wed, Jul 10, 2013, 12:26 PM UTC

anonymous wrote: post #49

EnderMB wrote: post #16

It seems like a terrible thing to do to the hundreds of potentially nice people that worked hard on this movie. People will boycott this because of peer pressure, and to follow the crowd. People don't boycott the countless movies based on Roald Dahl books, even though it's very common knowledge that he held strong anti-semitic views. Yes, I think his views are terrible, but that's not going to stop me enjoying his wo…

When I first read the title, I thought they wanted me to boycott the movie because it wouldn't honour the book. Turns out it's because Orson Scott Card is an influential asshole who doesn't like gay people? I'm not sorry, and this is just petty poop-flinging. Hollywood as a whole is full of assholes and I don't see what makes this one special.

Orson Scott Card more than "doesn't like gay people" and he has done far more than simple boycotting of movies. He has gone out of his way, time and time again, for decades, to support legislation which is discriminatory. Ironically, now he wants people to be tolerant of his discriminatory actions. Sick irony!