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Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

theguardian.com

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Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#61

Do people agree that corporations should respect the customs and values of the local people when operating their business there? If yes, then Amazon is not "bowing", and it is The Guardian who is playing word games here. If not, then it would seem to imply that we are OK with western powers using their capital (instead of gunboats) to impose their ideology on other cultures in the world. Now, one may argue that the c…

No, only the law. UAE customs and values on LGBTQ will collapse naturally by the outside pressure of superior Western culture.

Yeah, let's see that superiority when the US supremacy breaks down. Because the only way that the Western culture has prevailed this century is through bloodshed.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably sleeping in a 14 room mansion in an ultra king size bed being rubbed to sleep by three prostitutes. So yeah, they’re probably sleeping well. But you expect anything different from a corporation? Their only purpose is to make profit. It’s just basic economics. They don’t care about politics or LGBTQ, they care about money. The only reason they ever seem to care about LGBTQ is because they saw the gro…

sure, it's a corporation but in the end a bunch of people have to make the call and implement these filters. My guess is the blame gets dilluted and people are really good at rationalising their work by hiding behind the corporation image, or "someone else will do it anyway", or "yeah, but look at what happens in X", etc

If there is no guilt then there is no blame. The only concern they have is about the wording they should use when communicating the decision they've taken so it doesn't look bad. Here is a template: "we did all we can, but we have to comply with a greater force outside our reach".

Below certain paygrade of people taking those decisions, a kind of mental "Nuremberg defense"(1) rule applies.

People should learn that companies milk these kind of feelings just because they profit from them; it's good for business. The top earners (investors and managers) that probably are, in this very moment, partying in a Singapore KTV, they don't really care.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_orders

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#63
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, only the law. UAE customs and values on LGBTQ will collapse naturally by the outside pressure of superior Western culture.

Yeah, let's see that superiority when the US supremacy breaks down. Because the only way that the Western culture has prevailed this century is through bloodshed.

There must be some western culture that has been successful because it is what humans naturally gravitate towards.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#65

As does every other corporation that puts up a rainbow lag the second its pride month. Blackrock, McDonnel Douglas and Exxon are really trying to be on the right side of history here, folks! Ask Disney if they show the same movies in China. Its all just kowtowing to the power of the Global American Empire legislated by misguided civil rights legislation, enforced by the politcommissars in HR. Every culture has a righ…

>Its all just kowtowing to the power of the Global American Empire legislated by misguided civil rights legislation

I would to know more as to why you this civil rights legislation, or presumably court rulings as well, are "misguided"

>Every culture has a right to protect its values.

Cultures that discriminate against people for innate characteristics like sex, sexual orientation, race, etc. are backwards. Label me biased by Western propaganda I suppose, but a person's right to participate fully in a society shouldn't depends on any cultural or societal norms or traditions.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel as though homophobia is never an acceptable worldview, so if you want me to reword what I said in a way that doesn’t imply that, I won’t. Some things are simply wrong. This is one of those things. If one’s worldview disagrees, then theirs is simply incorrect on this matter.

>If one’s worldview disagrees, then theirs is simply incorrect on this matter Anti gay muslims in the UAE (and beyond) have the same exact attitude, so that reduces the whole problem to who has the bigger money\stick\media horn, and they happen to be the ones who have on their territory.

They really don't. I always like to remind people it was an American expedition that discovered oil in Saudi Arabia.

All empires collapse eventually but for now the West is still muddling on through.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#67

Speaking as someone who worked in the reputation management sector, this kind of behaviour has been around since the early 20th century. I think people often mistaken "region based marketing" for genuine political statements. If promoting pride yields a net positive increase in reputation and revenue in Western countries, one would be foolish not to jump on that bandwagon.

Yeah, this is the reason why I stopped attending pride parades. When you're there, it looks like a big PR platform for a bunch of banks, Google, Apple and whatever. Those same companies don't advocate for the right of this community in places where it matters most, since it won't give them money, but it will mean risk. I think it would be fine, if they weren't part of the parades, but the hypocrisy is where it crosses the line for me. I'm also disappointed in pride parade leaders for allowing it, but I also doubt they're genuinely there for the cause, rather than the political platform it gives them to jumpstart their careers.

Same goes for Hollywood preaching. It would be a lot better, if they did nothing and never commented on politics, than the charade they're playing.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my reading of history, blacks, women, and gays have been treated like shit in appalling numbers as far as the books go back. From my observation of the present: plenty of that still going around. What makes suffrage or abolitionism any more or less worthy a case than the LGBT “craze”? Seems to me all this prejudice is fucking unhappy shit.

Quoted post unavailable.

You’ll get no argument from me that there’s a loud fringe left same as a loud fringe right.

But if you’re trying to make a stand on a hill that gay people don’t get discriminated against in substantially as nasty of ways as any other group that gets discriminated against? I’m going to have to politely bow out here. I strongly disagree and I’ll leave it at that.

Re: Amazon bows to UAE pressure to restrict LGBT search results

#70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, let's see that superiority when the US supremacy breaks down. Because the only way that the Western culture has prevailed this century is through bloodshed.

There must be some western culture that has been successful because it is what humans naturally gravitate towards.

Funny how one might think that what is prevalent worldwide in this era looks like a natural trend.

To a goldfish in an aquarium, it is also very natural that food appears from above, as per magic.

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