Wizards of the Coast Employees Walk Out Over Hasbro's 'Tone-Deaf' Response to Overturning of Roe v. Wade

[Staffan]

I wish those employee's well and that they walk away forever. You are paid to create content to entertain. Entertain me with content not your beliefs. I am on neither side of the debate.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." — Desmond Tutu

That said, I don't see this thread go anywhere other than locked really fast.

 

[Gradine]

That said, I don't see this thread go anywhere other than locked really fast.

That only happens when we feed the trolls

 

[Alzrius]

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." — Desmond Tutu

"Each man must choose between joining our side or the other side. Any attempt to avoid taking sides in this issue must end in fiasco." — Vladimir Lenin

You are either with us, or against us is an endorsement of tribalist thinking, regardless of how it's dressed up or how righteous the person saying it is portrayed. If you (in the general sense of "you") insist on stark us-or-them divisions, with no allowance for nuance or subtlety or distinctions of any kind, then you're not helping.

I say this not because I'm taking a stance on the issue mentioned in the OP, but because the entrenchment of this kind of thinking is something that inhibits finding solutions to deep-seated problems, rather than fostering them.

 

[RangerWickett]

"Each man must choose between joining our side or the other side. Any attempt to avoid taking sides in this issue must end in fiasco." — Vladimir Lenin

You are either with us, or against us is an endorsement of tribalist thinking, regardless of how it's dressed up or how righteous the person saying it is portrayed. If you (in the general sense of "you") insist on stark us-or-them divisions, with no allowance for nuance or subtlety or distinctions of any kind, then you're not helping.

I say this not because I'm taking a stance on the issue mentioned in the OP, but because the entrenchment of this kind of thinking is something that inhibits finding solutions to deep-seated problems, rather than fostering them.

Sometimes the sides are clear.

Lenin was talking about murdering people who would not let him and his cronies rule a country. I think that Archbishop Desmond Tutu was rather thinking of that sort of philosophy when he encouraged people to take a stand against injustice.

There can be a lot of nuance that still refuses to be quiet when people are having their rights taken away.

Now, this is a gaming message board, not a political one, or a medical one. But I work in a medical library, so if anyone wants links to the science of fetal neural development, to help inform their position on the ethics of abortion, you can send me a private message.

 

[Staffan]

"Each man must choose between joining our side or the other side. Any attempt to avoid taking sides in this issue must end in fiasco." — Vladimir Lenin

You are either with us, or against us is an endorsement of tribalist thinking, regardless of how it's dressed up or how righteous the person saying it is portrayed. If you (in the general sense of "you") insist on stark us-or-them divisions, with no allowance for nuance or subtlety or distinctions of any kind, then you're not helping.

I say this not because I'm taking a stance on the issue mentioned in the OP, but because the entrenchment of this kind of thinking is something that inhibits finding solutions to deep-seated problems, rather than fostering them.

There are topics where people can have legitimate differences of opinion on how to best solve a problem, or whether something is a problem. Tax rates. How much money to spend on the military. Whether it's worth joining NATO if it means throwing the Kurds under the bus to appease Türkiye. Should we expand the size of the town even if it means using up some of the most fertile land in Europe, or should we work on increasing the town's density even if it means tearing down historical neighborhoods? These are topics where people can come to legitimately different conclusions depending on legitimately different values, and where people can hopefully have fruitful discussions leading to some form of compromise.

But you can't compromise on human rights. Well, technically you can, but doing so is an immense moral failure. When one side says "Pregnant people should have less bodily autonomy than a corpse" and the other says "No, they should have full bodily autonomy and be able to make their own decisions about their bodies", there is no compromise to be had that's worth anything. Anything less than full bodily autonomy is a failure.

 

[Alzrius]

There are topics where people can have legitimate differences of opinion on how to best solve a problem, or whether something is a problem. Tax rates. How much money to spend on the military. Whether it's worth joining NATO if it means throwing the Kurds under the bus to appease Türkiye. Should we expand the size of the town even if it means using up some of the most fertile land in Europe, or should we work on increasing the town's density even if it means tearing down historical neighborhoods? These are topics where people can come to legitimately different conclusions depending on legitimately different values, and where people can hopefully have fruitful discussions leading to some form of compromise.

But you can't compromise on human rights. Well, technically you can, but doing so is an immense moral failure. When one side says "Pregnant people should have less bodily autonomy than a corpse" and the other says "No, they should have full bodily autonomy and be able to make their own decisions about their bodies", there is no compromise to be had that's worth anything. Anything less than full bodily autonomy is a failure.

The problem is that none of this is as stark as you're making it out to be. For one thing, what constitutes a human right? Would you say that internet access is a human right? If so, does that mean that your ISP is violating your human rights if they charge you for access and cut you off if you don't pay? If you don't think it's a human right, then you're going to need to tell that to the people who think that it is, and suddenly the question of what is or is not a human right is no longer simply presumed.

Moreover, "anything less than full bodily autonomy" includes things like people voluntarily selling their own organs on the black market, which I'm going to guess you don't support. And that's without getting into thornier areas like prostitution, drug usage, or suicide, which are also issues of people doing what they want with their own bodies. So again, an unnuanced line about "full bodily autonomy" has a critical lack of necessary distinctions.

Finally, the two summaries that you provide in your last paragraph aren't accurate representations of the private company mentioned in the OP, which hasn't issued a statement with regard to the recent legal decision. It's that sort of escalation of rhetoric that prevents cooler heads from prevailing, and inhibits an exchange of ideas which can lead to things being worked out, rather than people digging their heels in and refusing to budge.

 

[Thalllin Vord]

They have a job to produce content. If they are unhappy with their life choice to produce content then make other choices.

I can remain neutral to the choice of abortion. This is about democracy. The will of the people of those states, who choose to make laws to support or remove that right.

The side of the oppressor is to take away the will of the people to make that choice,. If you do not like the will of the people of the majority rules in a democracy then find another form of government. I prefer democracy to let the people choose, That is my neutral stance. Those who call me the oppressor for neutrality are just as guilty as the jackbooted thugs who say to remove it all together.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Worldwide Locations - Hasbro

We are pleased to offer a variety of world-class services & operate in over forty worldwide locations, including Canada, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin America.

jobs.hasbro.com

From Hasbro's own site it looks like they are hiring in many different states. Even if their headquarters is located in a state where abortion access is not changing there are definitely employees in states where it will be impacted. Agree with them or not, the WotC staff are making a demand of their company and since they are Hasbro's money machine right now I'm guessing Hasbro will have to do something.

 

[J.Quondam]

If you do not like the will of the people of the majority rules in a democracy then find another form of government.

But the majority increasingly is not actually ruling in all too many of our "democracies." If the majority truly were ruling, we would not be seeing the rapid unraveling of civil liberties that we're seeing today. THAT is the problem.
Since this nasty minority is sabotaging our democratic institutions to foist their worldview on the rest of us, then we have little recourse but to protest in other forums available, including the free market.

 

[aco175]

Maybe Hasbro learned something from Disney or Coke about getting into politics.