Does Art create Culture though? or does Culture create Art? The Arts literally are cultural artifacts though. So having influence over what sort of Art is created I believe has a great impact on the values a Culture adopts.
SJW's have gained control of Google, Youtube, Twitter, GoDaddy, many many others, and have virtual (not total) monopolies on aspects of the internet. They have such a monopoly it has people on the Left or Right talking about if they should be designated as utilities and breaking them up or not. So I disagree that SJW's in charge of large companies do not "control" messaging in any real sense.
There are two ways to control "the message". Propagating your own counter message, or silencing the oppositions messaging. Doing one is effective enough, doing both is even more effective.
I envy your optimism, but if it was against the law to make a shooter with girls sporting huge breasts, that would not entirely stamp out such shooters, but it certainly would put a damper on their production and distribution. Laws do have an impact.
What if the howls became those of 200 million, or 2 billion? When they become the majority then it's a problem. They will vote for people who will enshrine their ideology into law. And those laws will in turn change our society.
I agree with you in that "people" (as in 1 person) are deluding themselves, but, when enough people start to move in the same direction it becomes a majority. And that majority absolutely can accomplish things.
This is what I like about you sir, and other commies like you. ;-). It's that your for erring on the side of less government rather than more government as the solution to any problem. A Libertarian Marxist is harmless (not saying that's you just kidding around a bit) as they would be against forcing anyone else to adopt their ideology. Their utopian commune would be 100% voluntary. And those are the lefties I can get behind.
Art & CultureI think that if you exert actual control over art, you can impact culture -- that's what happens when a government restricts what you're allowed to say and do with art.
A sort-of example would be the Comics Code, where the industry opted for self-regulation rather than risk government action (which amounts to -- pretty much -- government censorship). That can be effective, and it's a problem. The First Amendment is explicitly designed to counter that, and is pretty (but not completely) effective.
I think that SJW's attempts control or censor art on any kind of scale are illusory: where they succeed, it's because the culture already agreed with them. Mostly, though, they fail and I think that where they're trying to
control or
direct the culture (in a direction it's not going or at a speed it's not changing), they fail.
I don't think SJWs are in control of Google, etc.I don't think this is true. I think those companies are doing what all big companies do: making decisions they feel benefit their stock holders, by acting in alignment with existing, and pervasive cultural taboos against Nazis and WSEs, and those privately held acted in alignment with those taboos.
It's 100% certain that we have a handful of private companies with a huge amount of power -- which
is a problem, but people seeing SJW control are really just seeing stock-standard cultural decisions (or legal self-preservation, depending on what they're looking at).
I also think that private companies have
no obligation to host speech they don't want to.
Silencing v. Counter MessagingAgreed. I think both can be effective tactics. I think that the silencing option only really works if your opponents are saying things that are broadly transgressive (e.g. Nazi crap). Getting someone thrown off Twitter isn't "silencing" them, and even that's not going to be easy unless they're saying things that the culture at-large disagrees with.
Big Breasted Shooters Against The LawI agree, as I said, that laws have an impact. I don't see (current) SJW tactics (especially in the RPG space) as creating laws against stuff. Shaming private companies is not the same out outlawing things. If SJWs were lobbying congress to make RPGs with boobies
illegal, I'd have a problem with that.
200 million or 2 billionIf a sizeable portion of the country's / planet's population decides something is taboo, then it's going to be impossible to say it without being judged. If the SJWs are so convincing that just about everyone is on their side, then I'm going to have to keep my damn mouth shut, aren't I?
Just like now. I can't go around saying whatever the fuck I feel like, and being spared any consequences, and neither can anyone else. That's called being an adult in society.
As for making laws: if the country decided overwhelmingly -- 2/3rds of the
entire population that RPGs with Big Boobies should not be protected speech, then, yeah -- the 1A protections would crumble. That's just what happens when
pretty much everyone agrees.
I'd be unhappy if everyone agreed stuff I like was forbidden, but I think it's pretty unlikely to get that level of agreement. As a bulwark against more realistic levels of agreement, I think the 1A protections are pretty good.
My Kind of CommunismI like the kind of communism where I get to work hard and get rich. Ideally everyone would have that option -- an egalitarian utopia! I'm also good with the state taking some of my money for the General Welfare and the Common Defense and to Ensure the Blessings of Liberty for Ourselves and Our Posterity.
But let's not go crazy with that, eh?
-E.