http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/27/7923521/anita-sarkeesian-shares-the-graphic-violent-threats-that-fill-her
I've been following the GamerGate scandal for a while now, and feel like this article sums up one wing of many issues faced by Women in the gaming industry. The article explains how Anita, a feminists who focuses on sexism in games suffers from harassment due to anonymity online. I feel that the anonymity that platforms like twitter provide causes issues where people can perform acts that under other circumstances are illegal. On top of this, current law enforcement isn't yet equipped to handle this new form of harassment. This permits people to behave in unethical ways, all while claiming to wave the banner of ethics.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Ethics Foundations
One interesting aspect I learned about during this weeks classes pertains to the ethical collapse of "Younguns and Bigger Than Life CEO's". I'm currently in the situation where I've been offered a job at a company doing something in software development I don't really want to do, but I'd be getting paid much higher than usual to do it. I've mentioned to them I'd rather work on a project I'm actually excited about, and their response was to kindly try and get me to stay, while raising the salary in my offer. I'd never really thought of this as unethical, but after the lessons this past week I'm seeing how it could be considered just that.
I find it interesting that these metrics of ethical collapse can also be seen in our government in the way we treat whistle-blowers. They're overcoming their fear and silence in order to inform the people of ethical collapse, and then that collapse is further strengthened by our reaction and pushing more fear and silence.
I think at times we need to be careful about how we perceive ethics. Currently in the games industry there's a group of people fighting for 'ethics in games journalism'. The truth is they're using this as a mask to attack minority game developers (mostly women) with harassment and death threats. They managed to get a lot of good people on their bandwagon at the start by pointing out (what have now proven to be false) conspiracy theories about a web of game journalists that promote their friends games above all others.
I think as Mormon's we have to be careful about our decrying of ethics. We often find ourselves thinking we're the only people who understand morality to the 100% perfection. Just because we have the gospel that teaches us how to live in our personal lives, doesn't mean the gospel is the perfect ethical meter.
I think situational ethics is not something you can 100% plan for. There's no way you can be Batman and think of a plan for every contingency. I think your plans to remain ethical should focus more on "This is how we want to act in all situations" rather than a rule book for every situation.
I think in the professional scene where dealing with those of all religions, we need to avoid falling back on "Whatever God says is what is the right thing to do". I don't think that fosters a conducive environment to work with other people.
I find it interesting that these metrics of ethical collapse can also be seen in our government in the way we treat whistle-blowers. They're overcoming their fear and silence in order to inform the people of ethical collapse, and then that collapse is further strengthened by our reaction and pushing more fear and silence.
I think at times we need to be careful about how we perceive ethics. Currently in the games industry there's a group of people fighting for 'ethics in games journalism'. The truth is they're using this as a mask to attack minority game developers (mostly women) with harassment and death threats. They managed to get a lot of good people on their bandwagon at the start by pointing out (what have now proven to be false) conspiracy theories about a web of game journalists that promote their friends games above all others.
I think as Mormon's we have to be careful about our decrying of ethics. We often find ourselves thinking we're the only people who understand morality to the 100% perfection. Just because we have the gospel that teaches us how to live in our personal lives, doesn't mean the gospel is the perfect ethical meter.
I think situational ethics is not something you can 100% plan for. There's no way you can be Batman and think of a plan for every contingency. I think your plans to remain ethical should focus more on "This is how we want to act in all situations" rather than a rule book for every situation.
I think in the professional scene where dealing with those of all religions, we need to avoid falling back on "Whatever God says is what is the right thing to do". I don't think that fosters a conducive environment to work with other people.
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