Man, the world kinda sucks.
There’s an old saying that being an optimist means that you think things are only probably going to get worse, which is kind of how it feels to wake up on any given day and live through any given news cycle. This latest carnival of horrors comes from news that the Supreme Court — as ostensibly a non-political organization as people on Twitter are wishing that this post is right now — will be overturning settled law in an effort to let states ban abortion as they see fit. If you’re American and really even kind of alive at all, you probably already know this, and you probably have feelings about it.
Turns out, so does Bungie, the studio behind games like most of the Halo series and Destiny and was recently acquired by Sony to act agnostically among platforms. Yesterday, a blog post merely under the byline of “Bungie” was posted wherein the studio spoke with one voice to affirm that the Supreme Court decision “represents a blow to freedom in America and is a direct attack on human rights. ”
“By creating a divide between those who possess the fundamental right to make healthcare decisions that are right for them, and those who do not possess that same freedom, this decision, should it become final, will have far-reaching consequences that will be felt for generations across socio-economic lines,” the blog post reads. The post includes links to organizations that accept donations for supporting healthcare rights.
It’s rare for a video game company, much less one as prominent as Bungie, to take such an open stance on abortion, which is still a taboo subject in American discourse even as the long-standing rights surrounding it are being slowly and then quickly dismantled. It’s so rare that, even a day after they have posted this, almost no other company has followed suit to say anything. To take a stand is bold even when on the right side of history, to take a stand alone is worth that much more.
But I’d also be remiss if I failed to point out that Bungie did not simply post this tweet and this post and then abandon social media channels. The company has been active throughout the day standing its ground on the subject and telling angry replies that they’re sorry to lose them as customers but not that sorry. It also created one of my favorite exchanges between two Bungie fans I have ever seen on Twitter.
Like, damn.
