Pride Flag Logos and the Rate of Change
Sometimes, I Can Barely Hold On. Other Times, It Seems We're Going Backwards.
I've been thinking a lot about the rate of change lately. I recently wrote a Medium post called 10 Things We've Enjoyed for Over 100 Years. Sitting with those thoughts helped me to feel like the world isn’t spinning all that fast. However, most days, it feels like an out-of-control carnival ride that’s losing key pieces with the operator nowhere in sight.
Living in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, these past two years has also contributed to this feeling of rapid change.
Things here are changing rather quickly. I can hear the orchestra of construction as I type this. The cement mixer it’s crushing its solo.
This little “hidden” port city, is no longer the best-kept secret in Mexico. The secret is out, which brings curious tourists, new investments, and an uptick in Tik Tok kids and vloggers trying to go viral. (It’s also the reason I started this Substack.)
Not all of it feels welcome. The community overall seems worried about the change. But who am I to say anything? I’m a gringo who has been living here for about two years. I want to build some stuff with my Mexican partner. I can’t really point at anyone else and think or say “stop building that” or “get out of here,” without feeling exactly like the spiderman meme. I also don’t think “get out of here” is ever the right response when discussing where folks can or should live.
I’ll elaborate more on my Puerto thoughts in relation to rates of change to wrap this all up at the end. To foreshadow, I think it’s way more about “how you participate” than “where you’re from.”
Outside of the daily conversation around growth, development, and rising rent prices in Puerto, this year’s Pride month has had me reflecting a lot about the rate of change. It’s had me thinking “sheesh, everyone” and “whoa, nelly” a lot as well.
Four years ago, if you were a company and you didn’t somehow publicly acknowledge your support for the LGBTQ+ community in the month of June, you would be admonished. You would be publicly scorned.
Four years ago, while working as the Director of Community for Remote Year, I remember one June we forgot to make these logo changes immediately. We made them a week into the month, and our entire management team was very worried that we would be publicly criticized by our community of digital nomads for a lack of public-facing support during pride month. (It was really just a lack of attention to detail and unclear role delineation.)
Now, in 2022, if you do change your logo to look like a pride flag, you are scorned and ridiculed.
This year, for the first time, it’s widely agreed upon that corporate pride logos, swag, and the other various ways that companies “celebrate pride” is largely just pandering. “Rainbow-washing” is now common vernacular.
It’s now considered hollow, selfish, virtue signaling, and disingenuous posturing towards the masses. Supporting gay marriage—supporting gay rights and equal rights in general—seems like an incredibly obvious thing to do in 2022.
However, companies are struggling to show that support without catching public backlash. Simply replacing your logo with a rainbow version wasn’t ever really that helpful, but now, in the space of a few years, it’s considered wrong. Companies are getting slapped around all over the internet for carrying on with this June tradition.
I’m incredibly curious to see how pride month will be celebrated in 2023.
Will companies change their logos? Will they think of something more actionable and helpful like Postmates did with their “bottom menu” this year? Will they give up acknowledging Pride month altogether for fear of ridicule?
It’s all rather interesting to me. It says a lot about our current state as a civilized society. I can’t recall any action or gesture like this that went from being universally revered as “positive” to being collectively shat on as “pandering” from one year to the next like corporate pride flag logos.
Note: I am not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, so very much not giving my opinion on if I think corporate pride logos are good, bad, smelly, edible, made of wood, or any other thing. I’m simply commenting on the change in our collective response to them this year.
Things are changing faster than they ever have. Everyone is trying to be the most “awakened” or “correct” person on the internet, which just leads to some pretty bizarre and polarizing opinions.
I’ve seen multiple posts in the past month along the lines of:
“If you don’t think they control the narrative and the counter-narrative, you’re not awake.”
Like, okay, so, we should… what?
I’m running a plastic bottle recycling program in my little beach town. Four out of five people say “thanks, good job!” when they see what I’m working on. But that fifth person is so woke they don’t think I should be recycling.
The man controls the recycling narrative, AND the counter-narrative… man!!!” It’s always some retort with that exact type of—I’m so smart that I’m going to do nothing but I will criticize what is happening because you just don’t get it, mannnnn—vibe.
Okay, so, again… what are you saying? Do nothing? Let the turtles and fish choke on plastic? That’s better? Send out cryptic social media posts about how nobody else gets it but you? Does that help?
I try to be very open and consider all the options, to think critically and differently. To question things. I do in fact agree that in many ways the recycling programs we’ve created alleviate a lot of guilt that the corporations who have put us in this environmental crisis should be feeling.
Ever since the classic commercial in 1970 with the crying Native American chief blaming us, as opposed to Coca-cola, we’ve been burdening an unfair percentage of the fault to be had. (Also, that actor is not even of Native American descent so you can ignore him).
That commercial actually states, “People start pollution, and people can stop it.” That’s the punchline. It’s probably been close to a 90/10 ratio of blame to this point in dealing with the plastic crisis. I think it should be exactly flipped.
The systems we’ve set up and the corporations that benefit from them are 90% of the problem. They should own 90% of the guilt, burden, and solutions for fixing it. Towards finding a better balance between capitalism and the environment.
Our personal choices make a much smaller impact, but still—do you want to be the cause of a plastic ring that gets stuck around a turtle’s head? No! So, take twenty seconds and cut it up before tossing it. Recycle your plastic, because it’s better than the alternative.
Obviously, do your best to reduce your plastic use and carbon footprint overall, but we all live on this planet. We’re living inside of the systems that have been set up, so there’s no escaping it. If you use a paper towel to clean the table or drink a Gatorade when you’re hungover, you can still be an environmental champion. One thing doesn’t forfeit the other. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.
Basically, I just don’t think there is some sort of evil, corrupt, all-powerful, cabal behind these decisions, smoking cigars, laughing as they watch videos of us recycling our stupid yogurt containers, HAHAHA!
Where we are in terms of our consumption and the creation of waste is the product of universally loved progress that started towards the end of the 19th century. Every advancement was cheered for, and they all compounded on top of each other for us to reach this moment in history.
Nobody thought that horses were better than cars. Every advancement in history was tight:
Washing machine, tight.
Automobile, fast and tight.
T.V., bright and tight.
Air conditioning, cool and tight.
Bottles of sugary drinks, fizzy and tight.
Flaming Hot Cheetos, so so tight.
We liked all of these inventions and new developments at every step. Anyone who thinks that the people currently in power executed that plan, to somehow—begin the industrial revolution, knowing it would result in this environmental dilemma we’re currently faced with, leading to a debate about whether recycling some of the shit we’re making is good or not, distracting us from the REAL conversations we’re not privy too—I just don’t buy it.
I think there are evil rich people who don’t give a fuck about how consumerism impacts the planet. I just don’t think they made the decisions that led us to this moment, and I think it’s still better to take local action than throw your hands up because, fuck it!
I don’t think being an environmental nihilist is more “woke” than being someone who recycles and seeks solutions. I do, however, think it’s much, much, MUCH easier.
I’ve been dwelling on all of this so much lately that I started wondering if next year, my annual Earth Day celebration and the recycling program will be more questioned or even commonly perceived as “bad.”
Will cleaning the beach catch a side-eye because we “just don’t get it.” Because we’re actually propping up the system that “the man” created. They control the narrative, the counter-narrative, and the beach you live on, mannnn!!! They even control those turtles, man!
So, let’s bring this back to where we started: With the rate of change in Puerto and how I just don’t think “get out of here” is ever the right response in relation to where folks can or should live.
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