Mistakes happen a lot. Sincere apologies, less so.

[yendi]

Two links of note this morning (he says, even he has two separate incomplete link dump posts waiting in the wings; you have no idea how behind on LJ I am):

1. Kill Screen Daily has apologized for their ill-thought-out post on Hitman last week. Yes, it contains the dreaded "to all offended" hallmark of the fauxpology, but it's still pretty clearly sincere (as a general rule, calling your actions "a mistake" is a good sign of contrition). For those in need of some context, here's the awesome link I tossed out on Twitter (under my @Tsalmoth account), "Quit Pretending There Isn't a Videogame Rape Culture."

2. Jason Alexander has written what may be the template for how to write a sincere apology after both fucking up, not understanding why you fucked up, and then coming to a true understanding of how you've hurt people. If I thought they were intelligent enough to get it, I'd suggest that Gabe and Tycho need to read this, but they're pretty much the prototypes for only the first two parts of that process.

Comments

[aberrantangels]

The money quote, IMO, is in the last paragraph of the Alexander apology:

In comedy, timing is everything. And when a group of people are still fighting so hard for understanding, acceptance, dignity and essential rights – the time for some kinds of laughs has not yet come.

It reminded me of the mathematical formula proposed by my old friend John Scalzi in Hints for White People, where X = how long the minority was or has been oppressed and Y = how long they've been mainstream (if they are) and while X/Y > 1, "[i]t’s probably best that you keep your wryly amusing idea to yourself." (Except, obvs, that the Alexander version is more concise.)

And yes, KSD are definitely recognizing that they dropped the ball and trying to make good. The variation-on-a-cliche "I can assure you [the author']s original intent was not to offend" is followed by acknowledgement that, to paraphrase a great American actor, the facts and the evidence say he did. They get it, and we should encourage this behavior.

[greylistening.livejournal.com]

My respect for Alexander has just been reaffirmed.