Exactly what I was thinking. Like, you think I'm going to just id myself as a target for 14 year old boys who foam at the mouth to get a chance to scream slurs at people.
Partner and I put a bunch of pride themed stuff on the cars in Rocket League a while back and just easily increased the number of slurs heard like 500%
i've played A LOT of cod zombies and imo the narrative in that specific gamemode is far better than the blind military worship of the campaign and MP. especially in the newer games since the Nazi party member is long dead and so are the "OG squad" who accepted and even liked him after their Marvel-ass time travel adventures.
point is, zombies is generally pretty good, but if they bring back the nazi then
Eh, this year after a spate of "groomer" panic that has scared even Target into reducing pride merch and caused a resurgence of homophobia among young men, we can suspend our ironic critique and take what performative solidarity we can get. I think as metropolitan lefties we love defaulting to "it's not far enough" without ever stopping to at least say "it's some effort however cynical."
I would rather they do that than opt not to do it because they fear getting blasted by LibsofTikTok, etc. There is a not insignificant chance that in our lifetime gay marriage is overturned and gay Americans are pressured to hide back in the closet for fear of violence in places where they can openly exist now.
That COD opted to do this this year even as homophobia and transphobia have resurged among their key demographics is at the least a whimpering stand.
Gay rights are attained through hard and soft power, and in fact having US military propagandists--one of the most evil but effective soft power forces in the known world--on your side is objectively strength and social proof. You don't have to find it moral to view it as a barometer for what degree LGBTQ+ acceptance has held up against the recent relentless attacks on it.
In the future should America regress to full gay and trans oppression and you wanted to regale people with tales of a time when it wasn't so, there would be fewer details more evocative of how different it once was than "They even had pride flags in Call of Duty."