[Slansitartop]

> but it is fair to hold people accountable for shitty culture that was recognized as such at the time. For example, Loving v. Virginia was decided in 1968

This isn't anything like Loving v. Virginia, and that's very easy to see: The Lovings were pretty clearly unhappy with their lot in 1968, hence the lawsuit bearing their name. The people who were actually part of the Atari culture aren't complaining about it, and they're actually organizing to dispute the accusations.

The only people complaining about any of this are twitter activists in 2018, and they don't have any credibility, frankly.

[rayiner]

Your use of “their lot” is telling. Yes, lots of people living in a shitty culture don’t realize it’s bad. Half of black people in 1968 disapproved of interracial marriage too. But we hardly have a representative sampling of former Atari employees to determine what people think of the culture in retrospect, or whether they’d be willing to live like that again (or want their daughters to have that “lot”).

[Slansitartop]

> But we hardly have a representative sampling of former Atari employees to determine what people think of the culture in retrospect, or whether they’d be willing to live like that again

All of the evidence we have at this point is positive towards the Atari culture. If the standard is "it was shitty unless you can prove a negative," then there's not much point talking about any of this. Burn the books because we already know everything we need to know.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Then maybe acquiring a representative sample would be a good place to start, and would help make arguments about what people do and don't want now more convincing.