This post was published earlier this year. I repost it today, lightly revised.
06/06/2024: More revisions to this in light of recent events.
Today I want to write about a product in Second Life.
The product name is “It’s NOT Mine!” (from here on out referred to as INM) and the product’s creator is a person called TrinaCarlsson, whom I will call Trina.
The INM system is fun and adds to sexual RP in Second Life. I can not use it any more, for reasons that I hope this post will clarify.
During the runup to the 2020 election in the US, I put on my profile some personal opinions about the electoral climate in the US, and about the incumbent candidate. My opinions were the exact and unfiltered truth — namely, that the incumbent was a crook and a liar, but were nothing that people who know me did not already know.
I thought nothing of it, since I thought it was an exercise of my right to have an opinion about an election that would have an effect on the world at large. Then one day, when I was trying to gift the system to someone, I discovered that I had been banned from buying anything from Trina.
Up to then I had used the INM system without incident, spoke well of it, recommended to others, and enjoyed using it. I was really curious as to why I was unable to buy anything else from Trina, until a quick glance at her profile yielded this (now deleted) page: a pick about her choice to ban people who spoke ill of the former president of the US, Donald J. Trump, whether vocally or on their profiles, from purchasing her products.
I was, to say the least, surprised that Trina had banned me from buying her products because I had dared to speak the truth as I saw it about the 45th president of the US, especially because up to then I had thought of her as a sensible business person who had created a product that added something to sexual roleplay in Second Life.
My opinion of Trina was greatly diminished from that day: regardless of how the election went, the fact that she banned me from acquiring any more of her products because of a political opinion confirmed to me the fact that some people will choose to criminalize opposition to their opinions in the same way that the former president criminalized opposition to him.
Regardless of my politics, having acquired the INM system in the past, not just for myself, but also for others as a gift, it’s obvious that I found it a good product, that added to the sexual experience in Second Life.
Because my ban from using INM was motivated by reasons completely unrelated to the product itself I have no choice but to post the following disclaimer:
Be aware that by buying and using the INM system you acquiesce to having your personal opinions and politics monitored and used against you, and may already be forbidden from buying Trina’s products in the future if your personal choices are not to her liking.
I was tempted to do exactly the same to Trina as she did to me, namely, banning her from acquiring my own products, but I won’t do that. I believe political differences are not a valid reason to ban someone from acquiring a product in Second Life (or anywhere else, actually.) I believe customers should be banned from buying a product again if they steal, copy, or reverse engineer it, but not for their political opinions.