I didn't acknowledge your other arguments because I wasn't going to follow you down your rabbit hole. You say Disney is cowardly and caves in. I pointed out that Disney many times haven't.
Just think about all the flak Disney got through the decades in allowing Gay Days and being progressive in employment rights for gay and cohabitating couples. Disney was subjected to boycotts about such progressive stances from the Right and didn't cave.
Proof that Disney isn't cowardly.
The point that started this is about Splash Mountain. And I pointed out another reason for changing it rather than craven fear: Disney itself is embarrassed about the existence of SotS. It was just a year or two ago that Iger characterized SotS as offensive and will never be released. You don't need to call Disney cowardly to see why they'd distance themselves even further from SotS by changing up Splash Mountain.
This whole thread is a farce. The people who are upset about the SM change are creating Straw Men and Slippery Slopes and Whataboutisms with regard to other attractions which are... problematic. Certainly not to the extent of a neuralgic topic as slavery (or more accurately, whitewashing the situation of recently freed slaves). And so, people are going on, some sincerely, some trollishly, about all the other possible changes which are very very very unlikely to change.
But, sure, pretend all those changes have already happened and call Disney cowardly for something that hasn't happened. Enjoy that bubble.
I provided examples of Disney being cowardly outside of the Splash Mountain thing (being afraid to make hand-drawn movies simply because
The Princess and the Frog and
Winnie the Pooh flopped, despite their flopping being for reasons other than because they were hand-drawn - specifically, their being put up against films like
AVATAR and a
Harry Potter sequel and being poorly-advertised; being afraid to make attractions not based on IPs despite how beloved rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Test Track still are). You're just NOW giving examples of Disney actually showing that they have a spine.
You can go on and on about how racist Splash Mountain is, but Disney dug their own hole with
Song of the South. Eisner could've just released it ONCE so everyone could see it and see why it's considered offensive, but instead they banned it, and as a result it's considered some sort of horrible incredibly racist film that should never even be acknowledged. I'm not arguing that the film isn't offensive, but the Indians in
Peter Pan are pretty offensive too, yet I don't see anybody demanding
Peter Pan be banned. Has Iger even SEEN
Song of the South? I'm genuinely curious.
On top of that, NOTHING THAT'S CONSIDERED RACIST ABOUT
SONG OF THE SOUTH IS INCLUDED IN SPLASH MOUNTAIN. I never saw a single person call Splash Mountain racist for being based on an offensive film until Frederick Chambers posted his idea for a retheme of the ride on Twitter (every so often I'd hear somebody say, "Hey, isn't it kind of funny that Disney built a ride based on a movie they won't release?", but that's not the same thing). If Splash Mountain being based on
Song of the South was such a huge problem, why didn't they retheme it years ago?
And even if they retheme Splash Mountain, that ain't gonna help them distance themselves from
Song of the South. The internet exists. People are going to find proof of the film's existence online. Years from now, people will likely make articles about how Disney had to retheme a ride for being based on a horribly racist film. Brer Bear and the Tar Baby make cameos in
Who Framed Roger Rabbit - unless they plan on banning THAT film too, there's a film on Disney+ with proof that
Song of the South exists. Brer Bear also makes a cameo at the end of
The Lion King 1 1/2, guess THAT'S gotta be banned too. Where does it end?
There's a reason that people are starting to worry about other attractions being changed - by giving in to the woke mob's demands to see Splash Mountain rethemed (to a movie that, as previously mentioned, they initially brushed off as proof that hand-drawn films are dangerous), that just gives them more power and they could start demanding that Disney replace other "problematic" rides as well.
