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MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

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Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#661

Interestingly hammer and sickle is not in the list

Why would it be? I don't recall it ever being used as a symbol of discrimination against one specific group... unless you mean landlords?

That's right, it's just a symbol that has been used historically to kill tens of millions of people, enslave many more millions, and violently steal other people property. No hate here at all, nothing to see.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#662
post #639

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's no reasonable expectation that you are able to spread racist propaganda in a car racing game Merely displaying a flag seems like a pretty generous interpretation of "propaganda". It certainly doesn't fit any definition of which I'm aware. Perhaps there's an argument for banning such symbols, but don't use hyperbole to try and prove your point, you just undermine the legitimacy of this effort.

Flags are very powerful symbols. Suppose trump took down all the American flags in the whitehouse and replaced them with Russian flag, or if Obama had taken them down and replaced them with the Isis flag. There's no world in which that would be taken lightly

It's a perennial source of amazement that so many Americans don't realise that literal political symbols are actually, you know, political. Flags, anthems, pledges, coats of arms, etc - these are (benign) nationalist symbols and displaying/rendering them is inherently a political choice.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also not the flag of the Confederacy (as in the nation). No one uses that. What everyone uses is the Confederate Battle Flag, which is specifically the flag of the army of secessionists. There's no rational argument that it represents Southern culture.

Interesting, I didn't know that there were multiple flags for the CSA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_State... . It seems that the second and third did incorporate the battle flag as part of the design. Wouldn't surprise me to see these people switch to one of the other, lesser-known variants to work around the ban.

Here's a fun quote from the article about the design of the second flag

>On April 23, 1863, the Savannah Morning News editor William Tappan Thompson, with assistance from William Ross Postell, a Confederate blockade runner, published an editorial championing a design featuring the battle flag on a white background he referred to later as "The White Man's Flag."[6] In explaining the white background, Thompson wrote, "As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause."

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#664
post #640
post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a significant difference between being "xenophobic" and "racist"? Seems like semantics...

Well the motivations are completely different. Xenophobia is a pretty normal human condition, and very reasonable as well (“strangers” carry germs, which is being amptly demonstrates right now). It could also be motivated be preservation of culture, nation, etc. - basically same reasoning as makes you prefer your children vs other children, just extended a bit to the whole nation.

No one cares about the literal definition of words anymore, it’s all about feelings and implied context now. The word “racism” is a perfect example. You’ll rarely see anyone using it literally as in “prejudice based on race” which is a shame. We’ve lost a lot of the ability to reason about _why_ these things are bad, now it’s just “I feel like it’s bad, I’m scared of someone doing something bad to me.”

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#665

While it's emotionally pleasing to see racists being kicked out of online platforms, another side of me feels wary of these tactics. For starters, being deplatformed from major online players today would have serious consequences. Although it's true that these platforms are "private property," the entire society has become too reliant on them to be seen that way. I think it's dangerous when platforms function like a…

I assume Microsoft never allowed, say, swastikas. There's no reasonable expectation that you are able to spread racist propaganda in a car racing game (or for that matter in an actual car race; I think those tend to have very strict rules around decoration). I can see an _argument_ that Twitter, say, should be forced to pander to racists. I don't buy that argument, mind you, but I can at least see the thought process…

Given that 99% of horrible deeds are done for money, maybe we should allow no mention of money either. Would that work?

No, don't just censor me away with your little "downvotes". Discuss!

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This assumes that racists are putting confederate flags on their cars in good faith. Also, what kind of discourse is so precious that it should be respected on the ... Forza decal platform?

I don't think it's a good faith claim that everyone using one of the banned symbols is a racist 1. The current flag of Japan is based off of one of the banned symbols 2. Probably the most famous car in pop culture uses one of the banned symbols. Microsoft has gone as far as banning parodies of the General Lee that have none of the controversial symbols[0] If the flag of imperial Japan was banned due to its associatio…

The origins of a symbol are mostly pointless, it's the intent of its use. It's a hard argument to say that everyone form Japan is a racist because their flag is based on a banned symbol. The confederacy existed _because of racism_. Its only purpose (and continued purpose) is to identify with a movement founded solely on the basis of hate.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#667

Interestingly hammer and sickle is not in the list

On a similar note, why raised fist is not on the list? It's been used throughout the 20th century to commit atrocities on a grand scale and force tens of millions of people into labor camps. It was used to incite violence that killed many millions of people in Russia and across the world. It still used nowadays by people promoting violence and class warfare.

It seems very disingenuous for MS to ban one specific symbol of hate, but not other, much more prominent ones.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#668
post #640
post #576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a significant difference between being "xenophobic" and "racist"? Seems like semantics...

Well the motivations are completely different. Xenophobia is a pretty normal human condition, and very reasonable as well (“strangers” carry germs, which is being amptly demonstrates right now). It could also be motivated be preservation of culture, nation, etc. - basically same reasoning as makes you prefer your children vs other children, just extended a bit to the whole nation.

The reason you prefer your children is that they are much more likely to contain your genes than other children, and your main purpose in life is, to some extent, to ensure that those genes may propagate to later generations.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the first time I've heard of that. I can just imagine being somewhere loud and giving the ok / perfect symbol to a friend across the room and then being called a racist. Damn, that's scary.

If that's what you got out of this, I'm not sure what to say. I even used the SCUBA shop, which is next door, for reference. No-one that I've seen has advocated that the OK sign be abandoned for divers. I've been mid mouthful at a restaurant when a server has asked how my food is and I've made this sign and not been called a racist. However, should I and half a dozen of my buddies, armed an in full tactical gear, sta…

>However, should I and half a dozen of my buddies, armed an in full tactical gear, standing 10 ft from a BLM protest, waving my Confederate flags, all choose to make this sign for a photo, then a _reasonable person_ may choose to interpret this as "we know exactly what we're implying here, and we're not all just telling the cameraman that "everything is perfect"."

yeah, but that's the story required for your credulity.

another 'reasonable person' with an axe to grind could have a much more minimal story required for credulity, say someone resting their hand outside the window of their car, tweet the photo with a license plate, and ruin someones life.

my meaning : don't expect your reasonable demeanor is going to be the same as some other random bystanders' 'reasonable demeanor'.

Re: MS will ban Forza players who add the confederate flag to their digital cars

#670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a really odd social phenomenon. It's one thing to say "We don't like X and find it in poor taste. Please don't do that" I don't like it when folks say such things, but I understand it. Instead, what many folks seem to be saying is that based on one thing they can tell what the person is like inside . It's an amazingly-broad generalization and people seem to be enormously confident of themselves when they make it…

I don't believe that you don't actually understand the difference between "shoe or shirt color" and flashing hand signs for a photo.

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