Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 870 posts

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

#761

Post by timsally »

tptacek wrote: post #752
catalogia wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you never been to rural NY? The Confederate flag flies all over the place there Many times, and I can earnestly say I've never seen that. Nor in rural Pennsylvania for that matter, which I would otherwise characterize as slightly less sophisticated than NY. Are there racists in that region? Certainly. But I can't recall ever seeing somebody in those states flying the confederate flag. I'm sure it's happened be…

I've seen it in New York, in Pennsylvania, and, memorably, once in northern Ohio, while doing a canvass --- one I wish I'd seen before I knocked on the door and got chased off the property.

Canvasing in Ohio is a blast. I did it once and the field office was based out of a recently shuttered gambling den. Getting yelled at on someone's front porch is unfiltered democracy!

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

#762

Post by kwistzhaderach »

jniedrauer wrote: post #722
stass wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No hate against a specific group . The cross has been used as a symbol in the slaughter millions over the centuries. But it is not generally used as a symbol to threaten any one specific group.

Landlords?

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

#763

Post by adrienne »

sacks2k wrote: post #26

I'm curious why the confederate flag should get special treatment. I had relatives murdered in the Alamo. Should the Mexican flag get banned because I'm offended by it? Every flag represents a group that has been in the losing side of a war and killed opposing citizens or soldiers. Yet, those flags aren't banned.

My great-great-great-great-something uncle COMMANDED at the Alamo. And you know what? Everyone who got killed there, including him, was on the WRONG FUCKING SIDE. So no, of course the Mexican flag shouldn't be banned. The Confederate flag should be, though, because it explicitly glorifies treason in defense of slavery.

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

#765

Post by timsally »

torstenvl wrote: post #745
rayiner wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That begs the question. Why did southerners pick the battle flag of the war they fought to preserve slavery as the symbol for "southern identity?"

They didn't. They chose the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia because of widespread admiration of Lee, who, while no abolitionist, called slavery a political and moral evil; who insisted on reconciliation after the war and rejected Lost Cause mythology; and who called upon Southerners to vow loyalty to the United States. There's a reason they chose Lee's flag and not a CSA flag associated directly with a r…

It is the flag flown by an armed group that killed soldiers in the United States Army, is it not? [1] This fact gets lost in the debate. No American should fly the flag of any group that targeted and killed members of the United States Armed Forces.

[1] https://history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-FM.htm, Section VI with Ulysses Simpson Grant as part of the unbroken chain of command.

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

#766

Post by tptacek »

timsally wrote: post #761
tptacek wrote: post #752

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen it in New York, in Pennsylvania, and, memorably, once in northern Ohio, while doing a canvass --- one I wish I'd seen before I knocked on the door and got chased off the property.

Canvasing in Ohio is a blast. I did it once and the field office was based out of a recently shuttered gambling den. Getting yelled at on someone's front porch is unfiltered democracy!

It was unfiltered, all right.

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

#767

Post by barry-cotter »

undersuit wrote: post #594
skinkestek wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bloke (and a less privileged bloke at that, 75% non white according to himself) was recently fired because someone had shot a photo of him resting his hand out the window of a company truck in what lpoked line an OK hand. It was discussed here a few days ago. Stop firing the innocent or something, from the Atlantic.

One person being fired doesn't prove anything. The person who took the video is even upset that he accidentally hurt the person he was videoing.

The person who took the video went to significant effort to ruin Emmanuel Cafferty’s life and it is a great shame that he has suffered no consequences from doing so.

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

#768

Post by causality0 »

iamstupidsimple wrote: post #607
causality0 wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately no part of the internet is a public venue. There is no internet street corner, no "common carrier" internet phone company, no internet post office. Everything you do is subject to the whims of shareholder value. If tomorrow enough people decided left-handed people are the scum of the earth to affect Youtube's bottom line you'd start seeing left-handed videos demonetized. If enough people decided left-ha…

I disagree. The internet is a place and it's special - far greater than the sum of it's constituent parts (servers, networking gear, websites, etc..) might all be privately owned, but the concept of the network itself is free and shared.

Yes. I'm just saying it would be beneficial if there were a public alternative to services like Gmail, Youtube, Facebook, offered to the users at cost, and only moderated to the degree necessary to comply with the law. Perhaps in exchange for this "neutral media carrier" the user accounts should be linked to a Social Security number and with their real names attached to anything they publish.

Nobody blames the postal service for delivering racist newsletters or pirated DVDs or drugs. The responsibility lies solely on the user, who is prosecuted if their conduct exceeds the scope of the law. We need that for the internet.

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

#769

Post by ars »

themacguffinman wrote: post #732
ars wrote: post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now you might say that it doesn't matter how those people feel. They're not us. What?? How in the universe are you getting there? Talk about a strawman! The real explanation is much simpler: They didn't know the flag was racist. Because, despite attempts to rewrite history, until recently most people did not know that flag was racist. I mean, even the producer of the show, who went out of his way to hire black acto…

> Because, despite attempts to rewrite history, until recently most people did not know that flag was racist. I find this extremely unbelievable. The American Civil War is a milestone in American history that has been taught in schools for a long time. Most people, despite attempts to rewrite history, know that the Confederacy fought for the right to own black slaves.

That's true, but most people don't realize the flag is a symbol of slavery, they just think it's a symbol of the South.

For example take a state flag from a rebel state (and assume the flag has not changed since the civil war). If someone flew that flag today, would you think they are implying state rebellion, or just pride in their state?

It's the same with the confederate flag, to most people it's just a flag that symbolizes a group of southern states. To northerners it means rebellion, specifically for slavery, but it doesn't mean that for everyone.

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

#770

Post by fomine3 »

mkbkn wrote: post #758
rsynnott wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Swastika is used as a symbol of divinity and spirituality in Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. I wonder why it'still considered "taboo" in the Western society in the information-age.

卍 is often used here in Japan for figure in maps meaning temple. I hope western world doesn't kill irrelevant figure.

I generally don't like the thought of cultural appropriation (IMO Anyone should be able to wear kimono) but I feel that forbidding something outside western country by western people is a bad cultural appropriation.

Post reply on HN