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Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

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Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many things are covered in graffiti in Western Europe. It always baffles me that people are in such a defeated state of mind that graffiti is just simply accepted and seemingly nothing is done about it.

I mean, one way to look at it is just that graffiti is just... fine, really. It's not generally a huge deal in the scheme of things.

And this attitude is why there is so much of it.

Why don’t you call it what it is: destruction of public property?

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it should belong to everyone as you claim, then every aspiring graffiti maker must ask everyone's opinion before starting spraying.

Basically, in my ideal world, whoever builds an ugly enough building should be liable to remove it or improve it if it is deemed too ugly by a majority. Graffiti is (partially) just the consequence of not living in that ideal world, but because of all the other problems with graffiti, I'd rather just treat it as the vandalism it usually is in all cases. No sense holding an election before every prosecution or clean a…

> Basically, in my ideal world, whoever builds an ugly enough building should be liable to remove it or improve it if it is deemed too ugly by a majority

This sounds like the words of a “community oversight” committee obstructing the construction of housing, and we already know the effects of that on the housing market. Society has swung too far into allowing other people to tell someone what to do with their property already.

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many things are covered in graffiti in Western Europe. It always baffles me that people are in such a defeated state of mind that graffiti is just simply accepted and seemingly nothing is done about it.

I mean, one way to look at it is just that graffiti is just... fine, really. It's not generally a huge deal in the scheme of things.

In Portugal you can see poetry being embedded in graffiti which is awesome, TBH

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#404
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, life is not black and white. Even without knowing anything about graffiti culture, there is a border between defacing and improving. And graffiti artists are moving over that border back and forth. Some of the most beautiful art I have seen are graffiti

Life would be meaningless if it was just black and white. Fortunately there are times that we're reminded that people do live in cities and do stuff other than just minding their own.

I really wish people minded their own more, then my ears wouldn’t be assaulted by boomboxes on the subway and I wouldn’t be accosted at an atm vestibule

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#405
post #372
post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused - how do the vandals stop the train?

Like this: https://youtu.be/vg5OrytF_a0?t=65 TL;DW: Basically, the conductor alerts the police and stops the train, once they realize that the train is being decorated. If they started moving forward, it could seriously endanger the graffiti sprayers. So that's really the best course of action here.

If one graffiti artist delays my train for one minute, that’s one minute too many

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it still be funny if it was a swastika? Or the n-word? Is that also a part of your glorious fight against evil capitalists? If not, why is it any less legitimate? Clearly the “community” must want it there if it was left up.

If it was a swastika or the n-word I would be very concerned about the nature of the community in that neighbourhood and if I'm in danger. But in terms of how i'd deal with kids seeing it, I'd take it as a teachable moment. I don't have to hide my kids from everything I don't believe in (besides they probably see crazy shit online anyway), I just need to teach them how to deal with it. Anyway, theres a wall near wher…

Your comment is baffling, bordering nonsensical.

> If it was a swastika or the n-word I would be very concerned about the nature of the community in that neighbourhood and if I'm in danger.

If you lived in a large city like NY or London and you saw a random swastika, your immediate reaction would be to blame your neighbors? How do you know it wasn’t someone from somewhere else?

> If you really need the authorities to tell your community that swastika graffiti should make them angry and call them to action, then your community is screwed already.

Hopefully nobody needs the authorities to tell them things, but they do need authorities to help them enforce already agreed-upon laws. I can’t spent my time running around cleaning up all the graffiti.

Do you think it should be the duty of citizens to stop bank robbers, too?

> Either way, yeah just as we have laws to deal with incitement to violence and hatespeech we can have that with walls if you'd prefer, it just has to be sth actually extreme and targeted.

We literally already have this which is why vandalism is ILLEGAL, but your previous comments were completely dismissive of this!

—-

Seriously, this is like Basic Empathy and Human Emotions 101. Imagine yourself seeing the n-word written several times around your city. Contemplate the anger that you would feel, the desire for someone to do something about it, the realization that even if you dedicated all your free time to finding and stopping these people you probably couldn’t do it yourself. Now replace “n-word” with something someone else finds deeply offensive and imagine yourself as them. Do you STILL think graffiti is totally harmless, or justified as long as you’re vandalizing a megacorp?

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, one way to look at it is just that graffiti is just... fine, really. It's not generally a huge deal in the scheme of things.

And this attitude is why there is so much of it. Why don’t you call it what it is: destruction of public property?

Factually, the property isn't destroyed. Beyond that, I think the street art often enhances it and otherwise is easily ignored.

You may see it differently, but what you see isn't "what it is", it's just your perspective.

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#408
post #4

> a transparent noise barrier Most rail noise barriers in Germany are completely covered in graffiti [0], so I wouldn't expect them to remain transparent for more than a few weeks. [0] https://ga.de/imgs/93/8/5/9/3/0/9/1/9/tok_8596521c60eeaa53ee...

If you dive into the graffiti scene a bit you will start to appreciate all those graffitis. The story behind some of them is super interesting. There is a lot of "competition", "collaboration", and group dynamics involved. It is truly fascinating. I was living in Cologne (Ehrenfeld) for a while in a place with awesome graffiti and every weekend there were people taking pictures "collecting" and documenting the graffi…

The “competition” associated with the MS13 “artwork” that covers up stop signs and street names in my neighborhood sure seems to involve a lot of guns and human rights violations.

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#409
post #3

The quality of my life would be better improved through public transportation and these sound absorbers than almost any app I use. Hooray for basic infrastructure.

I would go further, and say that public transport improves quality of life far more than sound absorbers for public transport do. It's nice that these things exist, but we should be spending money on more public transport, not necessarily on making public transport more palatable to people. I realise that's an unfortunate necessity, but it's clear that people pushing back on public transport just haven't seen its ben…

There is a balance to be struck though. For example where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are millions of people whose commutes are objectively faster and cheaper on the BART train, but the vast majority of commuters still choose to drive a personal vehicle over a congested and expensive toll bridge. The primary reason for this is that the train is just so damn unpleasant for a multitude of reasons (including noise) that most people find the extra wasted hour worth it to them to have a more pleasant commute. Whenever the agency that runs the train proposes spending more money on things like human excrement abatement, noise abatement, etc. people complain and protest about mismanagement and money wasting, so nothing ever gets better and the infrastructure continues to be underutilized.

Re: Deutsche Bahn introduces "MetaWindow"

#410
post #4

> a transparent noise barrier Most rail noise barriers in Germany are completely covered in graffiti [0], so I wouldn't expect them to remain transparent for more than a few weeks. [0] https://ga.de/imgs/93/8/5/9/3/0/9/1/9/tok_8596521c60eeaa53ee...

Many things are covered in graffiti in Western Europe. It always baffles me that people are in such a defeated state of mind that graffiti is just simply accepted and seemingly nothing is done about it.

> It always baffles me that people are in such a defeated state of mind that graffiti is just simply accepted and seemingly nothing is done about it.

As usual, the answer is found by examining assumptions: 1) It's somehow bad, and 2) People strongly want it removed. (And by accepting those two assumptions as true, and it's also true that the street art remains, that argument infers despair.)

I and many people don't think it's Bad (avoiding a specific definition, an endless discussion). I don't mean it's always Good or never Bad, but generally IMHO it ranges from easily ignored to decent to some really inspiring stuff.

And I find it generally inspiring that some kids have the spirit, creativity, initiative, and determination to do it; to express themselves and not be suppressed by society. Adults have so much agency; it's great to see kids seize some, and in a harmless way (they aren't injuring people, risking anything, etc.). I see the suppression of graffiti as telling kids to be 'seen and not heard'. People embrace billionaires who break rules and then kill and impovrish on a mass scale; all these kids are doing is painting something.

I'd almost advocate that kids have free reign to paint public property (that would seem to get out of control, and any announced limit may be an invitation to break it). It's their city too, and adults should have to live with what the kids have to say. (Still - how could that work? Any undecorated or unfinished surface?)

I understand you may not agree; we need to find a balance.

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