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Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

ultimategeneral.com

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Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#31

Post by MBlume »

beamatronic wrote: post #3

"Spielberg’s "Schindler's List" did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical "Gettysburg" movie (1993) is still on iTunes." It seems Apple has started down a slippery slope. Will they now remove any movie from iTunes that contains the image of a Confederate flag anywhere in the movie? It begs the question, is there any "fair use" of a Confederate flag, anywhere? Or is it now fully taboo? If…

> Will they now remove any movie from iTunes that contains the image of a Confederate flag anywhere in the movie?

Practically: No, they won't, because film producers are much more powerful than app developers.

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#32

Post by pawn »

ryanobjc wrote: post #5
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

This seems stupid to me. It is one thing for a state government to fly that flag, it is a different thing for a private individual. (i.e. it is different when the police kill people and held unaccountable then when it is some nutjob.) I think games, documentaries and such are not showing the flag to be racist.

While YOU may not see the flag as a racist symbol, I assure you that others do. The general term is called dog-whistle politics. Eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

I don't believe he was saying anything regarding whether or not he believes it is a racist symbol. He said, "I think games, documentaries and such are not showing the flag to be racist." Can a documentary portray the Civil War without automatically favoring the Confederates? Can a game allow you to play for either side? In either case, does it not make sense to show the Confederate flag to be more authentic? It's part of history, and I'm extremely wary of the idea of leaving out history because it's got a "bad guy".

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#33

Post by smacktoward »

zxcvcxz wrote: post #30
fixermark wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might not be familiar with the German videogame marketplace. http://www.destructoid.com/see-how-wolfenstein-the-new-order...

Is there any evidence that censorship in Germany has really prevented racism?

They don't have half their country driving around with swastikas painted on their pickup trucks, so they would certainly seem to be doing better than we are...

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#35

Post by smacktoward »

narrator wrote: post #28

It's like Someone flashed the bat sign and suddenly every single major institution in America implements a policy in less than a week that could have been implemented at any time over the last 150 years. Weird...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_effect

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#36

Post by brightball »

markbnj wrote: post #14

Completely silly. I would like to see, just once in my life, our population respond to a tragedy with calm deliberation rather than knee-jerk reactionary tilting at windmills.

For what it's worth, the people of the city of Charleston is responding to the tragedy about as beautifully as anybody could ask.

Everybody outside of the state seems to be on the other end of the spectrum at the moment. Outside groups are actively driving in to try to stir things up and the people at AME have been calmly singing them away.

It's been amazing to watch. You have a big chunk of the country that seems like they're begging for chaotic racial incidents and the people in Charleston saying "No...this ends here."

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#37

Post by mcphage »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #19
ryanobjc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While YOU may not see the flag as a racist symbol, I assure you that others do. The general term is called dog-whistle politics. Eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics

Does the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution not "guarantee" to individual citizens freedom of speech and freedom of press, so that individuals (not collections of them such as states) can say "confederate flag" and display the confederate flag as much as they want? I mean, if they are doing so to be hateful, they can do that, and, in doing so, they declare themselves unsavory, to say the least.

> Does the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution not "guarantee" to individual citizens freedom of speech and freedom of press

Freedom from the government curtailing their speech, not freedom from other parties doing so. So, in this case: no.

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#38

Post by kbenson »

Steko wrote: post #21
beamatronic wrote: post #3

"Spielberg’s "Schindler's List" did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical "Gettysburg" movie (1993) is still on iTunes." It seems Apple has started down a slippery slope. Will they now remove any movie from iTunes that contains the image of a Confederate flag anywhere in the movie? It begs the question, is there any "fair use" of a Confederate flag, anywhere? Or is it now fully taboo? If…

"It seems Apple has started down a slippery slope." A more reasonable interpretation is that there was a vaguely defined rule that was applied in a silly way and it will all be straightened out as we might expect and has happened in the past.

Although, it's interesting that Apple seems prone to not only making vague (and possibly ill-thought out) rules, but also very aggressively applying those rules before there's been any assessment as to whether they need some tweaking.

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#39

Post by jtgi8jgfdg »

kdamken wrote: post #7

This is rather silly. What's next? Are we going to change the uniforms of Nazis in World War 2 games? Start putting "CENSORED" watermarks over the confederate flag in civil war themed movies? The flag shouldn't be flying on state buildings, but leave historically themed art and media out of this.

Google Shopping just banned Confederate flags. However you can shop for Nazi flags.

Re: Apple removes Civil War game from App Store until it removes Confederate flag

#40

Post by djcapelis »

fixermark wrote: post #18
kdamken wrote: post #7

This is rather silly. What's next? Are we going to change the uniforms of Nazis in World War 2 games? Start putting "CENSORED" watermarks over the confederate flag in civil war themed movies? The flag shouldn't be flying on state buildings, but leave historically themed art and media out of this.

You might not be familiar with the German videogame marketplace. http://www.destructoid.com/see-how-wolfenstein-the-new-order...

That doesn't make it any less silly.

I find the flying of the confederate flag in real life reprehensible, but censoring a civil war game using it as a symbol of the confederate armed forces? I'm not sure that makes sense.

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