The Shrine

There's a post on Joystiq today entitled <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/02/free- ... ing/">Free Expression Isn't Always a Good Thing</a>, in response to someone who used a swastika as their MKDS userpic.

Normally, I would just read a post like this, be mildly interested at the initial overreaction, be intrigued by the discussion, and move on - every game that allows online play has the ESRB "experience may change online" disclaimer for precisely this reason - but one of the comments made me pause. Comment #7, in fact, reads "This AC:WW town is much more offensive" and then there's a link to <a href="http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/6290 ... .jpg">this picture</a>.

Seek, I remember you saying something about how your town is full of Nazi/Soviet imagery (although you never mentioned anything about any O&A/WOW theme) - is this it?

Those are very detailed photos of Hitler. That reminds me that I need to make some photorealistic patterns for my town to put everywhere (not Hitler's photo of course).

OH MY GOD! That is SOOOO much better than mine actually =P

I don't actually have any Soviet imagery (though I probably would if I was a good enough artist). I have Che Guevara imagery for communism; I think a lot of people really like my Che pictures. The whole thing is mainly there because I find it humerous; half the town is communist, and the other half are Nazis. I personally do not find it offensive because I feel images like the swastika have lost their power on my generation. I still ask people if they are offended by such imagery before they enter my town because I hold the idea some people may not want to enter my town due to symbolism (even if it is from 60+ years ago) of an authratative regime which killed millions; so far no one has said that it offends them, in fact, most people jump at the chance to see what I have done with the place =P


But wow, I have to say I am impressed by that persons detail. I would like to get some Khomeini images myself.

I tend to think they guy who posted that over at Joystiq is an idiot.

I think Seek's sort of right...stuff like that hardly signifies a resurgence of the Nazi party. If anything, the fact that people think it's funny to put swastikas in their videogames says to me that the symbolism really has lost its power, which I think is sort of a good thing.

Which is not to say we should all forget the horrors of the Holocaust or whatnot. But Neo-Nazi BS has been around for awhile, will be around for awhile, and there's no guarantee even that the person who did this for his town isn't doing it for the same reason as Seeker does - because he knows how horrendous the whole thing is, and finds it funny to take power away from that a little bit.

And even if this person did do it as a symbol of allegiance to the cause of racial supremacy, free speech is most definitely a good thing, and the occasional bit of Neo-Nazi venom or HNOS (hatred not otherwise specified) can be considered the price we have to pay for it. In my opinion, it's worth the cost.

I tried to post a reply, but it seems busy, and it looks like everything I wanted to express was covered in other posts anyway. Good to see that there are others out there who truly understand the principle of free speech as well.