Pet Peeve: The Undying

Argent Dawn
4798

Booooooring

Honk honk :clown_face: :earth_africa: that’s where it’s at now

#whitepowder

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4799

'course they are, imagine banning things because of 4chan

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4800

Indeed. It would lead to a … clown world.

4801

friggin’ honk honk…

4802

Skipping about 40 steps from one thing to another is indeed clownish. Imagine ignoring the far reaching implications of gestures and symbols in politics!

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4803

Imagine banning stuff because bad people use it with other implications that 99.99% of the world

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4804

A pet peeve of mine is when superficial and contrived outrage happens in regards to memes which are behind the curve.

I hope you don’t sincerely mean that Levey, because I wouldn’t underestimate you as to consider that you haven’t thought about the broader implications.

If pol were any smarter they would target and try to acquire something which is indispensible next. The :ok_hand: might’ve been a trial, and :clown_face: to prove that the same fish can take the same bait twice.

But I would very much like to see something like, I guess, the Overwatch character Zenyata fall under the false claims of ‘racism’ because he does that ungodly taboo hand sign so damn much.

Would Blizzard remove it from the game?

Get real.

As for the real world outside this little video game bubble of ours – this only serves the purpose of displaying how far gone things are.

6 Likes
4805

It’s analysis over outrage, but these days, picking apart anything ideologial is often dismissed as hysterical even through the most clinical and dispassionate de-boning. But that’s a different issue that needn’t be mechanically separated at this hour, even if it is one of my biggest peeves in the history of peeve-dom!!1!

The bigger picture of this remains that symbols have the meaning their users assign to them, that an ideological connection exists and that Blizzard, in consistent and strictly apolitical capitalist pragmatism and mass appeal, wouldn’t want to have streams clogged with what may or may not be regarded a WP sign. I can recognise the sentiment and understand it.

This whole thing will die by itself in a couple of years regardless, and we’ll be right back to fighting over Overwatch’s first genderfluid character or something while the real world politics outside our game turn all the bleaker during the grand distraction. Bread and circuses, mate.

If you’re a good lad.

1 Like
4806

Blizzard probably want to distance their event from the :ok_hand: symbol for the time being considering the Christchurch shooter was photographed doing it not so long ago. What was just an internet thing became a very real one in the real world.

The symbol does mean ‘ok’ to most people, but its also used as a form of dogwhistle for far-righters. Symbols change or adapt meanings over time. That’s just the world we live in.

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4807

And that’s exactly what the shooter wanted.

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4808

Only if you allow them to make that connection, like you, and Blizzard are doing.
You are as much as, if not a bigger part of this joke of a problem as the actual racists are, because on their own, they wouldn’t be able to do crap, it’s idiots who ban stuff because their interpretation who give them that power. You are at the point where basement-dwellers of 4chan are laughing at you.

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4809

Correct, context exists and it matters. And it always should matter.

Otherwise the middle school teacher should get deplatformed off Twitter and fired, for passing the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a case study in class. Same goes for History teachers covering WW2.

As do I understand the sentiment and where they’re coming from, but this act (banning) was not an apolitical act, so they did break whatever record they had just now. The issue is that because it’s a political act and it’s cast in an unfavourable direction for the rest of the reasonable world.

Furthermore, by taking context into account they should realize that people in twitch chats are mostly doing it to provoke a reaction. It won’t be :frog: and :ok_hand: now, but :clown_face:. And then it will be something else.

I personally think this is just a progressive rabbithole which will have the effect of increasingly good things being conceded away to the racists, with the sole purpose of “distancing ourselves from them”… but… only until it hapens again. And perhaps with something even more crucial next time. :man_shrugging:

Because he knew you would bring it up. You are accomplishing his goal of seeking fame.

By this logic everything can be lost to people like these.

Please understand that your own weaknesses and fears are being leveraged against you, and Blizzard most definitely made a mistake this time.

Remember that CoD MW2 death-screen quote? “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”

Kinda feels right.

4 Likes
4810

If most people understand ‘ok’ and not a WP gesture, then it is not a WP gesture. They don’t have the power to do it, Blizzard does. They’re the ones with the actual institutionally-derived power and they just exercised it against their own fans.

By all accounts, that guy did nothing wrong, nor was there any reason to suspect he was a naz! in disguise.

This tactic of retreating whenever a cultural symbol is challenged is no way to go. Surrendering this is… foolish. People shouldn’t surrender to WP racists. It’s cowardly to do so.

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4811

It’s sadly far too late for that utopian vision, that particular sign ruined beyond repair. Symbols and their use is a human universal which my analysis does nothing to change. If people didn’t give a symbol a particular objectionable meaning in the first place, there would be no reaction to regulate its use. The buck always stops with the people actively choosing to use, and misuse, any particular symbol and equivocating responsibility is actually a logical fallacy.

The reasonable world can groan and moan but the use of symbols will always be a factor, adopted and spread to propagate ideas, whether they be benign or hideous. The latter tend to escalate quicker, as lines are drawn and crossed.

Simple numbers still trump ideology, shifting the balance in self interest. The cold calculations of marketing dictate that the second the pendulum shifts and 51% support a different thing, the apolitical money machine will put the future equivalent of the OK sign in a lootbox.

4812

That’s not how dogwhistles work. The whole point of a dogwhistle is that it flies under the radar of most people, just so long as the intended audience get it.

To be clear I think Blizzard have made a mistake here. I understand their reasoning, but it was a mistake.

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4813

Surrendering this memetic artifact is cowardly.

So you subscribe to the idea that symbols are used as stand-ins for certain… taboo words, let’s say.

Where do you draw the line, at context hopefully? Or do you view racism as an infectious phenomenon, where once it touches something it’s irredeemably contaminated.

Because the ‘ok’ symbol, by your own logic, is just that. And no one should use it because it doesn’t matter if the majority of the population is blissfully unaware of this - let alone interested - and even if they are aware they might not fully subscribe to your approach.

Would you still take it upon yourself to prove that you have the moral and virtuous highground by beginning to reproach people when they use :ok_hand: ?

Kinda like… you’re trying to lecture me on it?

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4814

You’re the bloody idiots with some utopian vision of removing any and all hate by forcefully extinguishing anything that has even the slightest relation to bad people, and “too late” my butt, if people like Blizz don’t react, it wouldn’t ever be a big deal.

What do you even mean by this?! The amount of people using :ok_hand:t2: as a racist gesture is extremely low, you know damn well you’re talking out of your butt right now.

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4816

But have you ever stopped to ask yourself why the latter propagates quicker? Perhaps because of the faulty tactic of just… instantly surrendering the thing to the racists instead of realizing that all the power lies with the rest of the world and not all 5 of those 4channers?

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4817

It’s not one or the other but a deeper systemic, self reinforcing thing of implicit biases. Ultimately, context matters as the vehicle by which awareness is reached. I fail to see how analysing the mental and social dynamics of racism is relevant. I have a more superficial, personal attitude toward it but it doesn’t matter…

No, you misninterpret my point, hopefully by misunderstanding. It was never about moral superiority. I was saying that the utopian attitude of just leaving things be isn’t any kind of solution because the bad actors will continuously escalate. The self reinforcement takes hold long before CNN does a shocked special on a “racist frog?!!”.

I’d argue that ignorance is what feeds fear.

Who are we and I who are the idiots? Do you assign me an ideology in this matter? All I’m doing is pointing out the origins and implications of the use of symbols. Apathy to the proliferation of the use of symbols for sinister purposes only helps those spreading these ideas unimpeded. Where is your line to push back against it?

I’m not a hysterical [insert ideology] eager to imprison all who disagree with me. All I’ve really said was that I understand why blizzard banned the OK sign. All else is analysis and elaboration.

It’s my example that Blizzard’s calculation isn’t in the favour of the people doing the sign, but that it could be in an instant as there is no true room for ideology in a business, no matter how people might think differently.

Internal self reinforcement in transgressing taboos, something that can turn awful things into virtues long before the normies even catch a whiff of it and flail in ignorant fervour.

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4818

The context was “ok”…

You’re right, because by ignoring it, there’s no problem at all that needs a “solution” in the first place.

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