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Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The work and the author
In 2021 there was a Kickstarter campaign for a board game called Tournament Fishing. The crowdfunding campaign had various images, including one of a frog. And somebody on Twitter called out that frog for making a "white power" symbol with his hands. That quickly escalated, as internet "scandals" go, with various organizations accusing the game developers of being nazis, and cutting ties with them, with the CEO of the company getting kicked out of a gaming convention. That did not even stop when the game company provided the stock photo of the frog in question, that their artist had used to create the image in question. Although it seems that the CEO of the company actually has political views from the right, the frog is probably innocent of being a white nationalist (he might be a green nationalist). The game was not meant to be a dog whistle for white nationalism, and the frog was just a frog.
This week the organization giving out the Spiel des Jahres awards apologized for their award ceremony of last Sunday. This time it wasn't a frog, but a watermelon. One of the authors of the game Daybreak had worn the symbol on his T-shirt during the award ceremony. And only later somebody spotted that it was a symbol showing Greater Palestine "from the river to the sea", having thus eliminated the state of Israel, in Palestinian colors and disguised as a watermelon. It is a rather clear symbol of a goal that is very obviously genocidal, which goes way beyond reasonable demands for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people. I think it is one of the biggest moral failures of the progressive left to fully have adopted anti-semitism, weirdly including spray-painting swastikas on Jewish synagogues, as part of their understandable support for Palestinian civilians. A survey among various university protesters in the USA found that the overwhelming majority of the people chanting "from the river to the sea" could neither name the river nor the sea in question, and weren't fully aware of what that would mean for the 7+ million Jews living in the state of Israel. Wishing the power situation was reversed, and it would be the Jews instead of the Palestinians who lived in rubble and died to bombs and tanks, can't be the solution to a complicated crisis.
Having said that, I agree with the quote describing the thinking of Voltaire as "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". The organization of the Spiel des Jahres is free to allow or disallow certain political expression during their award ceremonies. But I would not boycott Daybreak, which is an excellent game about climate change, just because I didn't agree with the political beliefs of one of the game's authors.
The more it goes on, the more the culture war that originated in the USA and is spreading over the rest of the world, is taking on the historic characteristics of a religious war. “Dei" is the dative and ablative singular of the latin word for “God”, and DEI is becoming more and more a religion. There is some irony to the fact that Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is increasingly about treating people unequally and excluding them for having the wrong beliefs, while Christianity is also ripe with with very un-Christian treatment of unbelievers. Excluding each other, cancelling each other, banning each other will only make things worse. The world has experimented for centuries with religious persecution in the name of what is "right" and "holy", but it never ended well. Religion, for all the good it does, also always had an aspect of being a way to show moral superiority and looking down on others. If we took the tenets of old and new religions and belief systems literally, we would be a lot nicer to the people we don't agree with.
That is even more true when an author with an extreme political opinion creates a work that does *not* in itself constitute an expression of the extreme opinion. There is absolutely nothing anti-semitic about the board game Daybreak. There are no overt transphobic references in the Harry Potter books. Pretty much any book written, film made, painting painted before the 21st century has an author who grew up in his time and shared beliefs common to the time he was born in; and some of those beliefs are today considered unacceptable and morally wrong by some people. The loss to humanity of of banning thousands of years of human creativity and expression would be infinitely greater than any possible gain. It is better to annotate works of the past where they aren't conform with modern beliefs, rather than banning them or editing them. When you hear of a call for a boycott, ask yourself whether the person demanding that isn't just virtue signalling to demonstrate his own moral superiority, rather than actually wanting to prevent any harm.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:30 AM Permanent Link
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"I think it is one of the biggest moral failures of the progressive left to fully have adopted anti-semitism, weirdly including spray-painting swastikas on Jewish synagogues, as part of their understandable support for Palestinian civilians."
At least in my country ( France) progressive left have not adopted anti-semitism, that is illegal. Some has adopted anti-sionism( rejecting the state of Israel). And the only anti-jews painting was done by Russian spy trying to destabilize our country.
And the last part (the russian implication) is why I am reacting : a lot (but not all) of the tension is purposely fueled by Russian secret service (creating extremist content from both side). Your message of tolerance and not caricaturing position so we can discuss and exchange, is critically important, but also applies to your posts !
At least in my country ( France) progressive left have not adopted anti-semitism, that is illegal. Some has adopted anti-sionism( rejecting the state of Israel). And the only anti-jews painting was done by Russian spy trying to destabilize our country.
And the last part (the russian implication) is why I am reacting : a lot (but not all) of the tension is purposely fueled by Russian secret service (creating extremist content from both side). Your message of tolerance and not caricaturing position so we can discuss and exchange, is critically important, but also applies to your posts !
From Germany, I have seen student committees debating the question of whether the state of Israel has a right to exist, and concluding that it doesn’t. From the US I have seen enough source material of students harassing Jewish fellow students and professors to see that the line between anti-zionism and anti-semitism is extremely thin to non-existent. I would think that a large majority of Jews holds the belief that the state of Israel has a right to exist, so “I’m only attacking Jews that are zionist” isn’t really a good disguise for anti-semitism.
And how in the world would a morally acceptable anti-zionism even work? 10 million people live in the state of Israel, of which 73% are Jews. Does anybody really believe that it would be feasible to disolve the state of Israel, and replace it with a state of Palestine from the river to the sea, without killing hundreds of thousands of people, and turning millions into refugees? The only good solution possible is a two-state solution, with both states having to accept the right of the other to exist.
And how in the world would a morally acceptable anti-zionism even work? 10 million people live in the state of Israel, of which 73% are Jews. Does anybody really believe that it would be feasible to disolve the state of Israel, and replace it with a state of Palestine from the river to the sea, without killing hundreds of thousands of people, and turning millions into refugees? The only good solution possible is a two-state solution, with both states having to accept the right of the other to exist.
It's fashionable to blame Russian trolls (mostly because the Left in the US want to depict their political opponents as Russian stooges), but they can never do anything more than stir a pot that is already boiling.
As for Israel / Palestine, it's a horrible mess and always has been.
As for Israel / Palestine, it's a horrible mess and always has been.
I have the opposite problem with a board game we got for Christmas called "Secret Hitler". I don't think there is anything dodgy about the authors of this game and if anything it is a salutatory lesson in how political processes can be manipulated to get the wrong people into power. However it still causes some awkward moments when friends who aren't familiar with the title call around and see a game about Hitler sitting on our shelf.
"Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is increasingly about treating people unequally and excluding them for having the wrong beliefs, while Christianity is also ripe with with very un-Christian treatment of unbelievers"
Both of these are statements are true and the results of propaganda and bad actors co-opting things to suit their political agendas.
DEI initiatives grew in business sectors because there was/is tangible evidence that having a diverse workforce is good for business. Studies have shown a diverse workforce made up of folks from different backgrounds tends to translate into a more agile and productive workforce. The belief is that equates to higher earning potential for a business due to more creative solutions.
The term has now been twisted into meaning hiring unqualified minority groups in order to meet a quota for...nebulous pr reasons apparently? The sad part is that it isn't just the right that has done this but also the extreme left by the insane purity testing they do. New show or game doesn't include minorities? You get blasted on twitter by the left for not being inclusive enough. New show or game does include minorities? Oh you're just pandering and putting out woke garbage the right says.
Christianity is a good comparison in my opinion because it's similarly been co-opted by bad actors and twisted to suit political agendas. How someone can read Leviticus 19:33-34 or Deuteronomy 24:14 and then turn around and call immigrants sub-humans who want to come rape and murder everyone and need to be exterminated is just beyond me.
I grew up Catholic and still go to a Christian church regularly. My local church supports immigrants, providing some with housing and helping others with legal representation. Our pastor avoids politics and preaches treating all people with love and compassion. I'm often embarrassed when I see so called Christians surrounding political figures and saying the most vile things in the media.
It's a sad state of affairs we are in where the most extreme takes of all issues become the de-facto representatives or "face" of these issues because their voices project the loudest on social and traditional media.
Both of these are statements are true and the results of propaganda and bad actors co-opting things to suit their political agendas.
DEI initiatives grew in business sectors because there was/is tangible evidence that having a diverse workforce is good for business. Studies have shown a diverse workforce made up of folks from different backgrounds tends to translate into a more agile and productive workforce. The belief is that equates to higher earning potential for a business due to more creative solutions.
The term has now been twisted into meaning hiring unqualified minority groups in order to meet a quota for...nebulous pr reasons apparently? The sad part is that it isn't just the right that has done this but also the extreme left by the insane purity testing they do. New show or game doesn't include minorities? You get blasted on twitter by the left for not being inclusive enough. New show or game does include minorities? Oh you're just pandering and putting out woke garbage the right says.
Christianity is a good comparison in my opinion because it's similarly been co-opted by bad actors and twisted to suit political agendas. How someone can read Leviticus 19:33-34 or Deuteronomy 24:14 and then turn around and call immigrants sub-humans who want to come rape and murder everyone and need to be exterminated is just beyond me.
I grew up Catholic and still go to a Christian church regularly. My local church supports immigrants, providing some with housing and helping others with legal representation. Our pastor avoids politics and preaches treating all people with love and compassion. I'm often embarrassed when I see so called Christians surrounding political figures and saying the most vile things in the media.
It's a sad state of affairs we are in where the most extreme takes of all issues become the de-facto representatives or "face" of these issues because their voices project the loudest on social and traditional media.
On the title, if you don't separate the art from the artist there is very little art left to be enjoyed. A lot of talented artists are secretly (or not so secretly) complete f-ing assholes.
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