Microsoft Swastikas

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:09 pm

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/12 ... index.html

What's the deal? So nobody is allowed to use the swastika in anything they make?

They should also remove the letters F U C and K, because last I heard they can be strung together to make the word "FUCK" which is pretty offensive as well.

Nice.

iohkus · Post by **iohkus** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:24 pm

fuck is offensive to everyone though at the same level? whereas the swastika is like almost always recognized as anti-semite and racist? I don't know... fuck is cool

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:25 pm

It wasn't racist in the sense it was in the font, it was from a japanese font and therefore it was their good luck symbol. Oh no! Better delete that shit.

They should probably get rid of the |'s and -'s too, because those lines can be put together into a swastika shape.

iohkus · Post by **iohkus** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:55 pm

lol i guess tru dat, but i bet a lot of dumb neo-nazi kkk hicks in alabam would use that font to print out their rally flyers

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 9:56 pm

That's still legal for them to do though, and if they really wanted a swastika they wouldn't look through some obscure japanese font to find it, they could search for "swastika" and have a picture of one in like 3 seconds, if they were on dial up.

Radoteur · Post by **Radoteur** » Fri Dec 12, 2003 11:56 pm

This is racist against Japanese people. What the hell did they do to deserve swastikas being ripped from thier culture?

Also, isn't the Buddist swastika backwards?

the guardian · Post by **the guardian** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:29 am

Who's the Hitler fellow they mentioned in the end of the article?

Lunchmeat · Post by **Lunchmeat** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:12 am

Radoteur wrote:Also, isn't the Buddist swastika backwards?

There's a second symbol called the sauvastika(sp?) which is the swastika backwards, but hell if I know what it means.

Neon Dingo · Post by **Neon Dingo** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:13 am

The swastika is probably the coolest symbol EVER with the hammer and sickle in a close second, followed by the radiation symbol.

I'm glad the Nazis hijacked it and used it. Now I'll be the only one wearing a swastika shirt around town.

I made a hammer and sickle t-shirt. It's pretty sweet.

But anyway, those pussies and should stop their crying.

"Oh, let's just forget World War 2 even happened..."

Also, the Buddhist swastika was used to show the footprints of the Buddha or some fake shit. It also means good luck and prosperity. It means a lot of things. It was used by the Nazis because it's a nationalist symbol and it just looks fuckin' sweet when you flip it around and rotate it 45Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Âº with a white circle and a red background.

iohkus · Post by **iohkus** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 3:42 am

lol. wearing a swastika t-shirt... if you enjoy living do this to it:

The Gaijin · Post by **The Gaijin** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:14 am

Lunchmeat wrote:
Radoteur wrote:Also, isn't the Buddist swastika backwards?
There's a second symbol called the sauvastika(sp?) which is the swastika backwards, but hell if I know what it means.

Yeah, it's a sauvastika, which means...well, here.

"The swastika is an ancient symbol with unclear origins, although its name comes from the sanskrit words "su", meaning "well / good", and "asti", meaning "he is." The symbol symbolizes the sun, fire and strength, and is thought to be a simplified picture of the act of rapidly rotating a wooden stick while pressing it into a small cavity in a piece of wood, thus making fire. Hitler's Nazis used the swastika, whose arms points in a clockwise direction, as a symbol of the Aryan race. The sauvastika, a mirror image of the swastika, with arms pointing in a counterclockwise direction, symbolizes night, magic and mystery. It has also been used as a symbol for Buddhism in Japan, and is called "manji" in Japanese."

YAY FOR THE INTERNET.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Sat Dec 13, 2003 5:53 am

If it's a common Japanese character, cutting it out to make a few really sensitive people happy makes no sense. God forbid people who are capable of operating a computer should know what a swastika looks like.

Nazis do have the best advertising campaign ever. America is a close second (I'm not insinuating anything, but it's true, they do have damn good advertising in the way of flags, symbols, propaganda, etc. even if America is 'out' right now.)

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 7:11 pm

atoga wrote:Nazis do have the best advertising campaign ever. America is a close second (I'm not insinuating anything, but it's true, they do have damn good advertising in the way of flags, symbols, propaganda, etc. even if America is 'out' right now.)

If by "advertising" you mean propaganda, then yes, you are correct. Joseph Gobbels, the head of Nazi Germany's propaganda machine, was a ruthless bastard, and through his leadership the German people's morale was high throughout the war, even when the Russkies were on Berlin's front door. The German people paid a great price at the hand of that lunatic, Adolph Hitler. *sigh*

The Gaijin · Post by **The Gaijin** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 9:13 pm

You make it sound as if the German people were innocent.

avenger69ie · Post by **avenger69ie** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 9:21 pm

and you make it sound like they were ALL guilty.

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Sun Dec 14, 2003 10:16 pm

Not all Germans were Nazis, and not all Nazis were Germans. Ponder this.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 7:56 am

This "remove everything that some people don't like" has been common in video games for a long time. Hearts of Iron, for example, is supposed to be the most historically correct and exact strategy game ever. Still there are no swastikas between 1939 and 1945. Not *any* in the game. The official reason was, that because it was published in Germany as well, they didn't want to make people mad??

And yay, not all Germans were Nazis and vice versa. Reminds me of the saying "All barberers are whores, but not all whores are barberes."

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:08 am

Kashluk wrote:The official reason was, that because it was published in Germany as well, they didn't want to make people mad??

It goes beyond just not wanting to offend people in Germany. It's actually illegal to display any sort of Nazi symbol except in very tightly constrained educational/historical parameters. Since games don't fall into this category a publisher would essentially be sentencing themselves to putting out a seperate German version with different art. Since that goes beyond simply having the text x-lated, that's not going to happen since it upsets the stockholders.

Some people might be surprised as to what was done after the war as a part of "de-nazi-fication". Certain scenes like the demolition of the swastika at Nuremburg may be more-or-less famous, but it went a whole lot farther than that. For instance, my grandfather's Soldbuch (a military all-in-one record booklet carried by soldiers) still has the eagle on it, but the swastika in the base has been scratched out.

As to MS' decision to release a patch to remove these characters from the font...well, I'd say that this is senseless, but the patch is voluntary in case people want to remove it from their computers. It's not like MS is automatically patching everyone's font so that no one can use this symbol. I can definitely see where MS is coming from, namely the position that they don't want someone suing them over this, which is a near certainty in today's letiginous climate.

I can't say that I agree w/anyone who'd be offended by seeing a character that resembles a swastika, though.

OTB

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:18 am

Ach, so that's the deal... Germany sometimes makes me really confused. While being there, I was instructed not to talk about anything that had to do with the 40's, WW2 or Nazis. It would just get me either beaten, thrown out or both.

I fully understand if people dislike the nazi symbol. But then it's funny how late at night these punks with shaved heads and "airforce pilot jackets" went on shouting Zieg Heil, carrying the swastikas on their backs proud as hell. Such double-faced shit can be only found aus Berlin.

I still can't understand how it's better to forget about your past than learn from your mistakes and make sure you won't repeat them?

The Gaijin · Post by **The Gaijin** » Mon Dec 15, 2003 8:39 am

avenger69ie wrote:and you make it sound like they were ALL guilty.