Hi. My name is Nex and I'm culturally insensitive.
I often make light of horrible atrocities, and have been known to poke fun at various religions, ethnicities, cultural nuances and, of course, fatties. With such a storied history of offending all people great, small and really fat, it's little surprise that I was nominated to cover this story, but even more surprising is that upon reading this whole thing, I got a severe sense of revulsion. It's one thing to spend an entire podcast joking with an Englishman about the horrors of the Reich, but to publicly distribute a vehicle modeled after some alternate-universe Nazi Supercar crosses a line, spits on it, and burns a cross in its front yard.
A Forza 2 player by the nom de video game of Dreamer61 created the stunningly horrific 1957 Mercedes 300SL pictured above. Adorned with slogans of "Heil Hitler" and "White Power", the car is enough to force one into exile in Argentina, and it has created quite a stir within the XBL community. Even more sad is that the car -- the wet dream of Rob Zombie and Adolph Eichmann -- would be hailed as a stunning achievement within the ranks of would-be vehicle painters if it weren't for the unfortunate subject matter.
Obviously, the people behind Forza 2, and Microsoft themselves, do not approve of the content, but one has to wonder what exactly their obligation is herein. As much as the content is terribly offensive, is there an onus on the game's creators to censor free speech in the event that it offends the views of certain people?
Contest:
9:38 PM on 07.03.2007
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There's a fine line between free speach and crap like that. Stuff like this, by the way, is the reason Silvers can't use the Auction House any more.
I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
— Voltaire
Amazing how one little word can change the entire meaning of a sentence.
I also find some of the reaction ironic given the light of contraversy surrounding Manhunt 2. Of course it depends on the condition that the same person who find this offensive is all for the "right" to have Manhunt 2 released as is (freedome of expression and all that).
Which you just gave him/her.
The best thing to do with this is ignore. I don't find offense in ignorance. Besides the car looks pretty sweet. Not as sweet as some I've seen.
In summation, freedom of speech and expression includes that which we find offensive, as fortunate or unfortunate as that may be. If MS censors this, I don't care, it's their game and they can do what they want, but we should not be those banning it, offensive or not.
The only solution to this is to make a black power car and have a dragrace, I think.
That would indeed be awesome. I would also like to see someone make a jewmobile for the same purpose.
If you... you know... take away the meaning. Right now, it's just ass.
In fact, the band name "White Zombie" is not a Nazism reference, but a reference to old Boris Karlov and Bela Lugosi movies from the 40's.
The more you know.
http://www.gamerpunch.com/2007/07/buzz-racism-is-everywhere-even-forza-2.html
I agree that people get their feelings hurt too easily these days. But I also think that dumbasses who run around saying or doing shit like this need to get their asses kicked...similar to the guy who made the VT killing game a while back.
Let's quit with the over-the-top devil's advocacy here. The guy who posted the car is a piece of shit and should be banned. Period. Let's not pretend that banning a guy or removing a fucking NAZI CAR from Forza 2's Auction House is going to send us down some ridiculous "slippery slope" that will end with martial law or the complete loss of freedom of speech. Everyone has to be a fucking contrarian these days. Less and less seem willing to say the OBVIOUS thing; that this car and the guy who made it are wastes of space.
In the entire world its pretty much only the US which has free speech as part of its laws, the rest of us manage to get by without the need to pretend to support some bullshit, purely in the interests of 'free speech'.
That said, Xbox Live is NOT an arena where freedom of speech applies. Its their service and we agree to their terms, so they can do what they want. I'm not disputing their right to ban players or otherwise discipline them for so-called offensive material. I'm just saying that I don't think it's a problem at all, mostly because I choose not to get so worked up over the pretend paintjob on a pretend car.
Jesus.
Yes, its a Nazi car, and someone made it. Yes, racism still exists. Ignore the guy who made it and move on.
Kinda like people who say "Stop giving JT coverage, it's what he wants". Umm, JT's coverage on Destructoid and Kotaku isn't what keeps him going, it's the coverage he gets in the major dailies and Fox News.
If you leave it alone, it'll only grow. Womens' right to vote and the abolishing of slavery didn't happen because we all hit the "ignore" button. Idiots.
Think Hanna-Barbara will sue if its called Wacky Racists?
Dibs on the Mexican mobile!
...yeah, I live in Germany.
Not that I don't think he's a dick, or in desperate need of attention. I just don't think censorship is ever the way to go.
Honestly, this car isn't going to make people into bigots. It's going to make people call this bigot a bigot. And to me, that's better than suppressing this unfortunate individual's speech.
That's not to say that what he did is made any less idiotic by this possibility, but just that there's a chance that this is less about racism, and more about simply being an insensitive dick solely for the attention that is such a reliable byproduct of it.
Some people are so full of self-loathing that they feel that the only attention they warrant is negative attention, and more to the point, they feel that negative reactions carry with them a bigger emotional return. So they'll do shit like this just to get people hating them, because attention is attention, and hate is ever-so-strong an emotion.
So yeah, I'd say that chances are decent that this kid is just some sick loser who cuts himself regularly to ease the pain of his pathetic existence, and who acts out frequently in order to remind people that he's still here, even if in doing so he makes them hate him.
Or he's just a racist. Either way a steel-toed boot applied forcefully to his skull might do him some good.
http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/profile.aspx?pp=0&GamerTag=dreamer61