Posts made by Groth

@Kestrel said in Separating Art From Artist:

So in the US, you can say whatever you want around your colleagues, behave unprofessionally, prove yourself unsuitable for the job you were hired for and not get fired?

Hmm. I like our laws better.

The 2010 Equality Act does provide you with a defense to talk about all kinds of horrible things at the work-place as long as they don't infringe on anyone elses fundemental rights. It's easier in general for religious people because saying you'll burn in hell for doing X or Y doesn't affect anyones rights.

Margo Hanson is my hero.

The difference to me between Communism, State Shinto and Nazism in terms of how it connects characters to atrocities is that while large scale atrocities were performed in the name of all three, it's only Nazism where atrocities are part of the actual ideology. The Japanese are even to this day known for their rampant xenophobia but that xenophobia isn't something that's packaged into a coherent ideology, it's the result of centuries of insular culture and extremely limited immigration, only something like 1.5% of the population are not native Japanese.

During WW2 and under the direction of Hirohito, the Japanese military (both the IJA and the IJN) took a pretty clear stance that the ends justifies the means and the lives of non-Japanese don't matter. They were not concerned about taking prisoners, civilian casualties, forcing women into sex slavery or the rampant use of torture. What makes it particularly awkward even today is that Japan never truly addressed any of this and the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge that many of these events ever happened.

That said I disagree with the notion this means that you shouldn't be allowed to play former members of the IJN or IJA because they're too closely linked with fascism or that supporting the cultural idea of the Japanese emperor should be viewed as supporting fascism.

Cryptocurrency is a really fascinating way to spend a tremendous amount of electricity to achieve absolutely nothing.

I don't play on Savage Skies and I am pretty unlikely to play on Savage Skies in the near term simply because I am absolutely terrible at playing multiple characters at the same time.

However as an outside observer whos only familiarity with the game is the wiki. I really get the distinct feeling that neither @marsmrsmars nor @juneko are coming at this issue from a genuine concern of playing this game.

The premise of Savage Skies is that a group of ex-military people and civilians join the Sky Guard to fight fascists together. It should go without saying that members of an anti-fascist militia are not going to be fascists. The game also clarifies that you're not allowed to play ex-nazis and in light of this debate they added the additional clarification that all characters from authoritarian states need to be explicitly opposed to excesses, war crimes and atrocities.

As such I think it's very clear that the way this game is intended to be played is that no member of the Sky Guard is meant to be assumed to be associated with any kind of war time atrocity regardless if whatever military branch they are associated with performed those atrocities in the actual WW2. Not only are those atrocities by and large scrubbed out of this timeline but you should assume those Sky Guard characters are opposed to them happening and would presumably have found some way to avoid participating.

While it's fine to raise questions regarding how Hirohito should appropriately be handled, the game appears to be clearly set in the European theater and anything happening in Asia is only background. A background where even though the game is started in 1938, the 1937 invasion of China isn't on the timeline yet so assuming that a fellow member of the Sky Guard participated in the Nanjin Massacre comes across as somewhat ludicrous as you have no reason to think that event has even happened.

If your interpretation of someone having an RP hook about being a monarchist or communist is that they're a fascist complicit in war crimes, I don't think this kind of game is suitable for you. I honestly don't think there's anything the game staff can do that will make you happy because the game relies upon you taking the point of view that everyone in the Sky Guard are on the same side and you are actively looking for reasons to think they're not.

@juneko said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

I think that this conversation has spun out to the point of absurdity, but I'll say that the comparison to "Schindler's List" is absurd. Nobody walks away from Schindler's List thinking "Man, Oskar Schindler really loved Hitler."

We have taken issue with this character because they are a staunch monarchist who loves Hirohito and will ardently argue against democratic and communist ideologies. They are not an "Oskar Schindler" character.

I thought we already established that you have no issue with the character because they're not actually a member of the IJA and this thread is now about WW2 movies.

@marsmrsmars said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

That's about as ludicrous as saying that Hollywood doesn't make movies from the perspective of Nazis because they don't want you to pay attention to that period of European history.

Both Hollywood and the German film industry has made lots of movies which depict the Nazi german perspective. You might be familiar with some famous ones like Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice, Das Boot or Der Untergang but honestly I have no idea what either of you are even trying to say anymore.

@mietze
I might be wrong, but I think the upcoming Mulan live action movie will actually be the first major Hollywood production from a Chinese perspective ever made?

@juneko said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

Well, historical fiction is not the sole realm of Hollywood. I was more (rhetorically) asking why the Chinese themselves never made such a movie.

It's my impression the Chinese State does not want people to pay too much attention to that period of Chinese history. They much prefer movies about historical china.

@juneko said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

@faraday
I understand this perspective entirely, and I think that there is room for "shades of gray" in media which portrays Imperial Japanese soldiers. However, I also think that it would be enlightening to wonder, for a moment, why there are no movies like this from the Chinese perspective.

Hollywood is extremely unlikely to ever make any war movie where neither of the sides are western. They would have absolutely no idea how to cast or market such a movie.

@marsmrsmars said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

... so they were bombing innocents, instead of beheading them? Phew. Dodged a bullet with that one, I guess.

If you're not comfortable with characters associated with a force that bombed civilians, you're going to have a really hard time with any airman or woman who comes from any WW2 participant nation.

@juneko said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

As a member of the Imperial Japanese Army, this character was (without a doubt) a participant in the crimes that were committed in China.

The character in question is a former member of the Imperial Japanese Navy Airservice

@mietze said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

@Groth I think it's possible that one could ask people who want to play Japanese characters to understand that part of the culture is no longer in play (Just like there is a pretty huge shift in people's thinking about the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ folks). And again, maybe that IS coming, rulings wise.

There's certainly options that can be pursued like removing state shinto from the timeline or having Hirohito die to the military coup etc.

@marsmrsmars said in The Savage Skies - Discussion Thread:

I think the admins are taking a pretty good approach to this. I also think that there's an odd amount of people who are trying to say that Hirohito wasn't actually all that bad, but that's just how anonymous forums are, I guess.

I'm not seeing people express the idea that Hirohito wasn't actually all that bad as much as I see the expression of the idea that the characters wouldn't be aware that Hirohito was actually that bad.

I'm by no means an expert on Japan during WW2, but the main difference between a character respecting Hitler and Hirohito to me would be that Japan during the period practiced State Shinto which means that most Japanese characters will have spent their entire lives being taught that the Japanese Emperor is Divine and if you want your character to be even a little bit patriotic, distancing yourself from that would be a big step.

I think my primary concern with various deplatforming / shaming strategies is that they don't appear to be particularly effective. The net effect seems to be that those with opposing views simply become more insular while still growing in number.

It's been my impression that many of those with extremist views have valid concerns (with false premises) they use to validate those views and tend to see themselves as persecuted. What seems to be effective is addressing those concerns (Usually related to economic anxiety) while having them actually meet the people they are othering and help them realize they're not that different.

@Pandora said in Well, this sums up why I RP:

Did they die doing something daring or heroic or exciting, or did they annoy someone into beheading them?

Actually they ended up beheading someone else in the Elysium and got executed for it.

@silverfox said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

(I tried to hide this behind a spoiler tag, but I can't seem to figure it out. If someone wants to PM me how to do that I'll fix it. Highlighting and hitting the little eye-crossed-out icon doesn't seem to work.)

The way the spoiler tag seems to work is that your text must start on the immediate line after the spoiler tag and there can't be any blank lines or other formating tags inside the spoiler.

My stress comes because of the system and telling me that "self-care" is going to somehow fix it is insulting as fuck. The only thing that can lower my stress levels at this point is, "Here is x time, go work to figure out how to make it all fit."

From what I've read on the state of workplace psychology. The professional consensus is that workplace stress is almost always caused by the structure of the work and practically never caused by the specific worker that is stressed out. It's not a popular conclusion among employers though since it means they have to put actual money and organisational effort into doing something about it.

So I finally got around to actually watch Rise of Skywalker and I think my impression of the movie can be best summed up as 'A series of very dramatic scenes that at no point attempt to create a coherent whole'. Since every individual scene is very dramatic, the process of watching the movie is enjoyable enough and it's a fine popcorn flick. However as a casual fan of Star Wars I'm not sure I'm comfortable calling it a Star Wars movie because the movie at no point seems to particularly care about maintaining a coherent universe.

***=NSFW content***

I think ultimately I'm just going to pretend this trilogy never happened. A bit like it's such a shame Matrix never got any sequels.

The most fun I've ever had with a character was when I had an explicit OOC goal of getting them killed and I eventually succeeded over a period of about 3-4 months.

@Kanye-Qwest said in Well, this sums up why I RP:

am I the only person who was already mad at JK Rowling for being a shitty writer?

I really enjoyed the first 5 or so books.

@SG said in Good TV:

Lol, it shows so much. In episode 2, Dracula pretty much is Dr. Who. I couldn't get through episode 3, it was complete trash.

Moffat can be so great, and he can also be so bad. I think he just needs a good handler to filter his ideas.