Better not use any real cathedrals in TDM!

[OrbWeaver]

I guess the word in question was "spastic", but apparently the feeble pussies who wrote that article are too terrified to print it (even though they would just be quoting it, not using it as a term of abuse).

[Nyarlathotep]

Fucking pussies need to grow some damn balls (the newspapers). As for the game, I love how they're having an overreaction to a fucking translation mistake. I would have thought the Engrish would have tipped the gamers off that the developers were likely unaware of the negatively associations/stereotypes, even if the word was an exact translation.

[demagogue]

Yeah, that happens all the time.

 

My Japanese students would always walk around saying "fuck you! fuck you! Hey, teacher, fuck you!", to the nice, young lady teacher and she'd smile or just roll her eyes, they'd all smile. And I tried to tell them that you can't just casually use that word, and they'd wonder "why not?". They knew it was a "bad" word, but there wasn't a feel for what's just bad and what's really bad or insulting. Sounds like a similar case here.

 

For perspective, it should probably be pointed out that Westerners regularly mortally insult Japanese -- every time they stick their chopsticks into rice or pick up something from another's chopsticks, putting a credit card on the counter instead of handing it over, saying the word "you" too casually, etc ... all of these pretty serious offenses. I got in big trouble for not taking my shoes off one of those fitting platforms with mirrors where you try on the suit you want to buy, even though you could have shoes on inside the store (??). And they were not joking that it was a serious wrong.

 

Live and learn ... next time you'll know better.

Just one more the way that globalization works out the kinks.

 

I should probably also point out, for perspective, that a few of my students were mentally ill and got terrible treatment by Western standards. They needed to be in a special school, and instead they were with the normal students, usually pushed in the back and ignored. And in one case the teacher put one behind a curtain and drew the curtain over him so he wouldn't disturb the class. Some sensitivity.

 

The problem here is that Japan doesn't have a culture of popular activism ... so stuff like ignoring handicapped or minority needs, or consumer risks and dangerous products, or stupid use of taxes ... can just pass by without much comment. Or for that matter, the minister of health calling women baby-making machines last year, or 500 Japanese businessmen renting a hotel in China and buying Chinese 500 prostitutes on the anniversary of the Rape of Nanjing, or the rampant domestic abuse or the student I watched getting beat up by a teacher whose been openly beating up students for (seriously) 15 years, etc, etc. It's like they're stuck in the 1950s Midwest, I sometimes feel. The whole culture could use a shot in the arm, with a few people standing up for something, instead of trying to sweep everything under the rug with a nervous laugh.

Edited June 29, 2007 by demagogue

[OrbWeaver]

The one that astonishes me is the way they think that blowing your nose is highly offensive, so they walk around with runny noses instead. I just can't understand what motivates a society to collectively decide that a useful, everyday act is "offensive" and proscribe it, when they could just as well find something else to take offense over that is less inconvenient.

 

The whole concept of unintentional offense is stupid anyway -- if somebody is clearly not intending to offend you, why get upset by it?

[Ishtvan]

I didn't even know "spastic" was one of the words we "can't use anymore." I guess doctors will have to say "muscular control challenged colon" from now on. Did anyone play that Japanese side-flying game (I know that narrows it down) that used to make you repeat the level even if you beat the boss, but didn't beat it spectacularly enough, and would say "Your skill is not enough!" That game was demoralizing.

 

The whole concept of unintentional offense is stupid anyway -- if somebody is clearly not intending to offend you, why get upset by it?

This should be obvious to anyone with even an ounce of empathy, but people too often assume that everyone thinks like them.

[oDDity]

It's also not as if real child abuse will stop just because fictional works are censored. Laws are supposed to have real, beneficial effects, not just to "send a message".

Paedophilia is legal, child abuse isn't. Until people start learning the difference between the two, they will continue to run around in helpless circles demanding more thought crimes but not actually saving a single child from abuse (which is probably at the hands of their family anyway, and has nothing to do with "teh evil Internets").

Why do you respect the fact that it's illegal though, or differentiate between the two?

After all, illegality is just a knee-jerk decision made by the consensus opinion of a population who are 'as thick as pig shit, easily led, irrational and motivated entirely by fear and other primitive emotions'

Are you suggesting we should only obey laws that we happen to personally agree with? You think that would make for a better society?

As ever though, if something personally affects you, you are more likely to find it offensive.

[oDDity]

I didn't even know "spastic" was one of the words we "can't use anymore." I guess doctors will have to say "muscular control challenged colon" from now on. Did anyone play that Japanese side-flying game (I know that narrows it down) that used to make you repeat the level even if you beat the boss, but didn't beat it spectacularly enough, and would say "Your skill is not enough!" That game was demoralizing.

This should be obvious to anyone with even an ounce of empathy, but people too often assume that everyone thinks like them.

 

Here in the Uk at least the term 'spastic' had become a popular term of abuse, and therefore the spastic's society changed it's name to 'Scope', and the word was phased out as relating to people formerly called spastics.

That's how language constantly evolves though. Homosexuality has entirely hijacked the words 'queer' and 'gay', and they are never used in their former contexts any more.

As ever though, if something personally affects you, you are more likely to find it offensive.

[OrbWeaver]

Why do you respect the fact that it's illegal though, or differentiate between the two?

 

I am not sure what you mean by "respecting the fact it is illegal". I don't abuse children because (1) I have no desire to and (2) even if I did, I consider it immoral to violate an unconsenting victim in that way. The law just happens to reflect my (and most people's) morality on this matter.

 

As for differentiating between paedophilia and child abuse: paedophilia is a mental abnormality whereby somebody is primarily attracted to children, rather than adults. Many paedophiles do not abuse children and are horrified by their own desires, whereas the majority of child abusers are not actually paedophiles at all, just opportunistic offenders.

 

After all, illegality is just a knee-jerk decision made by the consensus opinion of a population who are 'as thick as pig shit, easily led, irrational and motivated entirely by fear and other primitive emotions'

 

Not always, some laws do have a rational basis. Censorship however almost always is the result of knee-jerk thinking.

 

Are you suggesting we should only obey laws that we happen to personally agree with? You think that would make for a better society?

 

That is a decision for each individual to make. Everybody has their own personal morality, and if a law is passed which violates their personal morality, they have a choice: obey the law while accepting the loss of freedoms or the requirement to act against one's principles, or disobey the law and accept the risk of getting caught and punished.

 

And yes, I do think this makes for a better society: nothing good has ever come out of blind obedience to authority.

[Domarius]

You see? You purposefully look away. Wich means that you would want to look, but for some reasons you don't. The urge is still there.

...Huh?? That's like saying I had an urge to get run over because I purposefully jumped out of the way of a car.

I don't want to look. That's why I look away...

 

So yeah. Don't understand those people who like horror movies and stuff.