‘Minecraft’ Creator Excluded from Anniversary Due to ‘Comments and Opinions’

https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/minecraft-creator-excluded-from-anniversary-due-to-comments-and-opinions-exclusive-1203200050/

by mathattack • 7 years ago

30 38 7 years ago

variety.com

mj_olnir• 7 years ago

I mean, while it's weird and sucks that the original creator of Minecraft won't be there, Microsoft is definitely free to distance themselves from outspoken individuals that don't reflect the PC culture they're going for.

I certainly wouldn't want someone whose only relevance is armchair Twitter warring representing something that brings my company substantial (?) revenue.

I guess for an ideological disclaimer, I vehemently disagree with his politics, but I'd take the same position for a bellicose liberal.

geezerjay• 7 years ago

I certainly wouldn't want someone whose only relevance is armchair Twitter warring representing something that brings my company substantial (?) revenue.

Did you refer the creator of Minecraft as "someone whose only relevance is armchair Twitter warring"?

defertoreptar• 7 years ago

Would be asking too much to request that he limits his talks to the subject of Minecraft at a Minecraft event? Does he have a history of giving unprompted politically-charged speeches in public, or is it just Twitter? If not, then I'd say this is an unnecessary letdown for the game's fans.

DoofusOfDeath• 7 years ago

Would be asking too much to request that he limits his talks to the subject of Minecraft at a Minecraft event?

If Microsoft et al choose to make public statements regarding contentious non-technical issues, then it seems unreasonable to me that they attempt to silence dissenting views.

deogeo• 7 years ago

Should black US athletes limit their talk to the subject of sports, and refrain from politically charged moves such as kneeling for the anthem, or giving the black power salute at the Olympics? Should video game or other 'tech' panels stick to the topic, and not proselytize how important diversity is?

jameskegel• 7 years ago

I feel like this is sarcasm but the real answer is you should act appropriately for your surroundings. Someone else’s event is not your platform, especially so in this case.

neetdeth2• 7 years ago

Surely it would not be a problem to have Markus stay on topic and avoid any controversial territory in his remarks.

However, is it possible to ask others to refrain from "calling him out" in such a public setting? No, not at all. Notch is a hated figure, and he is hated with an intensity that only Progressive religious fervor can bring about.

This is how you silence people. By your own actions, make association with the target so troublesome that the institutions - reliably feckless as they are - will simply prefer to exclude them.

tom_• 7 years ago

Somebody forgot to tell Notch’s 3.7m Twitter followers this.

Or Twitter themselves, for that matter...

manfredo8• 7 years ago

has increasingly ostracized himself with his Twitter comments, including transphobic statements and comments about a “heterosexual pride day,” and that “it’s ok to be white.”

Is it not ok to be White or heterosexual? This kind of exclusion over these statements likely harms Microsoft's reputation more than it helps it.

IvyMike• 7 years ago

It is worth reading the history and intention of this phrase for context. https://qz.com/1144783/the-rise-of-the-alt-rights-catchphras...

manfredo8• 7 years ago

Persson’s is not an isolated tweet. “It’s ok to be white” was invented by the trollsters of the “politically incorrect” messaging board on 4chan. The phrase was carefully designed to trick progressive, left-leaning Americans into saying the contrary—that it is not ok to be white—in a strange nationwide campaign to finally expose anti-white bias.

And it's evidently working. Taking offense to the phrase "it's okay to be White" is falling straight into the trolls' hands. If we want to stop the machinations of said trolls then we should stop taking offense to the statement, since taking offense to the statement "it's okay to be X" necessarily implies that it's not okay to be X.

If Microsoft was aware of the phrase's history then their behavior is even more counterproductive; they knowingly walked into this trap.

villan• 7 years ago

If you are seriously asking, the answer is that these are dog whistles for white nationalistic and homophobic groups respectively.

Furthermore, the concept of "the white race" is unscientific, and was created to group together a majority against minorities. Italians, Jews, even the Irish were consider "non-white", while the Spanish conquistadors began calling themselves blanco in order to state their superiority over the aztecs.

manfredo8• 7 years ago

Accusations of "dog whistling" is often a cheap way of stuffing words into other people's mouths. Plenty of people alleged that "Black lives matter" was a dog whistle for either the supremacy of blacks (by implying that only black lives matter). Plenty of people accuse those of advocating racial reparations of "dog whistling" for Zimbabwe-style confiscation of property.

And seriously, think about what it really mans to take offense at the phrase "it's okay to be white". What would you think of someone who gets offended when people say "it's okay to be gay"? What would you think of someone that gets offended when people say "it's okay to be an immigrant?" Why, then, do you think it is at all productive to take offense at the phrase "it's okay to be White"? Whites will be just as offended as gays or immigrants, and rightly so.

Also, as far as I know the Spanish never called themselves "blanco". The Spanish word for lighter skinned people is "rubio" (though this is sometimes also used to refer to blonde hair). White Spaniards - using the modern understanding of the term White - during the conquest of the New World called themselvs "peninsulares" (after the Iberian peninsula) or "corillos" [1].

As far as the unscientific nature of the term "White" I don't find that particularly relevant. Race is a social construct, not a scientific determination. It would be just as (un)fair to criticize Black Lives Matter for referring to an unscientific concept.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casta

detaro• 7 years ago

dupe https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19779708

ilaksh2• 7 years ago

I am probably just going to get buried but I don't think this is a simple as many people will think it is.

To me this is another indication of how excessively polarized worldviews are. And I think it goes for quite a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum. There is a strong tendency towards one political extreme or another.

It's to the point where people are basically living in alternate realities from each other.

And some people may react to that with "yeah, it's one worldview that is intolerant and wrong and one that isn't" or if they are from the other side "yeah, it's one worldview where it's ok to be say you are white and another where it isn't". But it's way more than that. The hint of intolerance (or on the other side, political correctness) is used to identify people as being in the enemy camp. And it is then a proxy for their worth as a human being and all of the other beliefs they might supposedly have are grouped together.

I wonder if another political operating mode is possible.

fivethr33• 7 years ago

I mean Notch's views are literally that some people are less than people. Not tolerating that isn't bad.

lucasmullens• 7 years ago

Could you cite your source on that?

bumbledraven• 7 years ago

I mean Notch's views are literally that some people are less than people.

Quotes or it didn't happen. https://curi.us/2194-discussion-policy-quotes-or-youre-presu...

aestetix• 7 years ago

What does "not tolerating" mean? Excluding him from everything?

If that's the approach, what stops you from trying to get someone you don't like excluded by searching through everything they have ever said or done, surfacing one example that you call "objectionable", and using that to shame them?

senectus1• 7 years ago

Wow. I've been a minor Notch fan since way back when MC first dropped in alpha. I've seen him go through some serious emotional crap but this makes me think he's abusing something.

This is sad.

ilaksh2• 7 years ago

Everyone gets emotional sometimes because that's how humans work. Some people are just more honest about revealing their emotions and also may be celebrities so people magnify the drama out of proportion to what it really was.

Also, just because someone has a different worldview than you doesn't mean they are crazy or a drug addict.

‘Minecraft’ Creator Excluded from Anniversary Due to ‘Comments and Opinions’

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