Apple confirms Confederate flag ban in App Store, says war games have to change art

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 292
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member

    This is just getting ridiculous. So one nut job racist commits a horrible act and now everyone wants to wipe out a part of our history? Insane. 

  • Reply 22 of 292
    sestewartsestewart Posts: 102member

    Were Call of Duty games removed for being able to play the bad guys? Nope.

  • Reply 23 of 292
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,424member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    Is Apple gong to start banning nigger from iTunes? If they did a lot of rap and hip-hop would be gone.

     

    It's interesting how certain news events bring out all the closet racists.

  • Reply 24 of 292



    Hey, I played on the side of ebola in Plague, Inc. So clearly my moral compass is askew. ;)

  • Reply 25 of 292
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    freediverx wrote: »
    It's interesting how certain news events bring out all the closet racists.

    Huh? So stating the facts is racist?
  • Reply 26 of 292
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,424member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by scampercom View Post

     

    Yeah, I know European restrictions are more stringent. I understand Apple's (evolving) stance on the matter.


     

    I would oppose any effort to make confederate flags illegal, but the App Store is (as you conservatives love to say) a private enterprise, and Apple is free to curate the content sold in their store as they see fit. My guess is that Apple doesn't intend to remove all appearances of the flag, but only in cases where it is being glorified, along with what its history represents. 

  • Reply 27 of 292
    quadra 610quadra 610 Posts: 6,757member

    I'm in agreement with the general push to get rid of the flag, but this seems a bit much.

     

    It's a historical game. One of the sides requires a Confederate flag. 

     

    Unless of course they choose to go with one of the earlier/alternate designs.

     

  • Reply 28 of 292
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    freediverx wrote: »
    I would oppose any effort to make confederate flags illegal, but the App Store is (as you conservatives love to say) a private enterprise, and Apple is free to curate the content sold in their store as they see fit. My guess is that Apple doesn't intend to remove all appearances of the flag, but only in cases where it is being glorified, along with what its history represents. 

    Glorified according to who? Tim Cook?
  • Reply 29 of 292

    So much for the first amendment.

  • Reply 30 of 292
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,424member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dysamoria View Post



    I'm all for removing the confederate flag from all places that are promoting and "honoring" it, and especially from government properties, but the banning of it from historical games is too far. 

     

    I agree. I think we should give this some time to settle and we'll probably see that it's not an outright ban but merely suppressing its displays in ways that convey or promote  racism. 

  • Reply 31 of 292
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,306member
    Excellent! A double plus good decision. Now all we need to do is recognise we have always been at war with EastAsia.
  • Reply 32 of 292
    sestewartsestewart Posts: 102member

    I have no problem with removing it from state houses and public tax payer funded facilities for legislatures. However, removing it from games that utilize artistic expression is violating 1st Amendment rights. These developers should sue Apple, or move their games to PC browser games. 

  • Reply 33 of 292
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,424member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post





    Is it ever enough for you people? Ever? You have destroyed this country beyond recognition. There is no recovery here.



    When does it end? When we're in concentration camps? Gas chambers?



    Yearning for the good ol' 1840s, when whites were in charge and blacks knew their place?

     

    Reactionary n.

    A person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which possessed characteristics (discipline, respect for authority, etc.) that he or she thinks are absent from the contemporary status quo of society. As an adjective, the word reactionary describes points of view and policies meant to restore the status quo ante. Political reactionaries are at the right-wing of a political spectrum; yet, reactionary ideologies can be radical, in the sense of political extremism, in service to re-establishing the status quo ante.

  • Reply 34 of 292

    A corporation's stance is its own prerogative, sure (within certain limits). I'm the opposite of a conservative, but I tend to let these things shake out before commenting or deciding how I feel… if I feel anything at all. But I'm definitely not reading this comment thread, only replies to my original post. I won't get sucked in. ;)

  • Reply 35 of 292
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dysamoria View Post





    The nationalist pride and flag abuse in the USA makes some of us USA citizens feel gross too. I find the USA flag to represent arrogance any more.



    I’m sure Tim Cook will agree with you. Write him an open letter demanding he remove any app that displays a likeness of the Stars and Stripes.

  • Reply 36 of 292
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,411member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon View Post



    Good luck with that Apple. I think I'll be spending money elsewhere. Thank goodness for local bookstores and music shops. I don't see the need to cough up money for Apple Music either.

     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Rogifan View Post



    So who gets to decide what is offensive or mean-spirited? This is nuts and Tim Cook should put a stop to it.

    I am truly ambivalent about this whole business of banning symbols (e.g., flags, logos), as well as people's attachment to or revulsion at their meaning based on perception rather than intent.

     

    But I side with Apple on this one.

     

    As a private company, Apple is within its rights to do it. But once this started, and companies like Amazon, Walmart, etc. piled on (I am sure there'll be many more), Apple had no choice but to go along. Especially given its app curating history, which has always been a bit excessively school-marmish.

     

    That said, I wonder how Apple will deal with -- if and when it has to -- the issue of the Swastika symbol (displayed authentically and correctly, not the tilted mirror image as appropriated and bastardized by the Nazis) as the ancient, sacred Hindu symbol that it is.

  • Reply 37 of 292
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,028member
    Stupid move Tim.
  • Reply 38 of 292
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    So... new policy, reasonable on the face of it, is badly enforced and managed, and not understood by the people DOING the reviews. (They are asked to interpret the phrase "offensive or mean-spirited" but they seemingly need to have that explained using shorter words.)

    Sounds like par for the course.

    Expect the policy to shift in the days ahead--when it could so easily have started out right to begin with!
  • Reply 39 of 292
    sestewartsestewart Posts: 102member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post

     
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dysamoria View Post





    The nationalist pride and flag abuse in the USA makes some of us USA citizens feel gross too. I find the USA flag to represent arrogance any more.



    I’m sure Tim Cook will agree with you. Write him an open letter demanding he remove any app that displays a likeness of the Stars and Stripes.


     

    The LGBT Pride flag plastered all over iTunes and the App Store each month is offensive to me and other Christians, yet Tim Cook won't support our moral standards.

  • Reply 40 of 292
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    freediverx wrote: »
    It's interesting how certain news events bring out all the closet racists.

    I don't see anything racist about that query. I also think it's a valid question. It's a slippery slope when you start banning items. Getting the capital to stop waving the flag I can get behind. eBay and Amazon stopping the sale of Confederate memorabilia I can get behind. Apple stopping the sale of app that show that flag starts to become a problem because apps aren't memorabilia.

    I believe companies have the right to sell the products they want to sell, but where does that end? Do they also stop selling apps that are about history, that in no way support the Confederacy or are neutrally written, as history lessons should try to be? Amazon and eBay didn't stop the sale of books about the US Civil War, did they? Did Apple clear out all such mention in their iBookstore? It's a weird position since Tim Cook made his tweet and Amazon and eBay made their policy change because it forced Apple's hand here on the "art" of apps regardless of the context of the flag's usage. If Apple didn't follow their lead it would look hypocritical.

    As for "the n-word", is it more racist to write this string of 6 letters or utter the sequence of phonemes in a contextually neutral or passive stamtent, or to instead make an obliquely racist comment with terms like "those people"? I'd rather we get rid of the silly, cultural acceptance of certain words can be only used by certain people if they have previously been maligned by history. That isn't reverse racism but racism, because you're saying that certain people have rights that others don't have based on no other criteria than this foolish notion of "race". As long as make certain terms taboo and unbalanced we will never be able to neutralize it and therefore never be able to get past it.
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