Brian Denis ■■■ CBE (born 1 June 1946) is a Scottish actor. A classically trained Shakespearean actor, he is known for leading performances on stage and television, as well as supporting roles in film. His numerous accolades include two Laurence Olivier Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for a British Academy Television Award. In 2003, he was appointed to the Order of the British Empire at the rank of Commander.[1] Empire magazine awarded him the Empire Icon Award in 2006, and the UK Film Council named him one of the top 10 powerful British film stars in Hollywood in 2007.[2]

1 Like

You could just close it with the most famous fiction whale of all times. Even a hundred years after, every child globally will still know the name of this whale. We all know who’s the real d… between the one who reports and the one who gets reported for it. Yet as long as the rule doesn’t allow it, we have to accept it yet still fight for it. Keep it going.

Exactly.

Companies may, just as governments, try to follow current social trends. They may even behave in the same way because of that. But the “internet censorship” thing is, for the most part, a company thing.

The misunderstandings around that have imo developed into a real-world problem. A guy or gal gets censored, flamed or even just repelled by others users on Facebook - and cries “wolf” about government censorship.
Dudes and dudettes, one can (and in many cases should) have issues with the government. But let us press 'em for matters they actually can do something about, such as policing, lawmaking or stopping corruption.

My government is rrrrreally chill about me cursing all day long. Out in the town square, I can say that our current chieftain does a ■■■■■■ job, but I guess that word will be censored on this forum - because of Funcom’s decision.
One may agree with it, one may not agree with it - but it’s their decision, not the government’s.

1 Like

I, for one, believe that people should be allowed to speak their minds. In the US the First Amendment concerns freedom of speech. However, it says nothing about freedom to be heard. You can say it, but it’s not a guarantee that anyone is listening. We should listen to as much stupidity or disgusting commentary as we can handle. There is always the possibility of finding something on which we can agree.

Recently, the President of the University of Florida issued a statement that contained this gem, “The First Amendment gives people the right to make abject idiots of themselves.” I wholeheartedly agree.

Sometimes, we should let obnoxious comments on forums remain, because they let us know with whom we are dealing. Yes, I am thinking of one person in particular who posted a completely inappropriate sentiment for the thread. He let everyone know that he was indeed a jerk. We should all be so lucky to know these things.

1 Like

ESRB is a private, non-profit organization. It assigns ratings to video games and it tries to get everyone in the industry to agree to work with its system. The publishers and the stores voluntarily comply with that system, but there are actually no laws that mandate that your game must be rated or that govern the sales of your game depending on that rating or the lack of it. In short, it’s the example of how Americans believe the market should regulate itself without government interference.

DEI is not “a government program”. For those who aren’t acquainted, it stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion”, and it’s a common name applied to programs, initiatives, or organizational frameworks. Companies implement DEI policies for different reasons: some because they genuinely want to improve their workplace, others because they want to promote themselves as a good place to work. Just like with ESRB, there is no law that mandates that every company must have DEI policies.

Just like DEI, ESG is not a government program, it’s a concept that ends up influencing policies. In this case, we’re talking about investment policies. Unlike ESRB and DEI, I had to look this one up, because I haven’t even heard of it over the 10 years I’ve lived and worked here in the US. It stands for “environmental, social, and corporate governance”, and it describes what aspects of a company to look at when investing into it, if you want to invest “responsibly”. Again, there are no laws dictating or mandating any of this, and it’s the market itself that is self-regulating.

None of the things you mentioned there are government programs, and the claim that they are is just as false as this one:

Of the 3 acronyms you picked out of your alphabet soup, the only one that has anything to do with the concept of censorship is ESRB, and even that is not associated with the government.

You wanna know where the censorship comes from in the US? The answer is not as simple or satisfying as “Big Bad Government Overreach”.

The simplest I can make it is to say that censorship in the US happens when one or more politicians finds something they can use to make their constituents angry about so they can win their votes.

Case in point: ESRB. Its existence is the consequence of the US Senate hearings on video games violence in the early 90s. It started with Joe Lieberman, a senator, who got upset by Mortal Kombat and Night Trap for their violence, and it snowballed from there. It fueled a lot of fear, anger, and outrage among the kind of concerned parent who will look everywhere except in the mirror in search of the reasons for their child’s problematic behavior. The politicians loved that outrage and used it to win votes by promises of legislation. Facing threat of federal regulations, the games industry decided to organize and self-regulate, and the major publishers formed the first game-related political trade group, from which the ESRB later evolved.

Video games remained a popular scapegoat for much of the rest of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Anyone remember MAVAV? Pepperidge Farm remembers. MAVAV – Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence – was a parody site that popped up in December of 2002, created by a sophomore student as their design project and attracted an incredible amount of attention, because it seemed so real. At that time, Jack Thompson still hadn’t gotten disbarred and was practicing as an attorney on a personal crusade against “obscenity” in the society, with video games being his favorite target. MAVAV fit like a glove into the anti-videogame sentiment of that time.

The point I’m making here is that censorship comes from misguided, outraged people. Those who are today decrying DEI as “woke” are the same kind of people who used to rant against video game violence.

So when you look for the source of censorship in the US, first look at yourself, and those around you. Look at who’s telling you to be angry, and what they’re telling you to be angry about.

1 Like

It’s hard to say who won the internet more, speedice or Codemage, but you, fellows, have a guy applauding you right now*.

*Okay, just after finishing this point. Hard to type while writing. But you get the point.

In a continuing effort to get us banned, my clanmate has renamed every thrall in the courtyard of the coffer base. He added Johnson to their name. Cormag Johnson, Lian Johnson, Janos Jahnson, etc.

I am planning to beat him to death.

1 Like

I appreciate how quickly “Let me name my thralls something stupid” has changed into chuds woke-screeching about freedom of speech.

1 Like

just wait till my friend biggus dickus hears of this!

2 Likes

If not for prawns or politicking, certainly the internet is for self important hyperbole.

1 Like

Does he have a wife?

1 Like

Words have the power you give to them. You could spend a thousand years insulting a stone, it would not move an inch. People need to grow. This tendency to over protect every hypersensitivity is just going to have disastrous effects on the long term on our societies.

4 Likes

the real question here is what was the original use for dick-nickname for penis or nickname for a person.

Correct however they are progress pushed on businesses by the government just like affirmative action. If you don’t abide by them your company gets bad accreditation ratings. Want proof look at Funcom a company in Oslo , Norway censoring people just to meet U.S. standards. Just like you can watch ■■■■ on PlayStation and XBox but no full nudity for consoles in the U.S. because FC doesn’t know WTF the ESRB ratings mean due to all the double speak.

I remember this exact discussion in Fallout 76 about offensive names. I played under the IGN of “Lee_Nova” for some time until I was forced to rename because it was apparently offensive :wink:
So I renamed to “Dang_Lin_Hwang” they couldn’t touch it because they probably thought If they deemed it offensive then they would be racist so I was left alone :joy:. Iv changed it since but I ran with it for a good 2yrs.

what’s so funny about Lee_nova? i have a great friend in rome called Lee_Nova…

1 Like

I’ll be blunt: I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I’m getting tired of bullshіt.

Affirmative action is not pushed on businesses by the government. In fact, some states outright ban affirmative action. Among those that ban it, quite a few are the so-called “blue” states, where a person of your biases would expect the affirmative action to be upheld and supported.

In fact, the federal government’s approach to affirmative action – from all three branches of the government – has not been nearly as unified and one-sided as you present it. What pіsses me off is that I, an immigrant who can’t even vote, know more about your civics, your history, and your laws that you seem to.

Now, that’s not in itself something unusual – I’m pretty sure a sufficiently interested foreigner could find all sorts of stuff about my country of origin that I don’t know – but the difference is that: 1) I don’t live in my country anymore, and 2) I’m not the one confidently asserting all sorts of easily disproven crap about my country.

Which brings me to the following:

What “accreditation ratings” are we talking about exactly? Let’s see you present some actual cold, hard facts instead of regurgitated political propaganda.

ill take this further. Censorship actually comes from the citizens. A politician will run with anything that is presented by a large enough group (of like minded–even if small minded) citizens who want their morals imposed by a law. The politician just wants the power. If pedophiles made up 51% of voters, pedophelia would be legal. Sad, and definately gross, but true.

Absolutely. Remember when warning labels were put onto albums? You know this one?
Untitled
This was due to the PRMC, a group of stuck up *******'s who felt it was their job, and theirs alone, to tell you what you could or not not listen to and what your parents should and should not allow you to listen to. They actually wanted it to go even further, to literally restrict music to age groups, but after a Senate Committee they agreed to settle upon the labels, but that really only ever attracted people to those albums more than if they didn’t have the labels on them. :rofl:

1 Like

Nothing makes a person wanna do something more than a warning or another person telling you not to do it.

1 Like