Should Lava Croft Remove His Swastika?

[kaziorvb]

as many opinions, as many posters here
doesnt it prove that the perception just depends on the viewer?

vote yes, vote no, whatever - decision what is gonna be with this picture belongs to Lava

he set up a picture as his avatar, if you had got doubts of its meaning, you could just ask about it instead of flamin
its just a symbol used as a replacement of a thought, which actually is just another opinion that you can agree of disagree with. why bother attackin him then?

i cant see any offensive content in it

[+ OPTIMUS +]

@kaziorvb: amongst many reasons mentioned before, there is the thing that he is one of the most active forum members (by posts at least), so his avatar appers nearly on every thread's every page. so as there are not so many pictures here, his otherwise mostly unoffensive try to be cool characterises the tremulous forums visually. this affects guests, parents, schoolmates, colleagues attitude to us, so affects every single member of the community as well as their environments.
and a moderator should be responsible to the subject that he should be aware of.

the present visual characteristic of this forum is: swastikas here, swastikas there, swastikas everywhere. no matter who sees it and why, this will distort his thoughts about us.

with another example:
he can wear a t-shirt like this also, as he is the only one responsible for his dressing, but if he is with his friends in that t-shirt, it also affects the friends. it is all right if someone misunderstands it and kicks him in the face alone, but if a bunch of people comes around and kicks all of his friends face also teeth by teeth... got it?
we belong to the same community.


EDIT: though i think the poll is useless as he will not pay attention on it, and also because ha should change it by his own will...

[Atom Eve]

I, for one, welcome our new SwastiTux overlords.

[Taiyo.uk]

I prefer the binary swastika to the rainbow one.

[Tycho]

I prefer the binary swastika to the rainbow one.

Yeah... the binary looks better.

[Revan]

ed.: oh I didn't continue reading your post beyond the part that adresses me... Well then let's agree to disagree, shall we?

He isn't interested in that, even after I apologized he continued

[Eeeew Spiders]

How can it possible be seen as just a symbol of preconception with your explicit reference to nazism?...

First of all, for me, Nazism stands for preconception. They thrived on preconception. Preconception was at the core of their being. It was the basis of their power.

Preconception: An opinion or conception formed in advance of adequate knowledge or experience, especially a prejudice or bias

The transport of meaning in communication is performed by the usage of symbols and signs. Symbols and signs by them self have no meaning. The message (or meaning) is transported when both communicating agents have a similar understanding (connotation) of the symbols and signs used for communication.
For the agent seeking communication, it usually tries to use those symbols and signs of which it expects the receiver to understand, or associate similar connotation with. This is the basis of communication. Using symbols and signs disregarding their connotations in the current cultural embedding only leads to confusion and misinterpretation.

Though you may associate Nazism with general preconception, the majority in the western culture have a associations of a specific preconception of Nazism, and especially associations to the execution of their preconceptions to it's full consequence.
In this context, you used the symbol disregarding it's full connotation in the current cultural and historical embedding. Thus confusion and the feedback you are getting is a logical result. You cannot act all surprised by it, and i doubt you are that naive.
Again, there is nothing wrong in discussing these issues, it would be actually strange and worryingly if there was no discussion about it. I agree with the other thread that tabooization of certain topics is not helpful. More openness about certain issues help a lot more in education and understanding than forcing a lid on it. But does it help the community and the forum for it to be plastered with swastikas?

[EDIT] typo + typo

[Tycho]

^
| the repost of this follows here |
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The only thing that makes Lava's avatar funny (as it is in some of our points of views) is that the nazis used that symbol therefore the funny aspect of it is directly related to the comparison of nazis and hardcore linux nerds with that avatar...

So technically the picture is designed to remind people of nazis therefore it is a valid point that that avatar uses a nazi symbol that is offensive to a lot of people.

Just before we turn back to the not well known fact that that symbol actually can mean anything else I wanted to clarify that here it actually means what offended a lot of forum members.

[CreatureofHell]

Nice rainbow! And YourFace, I want that map!

[NiTRoX]

@Tycho: You claim I have no respect merely because I do not adhere to your demands. Respect works both ways. Isn't it the same respect that just makes you leave me and my avatar alone, not asking if I remove it? But no, of course not, in your view respect works only one way, namely the way benefits you and your standpoint.

@SoulAssasin: It's no use with these people, a swastika stands for genocide, but have a Christian cross as your avatar and nobody will mention all the people perished at the hands of Christian extremists. It's all petty semantics by people who are just doing nothing but repeating what they have heard over the past 60 years, without even taking a minute to think for themselves.

I will say no more about this topic, I will not remove the avatar and if you have a problem with that, so be it. Just stop bothering me with your petty problems. You people have given more attention to nazism in these past 24h hours than Discovery Channel does in a week.

enjoy

[Rocinante]

I like this one better:

[Lava Croft]

I like this one the best:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pentacle_2.svg

[NiTRoX]

These are way better

[kaziorvb]

maybe just start using

[David]

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

[NiTRoX]

And you know who Voltaire is right?

[David]

A philosopher and writer from the 1700's.

[Lava Croft]

Voltaire is one of the most enlightened philosophers to ever have lived. His remark concerning God is just classical: If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

[Tycho]

.
.
.
These are way better

The best of them all.

[techhead]

Guess what guys, I'm a Neo-Pagan and I find pentagrams used in context of Satanism almost as offensive as swastikas in the context of Nazism!
No, seriously!
However, I find infringing on free speech extremely offensive, so I really don't mind the pentagrams and Swastikas too much.

My 10 cents:
Why can't non-moderators with positive karma have avatars? Anything more offensive than Lava's avatar will probably push their Karma into the negatives.

[AKAnotu]

My dear sir, when we see black, shall we call the color afro-american. When we see an eagle, shall we be reminded of the massacres endured under it by both the so called third reich as well as the roman empire, or do you prefer the american image of the eagle? Images are images, ideas are ideas, images are not needed for ideas. Anyone who thinks we are advocating nazism is wrong, we are advocating insight in to reality and arguing against an absurd form of censorship held by beliefs. People are against the swastika, but are forgetting that guantanamo bay is some kind of concentration camp as well, and that there is persecution and censorship in the US and china as well. Shall we make a taboo of their symbols as well? Or will we realize that there is a difference. Or let's take something less loaded, like the numeral I. But i did that by typing an uppercase i. So does it mean 1 or capital i? There's just a disconnect between visual and singular meaning, realize that.

My intention was merely to point out the preconception present in the minds of a lot of Linux users.

Common Windows user:

Common Linux user:

common mac user:



































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