As I recall, weren’t you the one worried about stifling creativity? About who gets to say what’s racist?I don' know what that is. But I am not advocating the use of Ethnic slurs. I don't know how much more clear I can be about this.
I feel like you are putting words in my mouth. I am saying people disagree on what tropes are racist or colonialist, and I am wary of where that bar is being set. Further I think some of what people are identifying as colonialist or racist is only so under a deep microscope.
No, I am not saying that. I am saying that is what we are in danger of doing. I am trying to emphasize that people will have reasonable disagreements over this stuff.
I hear what people are saying, but I think it isn't always obvious how media and stories impact our world. And I think as well intentioned as this stuff is, you really do run the risk of making wholesomeness prime, and quality second. We can juggle many things at once. But if wholesomeness becomes the benchmark for quality....I think it leads to less interesting stories. Dune is a good case in point. I am not sure how you could change it to take out the elements deemed problematic and have it remain intact. Part of what makes Dune work is the very tropes called into question.
Yup.
To be 100% clear: I’m NOT calling you racist. I’m saying you’re pushing back awfully hard on a not particularly defensible hill.
People who are offended by something will (eventually) tell you so. Telling someone not to be offended isn’t a winning position, even in the defense of art. IMHO, offensive art is at its best when it’s creators are unapologetic- I may not care for the particular message, but I CAN respect the creator’s honesty and integrity.
But regardless, someone who uses offensive words or images will reap the whirlwind they sow, even if they did so innocently.
Remember Aesop’s Fables?
The Farmer and the Stork
A Farmer set some traps in a field which he had lately sown with corn, in order to catch the cranes which came to pick up the seed. When he returned to look at his traps he found several cranes caught, and among them a Stork, which begged to be let go, and said, "You ought not to kill me: I am not a crane, but a Stork, as you can easily see by my feathers, and I am the most honest and harmless of birds." But the Farmer replied, "It's nothing to me what you are: I find you among these cranes, who ruin my crops, and, like them, you shall suffer."
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