But I’d love to have the time to dissect all the memes with actual persons on them, violence references, references of historical facts etc. That would be fun. /s
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By this meme, OGS is participating in and accepting the normalization of these shootings. Doing so is a choice, and an unnecessary one. The origin of the image in a movie seems irrelevant to me. If a porn image from a movie were posted here, its movie origin would not protect it from being offensive and a violation of site rules.
About a year ago, the mod team discussed an avatar that showed someone with a rifle (on a range IIRC). It was decided that the image could remain, but that an image showing someone pointing a gun at the viewer or at another person would be removed. This meme hypocritically violates the spirit of that decision.
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I don’t agree that it does. For me, this meme had no connection with “shootings” at all.
I can see how it can be argued that it does, and I can see how you think that it does, but I don’t agree. I do see more of a grey zone here - it sort of implies that “moderators are out to shoot you”. But clearly in jest, as opposed to in an avatar that can be interpreted as communicating violent intent. In my opinion.
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Jesting about shootings like this, as I said, exploits, disrespects, and trivializes them. That is a form of acceptance. The alternative is to stand against them by taking them seriously.
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To clarify an important point in my previous post: that meme IS NOT ABOUT A SHOOTING.
Therefore, it is not a jest about a shooting, nor is it normalising shootings.
It IS a representation of go players with guns, which moderators did discuss and rule out as avatars, as you reminded us. However, it is a jest about that situation, not a representation that should be taken seriously. In my opinion.
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Also please move to the Go Pedantry thread, thanx.
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You’re really doing backflips now. The meme uses the imagery of illegal shootings. By doing so, it does everything I have said and is sickeningly offensive.
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so, should I delete that meme?
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Search your own conscience, and ask the mods whether they stand behind their earlier decision.
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Neat way to separate a discussion from the subject, and to trivialize it by calling it “pedantry.” There is nothing pedantic about objecting to such a sick, decadent meme, Go Memes! 🧐 - #3674 by mark5000
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You know well enough that the Go memes thread isn’t meant for discussion.
This meme is not about church shootings. The similarities is that the setting is a church, and that there are guns present in the church.
In the TV series, there are no innocent people in the church. There are also no people who are being shot. Actually there’s not even a gun fired! Moreover, all of these four persons in the picture happen to be detectives, soldiers, CIA, hackers, who knows (I haven’t watched the series, but that’s what Wikipedia tells me): it’s not even about terrorism.
Watch the clip yourself, and repeat that it’s about church shootings:
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I fear that many consciences here aren’t on the same tune with yours.
I don’t know the specific shooting you are referring to. I’ve seen many action, horror, scifi movies with fightings, killings, rapings, slaughterings in a variety of locations.
A man with a gun inside a church doesn’t shock me at all.
I understand that my words could strengthen your feelings.
But it looks like you’re alone in this sick, decadent place.
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For what it’s worth I have been accused of being a snowflake more times than I can remember, notably by some people whose avowed dream would be to shoot me or someone like me, and I don’t think this meme is entertaining violence or participating in the climate of fear and… I can’t in good conscience talk about “decadence” but the spirit is there.
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I don’t always follow the crowd on a meme, but it’s ok we have different tastes.
@Conrad_Melville sorry but i don’t feel that meme like a mass shooter thing and even more like some advertising but i can understand your repugnance. no need here to push more in my opinion.
moving to the meme pedantry thread seems natural, meme thread being more offering a zapping as a debate around each of them (although with a bit of flexibility as usual on OGS)
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I have deleted the meme out of respect for @Conrad_Melville and others who may have viewed it similarly.
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My main objection is the trivialization of the subject by calling it “pedantry.” There is nothing pedantic about objecting to a sick meme. You could just as well have created a thread called “Go Meme Objections.” Indeed, shoveling discussions into a trivializing thread called “pedantry,” a metaphoric trashcan, has the look of cover-up—out of sight, out of mind—which has implications for objections that other people might have regarding future offensive memes.
I already answered this argument, but since you raise it again, I will reply again. If you go back to my first post, you will see that I never said it was “about” church shootings. That is a misrepresentation. My point was that the existence of such shootings made this meme an exceptional example of bad taste and, I will add, gross insensitivity. It makes use of the imagery of such events (exploitation and disrespect) for the purpose of what GAJ called a jest (trivialization).The source and context of the source are completely irrelevant, because the meme speaks for itself, independent of its source.
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Thank you. I respect that.
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I strongly object to this characterization!
Maybe we need a “Go Memes Pedantry Objections” thread, or, happily, we could call it “Go Memes Pedantry Pedantry”.
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Life, death and even “murder” are important parts of the game of Go, so depictions of violence in the meme thread kind of make sense.
But of course there should be a red line somewhere. For me that meme was okay. Where this line should be has to be discussed and should not be decided by a single person.
I want to add that at this point I find it somewhat disrespectful to call that meme sick and inadequate to compare it to mass shootings, from which it clearly differs. It shows four people, three of them pointing guns after all, and the fourth person might or might not wield one.
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