When walking into a game, you see a H***** skin. You instantly report it because -- well it's against the rules. What is not against the rules though is a skin featuring Joseph Stalin. I've looked into it, and Joseph Stalin has a very similar reason for killing most of his victims. As a nybooks.com article put it, "mass murder in the Soviet Union sometimes involved motivations, especially national and ethnic ones, that can be disconcertingly close to Nazi motivations." Although the same article said that the Germans had killed more than the Soviets, it still should not be overlooked that this man was a man who wanted to watch the world burn. Being able to have his skin, but not his counterparts are unacceptable. Ban both of them and don't think twice about it. To the person who denied my request to get a player banned for this, you made the correct decision since it is not yet a rule. I do disagree with you, but facts don't care about feelings. Edit: I checked to see if Stalin is also a blacklisted word, and its not. I think this should be blacklisted as well since the other guy is. Also censored one of the names due to concern on if it is against forum rules
I think that this shouldn't really be considered as a new rule, simply because Stalin is not as widely recognized as the other figure you discussed. As well, communism is not inherently associated with the same types of barbaricism and xenophobia that Nazism is. While I get where you're coming from, it's more about the message that people will take away from it today rather than at the time.
Hey! I disagree with you simply because Stalin isn't as recognizable as Hitler as a symbol of hate and xenophobia. Even though history may paint the picture that both are similar, to the average person, Hitler is still more recognizable. Most Hitler skins come with the Nazi symbol which does not happen with Stalin skins. The swastika is an icon of hate but communism is a type of rule. Even though both may be bad in your views, in my books I still think Stalin skins should not be banned because it is not as offensive at a Hitler skin.
I think it's fairly reasonable that the skin should be blacklisted considering Joseph Stalin killed millions of (more actually than Hitler) people. The reasoning that the two gentleman that shared above about how Hitler is more recognizable is a weak argument in my opinion. It's not about who is more notorious, they both committed atrocious acts against millions of people, therefore, anyone that has a skin is showing support for these horrible human beings.
This person is not known though if a person isn't known and can't bring the person to this idea of how many people he killed honestly like if they don't know the skin then the harm is not done. simple and put as dog stated above he did commit really bad acts of hatred so personally it should be blacklisted even though not many people know the person as of hitler.
Using the reasoning that Joseph Stalin isnt as well-known is absolutely absurd. I understand the player base consists of young children, coming from different places of education and a lot probably haven't taken a world history class. The reason more people know about Hitler is because it is harped on more in schools. As I stated in my earlier post, we could go back and forth about how well-known Stalin is but at the end of the day, it's irrelevant reason being is because it's subjective.
This skin is punishable, and I have punished for these types of skins before. However, some skins which simply have the Soviet Union symbol on the shirt of a soldier can't be considered as inappropriate. Perhaps the skin you reported was similar to this? Sometimes it's very difficult to tell what the skin is supposed to represent. As said earlier, the skin should be very recognizable as Stalin in order to be punishable.
You obviously put a lot of time and effort into this post and it’s very commendable trying to help the community to stay safe while avoiding hypocrisy. However if we are going to be honest, most people do not have a love for, or even a knowledge more than basic, of history. So only the most famous and infamous people are actually remembered by those people. In this case, both of the people that you sited killed hundreds of thousands of people and that is truly horrible. Yet there are many people and organizations that have done the same thing, killing just as many, some of which are not well known at all. Could we possibly, or even realistically, attempt to ban each and every group’s or person’s likeness or insignia on a skin? Could we blacklist every single word that is offensive to an individual or group of people? In the end, people will choose to use the skins and use the words to insult people or cultures. And they will go around the restrictions if they are in place. This represents the worst of humanity, and it should never happen. But we cannot change it by banning a few select words or skins. Thank you for reading, and I wish you all a good night or day. -Smashhhh
