Full Version: Microsoft acts on swastika font flap
QUOTE
SEATTLE, Dec. 12 — Microsoft Corp. said Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1004348.asp?0cv=CB20
Questions to debate:
Is this infringment of the freedom of speech or smart business on the part of Microsoft to remove the swastika?
Also, how did this get by the programmers and who's responsible for this happening?
Is this infringment of the freedom of speech or smart business on the part of Microsoft to remove the swastika?
Also, how did this get by the programmers and who's responsible for this happening?
To consider:
Is this a legitimate complaint or is it crying wolf? What if someone is doing a paper on the Nazi's and needed the symbol for a report? Or, God forbid, that a Nazi wanted to put the stigmatized symbol on a letter?
*edited for clarification
Also from the article:
As a Jew, I gotta say "this is silly." It's not about a symbol from 50 years ago, it's about hate. Having a Buddhist symbol in a Japanese font is not worth worrying about. Synagogues being bombed is a bit more important, although I don't know that Microsoft can do much about that.
QUOTE
A form of the swastika has been used in the Buddhist religion to symbolize the feet or footprints of the Buddha. The symbol, which was also used widely in the ancient world including Mesopotamia, Scandinavia, India and the Americas, became common in China and Japan with the spread of Buddhism.
As a Jew, I gotta say "this is silly." It's not about a symbol from 50 years ago, it's about hate. Having a Buddhist symbol in a Japanese font is not worth worrying about. Synagogues being bombed is a bit more important, although I don't know that Microsoft can do much about that.
The swastika is one of those old ancient universal symbols...magical to many of us...it really is a shame that Hitler has ruined it for our own society and essential stolen a piece of our own history from us.
Still today around the world it is VERY commonly known as a good luck symbol and is very commonly used for various things (the Falun Gong group uses it as their symbol ) and carries no such conations with itself as it does here in the west.
I would like to see how this swastika is being presented in this font. Is it tilted like Hitler's version? Is it presented in Nazi colors...somehow I doubt that.
There are various groups and individuals who hope to free the swastika from Hitler's hate..and I think that really should be our goal..why give this man such a worldwide recognizable and ancient symbol, one that has meant something and still does to many many cultures and people of the world...why should this horrible man be given this?
Friends Of The Swastika
Still today around the world it is VERY commonly known as a good luck symbol and is very commonly used for various things (the Falun Gong group uses it as their symbol ) and carries no such conations with itself as it does here in the west.
I would like to see how this swastika is being presented in this font. Is it tilted like Hitler's version? Is it presented in Nazi colors...somehow I doubt that.
There are various groups and individuals who hope to free the swastika from Hitler's hate..and I think that really should be our goal..why give this man such a worldwide recognizable and ancient symbol, one that has meant something and still does to many many cultures and people of the world...why should this horrible man be given this?
Friends Of The Swastika
What I think is silly (maybe I wasn't clear) is not the symbol itself, but that folks got upset enough about it being in a JAPANESE font and Microsoft felt compelled to remove it. As much as I recognize the hurtfulness of the symbol to some folks, it's silly to suppress it for another culture where it's common and has a completely different meaning. We need to spend more time on things that are more important.
I completely agree with amf on this. I am also of Jewish background, in fact I still have living family members that were directly affected by the Nazi invasion of the former USSR. And I also agree that getting worked up about this and getting offended by it is silly. Context is everything. A person stretching their arms could look like they're doing the "seig heil". For all we know, tomorrow a prominent hate group might appear that will adopt the letter Q as their symbol. The swastika is an ancient symbol, predating Hitler by millennia. In fact, the Kabbalah uses the swastika as well. To say that anytime you see one, it's a Nazi symbol would be like telling Christians that they wear the symbol of the Spanish Inquisition around their neck, preposterous.
My apologies amf I thought you were claiming the bit you quoted was silly..but after actually reading every word rather than every third I understand now 
I edited it so my comments are now directed at the air and not to you.
I edited it so my comments are now directed at the air and not to you.
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