This phrase was actualy coined years ago by me and my friends in regards to general feelings of anoyance towards Wizards of the Coast. I'm not trying to downplay the hollocaust by refering to a game compony as one of the most evil screwed up political parties I've ever heard of. I'm not trying to offend anyone who is German, has German relatives, was in the war, had relatives in the war, or whatever. Do I care if I've offended you? No, not realy. If I were censor what I say by trying not to offend anyone, near as I can tell the word "the" is about all I would be able to say. Though honestly, I know people in person who are offended just by the fact that I can still speak, so that would'nt work either. Should we not reference Monty Python because they joke about the Spanish Inquisition?
By the way, no I don't care if you make jokes about america being the land of indian killers or whatever. Granted, I think it's quite a bit different than what I said, as I didn't call all germans Jew burning nazis. But no I don't care, and you wont offend me. My country has a history of blood and rape and torture and doing some seriously screwed up stuff. So does Germany, so does Japan, and so does just about everyone else. Me personaly, I've never killed a native american, never raped one, never stolen from one, never given one a disease, or tortued one either. My ancestors did, and that was messed up, but it wasn't me. My grandfather was a rapist, so should I feel sorry for what he did? I don't think so, and I don't think anyone who is german should feel sorry for what their ancestors did. Your not a nazi? Then I'm not mocking you. If you get offended anyway, that's your deal. All I can do is what I intend, and all I intended was to offend Wizards.
Well, now that you put it that way, I can certainly see the validity of comparing a group of genocidal murderers with dreams of world conquest to a company that cancels two beloved magazines and does a poor job of reassuring its consumers.
Honestly, and I mean this, you have every right in the world to call whomever you like a Nazi. However, if you do this, you pretty much nulify your opinion. Every right thinking person on the planet realized there is no comparison between a company making a short sighted move that might loose them some fans and a political party that managed to murder millions and plunge the entire world into war.
In essense, when you use Nazi this casually, you pretty much hand anyone that might disagree with your post a "please ignore me pass," and the people whose opinion you might mean to bolster will most like distance themselves from you. The people that you mean to hurt or impact with the statement can easily ignore you as a person who is just being an ass for the sake of being an ass. You don't really do much to make your point or support the point of others.
You have every right to call someone a Nazi. No one should come to your door and throw you in jail, fine you, or hinder your means of supporting yourself or your family. They are fully within their rights, however, to exercise their own free speech and say that you are being intentinally provacative and that you have no perspective of what is really important in life.
Thanks for your time.
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KnightErrantJR didn't leave much to say, but there are a few things.
The intent of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch, as with any comedy sketch about extremist ideologies, is to mock and scorn those ideologies. It is not to make casual comparisons of people to the followers of those ideologies with the direct intention of being offensive. When such is done with comedy, those ideologies are subjected to what may very well be the worst thing that can be done to them. It says they are not even worthy of a direct and reasoned rebuttal, they are only suitable to turned into clownish figures for our amusement.
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our two/three/four . . . Amongst our weapons . . .!"
"I hate Illinois Nazis."
"Springtime for Hitler and Germany."
All that is meant to inspire people to laugh at the corpses of defunct ideologies, not to scorn people who make a business decision on what product to stock that we don't like.
So you really have no basis to compare your use of the term to its use in comedy. You aren't doing it with anything near the same intent.
There is also the question of your intention to only "offend Wizards."
Who would that be exactly?
Just the managing executives?
All of the executives?
Division chiefs?
Staff writers?
The rest of the staff?
Freelancers? They are taking money from "Nazis" after all.
Volunteers? They aren't even getting paid to support these "Nazis"!
I'm sure you can qualify it however you want, limit it to just a few, possibly anonymous, people. That still doesn't change that there are all these other people working for them in one manner or other, and by a pretty direct implication you are in fact offending all of them.
In fact, and I'm sure you didn't consider this, Paizo was started by people who were once part owners of Wizards. So what exactly does that make Paizo and everyone who works for them in your view? Reformed Nazis? That's a pleasant thought.
Heck, let's go all the way - what does it make anyone who buys from Wizards or Paizo? You know, people like . . . everyone who plays D&D, or bought Dragon or Dungeon magazine.
So in your pursuit to offend Wizards, how far up that chain are you from directly offending me? Just so I, and anyone else on it, can be clear about who you really do mean to offend.
Creative Director
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Comparisons of Wizards of the Coast to nazis is not something I'm interested in seeing on our messageboards.
I can understand that there's a lot of emotion running over the recent developments, but believe it or not, Paizo remains on good terms with Wizards of the Coast. Some of us are freelancing for them right now. Most of us at Paizo have good friends at WotC.
So far, we haven't had to do any crackdowns on threads or posts here on our messageboards, which is an incredible testament to the maturity of all of you who have posted here. I'm incredibly proud of that, of the fact that this web community is relatively understanding and polite.
So please, PLEASE, let's ease off on the hate-talk. I don't want us to have to start closing threads or taking drastic measures.
Thanks! :)
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This really is stupid - the whole thing is a bit annoying, losing the magazines. But it is only a magazine. I have no real insight into what WotC are thinking by cancelling the licence - and nor does anybody else not connected with it. Companies compete - it is how they make money. They exist to make money - they are not charities, and we would all be much worse off if this wasn't the case.
There has been anger, probably misplaced to some degree, but please - stop picking at this, go for a walk in the fresh air or something. And GET OVER IT. The decision is made, we now need to live in the world as it is. And it's only a game, for god's sake.
It's okay to hold out some semblance of hope. I know I'm going out on a limb here, but for all we know, there's an outside chance that Wizards will do something really radical and interesting with the magazines. Or, perhaps, the venture won't be very practical, won't make them a lot of money, and they'll be interested in allowing the good folks at Paizo to license the product again or even buy it outright. There's a strong chance that Pathfinder will be an amazing success and that this will encourage Paizo to grow and continue making great products. And won't hoping for that (and contributing to that) make the hobby stronger in the long run?
I understand your emotions, but with this out of the way, let's try for something productive.
My god.
Let me start by saying that I am very glad I have people, here, to explain to me my thoughts and motivations. Cuz without them I wouldn't have the slightest clue as to why I say the things I say or do the things I do. Thank you.
Let me finesh by saying my intent is not to go beyond what is allowed at this message board, so now that James has said comparing Wizards to the nazi party is not acceptable, you won't see me type it anymore.
All sarcasm and whatever aside, this realy should have just been taken as a joke, laughed at, and forgotten about. Joys of the net ehh? My mistake. Subject is dropped as far as I'm concerned.
Actually, if you look at Marvel's Civil War, I'm not sure whether Joe Quesada is a Nazi or not, but turning all of Marvel's superheroes with a small group of dissenters into jackboot fascists who work for the government?
That sure destroys a piece of my childhood.
Shouldn't superheroes be good?
And morally meritorious in their own right?