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I am not a nazi. Let me say that again: I am not a nazi. I really do want to
make that point clear in this post. I am not a nazi. Nor do I want to be a nazi.
If you frequent LUGNET, you may have noticed a MOC (my own creation) that I
posted to the .space newsgroup, titled the Schpiffkraft Hakenkreuz.
As a result of this MOC, it would seem that I have become known for being an
untalented, uninspired, uncreative, unskilled, unfunny nazi troll. This has
taken a steep toll on my emotional capital, and I have pretty much decided that,
unless there is any meaningful response to this post, then I am going to take a
break from .space for a while. I want to learn to build space, badly. But,
what's the point. It seems if you’re a newcomer, unskilled or, even worse
‘uncool’, you are either vituperated (in my case, branded a nazi), or directed
to another site.
But, if I am not a nazi, then what is the fuss all about? Why are there 130 or
more posts in the thread (which has persisted for over a week)? Part of that
fuss is not related to my MOC at all, with various extraneous issues being
brought in, and completely weird stuff like demands to know what competitions I
hadn't entered my MOC into, harping on my typos, and even a comment on how
unfair it was that my MOC had generated so much attention, while other more
worthy (but seemingly less controversial) MOCs were ignored.
Looking at it simply, the Hakenkreuz is a space vessel shaped like a swastika,
and piloted by a figure I referred to as the ‘Grand Fuhrer’. My post created
quite a lot of reaction (dare I say *over*reaction?), from many community
members.
Many people seemed to have jumped to conclusions (which are incorrect) as a
result of my MOC posting; But as Freud once said to me “Sometimes a cigar is
just a cigar”.
Let me assure you that I was not intending to “spread a very adult message of
hatred”, or promote “symbol of hate & the darkest chapter of modern history” and
not “... emulat[e] an empire bent on hatred and destruction”. But really, if
someone wanted to spread any such message, would LUGNET be the forum to do it
in? I didn’t make up the term ‘space nazi’. I just used it as a particular theme
for a MOC. That is all.
In fact the term ‘space nazi’ first came to my attention when it was used by
Lenny Hoffman. Subsequent research indicates that that turn of phrase was used
prior to that however. But, as the thread bore out, I am not familiar with many
common turns of phrase.
I am not a nazi.
I should point out that my MOC and its “pretty plain, and not funny” description
are significantly lacking in details of who the space nazis are and what their
ideals are. Many have assumed what those ideals might be though – and I wonder
if that’s just an indication of the strength of certain symbols, people’s own
dark desires, pushing particular points of view about what the online Lego
‘community’ is and how it should work, jumping to conclusions or simply hopping
on the bandwagon.
In showing a MOC such as this, am I encouraging people to a life of hatred,
violence and racism? I think not (and that was certainly never my intention),
but clearly there are those who think I am.
It seems that as responses to the thread have built, people have firmed their
opinions. For instance, Lenny originally described my MOC as 'potentially
offensive' but later went as far to state there was no evidence that I wasn't a
neo-nazi.
Some have claimed that if I was of a particular background I would not have
posted this MOC. What evidence was there that I was not of this particular
background? People should not make assumptions of my background. It was
suggested that I read certain books (at least one of which I have read),
presumably so I would be re-educated in some way.
I am not a (space) nazi.
Do people’s MOCs necessarily reflect what they seek to promote? I think not.
After all, is building a lego brothel (or House of Ill Repute or whatever you
prefer to euphemise it as) tantamount to promoting prostitution? I’ve built MOCs
of space monkeys, but have never been accused of aggressively seeking space
bananas. I’ve built a MOC of Orthanc, but have never been accused of seeking to
dominate middle earth. I have built a model of a deep sea research vessel, but
never once has it been claimed that I’m some sort of oceanologist.
Some people have made a link from the Hakenkreuz to my earlier INRI starfighter.
They’re both space ships based on iconic cross imagery, and neither (I’m told)
is particularly well designed. But if you think the Hakenkreuz is spreading this
message of hate, don’t you also have to think the INRI was spreading a message
of salvation and love? If you think constructing the hakenkreuz makes me a nazi,
don’t you also have to think constructing the INRI makes me a Roman Catholic?
Can all these things be true, might I be some sort of Roman Catholic nazi bent
on spreading a message of love, hate, salvation and destruction? Really?
Others have claimed that historic 'evilness' is acceptable, that futuristic
'evilness' is acceptable but that somehow combining historic and futuristic
'evilness' is not acceptable. Is this right? Who decided?
There are images of evil other than the swastika of course. The 'Deaths Head' is
one of them. In fact the death's head adorned many a nazi uniform, and yet the
skull is acceptable as an image of futuristic evilness, both to Lego and its
fans.
Maybe someone needs to compile a list of MOC subjects unacceptable (to LUGNET)?
It would certainly have made it easier if I could have checked a list somewhere
and seen “Images of swastikas” among the unacceptable imagery (though possibly
with the qualifier, “unless historic, or well executed, or by someone ‘funny’”).
Then I could have skipped the Hakenkreuz and moved on to my next MOC.
Of course it would need to be considered what themes would be added to the
'black list'. Who would be responsible for keeping it up to date? It would be
that from time to time some things would need to be added (eg abu ghraib related
mocs perhaps), and other things need to be deleted (possibly Iraqi Weapons of
Mass Destruction related themes). Who is the arbiter of morality on lugnet? I
mean even the number of people who have spoken out against my MOC is very small
compared to the total number of lugnet members. But we know that lugnet is not a
democracy... so maybe its better left to ad-hoc lynch mobs to enforce their own
standards from time to time?
And we know that 'smack' (offensive insults) is acceptable. So where is the line
for what it smack and what is offensive enough to raise the reactionary hackles?
Do you have to be cool to use 'smack'? Do you have to used 'smack' only against
those who are cool enough? Or is there some other case where smack is okay?
I am not a (space) nazi.
I was disappointed that the craft itself was described as “...uninspired”,
“unimpressive”, of “rudimentary construction” and even a “nice contest entry but
[no thought to be going to] win” (apparently, a turn of phrase meaning “weak”),
but then, I’m not much of a space builder. It interests me that the same people
can make claims that my MOC was “inappropriate” and “unimpressive”. Would they
have preferred I spent more time on it to render it more impressive (but still
inappropriate)? As some have asked - how impressive does something have to be
before inappropriate ceases to be an issue? Conversely, if something is
“appropriate” does that mean slacking on building standards will avoid
criticism?
My MOC has come in for criticism (of its construction) much harsher (or at least
from more people) than any other MOC I can remember. Usually, when people do
criticize, they at least do so constructively (or are prompted to by others). If
an expert builder says “Those landing gear are so bad they are painful to look
at”, it would be really great for him then to suggest an alternative
construction method. Certainly, their have been a couple of constructive (or
mostly constructive) responses, but they have been by far in the majority and
drowned out by those who are well and truly on the "get the nazi troll!"
bandwagon.
I am not a space nazi.
It has been implied that my post was a troll. Was it a troll? Well, if it was a
troll, it was certainly a wildly successful one. Most trolls take the form of
“blah blah... <controversial issue> blah blah”. But my post was a moc –
something I’d spend time building out of lego – and was posted with a very vague
backstory – no snide comments against community leaders, no vaguely familiar
name for the grand fuhrer. Making a MOC would be a lot of effort to go to for a
simple troll. In fact, I don’t recall a MOC on LUGNET which was an intentional
troll. There have been some troll MOCS, but that’s a different matter entirely.
Maybe some of the older April Fools Day jokes could be described as trolling
mocs, I guess. If you think my post was a troll, then you’d have to say I
succeeded. And yet, I’m not leaping about gloating at the success of my
MOC/troll.
But was it a troll? Well, I made a post to .space, which is hardly a high
profile group these days. I didn’t crosspost it to .general (though just about
anything seems to go on .general these days), and I didn’t crosspost it to
.announce. I was hardly seeking general publicity for it, just showing it as a
space MOC, where space MOCs belong. I have crossposted some of my sailing vessel
MOCs to announce, because, in my view, they have been significant advances in
shipbuilding – or at least *my* shipbuilding – and I was keen to have them seen
by a wider audience (but I didn’t, nor would I, crosspost to .general). Surely,
you would think, that if I was ‘seeking attention’ or ‘trolling’ then I’d go
with the .announce crosspost. Admittedly, I did subsequently post this MOC in
another forum (JLUG), but that was after specific requests from members of that
forum.
I am not a nazi
So what do I do now? Either I don’t build and post another space nazi MOC, and
people jump up and down and say “Look! It was a troll!” or I do build and post
another space nazi MOC, and people jump up and down and say “Look! He is a
nazi”. Of course, it does seem that a lot of people are happy to label me a nazi
troller, so I’ll guess they’ll be happy no matter what I do.
So, as I said above, I will probably leave .space for a while. To rebuild my
emotional capital, and work on improving my bad space building technique. Or
maybe just abandon space for good, and give up my space building ambitions and
return to building an apparently never ending sequence of sailing vessels. Who
knows? .pirates might have been only slightly quieter than .space was up until I
posted my MOC, but it does seem like the right place to be now.
But if I do that, if I leave .space, if only temporarily does that mean the
‘mob’ wins? Will they have driven me away by labelling me a nazi?
I am not a nazi.
And then there's the photo Kevin posted of me. Cunningly, he'd pasted my head
onto the body of Hitler, claiming it was evidence of my naziness. Hilarious
stuff. Absolutely hilarious stuff! Talk about laugh 'till my eyes watered!
Oh, yeah. Hilarious stuff. Maybe.
Now, I know (or at least I think) it was a joke. But where was the outcry from
the moral guardians who were so fast to criticise the Hakenkreuz? It was a
poorly executed joke about naziness, yet no one except Allister McLaren
complained about it, and he did so by merely parodying an earlier reply to my
MOC posting.
But I wonder how anyone who objected to my MOC not object to Kevin's picture of
me-as-hitler? I know his was posted to .off-topic.debate and mine to .space and
.debate has (traditionally had) a smaller following, but Kevin's post was not
just nazi related, if it wasn't taken as a joke (and we now know that no nazi
related post can be taken as a joke, unless it's very well done, and Kevin's
certainly wasn’t) it was also a direct personal attack! And yet the moral crowd
stayed silent.
And, without me even being registered for Classic Space Forum, my MOC is brought
up there, with me being labelled a “weirdo”. And not a word of criticism from
anyone for the person who dragged in the outside-of-forum material, and
proceeded to insult me. But I guess that's a matter to be addressed by the
admins in Classic Space Forum, not here. And I guess they're happy to sit back
and let the 'nazi troll' get what he deserves.
I am not a space nazi.
It has been claimed that MOCs such as mine have a place and that place is JLUG.
I’m not sure why JLUG is seen as the home for MOCs some people choose to label
as offensive, because there are plenty of inoffensive MOCs there. In any case,
my MOC is not necessarily offensive (I note that Lenny’s initial assertion was
that it was only ‘potentially offensive’), though it may be confronting,
certainly. But what constitutes offensive is a personal thing, and I do accept
that some people do find my MOC offensive. To unilaterally claim another forum
as ‘the home for offensive MOCs’, is arrogant in the extreme. In fact, I
wouldn’t be surprised if such arrogance could earn the claimant the label of
‘MOC/forum compartmentalisation nazi’ which brings me to...
I am not a space nazi.
The term ‘nazi’ is much degraded these days. Admins on most forums will be
labelled as nazis at some point – without so much as killing one person who
opposes them. The term 'adminazis' is often used to describe overzealous forum
administrators. People who play games in strict adherence to the rules will be
’Rules Nazis’, surfers who claim a particular stretch of coastline ‘Surf Nazis’
and so on. IIRC, Germaine Greer labelled the producers of a television program
“nazis”. But despite this degradation, the word ‘nazi’ still has bite in some
fora. Particularly it seems, on LUGNET once mob-rule sets in.
Although some people on LUGNET have claimed that there is nothing too serious to
joke about, it seems that they were wrong. The subject of my MOC appears to be
too serious to joke about. The subject of my MOC was a swastika shaped
spacecraft, but what was the theme? Was I glorifying Nazism? Was I parodying
Nazism? Was I recruiting for Nazism? Was I saying that nazis should be locked
into anti-grav swastikas with inadequate controls and shot off into deep space?
Was I parodying something else? Was the swastika in my MOC reversed? If it was,
was it significant that the swastika had been reversed?
This MOC has been contrasted to the acceptable (and even popular) fan created
themes such as the Iron Reich, Eastern Block and so on. Themes which have (or at
least have had) a strong fan following. Few have spoken out against their
glorifying totalitarianness, and yet they seem to be much more ‘serious’ in
their execution than a mere flying swastika and a vaguely hitleresque leader
waving to a non existent crowd. And what about the other themes promoting ‘evil’
in its many varied and humorous forms?
Note that I am not daring to compare my meagre MOC to the glories of the Iron
Reich et al. Others made the comparison. The construction values of the other
themes are way, way higher than mine and the creations sometimes feature landing
gear that isn’t painful to look at. But they have that apparent vein of
totalitarianness in common. Maybe my MOC is saying ‘Well, if the Eastern Blok is
acceptable, why not the Space Nazis?”? But see above, maybe it is related to the
coolness of construction. Or the presumed coolness of the creator. It may well
be that I am uncool and unfunny, but...
I am not a space nazi.
Or maybe my MOC is not saying “Well, if the Eastern Blok is acceptable, why not
the Space Nazis?” at all. Maybe the space nazis don’t really fly around in
anti-grav swastikas, perhaps they spend their time making others conform to
their will, say what they should, and think what they ought. Maybe there’s only
a symbolic relationship (shape, uniform and facial hair) between the Nazis of
the 1930’s and the Space Nazi’s of my MOC? What would a *real* space nazi look
like?
I remember an episode of The X-Files, where Mulder said “People think the devil
has horns and a tail. They're not used to looking for some kindly man who tells
you what you want to hear.” And I think people need to keep this in mind when
considering my MOC. What is characterised or stereotyped as evil is not
necessarily evil. So, to sum up, let me ask this – “Does a silly uniform, funny
moustache and a flying swastika for a ride a true space nazi make?”
I am not a nazi.
Do you know a nazi?
Are you a nazi?
Best regards
Richie Dulin
(Not a nazi)
Please consider your FUT if replying.
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Message has 8 Replies:
 | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) Normally I keep my nose out of stuff like this, but I might throw my 2 cents in. I think your choice of "sub-theme" was simply a bad choice. The holocaust was a very dark time in our planet's history and there are people alive that are still (...) (19 years ago, 18-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) Hello Richie, i read the whole off your post (and previous about the half of the original thread). I agree to what Jamie wrote, you just choose a subject which is to overladed with emotions. In fact here in germany your MOC is illegal. When (...) (19 years ago, 18-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) -snip- If you want to increase your skills as a space builder, here's my advice: 1. Stop building things that you know will get a shock value. A fighter with a crucified Christ on the top? A spaceship in the shape of a swastika with Hitler (...) (19 years ago, 18-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) Heck, don't make that your goal; *I* build space badly, and it's nothing to aspire to. Instead, you should try to learn to build space well! One piece of semi-serious advice that I can offer for a fledgling spacer is to attempt variations on (...) (19 years ago, 18-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) Right On Richie! I only read parts of this thread, mainly because of how vicious it got. But, I think you make a good point. Everyone needs to constantly listen and look in the mirror and see what the look and sound like. In my opinion, the (...) (19 years ago, 18-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| Richie, I believe you're not a nazy. Can I try a little story? I am French, living in Taiwan. The first time I went to China, I brought back a cheap watch, on which you can see Mao waving his hand, as seconds pass. I thought it would make a nice (...) (19 years ago, 19-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| (...) Richie, You are not a nazi. This I believe. You meant to show something other than the impression many people got from your MOC - this too I believe, especially so after this last post. Before going further, please let me state that I've (...) (19 years ago, 20-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: I am not a nazi.
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| Richie, I never accused you of being a Nazi, nor do I think you one. I want to be clear on that. I simply found your MOC tasteless and not funny. It spurred my hasty post calling for deletion. I regret that post, but I still feel you MOC was very (...) (19 years ago, 20-Aug-05, to lugnet.space, lugnet.people, lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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