“Political garbage” they have attacked another country,
unprovoked and without declaring a war, and it wasn’t the first time they did it even in recent years. Identifying with Russia/Soviet Union is not something that people should be proud of/making jokes. It was a regime that consumed more lives than 3rd Reich and seems to live on in Russia now.
No, I live in a country where Russia has done a lot of harm throughout the history, and you live in a country where people think it doesn’t affect them and isolationism works (hint: it didn’t 80 years ago, it won’t now).
What you are saying is true, but it negates nothing I’ve said, and you dont need to go on a manhunt after me because i used poor word choice. I’m on Ukraine’s side, but its sad that I even have to explain that to you.
I’m not going on a manhunt after you. All I’m saying is that Russian/Soviet symbols should be shunned (or at least not be glorified in any way) just like the Nazi ones because it’s pretty much the same. If I have a choice I will not support anything made by Russians, because there’s a chance it will support their homeland.
I think you dont understand the cultural nuances going on here. I am personally not a fan of it, but here in the United States before the war started and Russia became universally hated, Russia was seen as “generic bad guy.” Most americans, myself included, are woefully undereducated on what actually happened throughout Russian history and in Russian culture, so we take what little we see projected over here and internalize it with some creative liberties.
There is a lot of romanticizing of when the people of Russia rose up to overthrow “the bourgeoisie,” as we have a soft spot for symbols of freedom, the gaining of freedom, and “sticking it to The Man.”
The scene of the hammer being thrown at a TV to smash “The Man” talking was used in a(n in)famous Apple ad back in the 1980s:
Using a Cyrillic block-lettering style font but with English letters and a red background was even used by AMD with a tagline of “Radeon Rebellion”:
It was historically not abnormal for Americans to steal this imagery for marketing purposes. It’s literally what we do ‘best.’ We take the flavor of other cultures and use them to meet whatever end we are trying to accomplish. Now, that’s not to say that if someone launched a new product today that it would be accepted. Anyone doing that now would likely be crucified, or at least their product would fail.
But with the MIGSwitch, it was created before the recent atrocities, and the Russian symbolism is still borrowing/stealing from that “overthrow The Man” symbolism and not the “fuck you we take what we want, fuck the livelihood of your people” symbolism. In this case, Nintendo is “the bourgeoisie” with their draconian abuse of the law and their army of lawyers, and the MIGSwitch is “seizing the means of production,” so to speak. At least, that’s how the marketing is posturing itself.
Should the creator rework the brand image? Probably, absolutely. Are they going to put in the extra effort to do so when the product itself is already likely to get them blasted from space by Nintendo’s low orbital ion canon? Highly unlikely. The product fab line is already made and is printing him money. It always comes down to money.
In believe I do understand the shallow way you (as a nation - no offence here) see other cultures. That’s why I’m saying all that. Because most of the western cultures don’t remember the attrocities they’ve been commiting during WW2, just because they switched sides. They were literally allied with Nazis until they’ve attacked them;) Since then they were re-writing history (trying to erase evidence of atrocities that were even worse than what Nazis we’re doing) just because they’ve ended up on the side that was victorious. I was under the impression that while during Cold War they were the villains to you (and the best you’d be able to say about them would be “commies”, worst would be “Evil Empire”) when it fell down most of the world somehow thought they can be treated as partners and talked to. But their mentality never changed, and now after they went to be full Soviet Union mode all we (people from the countries formerly behind iron curtain) can tell is “we told you so”. They should never be glorified - even for “liberation from Nazis” (they were worse), negotiated with (anything they get will encourage them to run their schemes again). They should be isolated (in all possible ways) and cut off from any external income.
Sure, again you are probably right that they should be shut down and isolated.
But does it help you emotionally or logically in any way to understand that in the past when an American ignorantly made something like that, or when another American saw something like that, they aren’t thinking “long live Putin, we love mother Russia” but instead probably the exact opposite? Like a weird anti-Russia Russian propaganda campaign.
I imagine it probably feels a little twisted for you to see it that way, but consider it for a bit before responding.
Sure. By the way, about the stuff you’ve referenced before - while the AMD’s crap seems to be referencing October Revolution/Red October (I can’t really understand why would it resonate well with western cultures, but oh well), the Apple ad seems to be referencing Orwell, not Russia. Big Brother does not have to be communist, and it may happen in any totalitarian country - even in the US eventually if stuff continues to go downhill. The best remedy is to have people know history and understand it - something we can’t really count on anywhere, not just in the US.
“Political garbage” they have attacked another country, unprovoked and without declaring a war, and it wasn’t the first time they did it even in recent years. Identifying with Russia/Soviet Union is not something that people should be proud of/making jokes. It was a regime that consumed more lives than 3rd Reich and seems to live on in Russia now.
I’m generally in agreement with you but you’re being a royal Karen right now.
No, I live in a country where Russia has done a lot of harm throughout the history, and you live in a country where people think it doesn’t affect them and isolationism works (hint: it didn’t 80 years ago, it won’t now).
What you are saying is true, but it negates nothing I’ve said, and you dont need to go on a manhunt after me because i used poor word choice. I’m on Ukraine’s side, but its sad that I even have to explain that to you.
I’m not going on a manhunt after you. All I’m saying is that Russian/Soviet symbols should be shunned (or at least not be glorified in any way) just like the Nazi ones because it’s pretty much the same. If I have a choice I will not support anything made by Russians, because there’s a chance it will support their homeland.
I think you dont understand the cultural nuances going on here. I am personally not a fan of it, but here in the United States before the war started and Russia became universally hated, Russia was seen as “generic bad guy.” Most americans, myself included, are woefully undereducated on what actually happened throughout Russian history and in Russian culture, so we take what little we see projected over here and internalize it with some creative liberties.
There is a lot of romanticizing of when the people of Russia rose up to overthrow “the bourgeoisie,” as we have a soft spot for symbols of freedom, the gaining of freedom, and “sticking it to The Man.”
The scene of the hammer being thrown at a TV to smash “The Man” talking was used in a(n in)famous Apple ad back in the 1980s:
Using a Cyrillic block-lettering style font but with English letters and a red background was even used by AMD with a tagline of “Radeon Rebellion”:
It was historically not abnormal for Americans to steal this imagery for marketing purposes. It’s literally what we do ‘best.’ We take the flavor of other cultures and use them to meet whatever end we are trying to accomplish. Now, that’s not to say that if someone launched a new product today that it would be accepted. Anyone doing that now would likely be crucified, or at least their product would fail.
But with the MIGSwitch, it was created before the recent atrocities, and the Russian symbolism is still borrowing/stealing from that “overthrow The Man” symbolism and not the “fuck you we take what we want, fuck the livelihood of your people” symbolism. In this case, Nintendo is “the bourgeoisie” with their draconian abuse of the law and their army of lawyers, and the MIGSwitch is “seizing the means of production,” so to speak. At least, that’s how the marketing is posturing itself.
Should the creator rework the brand image? Probably, absolutely. Are they going to put in the extra effort to do so when the product itself is already likely to get them blasted from space by Nintendo’s low orbital ion canon? Highly unlikely. The product fab line is already made and is printing him money. It always comes down to money.
In believe I do understand the shallow way you (as a nation - no offence here) see other cultures. That’s why I’m saying all that. Because most of the western cultures don’t remember the attrocities they’ve been commiting during WW2, just because they switched sides. They were literally allied with Nazis until they’ve attacked them;) Since then they were re-writing history (trying to erase evidence of atrocities that were even worse than what Nazis we’re doing) just because they’ve ended up on the side that was victorious. I was under the impression that while during Cold War they were the villains to you (and the best you’d be able to say about them would be “commies”, worst would be “Evil Empire”) when it fell down most of the world somehow thought they can be treated as partners and talked to. But their mentality never changed, and now after they went to be full Soviet Union mode all we (people from the countries formerly behind iron curtain) can tell is “we told you so”. They should never be glorified - even for “liberation from Nazis” (they were worse), negotiated with (anything they get will encourage them to run their schemes again). They should be isolated (in all possible ways) and cut off from any external income.
Sure, again you are probably right that they should be shut down and isolated.
But does it help you emotionally or logically in any way to understand that in the past when an American ignorantly made something like that, or when another American saw something like that, they aren’t thinking “long live Putin, we love mother Russia” but instead probably the exact opposite? Like a weird anti-Russia Russian propaganda campaign.
I imagine it probably feels a little twisted for you to see it that way, but consider it for a bit before responding.
Sure. By the way, about the stuff you’ve referenced before - while the AMD’s crap seems to be referencing October Revolution/Red October (I can’t really understand why would it resonate well with western cultures, but oh well), the Apple ad seems to be referencing Orwell, not Russia. Big Brother does not have to be communist, and it may happen in any totalitarian country - even in the US eventually if stuff continues to go downhill. The best remedy is to have people know history and understand it - something we can’t really count on anywhere, not just in the US.