←back to thread

Blizzard Suspends Professional Hearthstone Player for Hong Kong Comments

(playhearthstone.com)
2525 points hownottowrite | 2 comments | 08 Oct 19 09:23 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
zwaps ◴[08 Oct 19 11:13 UTC] No.21190952[source]▶
Then we have to boycott Hearthstone. While the current case is neither surprising nor substantially important, it is important because of principle.

Blizzard is not responsible for what players say in interviews. In our society, it still matters that people can tolerate other opinions.

The Chinese government tries to make it a new normal that entire people can have their "feelings hurt" (what?) by mere non-insulting opinions, and it tries to make it a new normal that all actors should censor any undesirable or potentially undesirable opinion.

If that is indeed the way, then our society and the discourse therein is no longer free, and the CCP has won.

We need to keep these firms in our mind. We need to keep a list of when this happens, and we need to sanction this as best as we can. Similarly, anyone standing up to censorship should have our support.

I can be pro HK, or I can be pro China, and I can voice opinions because doing so either way is an equally valid form of free expression. But it can not be that one side gets pre-emptively censored to appease the CCP, or any actor with the power to DEFINE the bar of what is reasonable expression of opinions.

replies(35): >>21191046 #>>21191149 #>>21191296 #>>21191337 #>>21191361 #>>21191457 #>>21191561 #>>21191609 #>>21191630 #>>21191686 #>>21191709 #>>21191715 #>>21191742 #>>21191842 #>>21191964 #>>21191971 #>>21191980 #>>21192069 #>>21192094 #>>21192118 #>>21192246 #>>21192449 #>>21192535 #>>21192785 #>>21192985 #>>21193152 #>>21193306 #>>21193442 #>>21193508 #>>21193629 #>>21193748 #>>21194032 #>>21194140 #>>21194276 #>>21194794 #
nickthemagicman ◴[08 Oct 19 11:45 UTC] No.21191149[source]▶
So far I've noticed:

1> New Top Gun Movie removed a patch on Tom Cruises jacketdue to Chinese funding.

2> NBA issued an apology for an owner showing Hong Kong support and China stopped NBA broadcasts.

3> Blizzard

4> Apple Hides Taiwans Flag emoji

Sounds trivial but they're the tip of the iceberg for censoring freedom of expression based on a DICTATOR's whim.

Xi "Winnie The Poop" is an autocrat and once he sealed his grip on power and lifted term limits.

The fact is, the people are fighting a restriction on their freedom, in order to benefit the powerful.

This is a tale as old as humanity itself.

This is also what I fear will happen to America if we're not careful.

I think we need to be united in standing up against restrictions on the freedom of expression.

replies(6): >>21191205 #>>21192187 #>>21192721 #>>21192941 #>>21193723 #>>21194215 #
1. projproj ◴[08 Oct 19 14:53 UTC] No.21192941[source]▶
- 2009 Red Dawn remake originally filmed to use China as the invaders but was edited to use North Korea afterwards [0] - Apparently the same thing was done for the 2011 game Homefront [0]

[0] https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-china-red-dawn-2...

replies(1): >>21194722 #
2. danso ◴[08 Oct 19 17:30 UTC] No.21194722[source]▶
This is a tangent, but the "Red Dawn" example is kind of amusing to me because in 2009, a China-is-the-new-Cold-War-Russia film seems patently offensive to Chinese and Chinese-Americans, even without Chinese government political pressure. That the filmmakers belatedly switched the villains to North Korea is kind of offensive to me as an Asian, since it seems to reveal a thought process of "let's just make any Asians the villains".

In 1984, Russia as the villains makes sense since we were several decades into the Cold War at that point. Putting aside the fact that they are hugely valuable trade allies, we have never been at war with China, or (at least in 2009) been involved in any kind of proxy conflict along the scale of Afghanistan and Vietnam. Making China the new Russia is as off-putting as making Mexico the villains of a "Red Dawn" remake.

If the rationale is: "Well, only China makes sense because they're the only rival superpower left". That still leaves unanswered the obvious question of: why do we need this kind of military occupation fantasy at all? Or, if realism truly is a concern, and the filmmaker's artistic passion for the military occupation genre, then why not remake it with the U.S. as the invading superpower, and the hero resistance being, well, just about any other country (doesn't even have to be Middle Eastern)?

The cynical answer to the latter question, of course, is that such a movie would be so denounced by American public figures (political and non-political) that the studio/fillmaker would be effectively blacklisted from mainstream U.S. business. Much like releasing a "China is the Bad Others!" film would be if you wanted mainstream Chinese patronage.