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Penny Arcade - Comic - A New Record
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Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - A New Record
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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I have seen this happen before to a few others streamers. He wasn't even trying to say the word; it's a mishmash of getting tongue-tied to say something else, but also, given the fact he's an avid rap song listener (the word being prolifically used there), it's probably on his mind at some level.
I can't hear him actually say the word in that clip though. Can any of you?
Law and Order ≠ Justice
I mean, I still think it was wrong to say it and I'm glad he apologized for it... but sometimes a mistake really is just a mistake.
I mean, I know I'm not supposed to say "Fuck" around children, or at church, and probably not at work. But our culture is insanely saturated in uses of the word. Negative, positive, as punctuation. So mistakes happen. Nobody takes it be a mark on my characters depending on context and brazenness.
Likewise, I know I'm not supposed to say the N-word. And uses of it haven't quite reached the cultural saturation of "Fuck". But look, you use the words you hear when your brain finds itself grasping at straws. Now that might be a word you hear a lot because you really hate black people, or it might be a word you hear a lot because you really love black music and black comedy.
I donno. None of this really applies to me. I pretty much only hear the word when someone has gotten in trouble for saying the word. But then again I'm old, and my taste in media is so very white. And old. Can't forget the part about getting old.
As far as the actual whatever, I could see perfectly reasonable people on both sides. On one side, people make mistakes. On the other side, maybe this language and racially divisive stuff in general is way too prolific on twitch so people should be extra careful. On the first hand again, if the word is in your head, you'll say it by mistake. On the second hand again, maybe watch what you listen to so you don't get that word in your head in the first place? Back on hand one, we as a culture seem to have accepted the word's use in rap so that might nullify my last point. And finally on hand two, twitch streamers should probably not necessarily be held to the exact same standard as rap singers for a bunch of reasons involving a debate I am absolutely unqualified to engage in.
This is wildly facile.
I don't feel qualified to comment on the Ninja issue itself in too much depth, but I definitely feel the opposite re:this strip. I feel like both Gabe and Tycho's points are accurate -- you can assume that if someone is subjected to psychological pressure like being publicly, remotely observed and expected to perform for like 10 hours a day, eventually they are going to do or say something fucked up in some way.
...but they're not gonna accidentally advocate for a Final Solution, or go on a racist rant, or talk about how they want to fuck children.
There are limits to Tycho's original point, and Gabe points them out. Then, Tycho points out the limits to Gabe's counterpoint.
I don't really know or care how bad Ninja's thing rates on whatever scale we should be using for these things, that's not my area.
In that I'm kind of bristly at Ninja's nonapology. "I think this is a misunderstanding" bad move that's divorcing responsibility from your action. I know I've used similar reasoning to try and mitigate my own shitty behavior.
pleasepaypreacher.net
You might be right. I was just assuming that Tycho was being presented as unreasonable because of him taking any kind of high ground when it's fairly well established that he's a comically evil misanthrope who regularly talks about wanting to end the world. I can't remember whether he's killed Gabe more times than Gabe has killed him, though.
I mean, technically as long as his intention was not to express hatred toward black people, it's a misunderstanding. It's just that every miscommunication is either the fault of the speaker, the listener, or both. In this case it's his fault. And his statement seems to me to be admitting that.
Racism is the attempt to lessen another human being (or beings) based on their race.
...I don't feel like that's what was happening here, but there are a lot of people in the world who want something to be angry about like, all the time. So of COURSE they're gonna latch onto this and dry hump it into the ground.
About as much a non-issue as any issue can be.
I would disagree with this definition of racism pretty strongly.
I love this metaphor.
This is it exactly. If you say you said something like that by accident, what you mean is you said it ON CAMERA by accident.
Remember that whole Mel Gibson DUI thing where he yelled about Jews like 10 years ago? Same thing. They're not sorry about what they said, they're sorry that they got CAUGHT. Plenty of media people are under constant scrutiny, yet somehow manages to make it through the day without yelling racial slurs, it just seems like it's not that difficult.
I mean, I also don't really care much about Ninja so I guess it's irrelevant but that's where I'm standing.
These are poor statements he's not sorry for what he said he's sorry for the offense it caused and there's a difference there. An actual apology would not put qualifiers like the usage of the word or how people might be offended. This is a classic non apology "I'm sorry you misinterpreted my racist comment as racism, I promise to hide it better".
pleasepaypreacher.net
The nword is everywhere in america spoken and unspoken, and its super easy for people who don't live with it everyday to go "its just a word." To you it is, to other people in america its a reminder that you are and always will be the nword and you better not forget it.
pleasepaypreacher.net
At this point it's more like a fantasy-style word of power than it is anything else. At a certain point we should treat it like anything else, like something that can be spoken with malice, or spoken in error, or by mistake or simply as a misguided attempt at popular culture. All the above should elicit different responses. It is not a curse, it has no power than what we give it, intent and usage matters.
Some people are trying to decide if his apology was made because he was genuinely sorry or if he was "sorry because he got caught." I think, in this particular situation, it is neither. It's probably more of an "I'm sorry that society -- and the internet in particular -- has become so insane that I have to make an apology for a word that I wasn't even trying to say, and really didn't say since it was a mashup of other tongue-tied words, merely to keep people who are no saints themselves from destroying my life and my current livelihood just because they think they are the ones who are perfect enough to qualify for the job of teaching me a lesson" apology.
How's that for a complicated underlying apology message.
-Tycho Brahe
Genuine question. Do you think that Ninja believes black people are inferior and better not forget it? Would that thought have to be underlying in his mind in order for him to use the word while singing a rap song, which I presume contained the word in its original version?
Hm. You've got a point, I didn't read into the apology too much.
I guess I still mostly don't care. At least with pewdiepie it felt like vindication because I hated the guy, but Ninja is just kinda... there. I guess.
The song did not contain the word originally at that point, to be clear. He either got words mixed up or ad-libbed it in.
In the rap song he was singing that word is not in there. And if in his mind he thinks all rap songs contain the n word that's definitely prejudice bordering on racism. I mean I've sung along to plenty of songs I don't randomly insert slurs to them.
So he might not be racist, but he should maybe think how when he gets "tongue tied" he drops an n bomb. Similar to pewdie. And it is telling people are willing to give Ninja benefit of the doubt because he's well liked. Where as with Pewdie it was just confirmation "yeah he's a garbage person"
pleasepaypreacher.net
It's funny how America is systematically racist and has never got to grips with it's slave owning origins.
Oh wait, I don't mean funny. I mean something else.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
That particular song doesn't have the word, but it kind of rhymes there. It is not racist to note that a statistically significant number of rap songs contain the word, often multiple times. I think this would be a MUCH bigger deal if he got angry at someone in the match and then described them in this way. Guessing at a song lyric and turning out to be incorrect is like... it's hard to think of a less strong version of this "crime." For all the people who would say "I WOULD NEVER EVER say THAT word" ok... how often do you rap, live on camera? That's kind of like saying you would never be mean to a child if your job doesn't involve interacting with children. It's a lot easier to avoid doing something you would never be in the setting to do in the first place. If he says it again in a different context or makes "jokes", I'm sure we can go over this again and try to wreck him then.
MHWilds ID: JF9LL8L3
I have to air one small quibble with you on this one. "I'm sorry for anyone who took offense" is a weasel wording. "I'm sorry for offending" is not. It actively takes responsibility for the person giving offense, rather than blaming it on the person who took offense.