Xenophobia on the net.

[Faux Real]

Today playing an online game I ran into a guy who is currently stationed in Afghanistan. The game's pretty lame and is used as a 3d chatroom.

Anyway, someone told him something along the lines of "you should get yourself an Afghani chick", to which the soldier replied "nah they wear those ninja masks, besides they have bombs in them."

The few people in the area had their shits and giggles, but I taking this to heart and seeing him as a fool who is blindly fighting for nothing more than a paycheck called him out, (with weakly sarcasm)"that&#39;s definitely not racist". <_<

One in the crowd said "but he gets shot at everyday".

I would have replied with something along the lines of "I would be shooting at his ass if I was being invaded and occupied" and later would have questioned this soldier (who happens to be mexican-american) on why he&#39;s fighting etc. but didn&#39;t have the time and was going offline.

The questions I have for you all is:

What is the best solution in dealing with casual online xenophobia like this?

I&#39;m not so sure the things said and about to be said were the right ones. I also can barely stand these kinds of people let alone try to argue in depth with them using historical materialism...

[counterblast]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 06:54 am
"but he gets shot at everyday".
When will Afghani women learn that carrying bombs is only commendable when you&#39;re wearing an army issue camoflauge jacket instead of a niqab --ahem-- or should I say "ninja mask"&#33;?

[toater]

surely dealing with xenophobia online defeats the point of the net - free speech n what not?

also, sorry to p1ss on your chips but nobody in the sandpit just now has boadband connection good enough to play online games, besides Im pretty sure java etc is still blocked.

[Dr.Pepper]

There is nothing you can do about this.

He is online & says xenophobic things because he is lonely, depressed, surrounded by death and destruction all day, and has nobody to speak to about his troubles other than a 3D chat.

Expect the worst when coming across such creatures.

[toater]

creatures?

[Dr Mindbender]

Originally posted by [email protected] 30, 2007 12:27 pm
surely dealing with xenophobia online defeats the point of the net - free speech n what not?

also, sorry to p1ss on your chips but nobody in the sandpit just now has boadband connection good enough to play online games, besides Im pretty sure java etc is still blocked.
if someone online was calling for the burning of women who were thought to be witches I&#39;m sure you&#39;d have something to say. Or for that matter, islamic hotheads calling for the &#39;beheading of those who insult islam&#39;.

But no, whenever those prejudices conform to the norms of accepted modern constructs it&#39;s a matter of &#39;freedom of speech&#39;, even though racism and xenophobia stem from precisely the same extent of irrationality and ignorance.

[Faux Real]

Wow seems like some of these people are Chavs. No wonder they&#39;re homophobic, bigoted, and act like they&#39;re "gangsters".

How does one confront a Chav, let alone 10 of them at once? Or is that a lost cause... :(

But yeah, I dislike the thought of doing absolutely nothing about this type of behavior.

When will Afghani women learn that carrying bombs is only commendable when you&#39;re wearing an army issue camoflauge jacket instead of a niqab --ahem-- or should I say "ninja mask"&#33;? :lol:

[Black Dagger]

Speaking of online prejudice... playing BF2... they&#39;ve got servers where repeated use of &#39;offensive language&#39; will get your account banned. The other day i was warned for saying fark (not even a real swear word), but other users commonly use words like &#39;fag&#39; or &#39;faggot&#39; and nothing is done :/

[Faux Real]

That&#39;s another example that unfortunately takes off even at an early age. Hearing 12 year olds with squeaky voices saying "die fag" just makes me sad. I too remember when I was like ten years old when AOL was my life going into chat rooms calling people I disliked homophobic slurs.

Servers like that which ban people who use "derogatory language" are typically "Christian Servers". No surprise they allow the use of homophobic words. Hypocrites. <_<

[Comrade Nadezhda]

Originally posted by [email protected] 02, 2007 08:56 pm
That&#39;s another example that unfortunately takes off even at an early age. Hearing 12 year olds with squeaky voices saying "die fag" just makes me sad. I too remember when I was like ten years old when AOL was my life going into chat rooms calling people I disliked homophobic slurs.

Servers like that which ban people who use "derogatory language" are typically "Christian Servers". No surprise they allow the use of homophobic words. Hypocrites. <_<
What I notice quite often is christians are many times the first to make homophobic slurs especially in regard to people they particularily don&#39;t like/take issue with, even when it&#39;s simply because they&#39;re pissed about an online game.

[MarxSchmarx]

if someone online was calling for the burning of women who were thought to be witches I&#39;m sure you&#39;d have something to say. Or for that matter, islamic hotheads calling for the &#39;beheading of those who insult islam&#39;.


If someone said this I would never assume they were serious.



How does one confront a Chav, let alone 10 of them at once? Or is that a lost cause...

Problem is, unlike conversations, people don&#39;t often change their minds over internet communication. It&#39;s a weird medium that way.

[Great Helmsman]

Perfect example (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6alOnuN-wCY) hyuck hyucking Americans

don&#39;t even play video games, waste of time.

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

Slightly off topic, but not totaly:

Check this out... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qKD-Ph7ds&feature=user)

[bootleg42]

I used to play counter-strike and lets me say, they use the word "ni--er" and s--k" there quite a lot. They also had spoiled middle class white boy voices.

It sometimes does seem like the net is full of these white boy racists but let me remind you something. Most of the proletariat I know only use the net for one or two things. These things are usually IM&#39;ing and my space......and once in a while youtube. Other than that, they&#39;re not into stuff like games, websites, etc. Those things are mostly dominated by the white middle class males. If the proletariat got more involved into the other domains of the internet (games, message boards, etc) then we would see these things challenged and people being called out.

This is why, it seems, on places like youtube or anywhere else that the politics and views of the people in the United States is mostly right wing. It&#39;s because the proletariat is not participating.

Maybe we should suggest to the proletariat to expand their use of the internet to more than just myspace?? I know I do. I always suggest, to my friends, to get to know the internet more. I know that when the proletariat does, it can create a general shift of internet views to the left, and these white middle class male chauvinists will be challenged and defeated. Trust me, us poorer inner city people know how to insult people better than those spoiled white who yell "pWn3d" or use other ***** words like "tool" or some other corny shit I&#39;ve been hearing online.

[w0lf]

In almost all online video games there are little white rich kids who call people the N word. EVERYONE uses the word "Fag"