Infestation 88 developer, Nightmare Forge Games, have responded to claims that the ‘88’ in the game’s title refers to the Neo-Nazi salute.
It seems like every time the alt-right and neo-Nazis make something a new dog whistle (remember the “ok” sign thing that started on 4chan?) the left is just like “oh fuck, I guess we better stop using that now.”
I’m not sure there’s a better option. It’s not like it’s a good idea to just go on flashing “ok” signs and pretending it hasn’t been coopted by fascists, but it seems shitty and frustrating to just cede ground like that every time the alt right is just like “this is ours now.”
Come to think of it, I named a project at my workplace “IG-88” a while back and didn’t think about the Nazi connection until the name was already in common use. (With that name, the project in question even had a badass theme song.)
Honestly, a lot of it was just some random twitter user trying to start shit. The drinking milk thing was one of those.
That’s the thing is it always seems like it’s just one of these shitheads but soon enough it always becomes more, that’s why they push this stuff, and why they hope for reactions like yours.
It goes back to the 60’s and 70’s, the dawn of Punk music, back before Skinheads were inherently Nazi they were black and white people in London fighting for worker solidarity, then the Nazis took it over and it became a thing inherently Nazi.
So this corruption of things is what they do to grow and to maintain a general ignorance about them.
That wasn’t some random 4chan post it was something planned by a group of 4chan users that made it into an “operation” to push this to go after liberals and the media, and why would they he doing that? Oh because it was started by actual Nazis on 4chan.
Again this is just Nazis trying to use left wing and media overreaction to cover up their Nazi shit, they like trying to make us look like we’re jumping at shadows while they operate with impunity.
In my opinion the better option is to ditch the concept of dogwhistle. We [people in general] should look at what a symbol (including words, gestures, etc.) conveys within a certain context, we shouldn’t be picking individual symbols and assuming the discourse (what is being said) based on them.
For example, the 88 in the title of the game should be associated with the rest of the game. Because depending on the rest of the game it might convey only “1988”, or it might convey “heil Hitler”.
Well sure, but people use dog whistles so it’s important to recognize them. Context can be important but sometimes it’s subtle, that’s why they’re called dog whistles.
Well sure, but people use dog whistles so it’s important to recognize them.
Fascists don’t need to use dogwhistles to call each other. And they often don’t use them, specially not the best known dogwhistles - because it’s like saying “I’m a fascist lololol please kick my arse!”.
As such, when you look for dogwhistles, you’re bound to get
- lots of false positives - someone being mislabelled a fascist because they used the same symbol to convey something else;
- lots of false negatives - fascists slipping past your radar, because they didn’t use the dogwhistles that you trained yourself to identify
It’s simply not a good way to find and get rid of them. Unlike looking at what they’re saying “in the big picture”; that’s always reliable because they need to convey their shitty discourses if they want to spread them.
Context can be important but sometimes it’s subtle
Context is always important. And as a general rule (not failproof): if you’re actively looking for the context and it’s still too subtle for you, then odds are that it’s too subtle for the fascists to get it too.
(Note: I’m talking about “fascists” here but it also applies to other shitty groups of people.)
It’s not like it’s a good idea to just go on flashing “ok” signs and pretending it hasn’t been coopted by facists
Why not? Symbols only have meaning given context. In Germany, a swastika is a symbol of hate, whereas in India it’s a symbol of prosperity and good luck. It’s usually not hard to differentiate them, so there’s no real reason to avoid a symbol just because some idiots have decided to use it to mean something else.
On the flip side, there’s a fantastic reason to keep using them: the best way to beat a troll/bully is to ignore them. Don’t give them the emotional response they’re looking for and you remove all rewards for their behavior.
So if the alt-right coopt a symbol, use it more. Don’t let them impact you or they’ll keep doing it.
So does that mean you would have preferred that Infestation hadn’t changed its name?
I guess? I honestly had never heard of the “88” terminology, I guess I just don’t follow neo-Nazi nonsense that closely. Maybe I’d respond by making the protagonist Jewish or something in a minor content update, just to mess with people.
This whole “cancelling” culture is absolutely stupid. Neo-Nazis don’t own numbers, hand symbols, or anything else, so I wouldn’t give in to that nonsense. Then again, I’m not trying to live off making video games, and if I ever did release any (and I hope to), it’ll be as a hobby and not as a job.
The “ok” sign thing pissed me off. I had learned from a very young age that it was sign language for “ok” (it combines the signs for the letters) and when I went to swim class, my mom would watch and when I’d look over to her she would sign that to me that everything was ok, and sign “I love you” (🤟 — not to be confused with 🤘ROCKANDROLL🤘) to me as well. For the record, no one in our family is deaf, we just learned some basic sign language because communication is cool.
Then keep using it as the ok sign.
If they coopted the peace sign or the “I love you” sign, would you stop using them too? Stop giving in to their trolling. I feel like being so sensitive to Nazis gives them way more relevance than they deserve.
I’m not saying we should ignore Nazis in general, just… don’t let them control our culture.
That’s easier said than done when you have political idiots that will see it and try to ruin your life uploading shit to the internet saying you’re doing it for the wrong reason. It’s not just the Nazis themselves, but the idiots that think they’re being progressive and an ally and all that shit when they don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.
There’s some pretty obscure ones to that came and went in a hurry like a glass of milk.
I feel like some have also been claimed for general use. I don’t really associate Pepe memes with the alt right anymore
