Two comments:
1.) Banning the swastika as it is done in Germy is not just a case of "If I don't see 'em, they don't exist". Suggesting this is insanely short-sighted. In fact banning the swastika is part of a complex of things which all are meant to give the state the means to keep the right-wing idiots under observation and slap them whenever they get too frisky. Unfortunately you can't ban idiocy and plain human stupidy so I'm afraid there'll be always people who were missing when common sense was handed out, people who actually believe that BS the neonazis spread.
Some people said that free speech is a valuable thing for a country. I agree. But I also believe that free speech ends there where other people are being directly threatened with physical harm just because of an ideology. There's a popular saying in Germany, one I very much agree with, which states "Nazism is not an opinion, it's a crime." And that isn't meant WRT the law.
2.) A few Friday updates back Luthier posted, that the russian Duma (parliament) had passed a new law months ago which also bans public display of NS symbols (mainly the swastika). The law itself is as clear as stirred mud and could be read in various ways so 1C decided not to risk anything and omit the swastika from its products. Oleg also stated that even allowing users or 3rd Party folks to add such symbols later might get 1C in trouble (in theory) but he wasn't yet sure what that would mean for the new game series.
|