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Turkish Ministry Recommends Banning Minecraft -- Over Violence
An anonymous reader writes: Minecraft is known for a lot of things. It's a fantastic creative outlet and the digital sandbox of youngsters' dreams, for instance. The game has also been known to raise the ire of unrelated companies who somehow think all that creativity by gamers is something that can be sued over. It's known for amazing user-generated content, including games within games and replicas of entire cities. The nation of Turkey is known for very different things. It's a country that absolutely loves to censor stuff, for instance. And, thanks to recent developments, Turkey is also known as a great place to get a front-row look at the incredible violence done by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But the Turkish government has a plan to keep its youngsters from witnessing too much violence: it is calling to ban Minecraft.
Soccer involves kicking a round spherical ball.
I'm afraid that children will confuse these balls for people's heads and then go around kicking people's heads in.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Adults tend to get nervous about insanely popular trends or hobbies with kids that they don't exactly understand. They're banning it because it's so stupidly popular with kids, not because it's violent. The problem is that it's such an inherently non-violent game that they end up looking rather silly describing it as such, essentially proving the point that they have no idea what the game actually plays like.
Of course, they'd look even more foolish if they told the truth, which is "We don't know exactly what this Minecraft thing is that our kids are spending all day playing. So, we decided to ban it just to be safe."
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Of course Minecraft is violent. Do you have any idea how many innocent instructions get executed to make it run?
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
Are you sure, it's the COUNTRY that absolutely loves to censor stuff - and not its (elected) government?
Turkey is a large and very diverse nation - been there twice so far and absolutely loved the parts around Istanbul we visited and the people we met. I just don't think it does the normal people there any justice to leave statements like "their country loves censoring" unchallenged.
While here in Europe there were some long post 9/11 discussions on whether muslim headscarves should be banned - at the same time in (muslim) Turkey, there were demonstrations against the government, because their government wanted to LIFT a headscarf ban at Turkish universities.
Really sad situation there. I visited last year and three years before then. It has changed a lot and it looks almost inevitable now that the secular state will be rolled back. Syria also used to be a tolerant multicultural country that tourist would visit.
Personally I just find the problem to be religion in general. Most religions eventually degrade from you and 'God' to you and a leader guy who apparently has a special hotline to 'God'. This creates an unaccountable power position, made worse by the leader being able to pretty much claim whatever nonsense they want all justified through faith. The world is stuffed full of nasty sociopaths who love to control others and these sort of power structures just attract them in droves.
In the end the only thing I think that can defend against this is education and vigorously defending a secular state (BTW I personally believe in Christianity, but not most Christians).
This.
If the backwards Turkish government has proven one thing time and again then that it has not the slightest clue about technology and makes even look US senators like the next gen legislator from the future.
Seriously, any time you're embarrassed about how little your legislator knows about technology and how to use it, just look towards Turkey and you instantly feel better.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I think the main reason Minecraft is so popular with kids is exactly because it's a game that most parents are okay with.
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The elected government is a result of the people. Turkey is a mostly functioning democracy and they have voted Erdogan into power twice now (well, he wasn't voted for rpime minister but his party was, and later he was elected presisent despite his actions as prime minister). Now, as someone who used to date a secular liberal Turkish woman (who at the time lived in Turkey) a few years back, trust me, I'm more than aware that not all of Turkey or its people support such policies, but unfortunately at this point it seems that most, even the majority does (although in fairness sake, he won the presidential elections with a very narrow margin, just over 51 % if the votes, so the country was/is split on the middle
Erdogan has gained popularity because he has done some good to the Turkish economy and improved general infrastructure etc. This is all fine and well. Unfortunately the man is also religious bigot and a conservative who's doing his best to slowly dismantle the secular basis which Turkey has maintained ever since Ataturk. There was recently a case of a woman being jailed for having the audacity to stand on a quran. A guy was jailed and is facing charges for (literally) "insulting the president".... Not to mention he handled the riots, the attempted banning of youtube etc etc.... He's an authoritarian through and through when it comes to social issues and rights.
So either the majority of Turks living in their native country do not realize this, do not care about this, or are actively in favor of it (and outside the larger cities there are still large areas were this sort of conservative islamic rhetoric is popular as hell). Either way the populace is not entirely to blame for his actions, but when you have over half the people voting in favor of a guy who has a track record of favoring banning things he does not agree with, well the country is not exactly blameless either.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
The interesting thing about Turkey is that there is (was) a more or less common belief / acceptance of in the secular state as founded by Kemal(Atatürk), with the military having a specific charge to defend that secularity if necessary. They have stepped in before when things got a bit too religious, but the ease with which Erdogan has swept aside those military, cultural and constitutional defenses shows how hard it is to actually defend against a popular leader with followers united through faith. It's also a valuable lesson on the fragility of democracy. Erdogan purportedly said: "Democracy is like riding a tram: once you reach your destination, you get off"; now he may not have actually said it, but he is certainly acting it.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Oh come on. It's a synecdoche. Are you... not a frequent user of human language?
Obviously the calls for censorship are not coming from the unanimous entirety of the population, nor from Turkey's inanimate infrastructure and buildings, nor from Turkey's actual soil and rocks and trees.
When the news reports that the White House said such-and-such, do you express surprise that a 200 year old edifice has achieved sentience and begun meddling in politics?
Turkey is a basket case. The current leadership is introducing medieval Islam in what was technically a secular country. They have little choice.
On its boarders the region run by the Islamic State death cult who have co-opted the Islamic religion to indoctrinate their cannon fodder. The point about Muslim religious authority is that it belongs to whoever declares that they own it. The point about a religion is that it replaces the moral judgement of individuals with the rules as given by the earthly religious authority.
To cut a long story short if Turkey does not adopt a mediaeval society and reject the west then the people will turn to Islamic State and kick the government out and replace them with the death cult.
Expect Turkey to become hostile to westerners.
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
I think the main reason Minecraft is so popular with kids is exactly because it's a game that most parents don't understand.
FTFY
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Ignoring the personal insult for a moment. Who says no nation willingly accepts regression? Have you looked at Russia and its gangster leader recently?
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
That doesn't make me feel better; it makes me feel worse. It's like when my neighbor let his dog run rampant over my lawn for a few months; the fact that there was a major oil-spill destroying thousands of square miles in the Gulf at the time in no way made me appreciate the "good fortune" of having dozens of dog turds scattered about my property.
Rather than take hidden pleasure in somebody else's misfortune, I'd rather we just get rid of the dog turds in our own government. *That* would make me feel better.
What regression are you talking about? Compared to Yeltsin even Putin looks good.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I think the main reason Minecraft is so popular with kids is exactly because it's a game that most parents can play with them.
FTFY - I play Minecraft with my teenage son all the time.