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Hi!
I don't know which mod gave the warning in question so I thought I'd post here instead.
This post was warned with the added text: `please don't single out one country so much'. But it looks like there's a misconception. `Meanwhile in Russia' is a well-known meme. The idea is, roughly, to post a picture in which something is distinctly odd but in a funny way. And there are a ton of sites, youtube channels, etc. dedicated to this content.
For example:
- Memecenter has over 6000 pics in this category
- A youtube channel dedicated to this
- Tumblr site
I guess you get the point. It's a meme, so you find this content all over the internet. And as it's a meme, it's not really about Russia. The following is a case in point, it's in the category of `meanwhile in Russia' but it's actually a picture from Belarus.
![[image loading]](http://calvertjournal.com/images/uploads/articles/11-13/buzzfeed/_large_crop/beartaxi.jpg)
Also, these pictures often have the slightly modified text `meanwhile in Soviet Russia', distancing from modern Russia (but muddling the line between a different meme: `In Soviet Russia, X Ys you' - examples.
I'm guessing that the mod in question was unaware of this meme, and of the fact that the user wasn't really targeting Russia (or a single country) at all, but rather posting from a single source of `meanwhile in Russia' meme pictures.
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I don't think they are unaware of the meme, but mostly to prevent country basing/wars that have happened before in the SFW thread.
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Can't post too many funny pictures from russia but can have an infinite amount of ignorant posts about japan and war crimes.
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United States24639 Posts
On April 06 2014 04:46 JackDragon wrote:
I don't think they are unaware of the meme, but mostly to prevent country basing/wars that have happened before in the SFW thread.
This pretty much sums it up.
I put myself in the shoes of someone from Russia... that post would still make me unhappy, even recognizing that it's just meant to be funny and not meant to make a serious negative statement about Russia. It should be the same thing with photos targeting other countries as well... solo memes of that nature can get by for the most part as long as they aren't really offensive, and aren't repeated over and over.
On the other hand I should point out that "it's a meme" is pretty much never an acceptable defense of a post on TL... we frown upon memes and often moderate posts that simply present memes.
On April 06 2014 06:01 HwangjaeTerran wrote:
Can't post too many funny pictures from russia but can have an infinite amount of ignorant posts about japan and war crimes.
You have a problem with some thread in another part of the forum, and so you come into a feedback discussion about a thread in a different forum and make a snarky complaint there? That's a poor way to go about solving the problem. If you think there is an issue, attempt to do something useful about it and the staff will work with you. For starters, if you aren't already doing so, use the report system. If you have been trying to report violating posts and feel like the moderation is still poor for the thread, you can make a separate feedback thread where you can explain your concerns (with a much more amiable tone than the one you brought into this thread).
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I can very much sympathize with the idea that one ought to moderate if it leads to country bashing or arguing, but I feel it is jumping the gun a bit. Was there evidence this was going to lead to an argument? Or that Russian members of TL take offence at this? There are a lot of things, especially in funny pictures, that people MIGHT take offence to.
What `it's a meme' means in this context isn't that it's acceptable because it's a meme, but rather that as meme's do not contain the literal meaning of their content, it should be interpreted according to how they are construed. That's why we don't respond to `How do you do?' with `Fine thanks' but rather `How do You do?'. That's why we can use `zerg rush' when, for example, there's a crowd of (definitely non-zergy) people swarming a shopping mall. You can also say that something rustled your jimmies without even knowing what jimmies are, let alone have them rustled. So one shouldn't interpret `meanwhile in Russia' as being about Russia. (Although you could probably make the argument that it says something about a certain archetype of Russia that some people have had.)
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I'm not reporting anything because I don't have a problem (anymore, as I have closed that thread). But I do think there is a discrepancy here, hence the snarky complaint as I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words.
There are "Meanwhile in ...." pics of other countries and similarly there are certainly questionable policies regarding war crimes in every other country. If we assume a Russian would get upset about that bunch of pictures then similarly a Japanese person would get upset about all the posts criticizing the way their government handled their war crimes. And a whole lot of bullshit on top. So I don't understand how that thread isn't a train wreck by now. Well maybe you have a hard time seeing the connection, but this was the first time I've encountered such political correctness on the site. You guys probably see a clear line there somewhere that I don't. In the end some people get upset over anything and everything.
Furthermore I doubt that many Russians would get upset over such an assemblage.
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United States24639 Posts
On April 06 2014 06:48 Ghanburighan wrote:
I can very much sympathize with the idea that one ought to moderate if it leads to country bashing or arguing, but I feel it is jumping the gun a bit. Was there evidence this was going to lead to an argument? Or that Russian members of TL take offence at this? There are a lot of things, especially in funny pictures, that people MIGHT take offence to.
The post was just taking the whole thing a little too far. Here is a quote from the post:
On April 06 2014 00:02 urboss wrote:
Meanwhile in Russia
Yes: [big][big][big][big][big][b][blue]Meanwhile in Russia[/blue][/b][/big][/big][/big][/big][/big]
There were ten photos of this nature. There was nothing else. One or two of those pictures wouldn't have been a problem, most likely. It isn't my goal to ban all 'meanwhile in' pictures so long as they aren't especially offensive to anyone. I just request a little moderation when targeting a country, in light of the fact that we have had many cases of country bashing across the site. Also, keep in mind the spirit of that particular thread, and its history of arguments in the past. Finally: no privileges were revoked.
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That's pretty out of context when most posts in that thread have some sort of theme and usually contain more images then that.
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EPT
