Micro$haft To Cut Swatizkas From Software

[Don_G]

It seems like their latest version of Office has a couple of fonts that were inadvertently "overlooked" and few people would approve of.

Link: http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=15847&category=main&foo=Microsoft%20to%20cut%20swastikas%20from%20software%2012--12

[slackmaster]

1. Here are some TrueType fonts with much scarier symbols

Mere swastikas. Hah!

http://www.subgenius.com/SUBFONTS/subfont.html

On edit: That's pretty gutless and shitty of MS to remove the swastikas. Sometimes an artist NEEDs a swastika for effect. How many times have we seen them used for GOOD purposes in political cartoons?

[mmm]

4. Cool

[Superfly]

5. The swastika is a common Asian character

and has nothing to do with Nazism the way it is used by practitioners of Buddhism.

[Don_G]

7. Very True

But the same symbols don't work for all cultures. Pi might but the Asian symbol of "good luck" dosen't go over well in Israel for example.

As much as Micro$haft makes, they could have easily had someone to check.

[Superfly]

8. Check for what?

I just don't get this. It's very apologetic and does not recognize the good that symbol represents.

It has been abused by one of the most evil men in history, but that is no reason to deny that the symbol exists, which is kind of what M-soft is doing.

[Don_G]

9. Think Israel Forgets?

Why market a product in a nation if you don't check out the "Engrish" factor?

I can understand a chopstick manufacturer's error with limited resources selling stuff in the US, but a well-paid computer geek based in Redmond missed this error...with a whole department devoted to fonts?

[Superfly]

13. What error?

The swastika as it appears in the MS fonts is culturally correct. There is no error. It should be kept in there and the israelis need to realize that this is not the Nazi swastika, but a symbol of Buddha and a valid Asian character.

[CanuckAmok]

15. By that logic, they should remove the Christian Cross, too...

in editions sold in Central and South America, Spain, China, Africa...

[displacedtexan]

11. the nazis turned the asian character 1/4

to create their swastika symbol.
many of the original symbols still grace our public buildings today.
we used to learn this in school... before the IBM school-must-turn-a-profit mentality took over.

[slackmaster]

12. I've seen a mirror image of them in native American art

Always upright (not cocked over 45 degrees like the Nazis usually did), and reversed (mirror image) from the Nazi version.

[JailBush]

2. Ironically, the swastika would make a fine Microsoft logo.

Microsoft - Fascist Software that Doesn't Work

[CanuckAmok]

3. Maybe they want to "reclaim the Swastika", like my pal ManWoman does...

http://www.gentleswastika.com/

http://www.manwoman.net/

[Endangered Specie]

10. Alot of those aren't really swastikas

Some are 'sauvastikas' or counter clock wise swastikas... of course, I doubt many would care to distinguish the two.

It is true that swastikas were used multiple times before the Nazis got their hands on it, but I doubt that people will change, it is embedded in culture to see the swastika with fear and genocide.

Edit: Spelling

[CanuckAmok]

14. "manji", is what the backwards ones are called, in Japanese.

I'm not sure what the Tibetans and Chinese call them.

I could be mistaken, but I believe the word "swastika" isn't even European in origin--I think it's Urdu or Sanskrit.

[regularguy]

16. Saw them all over the place in India.

Took a little getting used to.

[Superfly]

17. Korea, too...

Got off the plane after a 16 hour flight and thought I was hallucinating. Swastikas everywhere.

[velocity]

6. As much as I hate M$

the characters are valid in the languages they are from.

[Kamika]

18. I wrote this earlier.. but I think MS is wrong here

What's the point of removing it.. It's not like windows has swastikas and march music when you log on.. let's say you're doing a anti nazi flyer or something and you need a swastika symbol.

Maybe we should remove every david star, cross, crescent moon, hammer, communist star, gay rainbow etc etc etc etc etc.. see my point here?

The PC line must me drawn here!

[jmowreader]

19. If you need a swastika, fire up your drawing program and make one

This "removing the swastika" thing is really weird, though.