I can see the devs having no clue about the alternative meaning, but a game about gassing rodents called "Infestation 88" is a terrible look. I'm glad the devs changed the name right away.
Yea, if they say "we didnt know what that insinuated", and there are no other dog whistles, I'm happy that they responded so well and quickly!
I think just changing it to "Infestation 1988" would have also been enough...
Though, "infestation 88" a game about killing nazis, would also work!
They could even keep Mickey. Just give him a narrow mustache and a Nazi uniform like you see in Indiana Jones movies and they're good to go.
Except, I'm guessing Infestation '88 is about being hunted by Mickey, so maybe they should change that too.
there are no other dog whistles
... Those aren't the devs or discord mods, they're literally random people that just joined their server.
🤦
You can find edgy teens with shit eating grins anywhere.
Especially considering Walt Disney's views...
It really is annoying how many alt right dog whistles there are
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.)
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
I'm mainly associating Pepe with all the Twitch emotes.
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.
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.
It's because they purposely co-opt things in order to spread their message and find new recruits, they're societal human cancer.
This isn't "the 'OK' hand gesture is used by nazis"
This is shit like a game about gassing rodents to death, lots of "14 88" references, references to german WW2 military technology, etc.
I guess you're not getting this.
The Ok hand gesture, Pepe the frog, Yes Chad, GigaChad, Wojak, these are all things that the neo-nazis online utilize to get the conversation about them going, this is stuff that they take purposely to get guys like you to say "but this isn't the ok hand gesture is used by the Nazis" because they want that cover, they want that doubt, they want that degree of dismissal of the person pointing out that this or that is nazi shit, and they also want the person who has it pointed out to them to feel like the claimant is just being silly, hyperbolic, and seeing Nazis everywhere, this is their goal and their purpose, not only to recruit and become bigger, but also to seem like there are more of them than there are.
My point is it's all the same shit, 1488 or just 88 isn't old nazi shit, that was a post-war Hitler humper invention, so even you're conflating the topic out of confusion.
Here's some good references and write ups about this stuff, because educating yourself on what is or isn't nazi shit will help prevent you from falling for their bullshit:
https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/memes-the-extreme-right-wing/
https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/ADL%20Hate%20on%20Display%20Printable_0.pdf
“Look, I’m not saying it’s IMPOSSIBLE that this game wasn’t made with ill intent, but 88 is an immediate red flag,” said streamer Josh ‘Anoriand’ Fagundes on Twitter. “As are the facts that they use the word ‘Infestation,’ they use rat-based imagery, it involves gassing them, and counting the space ‘Infestation 88’ is 14 keystrokes.”
That's quite the quinkydink.
counting keystrokes goes too far into chemtrail conspiracy theorist logic for me, ngl.
Care to explain yourself
Maybe the real nazis were inside us the whole time.
oh boy I had an 88 in my old email address back in the days cause you know I'm born 1988...glad I ditched that before the twitter mob find out that I'm also german...
really don't get why this is a story based on some streamer with too much time. Looks more like something to get out of irrelevance if I look at his subscriber numbers...
The game is also looking bland as fuck and it's only "thing" is the steamboat willi character that has been slapped on for no other reasons than marketing. Seems a little bit desperate if you ask me...
Everyone knows that the ability to connect something to Nazism makes it actually Nazism.
You're German, you were born in '88, the phrase ”i had an 88 in" takes 14 keystrokes, and you seem to think not everything is connected to neonazis.
You're clearly a Nazi.
Hanlon's razor. I myself had no idea that 88 had any nazi-related meaning before I read this article and thought nothing of the title when I first heard it. It seems perfectly reasonable that the dev could have done the same, especially since they were willing to almost immediately change the name and remove all existing promotional material once they found out.
Resetera (among other outlets) have done a bit more digging and it is more or less an orgy of red flags
So we have:
- A game about a rat invasion (anyone who's read Art Spiegelman's Maus should already know where this is headed);
- Where one plays as exterminators using gas masks, who coincidentally use poison gas as their weapon;
- On a game titled "Infestation 88" (which, as another user pointed out, has 14 characters, besides the obvious 88 dog-whistle);
- Which also happens to supposedly reference the StG 44 German WWII assault rifle;
- And if you want to add my original dog-whistly speculation, it wouldn't be a stretch to be suspicious of that "SS" at this point.
And, to add on, the studio's website claims they have been making games since 2010 with this being their first game. 2024-2010=14 (words).
combine that with the official discord being full of "pronoun jokes" and similar bigotry and it is really hard to view this edgelord game as anything other than a giant dog whistle.
This. Cryptofascism relies on being able to scream, "It was just a joke / I didn't know!"
Mistakes can happen and you might accidentally engage in a dog whistle as a normal person.
A dozen mistakes all pointing to the exact same thing are unlikely.
And to be fair, it could be one person at the top putting all these wink wink indicators in, and the majority involved might just be normal folks.
I still won't be buying the game.
Fuck nazies appropriating shit. People should stop associating things with nazies instead of not being able to enjoy things. Like apparently runic script is associated with nazies for some god forsaken reason and I have a old native myth tattooed in runes on my arm. I have gotten tons of weird looks and I was very confused until someone accused me of being a nazi.
AFAIK the steamboat willie version of Mickey which is public domain now wears no gloves
Imagine believing a dev would do this on purpose, your game would just get cancelled
If your game sucks there's no such thing as bad press.
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