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https://boingboing.net/2019/03/25/the-sassoon-files.html

Chinese censors incinerate entire run of a kickstarted Call of Cthulhu RPG sourcebook

Julio writes, "Sons of the Singularity is a small RPG publisher. Last year, they kickstarted The Sassoon Files, a sourcebook for the popular Call of Cthulhu RPG and Trail of Cthulhu RPG. As a lot of publishers, theydid the printing in China. The same day that the print was finished, a Chinese Government decided that it was "problematic", so they burned the entire print run. Targeting foreign publications is a first, specially when it seems there wasn't anything problematic (the supplement was based on Shanghai but was respetful and documented carefully). Will this be a new sign of Beijing tightening its iron grip or just a show of bravado with a small publisher used as an example?"
Don't want to seem alarmist here, but perhaps giving a veto over the vast majority of the world's manufacturing, media reproduction, printing, etc to the Chinese state might just turn out to be problematic in terms of free expression.

I remember years ago the PRC trying to censor Worlds of Warcraft to eliminate horrific elements like skeletons.

It is China, in fact the terribad China, unlike the badirreble one based in Taiwan.

How is this not political?

I do agree that the criticism of the Chinese government’s “desire” to throttle free speech in the quoted text does veer into political territory.

Doesn't matter what you think, the fact is that matters relating to government policy like censorship are political and have no place on this site.

I agreed with that position, and reported the post like a good little boy.

Is there disagreement about freedom of speech?

Anyway it's clearly an economic issue about where/how to print.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Is there disagreement about freedom of speech?

Anyway it's clearly an economic issue about where/how to print.

I don't think you're even reading the same article.

DeathKorp_Rider wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Is there disagreement about freedom of speech?

Anyway it's clearly an economic issue about where/how to print.

I don't think you're even reading the same article.

I indeed agree with deathkorps, Either we allow all political discussion and tolerate small gakflinging or we don't and propperly Stamp down kyoto.

I think that given the current tone of certain interests, there is no way to keep this topic from becoming political even if I were to agree it isn't political on it's face.

 LordofHats wrote:
I think that given the current tone of certain interests, there is no way to keep this topic from becoming political even if I were to agree it isn't political on it's face.

Cebsorship of any kind is relegated to the monopoly of force of the state.
The state is a political institution, therefore the momentary Mood does not matter therefore this is Automatically political.

The irony we talk about a article off Censorship and at the same time are on a site that enforces Censorship.

‘Tis for the good of the citizenry that we avoid talking politics, so that the garden of our shared interest may bloom all the more sweetly.

To which. Reporting the event is not political. Criticism of the Govt and by extension Communism’s totalitarian control of its populace is political.

I often wondered why the chinese government did things like this, when I lived there no one really seemed to care about such things until the government cracked down on it, then it went underground and people got the stuff anyway.

 greatbigtree wrote:
‘Tis for the good of the citizenry that we avoid talking politics, so that the garden of our shared interest may bloom all the more sweetly.

May we now start the Burning of controversial topics.

Wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen.
Heinrich Heine.

https://m.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Dort+wo+man+Bücher+verbrennt+verbrennt+man+auch+am+Ende+Menschen.html
Translation


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 greatbigtree wrote:
‘Tis for the good of the citizenry that we avoid talking politics, so that the garden of our shared interest may bloom all the more sweetly.

To which. Reporting the event is not political. Criticism of the Govt and by extension Communism’s totalitarian control of its populace is political.

The same standards can be applied to the other political spectrum.....

I agree, criticism of a current fascist govt would also qualify as political. That would also be inapropes.

And, as always, people are free to discuss politics elsewhere. You’re in a non-public place. You are in a private space, insomuch as this site is privately owned and access to this space is not a right, but a privilege. Part of our privilege in being here is to not talk politics. Should we decide to go against the desires of the owner of this private space, we may be asked to leave. Temporarily or permenantly.

In general, a person is allowed to enter a public house, such as a bar or inn. If that person does not behave in a manner acceptable to to ownership, they may be asked to leave. That’s what Dakka is like. A privately owned public house. Behave, and you’re welcome to stay. Misbehave, you might get ignored, be given a warning, told to come back after you’ve sobered up, be asked to leave and never come back... get taken out back and beaten with a rubber hose... lots of degrees of discipline.

And for the love of an uncaring universe, I’m agreeing that the OP shouldn’t be here.

To look at it from a different point of view, it is good to have the news posted for reading. Being better informed about possible risks with Kickstarter projects related to our shared hobby is a good thing. So, perhaps the better approach would have been to post this as a news item, but then locked from further comments.

Up to the point, “Will this be a new sign of Beijing...” the report is apolitical.

Beginning with “Tightening its iron grip...” we start getting into value judgements about the politics and policies of Chinese governance.

I mean, value judgements were apt to follow the apolitical post in much the same way reporting government action in the US (for example) would immediately be followed with value judgements.

But... reporting the event is apolitical. Where it goes from there is up to Dakka.

Well can't we just lock this thread?

Report it and request that, I suppose. Locking a thread is above my pay grade.

That’s a lie since the Mods are also not paid to do that. Hmmm. It falls outside my jurisdiction. That would be accurate. While I support the motion, it is not my ocean.

Okay, as the politics can not be kept out of it seemingly I will lock this up.

It is however an event that may have massive repercussions for our niche hobby as many companies go to China to get their goods manufactured and this may drive them elsewhere thus increasing the cost.