Misguided Social Justice Warriors again in the news

[playmofire]

If we ignore or forget our history, then we will repeat.

Moreover, slavery is not a thing of the past - it exists today, in the UK, in the USA, in pretty well every country.  People who are offended by slavery, and we all should be, and want to fight it, should concentrate on that rather than historical slavery.

[DrDalek6]

Great topic and some very interesting points raised reading the Pirates Diary was very enlightening  the first thing which struck em was in the instructions it shows that you put the neck collar on the pirate so surely if you have such strong objections to the 'slaves neck collar' then just stick it in the box or the bin it's not even as though he has to wear it. The world is full of horrible things humans in particular do a lot of horrible things to other animals and humans pretending it didn't exist and wrapping kids up in cotton wool is not going to help in fact if anything it's probably better that the kids learn about slavery and such like so that they have respect and don't think those sorts of things are cool or acceptable or at least that was my feeling all be it at a more mature age with regard learning about the Holocaust.

I liked this over response (just noticed all the bad grammar) 

I think this toy is disastrous. It is racist and also it also encourages violence, killing, raping, extorsion, smuggling, kidnapping and all other activities that pirates where involved. We should ban both the slave and the pirate boat. I think that this mother was irresponsable for buying this kind of disastrous and inmmoral toys. She´s a bad exapmple also an should be censored and punished like playmobil.

"I propouse to ban also romans, vikings, western and all historical toys. Can you imagine! a cowboy killing an indian Racist, A Roman with a slave outrageous, vikings genocidal. They should BAN all toys!"

The "slave" doesn't seem to mind - he is smiling!   
Her son on the other hand does look as if he is being tortured!

True I sympathise with the kid my Mum gave my Pirate Ship and Island away when I was still very young or at least that's the way it seemed to me anyway think it was because it took up too much space though. 

[tahra]

This idiotic piece of "news" made it here too. BY THE GODS, can't they even see the guy isn't black!!?

They all need freaking glasses. And a new hobby, of course

[Rhalius]

Well if you look hard enough every single playmobil set could probably be identified as traumatic.

Cops theme comes with guns and clubs, encourages police brutality.
Hospital theme involves smiling clickies despite being sick or injured which could imply they are given drugs.
A mom with a child set without a father could imply all sorts of stuff. Did the father abandon his child? Did he leave the mother for another woman?
Roman sets encourage slavery, glorifies a pagan religion and lots of war and death.
A child with hamsters set might give children the idea they can take care of five hamsters on their own.
The western saloon set comes with a woman wearing lipstick, could be mistaken for a burlesque dancer or prostitute.
Santa's workshop implies forced child labour while Santa watches.
Pregnant clickies might encourage children to want to be pregnant too.
A wandering monk might be offensive to non christians.
A tanned clicky with a black beard could be mistaken for a muslim extremist, inciting children to become the same.

Yep, I'm pretty sure that every single set someone would mention, could be taken in a negative way if we look hard enough for it. 

[Baron Marshall]

Yep, I'm pretty sure that every single set someone would mention, could be taken in a negative way if we look hard enough for it. 

Sounds like a good idea for a new humour thread.

[Klickteryx]

This idiotic piece of "news" made it here too. BY THE GODS, can't they even see the guy isn't black!!?

They all need freaking glasses. And a new hobby, of course

Being offended is a hobby for some people.

[Klickteryx]

Yep, I'm pretty sure that every single set someone would mention, could be taken in a negative way if we look hard enough for it. 

Hispanic maid for the summer fun theme - another good one for Americans to get wound up over and I saw one review which touched on that subject.
Belly dancer from the fi?ures range which is basically erotic dancing originating with sex slaves and the harem.
Grave robbers from the Egyptian theme.
Modern grave robbers - archeologists.
Safe crackers.
Museum robbers.
I think every prison comes with break out bars.
Police dogs aren't exactly friendly either and there are a lot of them!

[bonniebeth]

Sounds like a good idea for a new humour thread.

Yes, it does!

[Macruran]

While this seems idiotic and risible to Europeans, it's a good illustration of how tense the atmosphere in the US is becoming. It might look like a joke to you, and the woman might be grandstanding to a degree, but there 1) is a lot of money at stake, due the insuring and liability-izing of everything here, and 2) are real political consequences. In the US you can lose your job if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time - even if you didn't mean any harm. I recently did a "workplace training" on harassment and they made it explicitly clear that intention is IRRELEVANT when determining if harassment has taken place.

Furthermore the old ideal of American assimilation has almost completely given way to a sort of ethnic balkanization, in which groups compete with each other for benefits and especially for the prized victim status. Groups are also physically pulling apart - mixed neighborhoods are rarer with each passing year.

And yes the media appear to be encouraging this at every turn.

It's funny from a distance but it's not a good situation.

Finally, at least one researcher has found that increased ethnic diversity causes a marked decrease in social trust, across the board, both between groups and within them. This merits some serious reflection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Putnam#Diversity_and_trust_within_communities

[Hadoque]

Would she really be able to sue Playmobil over such an idtiotic issue which she created herself?! Just because SHE believes it is a racist toy?!
If yes then the USA is indeed really going   

Btw, besides an age-indication for the kids our beloved blue boxes maybe should also indicate the minimal required IQ of the parents.