[rosndo]

> yeah, I'm a huge PC Master Race type

oof

Maybe you should consider whether or not it’s a good idea to publicly identify as such?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_race

It would not be unreasonable to e.g. fire someone for making these sorts of statements. Most people exist outside of your 4chan-adjacent subculture and probably wouldn’t be very understanding of someone identifying themselves as a member of the master race.

[war321]

So long as you append the "PC" part to the name, no one will associate it to the Nazi thing. "PC Master Race" is pretty casual and more importantly unserious internet term that's just become a self-deprecting name for PC gamers.

[rosndo]

> So long as you append the "PC" part to the name, no one will associate it to the Nazi thing

Except for the more than 99% of non-gamers who don’t hang out on boards like /v/?

I’m not accusing anyone of being a Nazi, just pointing out that outside of a very specific subculture this is a very risky joke (and not a particularly funny one in any context).

You probably wouldn’t call people -fags (newfag, macfag, eurofag, etc…) either, even though “master race” carries far worse connotations than “fag”.

[not_really]

There's also the subreddit. I checked, and it's been a community for 10 years. 5.5MM users subscribed.

I think the term is a bit more normalized than you make it out to be.

[numpad0]

> outside of a very specific subculture this is a very risky joke

Welcome to the Internet?

[rosndo]

I’m very familiar :)

I’m not trying to criticize anyone, just offering a friendly reminder that letting these injokes leak outside of 4chan or reddit can have unfortunate consequences since most people won’t be as understanding as you or me.

[numpad0]

Perhaps one direction I can spin that along is that those forums support free, open, and (albeit to a limited degree)civil discussions on highly politicized or sensitive matters, moreso than parts of the web that operate tied closely or even firmly grounded to real world identities. I only have had experiences in other *chans, though.

[tpush]

I have never seen that term be used in a self-deprecating way. Also, I'd want any mature community to introspect on whether it really needs to co-opt Nazi terminology.

[VRay]

The only way someone on HackerNews is going to get fired for being a member of the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race[1] is if they work for Sony or maybe Apple

1: https://youtu.be/P0dXtOVi2yo?t=52

[rosndo]

Maybe true for people working on/for startups. If you work for some bigco? Good luck explaining your “master race” jokes to HR. It’s not gonna go over well, even at FAANG.

[VRay]

People say it all the time at my FAANG job. Some whiny loser tried to call in HR and the cancel squad over it on slack, and it went literally nowhere, didn't even get anyone in the "cancel everyone" channel worked up

[ta8902]

Parent also made an allusions to Mark Zuckerberg "hacking" your "lizard brain" which is a clear antisemetic dogwhistle.

[rusk]

Godwins

[rosndo]

I’m not sure why you’d invoke Godwin here, nothing is being compared to the Nazis.

Godwin’s law isn’t about mentions of Nazis, but specifically about using them in analogies.

[rusk]

> as an online discussion grows longer (regardless of topic or scope), the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Adolf Hitler approaches 1

GP compares gamers to right wing ideologues. QED

[rosndo]

Exactly, no comparisons have been made here.

Edit in response to your edit:

> GP compares gamers to right wing ideologues. QED

It really doesn’t, there’s no suggestion that gamers are similar to right wing ideologues.

The comment just points out the fact that a specific group of gamers has decided to borrow Nazi terminology for the name of their group, it does not imply that the gamers and nazis are similar or even somehow comparable.

[rusk]

An exact comparison was made between the use of the terms master race in nazi ideology and the naming of a modern technology movement.

[rosndo]

It’s not a comparison, simply an observation that the “modern technology movement” has deliberately chosen to borrow Nazis terminology. I’m not comparing them to the Nazis in any way.

This is an understandable mistake, Godwin’s law is frequently abused.

The man himself has frequently criticised people for abusing his “law” in the way you’re doing now.