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Office features swastikas, Microsoft to offer way to remove them.

medea

medea

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Aug 4, 2002
2,517
1
Madison, Wi
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-RTO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0002/20031215/093940026.htm
Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.
The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks.


Only problem is that the Nazi's were not the only ones to use the bent cross, it's an often used symbol, so this should not really be a big deal.
 
nope. it's a valid but rarely used chinese character in japanese. (it may be one in chinese, not sure.) also, it's a symbol used on the map to indicate buddhist temples in japan.
 
I'm pretty amazed the lengths people go to censor everything associated with the Nazis. So what if you can print a swastika, you can also write one by hand. Woo! Scary thought!

Really, what are "we" being protected from?
 
This isn't the first time that there's been something objectionable in MS typefaces. In Windows 3.0, MS introduced WingDings. Supposedly, the order of three characters meant "kill all jews".
 
Originally posted by jxyama
nope. it's a valid but rarely used chinese character in japanese. (it may be one in chinese, not sure.) also, it's a symbol used on the map to indicate buddhist temples in japan.
Click to expand...

Not to mention a still-commonly-used religious symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism. It represents 'peace,' of all things...

I definitely have posters with, say, a swastika drawn on the forehead of a deity or the like.
 
Originally posted by Powerbook G5
But I believe the Hindu symbol has a dot between each of its four arms if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

Yup, but they are VERY similar, of course. And they are both called 'swastika'
 
Originally posted by jxyama
nope. it's a valid but rarely used chinese character in japanese. (it may be one in chinese, not sure.) also, it's a symbol used on the map to indicate buddhist temples in japan.
Click to expand...

To expand on what you saying. It's an ancient symbol that can be found in many cultures and religions rangeing from Buddhists to Native Americans. Pre WWII it was also the shoulder patch for the US Army's 45th Infantry division.


Lethal
 
Originally posted by LethalWolfe
To expand on what you saying. It's an ancient symbol that can be found in many cultures and religions rangeing from Buddhists to Native Americans. Pre WWII it was also the shoulder patch for the US Army's 45th Infantry division.


Lethal
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Wow, two pieces of information that I never knew,a bout the Native Americans and the Infantry division.

The symbol really is pretty simple, but nevertheless, it is an odd coincidence that it would be shared by cultures so geographically far apart as India and North America...Perhaps the symbol was pre-North-American-migration?
 
There is a clockwise swastika and a counter-clockwise swastika. One is associated with German Aryan culture ie. the National Socialist Party, the reverse is an Indian (Asian) Aryan symbol. The symbol has become solely identified with the Nazis.

Interestingly, the main design element of the stained glass windows along the entire length of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in New York on Central Park West, built in the 1800's is the swastika.
 
Originally posted by hsilver
There is a clockwise swastika and a counter-clockwise swastika. One is associated with German Aryan culture ie. the National Socialist Party, the reverse is an Indian (Asian) Aryan symbol. The symbol has become solely identified with the Nazis.
Click to expand...

well, now, clearly more than a billion Hindus and Buddhists still associate some form of the symbol with their respective religions.
 
Originally posted by hsilver
There is a clockwise swastika and a counter-clockwise swastika. One is associated with German Aryan culture ie. the National Socialist Party, the reverse is an Indian (Asian) Aryan symbol. The symbol has become solely identified with the Nazis.

Interestingly, the main design element of the stained glass windows along the entire length of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in New York on Central Park West, built in the 1800's is the swastika.
Click to expand...

thank you! saved me from alot of carpal tunnel typing :D
 
Originally posted by hsilver
There is a clockwise swastika and a counter-clockwise swastika. One is associated with German Aryan culture ie. the National Socialist Party, the reverse is an Indian (Asian) Aryan symbol. The symbol has become solely identified with the Nazis.
Click to expand...

i don't think it's the responsibility of the Buddhists and other religious people to be "correct" about this. clockwise or anti-clockwise, it's not those people's concern. to them, it's a symbol with religious meaning.

as posted, the symbol far predates the use by Nazis and while that was a undeniably tragic part of human history, that was not the "defining" moment for the swastika symbol.

i'd put the responsibility to the non-religious people to interpret correctly what the swastika represents (i.e. not shout "Nazi!" when he/she sees the symbol in east asia in religious context.) and educate him/herself on the history of the symbol.
 
Originally posted by LethalWolfe
Thats what I would assume. The swastika is around 3,000 years old.

10 cent tour


Lethal
Click to expand...

I knew that the symbol had been used prior to the Nazis but I really had no idea to what extent it was used. It is really too bad that modern society has a corrupted view of this symbol now especially given its meaning for other cultures and religions.
 
Re: Office features swastikas, Microsoft to offer way to remove them.

Originally posted by medea
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-RTO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0002/20031215/093940026.htm
Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.
The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks.


Only problem is that the Nazi's were not the only ones to use the bent cross, it's an often used symbol, so this should not really be a big deal.
Click to expand...

On that note ... why not eliminate all swastikas in movies and pictures and history books ...

The buddhist/Hindu significance aside. (i recall seeing this simple on a Buddhist temple and the monk explaining it was "peace" - kinda ironic)

I'm having troubling conceiving what kinda of people complain to a company about the symbols in the type face.
 
/sarcasm

in a similar vain, shouldn't keys c, f, k and u be removed?

how about h, i, s and t?

if you wanted to go beyond just bad words, how about removing german fonts from apps in israel? japanese fonts from apps in korea/china/others?

/sarcasm
 
i was going to add something more but if you just read the second page of that linked article it will say pretty much exactly what I was going to post so I won't bother! :D
 
Has anyone seen this? I think it should stay if it bears more of a resemblance to the Buddhist and other religious uses, but if it has a white circle on a red rectangle for a background... :D
 
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