tnielsenproject - Tumblr blog

[tnielsenproject]

About hate speech

(This is a fan blog, so anything shown here is my personal view and not official words of Terese Nielsen unless otherwise specified)

If you haven’t heard yet, Terese Nielsen seems to be deep into alt-right and pro-Trump politics, and thus a part of the Magic: the Gathering community wants Wizards of the Coast to stop commissioning art from her. [1] Mrs. Nielsen herself released her statement on the matter, embracing her ideology and saddened about the situation. [2]

The Hate Speech Dilemma

Tension arises between equality and free speech when hate speech is allowed and protected. Finding the best regulation of hate speech has been a long-running problem in social sciences. The competing concerns that make this controversy so difficult include both abstract, constitutional, and philosophical factors and intensely concrete, practical ones. [3]

Even though the judgments about Mrs. Nielsen beliefs are moral ones, we shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that only moral issues arise. In the United States of America, hate speech is allowed under the first amendment, but in many other countries hate speech is tightly regulated by law. [4] It’s not complicated to imagine a world where what Mrs. Nielsen did would be illegal.

Call Out Culture

A lot of things have happened on the last thirty years since Massaro wrote “The Hate Speech Dilemma”, one of those being call-out culture. The decentralized and multicultural nature of the internet has been a problem in regards to online regulations, not just the ones related to hate speech. Because of this, moral judgments about online speech  have been outsourced to the public opinion, just like what happened with Mrs. Nielsen.

There are many possible criticisms to call-out culture and to the absence of online hate speech regulations but we have to accept the reality we live in. While a sector of the Magic: the Gathering enfranchised community is offended because commissions to Mrs. Nielsen haven’t stopped and Wizards of the Coast hasn’t released an official statement, we have to understand that this is just a moral judgment since what Terese Nielsen did isn’t illegal on the USA. In addition to that, the moral judgment was made by people who have no decision power so ultimately Wizards of the Coast can do whatever he wants with this situation, both cutting all ties with Terese or ignoring the issue.

Conclusion

I think that there are even more competing concerns in this debate. One, how the artists’ ideology influences their artistic creation. Two, how people from historically oppressed social sectors might be more vulnerable to radical political views of artists being disclosed (or trigger culture, but I dislike that terminology). I would love to read more about these topics but I’m not informed enough to write an essay about them.

My final point would be similar to the one made by Matt Sperling on his article about merit and affirmative action on the MPL: [6]

Whichever side of this debate you naturally land on, I hope you recognize that the other side of the debate is not going to just be crazy people with no basis in reality. This is a difficult and complex topic over which reasonable people can and have disagreed.

Bibliography:

[1] Proof about social interactions with alt-right and pro-Trump movements https://twitter.com/wizardbumpin/status/1030090494179721217

[2] Her official statement https://twitter.com/tnielsenart/status/1113126515816882176

[3] Toni M. Massaro - Equality and Freedom of Expression: The Hate Speech Dilemma

[4] Hate speech laws by country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#Hate_speech_laws_by_country

[5] About call-out culture http://theconversation.com/stop-outsourcing-the-regulation-of-hate-speech-to-social-media-114276

[6] Matt Sperling and merit https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-latest-change-to-the-magic-pro-league-means-were-going-to-have-to-get-better-at-talking-about-merit/

[tnielsenproject]

Just traded this yesterday! :)

[tnielsenproject]

I'm making this cool inserts for my collection! It will help me track which cards I'm missing. Once I finish making and proofreading all of them, I'll upload the file so anyone who wants to start collecting can use them ^^

[tnielsenproject]

This was released early by UltraPro today. Possible new art of Terese Nielsen in Unstable? Definitely fits her style :)

[tnielsenproject]

I’ve been following TheMagicManSam on youtube for two years (since I saw “The Modern Master”) and he is one of the best MTG content producers out there. This is just another demonstration of his charisma and talent at creating beautiful and engaging videos.

If you haven’t seen his videos, you should check them out. All of them, old and new, are must watch material ;)

[tnielsenproject]

What an amazing alteration :D

[tnielsenproject]

Mismatched sets have their own kind of beauty. The EMA foil is the one that I recently acquired!

[tnielsenproject]

Ajani’s Aid

@misteryada “Ajani's Aid is PW deck exclusive, which means it can't be foil. Unless that's the joke.“

Okay that explains lots of things. Now I’m sad, I wanted my shiny ajani’s :(

Thanks for the quick PSA though!

[tnielsenproject]

What do my followers play?

Hi! Just a quick question for you. I know that tumblr has a lot of commander and cube players but I want to know about you in particular.

Yes, you!

What’s your favorite format? If it’s a constructed format, what deck? If you don’t play MTG, what do you play? please let me know :D

My favorite format is modern, and my deck is Bant Knightfall. I always have great fun with it, and it’s a pretty good deck too.

[tnielsenproject]

Spoiler: Ajani’s aid

A new card was just spoiled, with some beautiful art from Terese Nielsen.

The card is... not the best, I have to admit. Here’s the bright side, foils for my collection should be cheap to acquire :D

As it has been mentioned in the comments, card is PW deck exclusive so it’s bad and there’s no foil copies.

Art is, as always, stunning. Some golden details and our favorite furry.

https://twitter.com/misterorange/status/817037265889296384

[tnielsenproject]

I’ll post more this weekend, not about Terese though. I’ll be going to GP Madrid and the awesome artist Clint Cearley will be there selling awesome art stuff and signing cards! I’ll post a picture of all of them once I come back home. Remember, support the artists you like!

Sneaking tiger!

Wizards gives every year some happy holidays promos to stores and such. In 2013, the promo was stocking tiger and a few copies got into this packs of three boosters.

The cool thing about this (apart from getting this awesome promo almost for free) is that the leaked copies don’t have the date stamp!

[tnielsenproject]

Sneaking tiger! Wizards gives every year some happy holidays promos to stores and such. In 2013, the promo was stocking tiger and a few copies got into this packs of three boosters. The cool thing about this (apart from getting this awesome promo almost for free) is that the leaked copies don't have the date stamp!

[tnielsenproject]

Oh, I also found this beauty at my LGS! I already had the non foil one, but the foil is stunning. Got to love old border foil basics.

[tnielsenproject]

Hi! Long time since my last post... Anyway, I finished my japanese swords set. Playing those in legacy maverick! Sweet deck.

[tnielsenproject]

Nielsen art at common? Yay, easy foils there :3

[tnielsenproject]

Budget fow for my collection! Sad me is sad

[tnielsenproject]

Hype

Terese Nielsen has been interviewed by the Pucatrade team! Huh, it doesn’t seem interesting to you? Then check this:

You’ve depicted many Magic characters [...] Are there any Magic characters that you would enjoy an opportunity to illustrate that you have not yet?

I just got the opportunity to illustrate a character that fits that description! Obviously, I can’t talk about it, so I won’t.

You can read the full interview here