ACW History becoming one sided

[Rasputin]

I live in Louisiana, and yes, people fly confederate flags as a symbol of racial hatred.  When I see a confederate flag flying, I think exactly as hadoque said, that the person is possibly a KKK member or neo-nazi, or at least has those same prejudices. True, the war wasn't really about slavery; that was simply an issue that brought the argument over states' rights to a head. But it is definitely associated in the minds of people today with slavery and racial hatred and the confederate flag has become a symbol of such thinking. So it seems you get upset saying they are promoting "propoganda" for religious intolerance, then you are offended by "propoganda" for racial tolerance.

That said, I can still see playmobil producing such a flag, for the sake of having confederates for the yankees to fight. That would make sense. But as hadoque also pointed out, who says this theme is about the civil war? These could just be US cavalry soldiers.

People fly every flag in some part of the world for that reason. Just think of what flying the stars and stripes means to people in Iraq or Afghanistan today. I am sure they do not get a warm fuzzy feeling seeing it.

I am not saying playmobil should not make something, I am saying they should make the other half of the story, omission is lying and therefore becomes propaganda not education.

Are the crusaders not about the crusades? but just a bunch of churchy people on horses who happen to have weapons on their way to a party? 

I again am not offended or insulted at all, I can make the other things that Geobra refuses to make to teach my kids about the whole history, its just odd to me and all the judment is silly. There were good things about both south and north, ballance is key.

[bonniebeth]

Yes, well there isn't any playmobil in Iraq or Afghanistan as far as I know. It is in the US and Europe, and apparently from what some of our European PFs have said, in both the US and Europe, the confederate flag is often considered a symbol of racial hatred.

I understand your point that it makes sense to have both sides of the war depicted. How can you possibly make a civil war dio, or any war dio, without soldiers from both sides? But even though the war was really fought over was the matter of whether the US was to be a loose confederation of states that made their own laws, or one united country under one government, the issue foremost in peoples minds then and especially now looking back on it was and is slavery, and that may be the issue that makes Geobra steer clear of the subject, and have cavalry fighting Indians instead.

Now, if you are not personally offended by any of this, why do you bring it up?

[Ismene]

I don't think the average kid cares much about the Civil War nowadays, but I can see how it might be irksome to an adult collector who wants a good Civil War dio. Anyhow, custom flags shouldn't be too difficult.

As for the flag itself, yes it is flown by racist people (many of whom have a rather shaky grasp on history). It is also flown by some African Americans who are proud of their southern heritage (some of whom participate in Civil War reenactments and fight on the Confederate side as some of their ancestors did). The Civil War was a lot more complicated than we make it out to be. Slavery was by no means the primary issue, and many northerners were just as racist as the southerners.

[tahra]

Tahra, what you do not want a mental thrashing   

 

I usually assume that that's what they were - soldiers from the late nineteenth century. I never associated the forts much with the Civil War.

They only became civil war when they released the first confederates... I don't think anyone thought of them as union soldiers before - they were the cavalry, as opposed to the indians..

[Bolingbroke]

I fully agree with what Hadoque said.

Then again, and at this rate, PM's soon gonna run out of PC-friendly themes.

People are way too touchy nowadays: things are too sanitised. And yet - however ignorant and un-enlightened we were when I was a child 30 years ago - things were still better then. Streets were safer, people were more understanding and caring, and so on and so forth.

 

[Bolingbroke]

People fly every flag in some part of the world for that reason. Just think of what flying the stars and stripes means to people in Iraq or Afghanistan today. I am sure they do not get a warm fuzzy feeling seeing it.

I am not saying playmobil should not make something, I am saying they should make the other half of the story, omission is lying and therefore becomes propaganda not education.

Are the crusaders not about the crusades? but just a bunch of churchy people on horses who happen to have weapons on their way to a party? 

I again am not offended or insulted at all, I can make the other things that Geobra refuses to make to teach my kids about the whole history, its just odd to me and all the judment is silly. There were good things about both south and north, ballance is key.

No one ever said that PM's main priority was to make education toys. Never, ever. And certainly not PM.

[bonniebeth]

They only became civil war when they released the first confederates... I don't think anyone thought of them as union soldiers before - they were the cavalry, as opposed to the indians..

Yes exactly! The ones I had as a kid were definitely cavalry to us, I never thought of them as Union soldiers. They were riding to the rescue of wagon trains being attacked by indians.

[tonguello]

yes!
well hello? Dinos and Indiana Jones-like guys together? Not very accurate IMO. (just to name one thing)

The main purpose of Playmobil is to nourish kids imagination (and they do that VERY WELL) not to give them history lessons. If you get an education while you are playing, fine!, that's better, but if not, you have school for that. 

[bonniebeth]

Yes, they usually try to be accurate in what they do depict, when it comes to historical themes. But clearly there are conscious decisions at times to lean more towards what will capture the imaginations of children based on popular stylized images or fantasies they are used to. Princesses in pink dresses in ornate castles, pirates with eye patches and a parrot on their shoulder, modern day time travelers in the dino theme, etc.

By no means is the toy meant to give children a complete and accurate picture of the entire history of the world. It can at times, where appropriate, be used to assist in education. For example, the current cavalry soldiers could be used for teaching about the Plains Indians Wars. If you want to teach about the civil war, watch Shenandoah.

[Rhalius]

They could perhaps release both sides of another war that would be less controversial and might be better known as well.

The Pirate theme still has a lot of untapped potential there, it wouldnt hurt if they would release less pirates for once and more soldiers. If they would release a well rounded force of a clear nationality that is different with each batch, it would allow for a great many wars to be played out.

Mostly we seem to be getting Brits which are nice, and I like how they have earlier version brits this time (I prefer that period myself) but maybe they could release some french, Dutch, Prussian, Spanish, etc troops.  Aside from the brits they never included national flags after all.