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Facebook allows postings of 'napalm girl' photo after debate

8 Comments
By JAN M. OLSEN

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8 Comments
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Well duh.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In some ways America never grew past the Victorian era. They glorify violence in films, can't get enough blood and guts, but run shrieking from the sight of a naked "napalm girl". That's some kind of twisted. I think these photos should be allowed on the site. If just ONE person sees a picture like this and finally GETS IT then displaying it will have done it's job.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Crazy Joe, in its 45 years of existence there has never been a problem regarding nudity using or displaying that famous picture.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

You know, on the point of images making a difference, maybe I can give one other example. There is a famous picture in LIFE Magazine of the Japanese soldier's skull that some GI sent to his honey back home. She put it on her desk where she could look at it as she wrote back to him about all their plans together. Nobody censors that.

That was Life Magazine, 1945. And yet, there will be a certain amount of "I don't want to look at that!" with napalm girl and atomic bomb victims. And the images of the last few years with people getting their heads cut off, well, that is just beyond the pale! Outrageous! Coffins of US soldiers being photographed? Treason!

I propose something that is not modest at all. Release all restrictions on all war photographs. What is war if it is not murder, rape, theft and gore? People who glorify and condone war must confront what they create. Maybe war would then become more civilized, or maybe people would just stop it. It would create a new perspective on the idea of "winning" a war, and create some perspective on what "losing" looks like. If people will have no conscience, then at least we can have a memory. War is a drug, and if photographs like these are sobering, then they are doing their job.

And as preposterous as the notion above might sound, let's keep in mind that FACEBOOK wants to achieve a NON CENSORED environment for news and ideas. Great. So stop censoring. Some social good might come out of disgusting pictures after all.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

5speedracer5, the problem withyour proposal is that people will rapidly become callus and will be unshockackable - particularly the kids who grow up with gore being the norm.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Not surprising. Facebook is a company and from what I've read recently, they are into social engineering. I wonder if they would allow the video of the Palestinian boy getting his head sliced off? Oh the cruel and unspeakable acts of war pigs, out of sight out of mind.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Outrider, I doubt that people will become desensitized. The difference being that uncensored pictures of war is real world things happening to real world people and can happen to anyone in the world should a war start. Having gory movies/games etc does not compare because it's fictional portrayals and can always be rewound or reset by a button. Death is permanent. Remember how many soldiers (even enemy combatants) suffer from PTSD, "shell shock", and severe depression.

The only worry isn't that kid's would become callus and unshockable, it's that they wouldn't be able to comprehend the difference between reality and fiction.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think the issue is not knowing the difference between nudity (portrayal of body without clothes) and pornography (naked body displayed in a sexual manner). Half of renaissance and romantic era art that depicted naked kids would be censored if they didn't register as classical art. The question here is consistency. Can a person recreate this photo with children he/she hired - including the naked one? Chances are, if someone tried, they'd get put on the s e x offender list before they could say journalistic freedom, despite being nudity and not pornography (though the West, primarily the States, lumps the two terms into pornography).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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