And the derpfest rages on.

Apple has joined other retailers in boycotting the Confederate flag by removing Civil War games from the App Store.

Apple’s Tim Cook spearheaded the move. “In a tweet, Cook called to honor the lives of the victims in last week’s tragic South Carolina shooting by “eradicating racism & removing the symbols & words that feed it.” An Alabama native like myself, Cook has been a strong proponent for equality during his tenure as CEO, often speaking out against the South’s tarnished history and the changes we still need to address,” writes 9 to 5 Mac.

According to Touch Arcade, “the reasoning Apple is sending developers is “…because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”

Right, because all history should be polite, unoffensive, and politically correct. Nevermind the fact that in each of these scenarios the Confederacy is ultimately defeated…

Some of the games in exile look super offensivey, don’t they?

Ultimate General: Gettysburg

AAA American Civil War Cannon Shooter

Civil War: Hidden Mysteries

Civil War The Battle Game

Civil War Defense

Civil War Battle Defense

1861 A Civil War Rebellion

Civil War: 1862

Civil War: 1863

Game Developers have made the case that many of the games pulled were used as educational tools.

Touch Arcade spoke with Andrew from HexWar Games, a developer of strategic war games. “We’re in no way sympathetic to the use of the flag in an offensive way, we used it purely because historically that was the flag that was used at the time.”

Maxim Zasov of Game Labs, the developers of Ultimate General: Gettysburg are politely refusing to revamp their games to make them more politically palatable. Game Labs provided Touch Arcade with the following statement:

We accept Apple’s decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation. We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game’s battlefield. We receive a lot of letters of gratitude from American teachers who use our game in history curriculum to let kids experience one of the most important battles in American history from the Commander’s perspective. Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical “Gettysburg” movie (1993) is still on iTunes. We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money. Therefore we are not going to amend the game’s content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results. We can’t change history, but we can change the future.

Apple’s standards don’t seem to be applied evenly though. World War II games, some of which bear the swastika-laden Nazi flag, are still available in abundance. A Mac App Store search of “world war two” produces pages of results:

I’m sure Apple will be banning Call of Duty 2 next, because Nazis. Or any game about Roman history, because slaves. Right? RIGHT?!

History is mean, evil, grotesque, and riddled with human imperfections. Recognizing mankind’s failings doesn’t expunge them from the record. If anything, we must ensure future generations deeply understand our strides to expand the blessings of liberty so they may continue that fight. You don’t teach history by erasing the icky bits.

Banishing an image and believing that’s some sort of benchmark for equality? Trouncing the first amendment rights of others? Neither of these are productive endeavors. Neither maximizes equality nor liberty nor freedom. But both are painfully ignorant.

(h/t Caleb Howe at The Truth Revolt)

Follow Kemberlee Kaye on Twitter



