Columns

This week’s issue was uncomfortable to work on. Aside from Easter causing us to have three days to put Critic together, the feature articles were on topics I really am in no position to make judgment on. But I will anyway.

Firstly, the feature on relationships via social media: I really don’t like social media in pretty much any form. For anyone I actually want to talk to, a real conversation will always win. And romances: well, I’m not so great in that field either. It would probably do me good to get the Tinder chat going because so far anyone I’ve thought of approaching generally turns out to be taken or has just made a baby. True story: just last week, my big crush dreams were crushed as I ordered my regular coffee from Mr McSteamy (because he steams the milk for my coffee — I thought of this outside of Grey’s Anatomy references!). Mrs McSteamy walked in with Baby McSteamy, neither of whom I was aware of. I congratulated him on his recent creation but #brokenheart.

Another feature is on the expiration of the copyright of Mein Kampf. This is difficult to write about when our generation, in cutesy Dunedin, just has no clue as to exactly what the victims of the Third Reich endured. We are so damn lucky here that any judgments about publishing a book that was part of causing so much pain really are hard to make. But from where I’m standing, the idea of publishing a heavily annotated version of the book (there will be approximately 4,000 annotations in the new edition) serves to educate all people, not just Germans, about their history. People can see what crap the people who were so desperate at the time bought into, and how someone so evil managed to sell the idea of Nazism. It might be painful to a lot of people to be reminded of that history, as is a common argument against republishing it, but doesn’t the world need a little reminding of history right now?

Finally, there’s a feature on harassment and abuse in the world of online gaming. When I first heard the pitch for this feature, my immediate thoughts were “dear God, can they not just turn off their computer? Seriously, just play a different game.” And I know why I thought that: because I was ignorant about exactly how abusive the online community can get, particularly in games. It’s not the online space I use. It’s not relevant to me. I don’t even game online. But if we only acknowledge the issues that matter to our own lives then, well, we’re doing a shit job of learning from our history.

It’s easy enough to say “what else do you expect from the internet?” But harrassment online isn’t something people should be expected to just walk away from. The internet is now where we socialise, where we work, and even where we start relationships. Of course it’s relevant to all of us.

Josie Cochrane
Critic Editor