I would like to hear the opinions of the sender and recipient of the card.
To me - how you described the profile - it sounds very different than you interpret it.
Besides that, I don’t like personally offending messages on cards.
First because they hurt the human dignity of the offended person. No matter who they are or what they have done. They stay human and should be treated like humans.
Second such a message does not feel good.
Third the sender doesn’t do him/herself good with spreading such messages.
Thank you everyone for your viewpoints!
Now I would like to share my viewpoints. As I mentioned, I am rather neutral about the war between Russia and Ukraine. On the forum, political discussions have been closed or even deleted. But the card images of politicians with one-sided-view text like I mentioned above are allowed on Postcrossing ? I am rather confused now. By the way, I am okay with cards with text-only like “No Wars,” without photos of politicians. I hope you get what I mean. Thank you.
@VilhelmR
In Japan, the majority of people are on Ukrainians’ side, which I can understand. But I happen to know someone from Europe who has been to a different war and he is neutral on the war between Russia and Ukraine. He told me that in his country a lot of people probably are neutral about war between Russia and Ukraine. And I somehow learned to be neutral myself too. He is from Eastern Europe, by the way.
@Aina-the-unicorn
I just do not think people in Russia would like to receive such a card, so I can understand you fully.
Also, I don’t think sending a postcard that can be offensive to someone’s government is a good idea, if it happens to be a dictatorship or similar (like in Russia). That could have actual, serious consequences for the recipient!
Yes, but in this case: Canadian person send this card to German person. German person stated on the profile, that she was not willing to send cards to Russia, but would do it because the postcrossing rules force her to.
So it was not even send to Russia, if it was… I would agree it could offend the recipient, or it could get the recipient in trouble. However, in this case, nothing bad happens. If I were to send you that care, nothing bad would happen to you, nor to me.
I don’t like it when people dictate, for me, which cards I can and cannot send. If someone mentions they like funny Jesus cards, and I send one. I don’t want religious people in my neck, telling me it’s blasphemous, and I’m going to hell.
Postcrossing is between the sender and recipient in my opinion. As long as both are cool with it and enjoy it, I don’t see why anyone else has to intervene or have an opinion about it.
Same with me.
I don’t send cards when the recipient could be offended, for example I never would send naked people when it’s not on the wishlist of the recipient. But when the recipient has this on their wishlist and I have such a card in my stash, so I don’t see, why I shouldn’t send this card just because some others might be offended to see such a picture on my or the recipients wall.
Good example, postcrossing would become really boring if everyone want to police postcards. Or if we all have to have an opinion about some postcard. The opinion that matters, is the opinion of the receiver and sender.
I mean if I would get a vintage card from world war 2 with Swatsika’s on it, I wouldn’t want people to go flame the sender. And I say this as someone who has lost family to a German hand grenade. I’m interested in these themes because my granduncle died at the age of 24. Because I grew up with the stories my grandpa told me.
I wouldn’t want people to be harsh to the sender to that card. It would ruin the postcrossing experience.
So that leaves the question, when is a card so wrong, that it cannot be on a wall or be posted? I find this a though question. I do think cards that are openly racist and have no historical or other value, should be banned. However if I were to send a card with themes of colonization, it might offend people, but it still has historical value.
Thank you for your viewpoints but I thought naked people on the cards can be seen as art whereas politicians really cannot be seen that way. For many people, it can be a pain more or less to see such an image on an internationally friendly site like Postcrossing.
Well, while it’s best to be polite and tactful, I can’t fault anyone for speaking the truth as they understand it. We don’t need to meet the standards of despots who don’t want the truth to be spoken.
Today I was thinking it would be very very rude for the majority of people in, let’s say, North Korea, if there were any card images of their current political leader with one-sided-view text in English sent by someone in, let’s say, USA, to someone in Western Europe, although I have not seen such images yet on Postcrossing.
Do you think it is okay for such images to exist on the Internationally friendly site like Postcrossing ? Just a question.
??? Why shouldn’t people have (and say/write) their opinions???
Sure I have an opinion about a lot of stuff, and I am going to say what I feel needs to be said.
By the way if the cards are shown publicly there are all people involved who happen to see them.
For me at least, part of the friendliness is to give some space to others, let them like what they like and not to take personally what they have wanted to exchange with others.
So yes, it would be absolutely fine to such image to exist.
…
(Also the quoted part above I read “give space to others to exchange what they like”, so not forbidding something because I don’t like it, when I was not even part of the exchange. Like what do they need my opinion for?)
Of course opinions are allowed, but people like different things, so it’s just opinions. What is the point to jump in to other’s exchange and tell if I didn’t like it?
The system is good already; if a card is seen problematic, that can be asked to be removed.
This is true, but I think it’s like a dance class. It’s our common hobby, I still don’t like someone’s style, someone smells bad, but it’s something that I have no authority to go and tell them leave. I can leave, or tolerate it.
Of course there is no authority in opinions. And there is a huge difference between “tell them leave” and expressing an opinion. Expressing an opinion is also different from not tolerating. So there is not only the option between leave and tolerate but also third expressing opinion.
Now here it’s not thought normal or nice to tell someone in your dance class that they smell bad.
So, opinion can be, but do you need to tell it? What do you want to happen when you tell it? Make a new friend? Make the other feel ashamed or uncomfortable? Think your opinion is more right, and they should change?
When I referred to authority, I meant I have no authority over another equal one. They don’t need to play by my opinions. Somethings I don’t like, I live with it. Because I have no authority to tell what someone does is not ok, when it is. Like a card topic, if I’m offended, it’s me, and if I was not in that swap and they are happy, why would I spoil it? (Especially now thinking a card about a politician, and I would think it goes under freedom of speech, which I won’t silence because I don’t agree.)
I`ll take the opportunity to throw in this Hitler postcard with rabbit ears. I have no idea whether it’ s photoshopped or whether the dictator liked to dress up…
There are many postcards that make fun of politicians. Maybe this way one can bear with the worst of these creatures better…
The German satirical magazine “Titanic” often issues such postcards. Many people find them tasteless, others find them hilarious.
Not saying you cannot. However it’s an exchange between two people. Not an exchange between all of postcrossing. Sure you can discuss it and share your opinion.
You can however in my opinion not become the card police. Or tell people they cannot send specific cards within reason of course.
Example: I do not like royals. Do I need to voice that in every swap or lottery that deals with royals? I don’t see the point.
@S_Tuulia
In short, the majority of ordinary people in North Korea seem to worship the current political leader as we see quite often on the news in Japan, not sure in your country, though. It would be a BIG NO-NO for them to see any card images of their current political leader with one-sided-Western-view sent from Western countries to Western countries on Postcrossing.
Of course, I cannot control about postcards themselves between two people on Postcrossing. I am only talking about postcard images of politicians on Postcrossing that can be seen publicly.
I wonder if the admins would still think it is okay for such card images ??
Yes, seem to.
And even if they did, we don’t need to.
But this imaginary situation can be handled if and when it happens. People from North Korea would also agree with the rules, that they can’t tell what cards should be sent (to them, or even less what cards should be sent to others).
