5 ms·

Yuri Gagarin, first person in space, has had his name removed from fundraiser

16 points by opisthenar84 5y ago

elmerfud 5y ago
If this kind of nonsense doesn't wake people up to the fact that cancel culture has just gone too far and is completely out of control, nothing will.
- tough 5y ago
  They're already woke. and they don't give a damn
OrlandoHakim 5y ago
Whatever your thoughts are about the Ukraine invasion - and I suspect most, including me are against wars of aggression - the idea that we should take this situation as an excuse to re-write history deeply saddens me. Maybe we should re-define the term first person in space to mean, the first person in space who isn't from a country we don't like? I believe we still recognized Yuri Gagarin as the first person in space during the cold war. What changed now?
- 8note 5y ago
  It's just a fundraiser. There's no history being rewritten
  - OrlandoHakim 5y ago
    Not sure I would support a fundraiser by an organization so willing to play fast and loose with the truth - especially when their motive is to support fashionable politics of the day. It doesn't lend much credibility to the organization when they conveniently omit historical facts in order to match their desired narrative.
    - geoah 5y ago
      Futurism’s article has a much better phrasing of the events. > The nonprofit Space Foundation announced in a now-deleted note that “in light of current world events” it would be changing the name of a fundraiser from “Yuri’s Night” to “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next” at its Space Symposium conference. Doesn’t look like any historical facts were omitted. They just changed the name of the event. The new name to be fair is also much more descriptive.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - OrlandoHakim 5y ago
        I will admit that this action is less ugly than much of the anti-Russian hate I’ve seen lately. It still makes my stomach churn that they chose to ‘cancel’ the first human in space post-humously because the leader of a country that didn’t even exist when Gagarin was alive, chose to invade another country. I believe wars of aggression are always wrong and are always war crimes per the Geneva Conventions, whether it is by the US (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc.) or Russia (Ukraine) or the Soviet Union (Afghanistan also). I don’t believe it is right to foment or tolerate hate against an entire people or culture simply because their totalitarian leader decided to invade. For the record, I absolutely support the right of Ukrainians to defend themselves against a foreign invader and believe other countries should help, but I stop at supporting hate towards civilians of any nations. If anything, we who live in western democracies have more to atone for than our neighbors living in totalitarian regimes. I am still waiting for anyone to strip George Bush Jr. and Tony Blair among others of their awards and recognition since we all now know that WMDs and spreading democracy were lies used to justify the killing of 1 million Iraqi civilians.
aritmo 5y ago
Can it get sillier than this?
- HarryHirsch 5y ago
  Yes, it can - last week the Cardiff Opera cancelled a performance of Tschaikowsky's 1812 Ouverture, which everyone knows celebrates victory against a foreign invader.
  - alternatetwo 5y ago
    That's the one featured in V for Vendetta, right? Utterly idiotic.
  - unmole 5y ago
    It celebrates Russian military prowess, as does the Slavonic March. They haven't cancelled the Rachmaninov performance.
renewiltord 5y ago
Imho the best names are ones like from The Three Body Problem’s ships: Bronze Age, Proton, Natural Selection. Absolutely brilliant and irrevocably awesome. You never have to worry about the messy humanness of a scientific concept. Though I suppose you could come up with Phrenology as a name!
crackercrews 5y ago
Weird because Ukraine was presumably part of the USSR, that Gagarin represented when he went to space. What if he had been from the part of the USSR that is now Ukraine? Or from another part of the USSR that is not currently part of Russia?
sbmthakur 5y ago
As if military and economic wars were not enough, we now have a culture war.
musicale 5y ago
Fortunately the Yuri's Night festival (or "World Space Party") is still on for April! https://yurisnight.net https://yurisnight.net
OrlandoHakim 5y ago
Paul Graham recently posted a bit of relevant Russian Propaganda on this controversial topic of supporting or fighting hatred and intolerance towards Russian people. I’ll leave it here without comment: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1505857667545321473?s=21 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1505857667545321473?s=21

16 points by opisthenar84 5y ago

If this kind of nonsense doesn't wake people up to the fact that cancel culture has just gone too far and is completely out of control, nothing will.

tough 5y ago
They're already woke. and they don't give a damn

OrlandoHakim 5y ago

Whatever your thoughts are about the Ukraine invasion - and I suspect most, including me are against wars of aggression - the idea that we should take this situation as an excuse to re-write history deeply saddens me. Maybe we should re-define the term first person in space to mean, the first person in space who isn't from a country we don't like? I believe we still recognized Yuri Gagarin as the first person in space during the cold war. What changed now?

8note 5y ago
It's just a fundraiser. There's no history being rewritten
- OrlandoHakim 5y ago
  Not sure I would support a fundraiser by an organization so willing to play fast and loose with the truth - especially when their motive is to support fashionable politics of the day. It doesn't lend much credibility to the organization when they conveniently omit historical facts in order to match their desired narrative.
  - geoah 5y ago
    Futurism’s article has a much better phrasing of the events. > The nonprofit Space Foundation announced in a now-deleted note that “in light of current world events” it would be changing the name of a fundraiser from “Yuri’s Night” to “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next” at its Space Symposium conference. Doesn’t look like any historical facts were omitted. They just changed the name of the event. The new name to be fair is also much more descriptive.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - OrlandoHakim 5y ago
      I will admit that this action is less ugly than much of the anti-Russian hate I’ve seen lately. It still makes my stomach churn that they chose to ‘cancel’ the first human in space post-humously because the leader of a country that didn’t even exist when Gagarin was alive, chose to invade another country. I believe wars of aggression are always wrong and are always war crimes per the Geneva Conventions, whether it is by the US (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya etc.) or Russia (Ukraine) or the Soviet Union (Afghanistan also). I don’t believe it is right to foment or tolerate hate against an entire people or culture simply because their totalitarian leader decided to invade. For the record, I absolutely support the right of Ukrainians to defend themselves against a foreign invader and believe other countries should help, but I stop at supporting hate towards civilians of any nations. If anything, we who live in western democracies have more to atone for than our neighbors living in totalitarian regimes. I am still waiting for anyone to strip George Bush Jr. and Tony Blair among others of their awards and recognition since we all now know that WMDs and spreading democracy were lies used to justify the killing of 1 million Iraqi civilians.

aritmo 5y ago

Can it get sillier than this?

HarryHirsch 5y ago
Yes, it can - last week the Cardiff Opera cancelled a performance of Tschaikowsky's 1812 Ouverture, which everyone knows celebrates victory against a foreign invader.
- alternatetwo 5y ago
  That's the one featured in V for Vendetta, right? Utterly idiotic.
- unmole 5y ago
  It celebrates Russian military prowess, as does the Slavonic March. They haven't cancelled the Rachmaninov performance.

renewiltord 5y ago

Imho the best names are ones like from The Three Body Problem’s ships: Bronze Age, Proton, Natural Selection. Absolutely brilliant and irrevocably awesome. You never have to worry about the messy humanness of a scientific concept. Though I suppose you could come up with Phrenology as a name!

crackercrews 5y ago

Weird because Ukraine was presumably part of the USSR, that Gagarin represented when he went to space. What if he had been from the part of the USSR that is now Ukraine? Or from another part of the USSR that is not currently part of Russia?

sbmthakur 5y ago

As if military and economic wars were not enough, we now have a culture war.

musicale 5y ago

Fortunately the Yuri's Night festival (or "World Space Party") is still on for April! https://yurisnight.net https://yurisnight.net

OrlandoHakim 5y ago

Paul Graham recently posted a bit of relevant Russian Propaganda on this controversial topic of supporting or fighting hatred and intolerance towards Russian people. I’ll leave it here without comment: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1505857667545321473?s=21 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1505857667545321473?s=21