![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
not on my christian minecraft server!
Dec. 13th, 2021 04:01 pmi don't know what it is about the "not on my christian minecraft server" meme (or just the phrase "christian minecraft server" in general) that cracks me up every time, it's just so fucking funny to me. i started Overthinking it, in particular through the lens of the Benign Violation Theory of humor (because i'm a fucken nerd and also that framework really resonates with me).
benign violation: do we need christian minecraft servers?
i think the idea of there being demand for christian minecraft servers is a benign violation of what i perceive reality to be (and therefore, funny). i interpret this to be a result of just the right combination of cultural christianity and secularisation.
on one hand, i live in a quite secularised environment, so i don't know many people who care enough about christianity to seek or create spaces devoted (pun not intended) to it.
on the other hand, both the society in which i was socialised and the regions that i tend to assume minecraft servers to primarily cater to (the Global North and particularly the usa) are so culturally christian that a specifically christian minecraft server seems superfluous, in that i don't imagine christians needing a refuge from an oppressive religious hegemony (because they are the hegemony). by contrast, a Jewish or Muslim minecraft server seem perfectly reasonable to me.
i'm sure this says as much about my eurocentrism as it does about my prejudices against christianity and my (lack of) understanding of the nature of religion.
is it really benign, and is it really a violation?
however, as i continue to think about it, i think there's also a tension between my view of minecraft as a space of freedom and playfulness and the puritanical associations of social control conjured by the warning "not on my christian minecraft server!".
because a lot of that puritanism is actually present on minecraft servers that aren't specifically christian. part of it is a logical consequence of the people writing the rules being culturally christian, and american puritan culture has a lot of influence on how "family friendly" spaces are conceived.
and did you know what minecraft realms (microsoft's native minecraft server hosting service) automatically censors swear words and anything it sees as a reference to drugs or porn? for example, the word "dispensary" gets censored because apparently one of its meanings is associated with drugs, and the string "but video" gets bleeped because (we presume) microsoft sees it as a euphemism for porn.
my earlier comments about the superfluity of specifying a space as christian in a christian hegemony seem to be more on the nose than originally expected.
a side note on BVT
i think this is exactly what appeals to me about Benign Violation Theory. there's always a way to see the violation as not being benign, which allows me to always arrive at the conclusion that i am Problematic for thinking something is funny.
benign violation: do we need christian minecraft servers?
i think the idea of there being demand for christian minecraft servers is a benign violation of what i perceive reality to be (and therefore, funny). i interpret this to be a result of just the right combination of cultural christianity and secularisation.
on one hand, i live in a quite secularised environment, so i don't know many people who care enough about christianity to seek or create spaces devoted (pun not intended) to it.
on the other hand, both the society in which i was socialised and the regions that i tend to assume minecraft servers to primarily cater to (the Global North and particularly the usa) are so culturally christian that a specifically christian minecraft server seems superfluous, in that i don't imagine christians needing a refuge from an oppressive religious hegemony (because they are the hegemony). by contrast, a Jewish or Muslim minecraft server seem perfectly reasonable to me.
i'm sure this says as much about my eurocentrism as it does about my prejudices against christianity and my (lack of) understanding of the nature of religion.
is it really benign, and is it really a violation?
however, as i continue to think about it, i think there's also a tension between my view of minecraft as a space of freedom and playfulness and the puritanical associations of social control conjured by the warning "not on my christian minecraft server!".
because a lot of that puritanism is actually present on minecraft servers that aren't specifically christian. part of it is a logical consequence of the people writing the rules being culturally christian, and american puritan culture has a lot of influence on how "family friendly" spaces are conceived.
and did you know what minecraft realms (microsoft's native minecraft server hosting service) automatically censors swear words and anything it sees as a reference to drugs or porn? for example, the word "dispensary" gets censored because apparently one of its meanings is associated with drugs, and the string "but video" gets bleeped because (we presume) microsoft sees it as a euphemism for porn.
my earlier comments about the superfluity of specifying a space as christian in a christian hegemony seem to be more on the nose than originally expected.
a side note on BVT
i think this is exactly what appeals to me about Benign Violation Theory. there's always a way to see the violation as not being benign, which allows me to always arrive at the conclusion that i am Problematic for thinking something is funny.
