Just in case Joel Stein’s search for his special purpose wasn’t enough of a PR hit for the Lindenistas, another one may be brewing, at least in Europe: The French National Front’s Moselle youth league’s opened up a recruiting office. I suspect this will be met with considerably less fanfare than Mark Warner’s flyby.
As the article notes (translation assisted by Google and twenty-years-old French class):
A priori, nothing prohibits a political party, even an extreme right wing one, to use Second Life. The general conditions of use specify that it is forbidden to behave in a manner that is \’e2\’80\’9charmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, causes tort, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable\’e2\’80\’9d there, but does not defend the ability to create political propaganda.
Of course, the surrounding lots immediately sprouted impolite derision in French. Perhaps they should have joined an Anshe Chung subdivision. Here’s one Messr. Le Pen may fit in with comfortably.
#1 by Apache on December 18th, 2006
You know, I still don’t “get” the appeal of Second Life…
#2 by Jurrasic on December 18th, 2006
The giant walking talking penii?
#3 by Evangolis on December 18th, 2006
Money and sex?
Or virtual versions of.
#4 by Apache on December 18th, 2006
In 2D sprites?
#5 by TPRJones on December 18th, 2006
I like it for LSL (the scripting language) and the design tools. I’ve built some very fun stuff in SL.
#6 by perianwyr on December 18th, 2006
While I find the idea entertaining, if I could import models into the environment I’d be much happier. Why spend hours learning to use a strange, crippled modeling environment, when I could be putting in more time on a haptic device?
#7 by Wendelius on December 19th, 2006
The “Front National”, lead by presidential candidate Jean Marie Le Pen is the French extreme right party. They have been a nuisance and have gained votes over the years just like in many other European countries.
Le Pen is unapologetic about his views on foreigners and poor people, how France should belong to the French, yadda yadda yadda… And all that far right political discourse. He is, unfortunately, also quite a charismatic figure.
Some people still haven’t learned their lessons…
In any case, here is a full translation of the article:
[quote]You can find everything in the virtual world of Second Life. Including an office for the “Front National”. Opened a few days ago and apparently managed by the [url=http://fnj57.hautetfort.com/]mosellane section[/url] of the FN youth league, it is presented as a shop surrounded by posters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, where 2 or 3 people wearing T Shirts displaying the FN logo are awaiting the visitors.
A priori, nothing prevents a political party, even a far right one, from settling in Second Life this way. The [url=http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php]terms of service[/url] specify that it is forbidden to behave in a manner which is “dangerous, threatening, insulting, harassing, causing damage, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, hateful, racist or xenophobic”, but do not forbid political propaganda.
The FN is, in fact, not the first to have had this idea: Back in October, the United Kingdom Independance Party (a small British Party very euro-skeptic) announced its intention to open a “branch” there. And this is no doubt only a beginning : After all, those past few months, the brands (Nissan, American Apparel, BBC, Reuters, MTV…) have rushed into Second Life to promote themselves, there is no reason for others not to do the same.
When I went to have a look this morning, the FN shop was surrounded by signs where you could read: “Encul\’c3\’a9s de nazis, cassez-vous” (A****le nazis, go away”, the work of a few jokers, no doubt. [/quote]
Here are the stated goals of the FN office on its website:
[quote]- Promote Jean-Marie Le Pen 2007 presidential candidature
- Create a permanent of the FN ins Second Life
- Regroup the FN members and sympathizers in SL.
- To be a display of the party for the French and foreigners.
- To promote the presence of French industries and organisations in virtual worlds, up to now the monopoly of the “Anglo-saxons”.[/quote]
*gags*
It was only a matter of time. The impeach Bush statements will soon look tasteful and restrained, I fear.
#8 by Wendelius on December 19th, 2006
PS: Please forgive the bulletin Board formatting tags. Not quite awake yet and copied from the translation I made for my SL playing friends.
#9 by Rand 'al Thor on December 19th, 2006
“Le Pen is unapologetic about his views on foreigners and poor people, how France should belong to the French, yadda yadda yadda\’e2\’80\’a6 And all that far right political discourse. He is, unfortunately, also quite a charismatic figure.”
Well that doesn’t sound familiar at all now does it.
#10 by Wendelius on December 19th, 2006
As I said, some people haven’t learned their lessons. :/
#11 by magicback (Frank) on December 19th, 2006
Also, it doesn’t take a genius to ride along the SL PR-wagon.
#12 by Soulflame on December 19th, 2006
I just wanted to say I was amused by Lindenistas.
#13 by Mantees on December 20th, 2006
At this stage everybody is in Second Life, but the players.