> Naturally, they're banned primarily for depictions of Japanese (WWII), and of black people in various degrading roles. I do not take enjoyment in watching them. However, due to censorship, these could be lost. And that would be a bigger loss compared to their inherent lack of compassion.
Why do you feel this is worth preserving? It's designed to evoke positive emotion (laughter) and outrage/hatred about something we don't condone anymore. In addition to being propaganda, outside the context of warmongering, it's toxic.
We don't insist on archiving artifacts from smear campaigns between white politicians every election season. But we need to forever archive demeaning racist cartoons?
You'd have more of a case defending "Song of the South," which at least has artistic merit. We lose a musical experience with that one.
It's the "vampire" problem...immortality is not a good thing. Outdated/bad ideas are supposed to fade with the flow of time, not spread forever for later "research."
The counterexample is that some of us (including myself) are digital archivists.
I think it's worse in institutionally 'forgetting' via censorship, than to having that media.
I also think it would be improper to sell that content, as it'd be profiting on racism and sexism.
To the point, this set of files also included Fantasia, Songs of the South, WWII propaganda by Disney and Looney Tunes, and more.
Just because parts of history are horrific, does not mean we should self-censor and remove the uncomfortable parts from our collective memories. Frankly, these videos belong in a museum, or archive.org .
Why do you feel this is worth preserving? It's designed to evoke positive emotion (laughter) and outrage/hatred about something we don't condone anymore. In addition to being propaganda, outside the context of warmongering, it's toxic.
We don't insist on archiving artifacts from smear campaigns between white politicians every election season. But we need to forever archive demeaning racist cartoons?
You'd have more of a case defending "Song of the South," which at least has artistic merit. We lose a musical experience with that one.
It's the "vampire" problem...immortality is not a good thing. Outdated/bad ideas are supposed to fade with the flow of time, not spread forever for later "research."