U.S. State Senator Apologizes to Gamers, Insults Them Again

MikeWehner

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Aug 21, 2011
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U.S. State Senator Apologizes to Gamers, Insults Them Again



Leland Yee takes to Twitter to address gamers.

Have you ever had someone apologize to you, but in the course of their apology they end up just making things worse? California Senator Leland Yee just did exactly that via his official Twitter account, addressing comments he made to the San Francisco Chronicle last week that gamers need to "quiet down" in regards to the gun control discussion. In his pseudo-apology, Yee addresses gamers directly, admitting that his choice of words wasn't the best.

"Gamers, I admittedly didnt use best words to SFchron. Meant video game industry has inherent conflict of interest in the gun violence debate," reads Yee's first tweet on the matter. This gem followed shortly thereafter: "I have a lot of respect for many gamers - many are on my staff and in my family - but the industry has profited at the expense of children."

Ah, I think I understand now; It's OK to be a gamer as long as Yee knows you personally, and you either work for him or have the same last name. Of course, his words fell rather flat on the Twitter crowd, with the vast majority of responses calling out his tweets as a rather obvious and hastily-performed exercise in damage control. Still, it's good to hear that Yee doesn't dislike all gamers. Just, you know, the ones he's never met.

Source: GamePolitics [https://twitter.com/LelandYee]

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Blunderboy

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Apr 26, 2011
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Well that's just crap.

I'll have my child slaves draft a letter of complaint as soon as I get home...and let them learn to read...and write.
 

SonicWaffle

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Oct 14, 2009
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MikeWehner said:
Still, it's good to hear that Yee doesn't dislike all gamers. Just, you know, the ones he's never met.


I spotted a mistake! Do I win a prize? Can my prize be a puppy?!

OT: The video game industry has profted at the expense of children, but the fast food industry hasn't? Or literally any other industry which aims products towards children?

Tool.
 

tangoprime

Renegade Interrupt
May 5, 2011
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Oh California...

So, I'm wondering when California legislators are going to start calling out Hollywood for all the violence in movies, y'know, their biggest export/tax base?

I can't seem to find it at the moment, but there's a really great video someone put together with a bunch of major actors calling for gun control, and measures to prevent gun violence, then showing a montage of them shooting people in a dozen or so movies each.
 

Tireseas_v1legacy

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Sep 28, 2009
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As a heads up: it should be "California state senator," as he's a member of the California legislature. "U.S. Senator" is used for Senate members in the US congress.
 

CardinalPiggles

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Jun 24, 2010
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I think I can understand what he means. By game industry, he doesn't mean gamers, he means the businesses. And that's fair enough because the big businesses in the game industry are fucking awful. They're obviously not causing real life gun violence, but they do profit from unfair business.

Still, he is obviously out to ruin games as we know them otherwise he wouldn't have spent this much time on the subject.
 

themilo504

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May 9, 2010
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While I disagree with the guy and this is just shameless damage control I think what he actually means is that he doesn?t hate gamers just the industry which I can understand a bit more.
 

Formica Archonis

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Nov 13, 2009
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I don't hate ni^H^Hgamers, some of my best friends are ni^H^Hgamers.

Also, if he wants to talk about making money off kids, maybe he'd best direct his comments across the aisle to Republican leader Bob Huff, who's the senator for Anaheim. You know, where Disneyland is. Or perhaps at fellow Democrat Curren Price, who has Hollywood in his district.
 

Erttheking

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....Hey Canada? Where is a good place to live there? I may be moving soon.
 

13thforswarn

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So as soon as someone says something about gaming that we don't like, it's an insult? What the guy said was harmless. The author of this article needs to learn the difference between a comment and an insult.
 

TheProfessor234

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Aug 20, 2010
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I don't see the offense in this. Where does he say, "I only respect those I work with and my family."

And I also see his reasoning, kind of. I think he thinks that the industry thinks that if guns get outlawed(or whatever) then game companies wouldn't be able to 'sell' them anymore.

But even then that makes little to no sense.
 

Spartanmk1

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Feb 14, 2011
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See why us Rational Californians consider Yee an idiot? Dude tries to ban violent games, then he tries to ban a safety feature on a firearm, then he supports the practice of removing the fins from sharks for shark fin soup. Who'da thunk that a state senator from San Fran would cause so much trouble...
 

RyQ_TMC

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Apr 24, 2009
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SonicWaffle said:
Can my prize be a puppy?!
Tell ya what, I'll grab a haddock, hack the fins off, stick on some paws and a tiny terragill, and BAM! A cute puppy for you. Can get it done by Thursday.

OT:



That's a really cheap shot, considering that there's a bunch of other industries out there which "profit at the expense of children". Is what he said an insult? No, not really. Is it a cheap, overused argument calculated to draw in a specific profile of voter? Yes, yes it is.
 

Otaku World Order

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Nov 24, 2011
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DVS BSTrD said:
Yes, when it comes to gun control we should let the NRA do the talking. It's not like they have a conflict of interest.
The NRA probably thinks a conflict of interest is something that gets resolved at ten paces with assault rifles.

As for Leland Yee, it must be hard listening to the guy in person when his breath permanently smells like his feet.
 

Entitled

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Aug 27, 2012
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I can't believe he almost literally used the "I have nothing against gamers, some of my best friends are gamers" line, without a hint of irony.
 

maninahat

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themilo504 said:
While I disagree with the guy and this is just shameless damage control I think what he actually means is that he doesn?t hate gamers just the industry which I can understand a bit more.
That's the impression I got. This article felt like a misinterpretation of what he was clearly trying to say ("gamers aren't bad - I know that personally").
 

The Artificially Prolonged

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Jul 15, 2008
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Does that mean the NRA cannot be involved in the gun control debate because of a conflict of interest also? Because I might be okay with that then :p

In serious that is really lousy apology, plus it just shows how little he understands the issues at hand when it comes to the gun control discussion.