Fox News Host Wants to Monitor Your Gaming Habits

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Fox News Host Wants to Monitor Your Gaming Habits

Fox & Friends host Elizabeth Hasselbeck

Aaaand that was enough for me. Every time I see a quote of hers the quoter has to insist she's not on the parody side of Poe's Law.

Anyone whose broadcasting history highlights are The View and Fox News isn't worth my time.

First off, I love your Touhou yukkuri avatar.

And yeah, secondly, it's hard to really believe that people can say things like this with a straight face.
These people are basically going on the defensive of guns and bashing gun control, and then asking for video game control.

I can't see anything here other than neophobia and blind adherence to an ideology. Guns are old technology and part of the conservative/Republican agenda, so they love guns. But video games are what the kids under the age of 30 years old who vote Democrat have as a hobby, so of course they're evil.

I can't think of any other reason someone would say something so ridiculous aloud.

 

[Something Amyss]

Fox News, ever fan of big government.

Unless "big government" means income taxes, then big government is evil and Obama is a socialist.
Hey conservatives, stop trying to push big government down my throat.

Of course, it's totally not "big government" when they want it.

 

[Something Amyss]

In fact, US gun laws prevented him from actually acquiring a rifle.

One state's laws prevented him from it. Let's be clear here. If this were another state, the outcome would likely be a different one. And since mental health and a history of violence (including with firearms) aren't enough to preclude him, this is a pretty important deal here.

 

[Gorrath]

I find it hilarious that Fox News, long time advocates of smaller government and less intrusion into private lives, would even dare to suggest that the government track individual purchases of games. Federal, state, and local governments can't even track adopted children for crying out loud. How would they remain aware of millions of game purchases?

That's the thing though, much of the GOP has totally shifted its platform on this while maintaining that its still an important focus. We don't have a big government party and a small government party, we have two big government parties. The old GOP mantra of "Stay out of our personal business!" has become "Stay out of MY personal business, but pry into my neighbor's!" Fox news and much of the rest of the GOP have nothing to do with small government or less intrusion into private lives.

 

[Micalas]

Host Elizabeth Hasselbeck meanwhile suggested that perhaps the government should begin monitoring game purchases to help single out "people susceptible to playing videogames."

People susceptible to playing video games? You mean like everyone? Video games aren't like the flu when the elderly and children are more "susceptible." Video games are products, not airbourne illnesses.

This story proves one thing without doubt. Video games lead to rude behavior such as overstaying your welcome and causing polite people to feed you instead of asking you to leave.. With that said, I have a friend with an xbox and I'm STARVING. See ya!!

Yeah, I was a little perplexed about that. I'm a damn polite person, but when it's time for someone to get the hell out, it's time for them to get the hell out.

 

[DrOswald]

In fact, US gun laws prevented him from actually acquiring a rifle.

One state's laws prevented him from it. Let's be clear here. If this were another state, the outcome would likely be a different one. And since mental health and a history of violence (including with firearms) aren't enough to preclude him, this is a pretty important deal here.

I never said that we don't need better gun laws (in fact I said I was an advocate of gun control) and I do think that he was able to obtain the shotgun in this way is a big problem. In fact, this is a great place to start and is how we should be approaching this incident. But that is not what Goliath100 did. He jumped to a conclusion and used this incident to condemn laws related to high capacity rifle magazines when a rifle was not used.

My point was that if we misrepresent the facts of an incident to support our preconceived opinions then no one will take us seriously because they shouldn't. If we ignore the facts of an incident because we want to push our agenda then we are ignorant reactionaries who should be ignored. We become Fox News, just on the other side.

 

[lacktheknack]

I say that we unleash Rush Limbaugh on them. The fighting would be glorious.

 

[Something Amyss]

My point was that if we misrepresent the facts of an incident to support our preconceived opinions then no one will take us seriously because they shouldn't.

And my point was, very specifically, that there was an important point you glossed over. Nothing more. I honestly don't are if you're pro-gun, anti-gun, or half-gun on your father's side. My point is one that you should appreciate, given the point you say you're making. I find it kind of weird that you would make such a point and leave out rather pertinent details.

And the gaming community already is Fox News.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Again, it's FOX, so duh.

Yeah, it's kind of one of those things that, as soon as you see the name FOX, you know what you're going to get. Rupert Murdoch has been driving that company into the ground. So much so that I feel sorry for whomever need to pick the image of the company back up after he is gone. I can't look at a FOX brand anything anymore without cringing.

For years, we've been at a point which absolutely nothing that FOX News can say that would shock people. They're a neverending mine for this sort of shock material. To where that people have developed a "don't feed the you-know-what" mentality.

People oft resent people anymore even mentioning any crazy thing that FOX has done as feeding a group no longer worthy of note. To the general populace, they seem more like a child acting out to get attention that a news group. Everyone is used to their antics and hardly anyone is shocked.

 

[DrOswald]

My point was that if we misrepresent the facts of an incident to support our preconceived opinions then no one will take us seriously because they shouldn't.

And my point was, very specifically, that there was an important point you glossed over. Nothing more. I honestly don't are if you're pro-gun, anti-gun, or half-gun on your father's side. My point is one that you should appreciate, given the point you say you're making. I find it kind of weird that you would make such a point and leave out rather pertinent details.

And the gaming community already is Fox News.

The details I glossed over are important to the gun control discussion at large, not to the point I was making.

How and why the AR was not sold isn't important to my point. Whatever the laws were the important fact is that they prevented him getting an AR-15 and no assault weapon was used in the shooting. We cannot complain about the sale of assault weapons while pointing to a situation where an assault weapon was successfully denied by law. It makes us look like idiots and damages the cause. Whether it was federal or state law that prevented it does not matter.

And in any case, it was a federal law that prevented the sale of the weapon. Had it been up to state laws he would have been able to buy it but federal law prevented this because he was not a resident of the state he was attempting to purchase the gun in (or at least he could not prove residency.) This is specifically a case where federal law prevented an AR-15 getting into the hands of a mass shooter. The shotgun did not fall under the same federal laws and could be sold.

 

[Formica Archonis]

First off, I love your Touhou yukkuri avatar.

Thank you!

And yeah, secondly, it's hard to really believe that people can say things like this with a straight face.
These people are basically going on the defensive of guns and bashing gun control, and then asking for video game control.

I can't see anything here other than neophobia and blind adherence to an ideology.

I'd bank on the blind adherence more. A LOT of 'newscasters' these days seem to be little more than mouthpieces spitting out talking points for whichever party their network is buddy-buddy with.

 

[Baresark]

You are misreading it all. There is active tracking and registration of firearms in US.

And yet the pro-gun lobby is screaming about a dark dystopian future where this comes to pass.

You can see why they might be a touch confused.

Then again, our politicians are too stupid to know what's in the Constitution, so you can see why I'm not even a touch surprised.

That is a fair assessment. The gun lobbyists are following the old slippery slope fallacy. If you bann one gun, then inevitably all guns will be banned. Also, tracking of a thing means that thing will be banned. Unfortunately, this also applies to stories like this. Everyone gets concerned because some media talking head suggests something that is really kind of stupid. With that kind of reasoning, we should be carding kids who want to buy snickers bars because of the Obesity problem in America.

Edit: What is with the case sensitive Captcha's, c'mon, user your reason. It's bad enough they show up for every post anyway.

 

[SuperScrub]

The registration and tracking of firearms sales? Absurd.

The registration and tracking of video games sales? Totally legit.

Only in America.

Ya gotta love how they immediately skirt the issue of gun control and jump to the scapegoat of the day.

It's strange in America... It doesn't matter who the victim is, from a school full of children to the President of the United States, It will NEVER squelch America's love affair with the gun.

***ALSO***

A mentally questionable person with access to videogames is NOT a threat.

A mentally questionable person with access to firearms IS a threat.

You are misreading it all. There is active tracking and registration of firearms in US. When you legally buy a gun on US soil, the government knows about it. There is a common ignorance found with most people outside the US and that is that we have unrestricted gun ownership, and you are all completely wrong. You cannot buy a firearm anywhere on US soil without a background check being done, legally speaking. But last time I checked, there are illegal firearms on every single continent, regardless of the laws. He legally owned a gun, but that doesn't automatically make him crazy enough to open fire on a bunch of people. He played violent videogames, that doesn't automatically mean he is going to arm himself and shoot people.

OT:

Both the discussion of blaming guns and the discussion of blaming video games are both red herrings. Neither of these things are to blame for the actions of one mentally disturbed individual. It doesn't make sense to bann either of them outright because it's not logical at all to make everyone who isn't crazy, pay for the crazies. The vast majority of people who play videogames will never commit a crime like this, if any crime at all. The vast majority of the people who own guns out there will never commit murder with them or rob someone at gunpoint. But it's the instant go to for people who are actually quite ignorant about guns, just like videogames are the go to for people who are ignorant about videogames. I'm not going to sit here and argue that him having a gun or access to a firearm wasn't a problem though. Clearly, if had he no access to a firearm then this particular tragedy would not have been so bad. But the discussion should not be reduced to, "It's all videogames for being murder simulators!". Likewise, the argument that if guns weren't so prevalent in the US then this wouldn't have happened, are not benefificial because you are basing any argument off of something that cannot be tested. If your argument is not falsifiable then it's based off of a fallacy. And I would reduce the arguments of Look at countries A,B and C as special pleading simply because those places are not this place with this situation.

Meh, that was fun if not completely pointless. I'm not really looking to get into any arguments with anyone, I'm not even a gun owner. I don't like them, I have seen the damage they can do and I'm not interested in shooting anyone. Likewise, I'm not realistically at any actual risk of getting shot by a crazy, or I should say the risk is so small that I'm not actually concerned. There is only a .00103% (math is not my strong point... so my decimal may not be totally correct) chance of me dying due to some form of firearm. As Kahneman pointed out, the human brain is so ill equipped to handle this percentage, it carries a LOT More decision weight than it should. I just can't stand when arguments are over simplified is all. Also... who can really stand so called "discussions" on Fox News. The people who watch it are already convinced that the gun control situation is perfect (not a point any sane person would take, despite my defense of the whole thing it can clearly use work) and they don't even want to chalk it up to mental health because of Obamacare (which I don't agree with at all because it's fucking me out of my health insurance at the end of this year) and healthcare costs. Too "socialist" for them.

Finally a fellow gamer who realizes the hypocrisy in saying that we shouldn't regulate video games but we should totally ban guns because those are bad. And it's nice to see that you did it in a way that was mature and well explained as well. Kudos to you buddy.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Again, it's FOX, so duh.

Yeah, it's kind of one of those things that, as soon as you see the name FOX, you know what you're going to get. Rupert Murdoch has been driving that company into the ground. So much so that I feel sorry for whomever need to pick the image of the company back up after he is gone. I can't look at a FOX brand anything anymore without cringing.

For years, we've been at a point which absolutely nothing that FOX News can say that would shock people. They're a neverending mine for this sort of shock material. To where that people have developed a "don't feed the you-know-what" mentality.

People oft resent people anymore even mentioning any crazy thing that FOX has done as feeding a group no longer worthy of note. To the general populace, they seem more like a child acting out to get attention that a news group. Everyone is used to their antics and hardly anyone is shocked.

Yeah, but the sick part is I do personally know people who take FOX offerings seriously and consider them credible news. Mostly situated in the extended family section of my life. It's chilling to realize what I look at as "pfft, FOX again, silly entertainment news!" they see as "the truth everyone else is too liberal/afraid to report!"

 

[SuperScrub]

Ugh, more bickering between anti-gaming nuts and anti-gun nuts. Why isn't there an "anti insane people who like to commit murder" group I can join. America is a bad place to be if you love both guns and video games.

Hey if you ever manage to create such a group let me know if I can join because that group sounds awesome.

 

[Something Amyss]

How and why the AR was not sold isn't important to my point.

Only if you don't hold yourself to the same standards you have applied to others. In which case, it's not worth making the point in the first place. One minute you're all "if we aren't honest about all the details, then we're just as bad as Fox News" and the next "that's detrimental to my point so ignore it."

You omitted part of the context you were trying to add, which comes off as completely dishonest.

 

[sonofliber]

wait Another shooting?, im sorry if this sounds assholly but is mass shooting some sort of american national pastime?, i mean how many shootings happened in your country since the connecticut one?

 

[snowbear]

I love this...

so this is essentially what people that are blaming games are saying?

Lets see what connects these mass shootings, what could be to blame.

Well they all used guns?
*cough* yes *cough*
are guns a problem?
*cough* no *cough*
Should we restrict guns for civs?
Hell no its our right to have a gun

They all played games?
Yes all the time, like hours at a time and they were really violent games too.
Is it the games fault?
Might be, no real proof, but I would say so
Should be restrict violent games?
YES MOST DEFINITELY
Would it be against peoples rights to force them to stop playing games they want?
No not if its for the good of humanity...


I wonder how long it is until they take the wii u's idea of not being able to download adult content until night time a step further and not let us play adult games until after the watershed?

 

[FoolKiller]

Because, you know, you can totally kill people with a videogame. As we all know, games kill people. Not people, who buy firearms or somehow find firearms. It's not because the society, bad medication, bad education, bad upbringing and the rest make total nutjobs out of people. No, it's those deranged videogames. Please, tell me more about how Harry Potter and DnD promote satanism.

Technically you can kill someone with a videogame, if you snap the disc in half.

Another reason digital downloads should be the norm

As for the topic, I'm not going to bother because arguing with stupid people is stupid as they're too stupid to realize that they're stupid.

 

[Subscriptism]

Monitoring people's purchases of guns is a horrible infringement of freedoms.
Monitoring people's video game purchases? Nothing wrong with that.

Just the normal Fox News bollocks, carry on people.