Parents Group Denounces Supreme Court Decision
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
Seconded...Drummie666 said:
It isn't like this ruling adds a new tax to your bills, forcing you to pay for violent games that the government is forcing onto your computers. It just highlights the obvious: Allowing the anti-gaming community to be in control of the gaming community will lead to violations of the First Amendment when they begin to ban games simply because they think this type of media is 'bad' for people. If you ask me, it pretty much is how the supreme court has outlined it and if we give them the power to say which games get sold, period, then... yeah, games will be banned simply for being games.
It is my honest opinion, after decades of watching politics and general social mentalities, that all these anti-game cries stem from a clash of two things. It isn't a concern about mental health, it isn't a concern about desensitizing us to violence and sex and it isn't even a concern that they might harm society as a whole. It comes down to simply "I can't understand why people like this" coupled with the the egotistical belief that they are the only ones worthy of having an opinion on the matter. That the rest of us somehow 'too stupid for their own good' and need a firm dictatorship like hand to be kept in line unless we move further away from the 'correct path.'
Added for clarification: From this point forward, any questions directed to 'you' will be for the anti-gamers and not good old Drummie666.
It begs a simple question:
Why do you think that other people should be forbidden from entertaining themselves in a method that does not directly hurt another?
Strip away the excuses which are nothing more then 'means to an end' and give me the solid reason why you think I should not enjoy this. While we are here, you might as well also inform me on why I should be paying more then a second to you on any other topic as well. From where I am sitting, people like you do not even have the right to tell me how I should be living on any matter, not just this one.
This is my background at the moment:
I am entering my thirties now and have grown up chewing on ram sticks. I played games on the old Atari systems, messed around with C64s and may have even been one of the few Australians to have a PC in my home while many where even wondering what a computer was. I grew up on violent video games, I was there to see the birth of the FPS market. I am many things, and one is clearly a gamer through and through.
Yet!
I have not killed anyone, I have not even assaulted another person and I do not partake in any physical acts, such as competitive sports, that could lead to the physical harm of another. The only fights I have been in where for self-defense and that was as a child. These few fights where often after ignoring a bully, which is the advice people like you give on that topic, till they turned it physical to try and get a response from me. Since turning into an adult I have not been in any physical confrontation outside of 'horse play' with friends and I do not look forward to the results of my actions should it come to a true physical confrontation.
Not only am I a pacifist but I feel one of the few people on this earth that will give more then just humans the right to life. Don't think I am a militant vegetarian or the likes and dismiss me out hand, all of us continue to live here only because something else dies and I will accept death as part of life. However, where you think nothing of standing on a bug I morn that senseless act which has cost something it's life. The further away the animal might be from appreciating life it actually has, the more respect for it's life we should be giving it and the more tragic it's death.
If violent video games are really that much of a problem to children then someone like myself could not possibly exist. Yet here I am, probably one of the worlds largest 'pussies' as others are no doubt thinking right now. Here I am indeed, a violent game in one hand and a firm grasp of morality in the other.
So what is the real reason... prey tell... that you feel I should bow down to your will on this matter?
The Parents Television council is mad. Very mad. In fact, they're so mad, that they aren't going to accept the lemons the supreme court has just given them and make lemonade. Hell no! They're going to make the Supreme Court take the lemons back! They're going to go to the supreme court and say "Do you know who we are? We're ones who are going to burn your building down! With Lemons!"
Damn You, Cave Johnson! Get out of my head!
Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm glad the Supreme court came to the right decision and realized that just because you don't like what a game has to say, or maybe it doesn't have anything to say at all, doesn't mean it's less valid as an art for as say "Twilight" or "Cather in the Rye".
Damn You, Cave Johnson! Get out of my head!
Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm glad the Supreme court came to the right decision and realized that just because you don't like what a game has to say, or maybe it doesn't have anything to say at all, doesn't mean it's less valid as an art for as say "Twilight" or "Cather in the Rye".
People here keep saying that these jerks are probably irresponsible parents, but I honestly don't think that to be the case. Now if anyone ever finds this comment after 9 pages, I urge you to not move on thinking "oh, this guy's just a troll".
Given their zealous nature, they probably do enforce this behavior on their own children, but it appalls them that any other methods exist. It's not that they can't control their kids, they just can't stand the fact that it exists, and want to eliminate it, just as I have an absolute loathing for anything to do with Pokemon, key difference being that I don't actually do anything about it. They think that their kids are coming out nicely as good little evangelical Christians, and that is the only acceptable outcome. They then apply this rage against whatever they don't like and call it "filthy" and "corrupting". Because of this I see the situation as an attempt to impose their values on the entire community through government authority, just like with refusing to allow marriage status to homosexuals, or trying to impose creationism on public school systems.
Given their zealous nature, they probably do enforce this behavior on their own children, but it appalls them that any other methods exist. It's not that they can't control their kids, they just can't stand the fact that it exists, and want to eliminate it, just as I have an absolute loathing for anything to do with Pokemon, key difference being that I don't actually do anything about it. They think that their kids are coming out nicely as good little evangelical Christians, and that is the only acceptable outcome. They then apply this rage against whatever they don't like and call it "filthy" and "corrupting". Because of this I see the situation as an attempt to impose their values on the entire community through government authority, just like with refusing to allow marriage status to homosexuals, or trying to impose creationism on public school systems.
wait a minute, i'm starting to question everything that's going on. would the law that was overruled by the supreme suppose to ban violent video games entirely? or just sales of such games to minors? i thought M+17 rated games were already not allowed to be sold to minors, so what was the new law going to do in theory?
Just going to say it quickly and painlessly: Power will always be with the parents as long as they have the brains to look into a game first, as well as a spine to say NO despite whining and even threats from their kids.
Governments and private organizations may set out rules, but in the end it's the parent who is the last line when it comes to what kids can get away with.
Governments and private organizations may set out rules, but in the end it's the parent who is the last line when it comes to what kids can get away with.
Actually, no. This ruling preserves the authority of the parents. If the bill were to pass, it would replace the authority of the parents with the authority of the politicians, and if you weren't such a lazy asshole you might understand that.
The United States government is not a fucking day care center, so stop trying to turn it into one. Go raise your own kids and leave our artists alone, they have enough shit to deal with as it is. God, these people >.<
It was going to ban `ultraviolent' games from being sold to minors, by law. M games are, as a general rule, not sold to minors, but that's a decision made by the game retailers, it's not actually the law. It's the same kind of thing that keeps kids from watching R rated movies. If you're a game or movie retailer, you are perfectly within your legal rights to sell violent content to minors, it's just you'll probably get bad rep, so retailers just don't do that.mega48man said:
ok, first, love profile picture, don't tell anyone i said thatDarthFennec said:
second; ok that makes sense. there's no law against selling R rated movies to minors but the retailers don't do anyway to, so i see why that proposed law even though it sounds noble is just silly
thanks yous.
hey assholes shut up and do some freaking parenting!
is it so feaking hard to check the ESRB rating box on the back of your kids game or even look up the games contents on the internet? f-ing NO so SHUT UP!
is it so feaking hard to check the ESRB rating box on the back of your kids game or even look up the games contents on the internet? f-ing NO so SHUT UP!
Because video games are now protected under the 1st amendment, does this mean that they are now considered art? And what ever happened to California's attempt to ban violent video games?
Then why restrict the sale of anything to children? Guns, tattoos, alcohol, all of this should be able to be purchased by children, right? I mean, if kids end up buying it, clearly it's because of EPICFAIL LULZ on the parents' part, right?Kunzer said:
I agreed with Justice Scalia's opinion, but one of the dissenting Justices--Breyer--asked an excellent question: [http://docs.justia.com/cases/supreme/slip/564/08-1448/dissent2.pdf]
But what sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13-year-old boy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting a sale to that 13-year-old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds and gags the woman, then tortures and kills her? What kind of First Amendment would permit the government to protect children by restricting sales of that extremely violent video game only when the woman?bound, gagged, tortured, and killed?is also topless?
I've got a strong libertarian streak, so I agree with the outcome on principle, but it seems like there are some laws that people accept as being perfectly reasonable whose reasoning is strikingly similar to the law that was struck down.
Well, THEIR RIGHT BECAUSE ONLY OUR SAVIOR AND GOD CAN DO POWERFUL RULINGS TO GUIDE THE LIVING!
AND MAY THE GOVERNMENT TELL US HOW TO RAISE OUR KIDS TO NOT BE DICKWADS, MAY THEY ALL BE SMITED FOR THE BLIGHTENED ARROGANCE..... And scene, see how convincing that was, with me pretending to side with these people, which are all crazy lunatics. A parent is supposed to be a guide, not a ruler, and only YOU should be a parent, anybody else and it becomes harder on the kids mental state. Kids attach to faces at young age, making their parents more recognizable then others. If your all so worried about games, look at the type of things that happen to kids at any age to 18, especially in public schools, things their being taught can revolve around War, Literature of all types, romantic entanglement to deathly murder, writing to where THEY can choose its own violentness, art to where they learn about art of all forms. Outside influences like bullies and what not, the example I tend to hop to is the kid how got both of his arms broken by 3 bullies, then was forced to stay there crying out of the pain for about an hour before a teacher just leaving school came out and saw the poor kid, reason this happened, because he was a homosexual. A girl who was outgoing, out there, but got bullied so badly because she hung out with a nice other girl who was not popular in the slightest, then her once friends started to turn on her, all except for that one nice girl she DID hang out with, but 1 nice person is not that great with over 60 bullies. From what I know from the story, all those students were in her hoom room, and many also were in her other classes. It got so bad to where she took suicide to escape, the one girl who was her nice friend sat crying at her wake, but every other student took turns spitting in her face, dropping liquids, cakes and anything else there all over her corpse.
My own personal hell came from my 7th grade school. I'm using this example spoilered so you don't have to read my sob story.
In general, if you want your kid to be protected from any form of violence or nudity, they should be blind and depth or never be born, because its a inevitable thing.
AND MAY THE GOVERNMENT TELL US HOW TO RAISE OUR KIDS TO NOT BE DICKWADS, MAY THEY ALL BE SMITED FOR THE BLIGHTENED ARROGANCE..... And scene, see how convincing that was, with me pretending to side with these people, which are all crazy lunatics. A parent is supposed to be a guide, not a ruler, and only YOU should be a parent, anybody else and it becomes harder on the kids mental state. Kids attach to faces at young age, making their parents more recognizable then others. If your all so worried about games, look at the type of things that happen to kids at any age to 18, especially in public schools, things their being taught can revolve around War, Literature of all types, romantic entanglement to deathly murder, writing to where THEY can choose its own violentness, art to where they learn about art of all forms. Outside influences like bullies and what not, the example I tend to hop to is the kid how got both of his arms broken by 3 bullies, then was forced to stay there crying out of the pain for about an hour before a teacher just leaving school came out and saw the poor kid, reason this happened, because he was a homosexual. A girl who was outgoing, out there, but got bullied so badly because she hung out with a nice other girl who was not popular in the slightest, then her once friends started to turn on her, all except for that one nice girl she DID hang out with, but 1 nice person is not that great with over 60 bullies. From what I know from the story, all those students were in her hoom room, and many also were in her other classes. It got so bad to where she took suicide to escape, the one girl who was her nice friend sat crying at her wake, but every other student took turns spitting in her face, dropping liquids, cakes and anything else there all over her corpse.
My own personal hell came from my 7th grade school. I'm using this example spoilered so you don't have to read my sob story.
Ok, sad story time kiddies. Alright, as stated above, this was my first year of middle school. The year started with everyone either not noticing me, or just being slightly kind to me. Then my bus had to stop coming to a specific spot, what happened next was I was forced to sit with a kid named Tucker, he was seemingly nice enough to actual be a friend. But when we started to rear the end of the second trimester, something strange happened, everyone started to shun me, and by shun, I mean SHUN, every single person that had once acted kind enough to be slightly nice to me, started to become asses to me, hatred towards me, or all around regect me. AND no, I did not unveil anything about myself that would ACTUALLY extend to them hating me so badly to tripping my ass down the hall every FREAKING day. [the only thing I can think of was me protecting my favorite science teacher, which all the students saying was gay and there fore was a retarteded nut case, I defended him for simply explaining that science can be studied by anyone. Also, he had a wife, and I do remember him having a phone call with her.]
It then got more violent, being pushed everywhere, having my back pack get kicked all the way down 2 flights of stairs, having my hat stolen, watch stolen and eventually being almost pushed down the stairs. I started to see the school counselor every day, that was the only person who stood up for the student outside of the norm, along with my Social Studies teacher Mr. Kalb and my already stated science teacher. I really couldn't take it and almost went feral on every single kid there for being such asshats that they could claim that their physical ass could be removed and put on their head with comfort, I didn't. I actually went back INTO high depression, eventually enough to leave that school. Only to find out later that my friend Tucker had been pulling shit and leaving me as a patsy, so naturally, EVERYTHING that he did, he blamed on me to gain popularity for himself.
It then got more violent, being pushed everywhere, having my back pack get kicked all the way down 2 flights of stairs, having my hat stolen, watch stolen and eventually being almost pushed down the stairs. I started to see the school counselor every day, that was the only person who stood up for the student outside of the norm, along with my Social Studies teacher Mr. Kalb and my already stated science teacher. I really couldn't take it and almost went feral on every single kid there for being such asshats that they could claim that their physical ass could be removed and put on their head with comfort, I didn't. I actually went back INTO high depression, eventually enough to leave that school. Only to find out later that my friend Tucker had been pulling shit and leaving me as a patsy, so naturally, EVERYTHING that he did, he blamed on me to gain popularity for himself.
In general, if you want your kid to be protected from any form of violence or nudity, they should be blind and depth or never be born, because its a inevitable thing.
The FTC are more like fascists. They want the government to tell everyone that people are incapable of deciding what is appropriate for their children, and so the FTC must dictate what children is allowed, and not the parents, with laws. Its like the FTC wants to parent children themselves.
Shouldn't you make an attempt to personally supervise what your kids play, rather than trying to overturn a law about it so that you don't have to?
Sounds like these are just lazy parents to me...
Sounds like these are just lazy parents to me...