Republicans Luring Youths With Video Games

[Dr. wonderful]

These people are the demons reincarnated...Hell they're even moar annoying!

 

[DTWolfwood]

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Stop missing the point you mooks

the one sided and overblown reaction to a SINGLE event is the point here. I can give 2 shits about you conservatives playing games or not or that FOX is baiting you. OR that democrats bash games too.

just damn funny when fox does anything that try to make themselves look young and 'hip'. its like grandma wearing hotpants. (yeah don't like that image do yah hah! >:3 )

 

[Starke]

Of course we're more warlike. Back then we just sat around and let Hitler teabag Europe. Now we go to war based on fuzzy pictures from five miles up. How is it that during the Cuban Missile Crisis you could see the missiles clear as day pointed right at the camera, but after 40 years the picture has gotten worse?

Objectivism is more than just fiscally conservative. Ayn Rand forgot that humans are social animals. We're not some solitary hunter, we're not even pack hunters, we're insects in a hive. Yes, in Rapture the smartest and the strongest could thrive, but it was inevitable that a lower class would form, people being unequal. And as soon as that lower class outnumbered the people who had stayed on top, the outcome was determined. Rand thought the individual is more important than the society. It's an appealing notion, and most people believe it, but it's an illusion fostered by luxury. When things fall apart, the importance of the individual becomes apparent. Remember, all those bodies in the street were once individuals too. This is the problem with objectivism, anarchism, any utopian system really. They work wonderfully...for about a month. Then the elements of society that were disenfranchised band together, or people learn how to exploit the system, and you've got counterrevolution. The end result is usually brutal communist dictatorship. But you know what? Republicans would hate Ryan because of his opinion on religion. The party as a whole whored out after the Nixon disaster, and they haven't said anything I've agreed with since. Except for their stance on gun control.

EDIT: Sorry, I don't know what happened with the quotes.

Yeah, the quote tags aren't working properly. I'm just axing the begining of the post.

Warlike may have been a poor choice of words on my part. Bloodthursty would probably be a better, if more provocative, choice.

As for Rapture and Rand, it looks to me like what you've got is a Marxist critique of Rand, which would have been a hell of a lot meatier than what Bioshock did give us.

 

[A1]

Considering how republicans lead the games are destroying our youth bandwagon, I find the hypocrisy of using games hilarious.

You read my mind. Well said.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I am so glad that I don't live in America. I mean, I thought British politicians piss me off, but American ones take it to a whole new level.

Although I almost wish they did something like this over here. 'Dave' Cameron vs Brown in a MW2 deathmatch? I guess old 'Dave' would use the noob, he likes a cheap shot.

 

[BonsaiK]

Someone should clue Michael Atkinson into this kind of strategy.

 

[A1]

Dear Rebuplican party. spending the majority of your air time bashing video games, claiming that they corrupt and destroy the morals of your countries youth, and then using the VERY SAME video games to lure the children you claim to care so much about to listen to your political parties ideals is both Hypocritical and diabolical. Please stop. Please.

Ironically this can be said about all politicians, lol.

Sad but true. The political world is full of compromise. So many politicians are like tall blades of grass. They may bend one way one day and bend the other way on some other day. It all depends of whichever way the wind is blowing. Or in other words they may take one position but then swiftly abandon it if it ever becomes inconvenient for them. And most, if not all, politicians tend to be prone to this regardless of political affiliation.

This is of course not to say that the opposite composition is any better. Being too rigid and inflexible in the face of the wind can be equally as problematic as being bendable. I suppose a good example in a work of fiction would be Rorschach from Watchmen. His final fate was most unfortunate because he refused to compromise. If you refuse to bend in the face of the wind then you may simply break instead.

 

[The Ultimate 2]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, HULK SMASH LAME MAN!!!

 

[Marsell]

Republicans? Saying something good about VGs?
goodness, perhaps I should quickly look outside and see if the sky is'nt falling, or if the rivers arent running red with blood!

 

[lvl9000_woot]

Just more proof that politics as a whole is a con-game run by large corporations against the average person.

I agree 110%. Sneaky tactics like this shows they can't gain enough support from more working class adults. Here's what I think took place:

man 1:"We're going to try to brainwash their kids"
man 2:"Awesome idea! But how?"

man 1:"Videogames and buzz words!"
man 2:"Fantastic! And how many are able to vote?"

man 1:"Out of the 250 people who showed up?"
man 2:"yeah"

man 1:"about 10"
man 2:"XD"

 

[Cody211282]

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Stop missing the point you mooks

the one sided and overblown reaction to a SINGLE event is the point here. I can give 2 shits about you conservatives playing games or not or that FOX is baiting you. OR that democrats bash games too.

just damn funny when fox does anything that try to make themselves look young and 'hip'. its like grandma wearing hotpants. (yeah don't like that image do yah hah! >:3 )

Did I mention anything to defend fox at all?

 

[A1]

Considering how republicans lead the games are destroying our youth bandwagon, I find the hypocrisy of using games hilarious.

Actually this is not true. Quite the opposite actually. People on both sides of the fence have been involved in this issue, but those running point have by and large been liberals. Hlllary Clinton for example was insturmental in, and acted as the face of the entire Hot Coffee scandal.

Right now you see so many attacks on games at least in the US because we have a liberal run goverment, and the democrats basically want to limit the right to free speech and expression. Both to put more power in the hands of the goverment in general, but also to promote their agenda which they feel is well intentioned if "sort sighted". Consider that it's been a left wing policy for a long time to try and ban or censor anything they don't like or care for as "hate speech". To really follow through on that, they need to get the door opened for the goverment to have the abillity to engage in subjective censorship, much like what Australia has been trying to do with The Internet. Things like video games help to establish that precedent.

There are definatly some Republicans who have been involved as well for various reasons, but I think that is turning around, and even people who don't like a lot of what is in games are admitting that censoring them is wrong. Republicans for all the hype being very much against the federal goverment being able to tell you what you can and cannot do or say.

I'm sure many will disagree with me, but that's simply how things are, and I've been following this for years... before it became such a hot topic.

One of the reasons why I think there has been so much of a problem fighting censorship movements is because a lot of people tend to ASSUME the left wing is for "the people" and their freedom. Thus without examining the issues closely they wind up voting for the people they think are going to fight these trends, while actually supporting those that are responsible. Despite being mentioned by many (myself included) you'll find a lot of people in the gaming community do not realize the extent of the role played by Hillary Clinton in Hot Coffee which got the ball rolling.

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That said the idea of the Republicans taking this approach is NOT new. "Young Republicans" have been around virtually forever, as have conservative youth movements, charities, and other things. You just don't hear about them, because they are generally lower key than liberal equivilents who pimp themselves out to the public screaming "look at what we do for the community!". This is noteworthy mainly because it's a direct attempt at a political rally using video games. I suspect a good part of the idea is to both show that one of the big "enemies" has changed sides, and to point out where the chips are actually falling here.

I could be proved wrong of course, but having Call Of Duty in paticular given the outcry seems intended to make a point.

The bottom line is that this isn't in any way new, and all jokes about awkwardness aside, The Republicans have been at this for a good while.

Or to quote one of my favorite politicians:

" Democrats are for women and beer. Republicans are for HOT women, and COLD beer "

Oh, give me a break.

More facts and less propaganda please. Hillary Clinton is just one person. I could just as easily pull out names from the other side of the political spectrum with positions notably similar to hers such as Bill O'Reilly, Jack Thompson, and arguably Newt Gingrich.

And please don't try to frame conservatives as the champions of free speech or anything of the like. Let's not forget the intense conservative backlash that ensued when the Dixie Chicks spoke out against George W. Bush. Backlash which by the way included physical threats.

Both political parties it would seem have a tendency to be hostile to ideas other than their own. I think it's safe to say that neither party really has any solid claim to the high ground on this particular issue.


And with regard to this specific topic the hypocrisy label is appropriate, or at least appropriate enough, here because Kevin McCullough previously and notably spoke out against Mass Effect before apparently doing a 180 and resorting to this kind of thing.

 

[McMarbles]

For me, that's more of a reason to hate Call of Duty than a reason to like Republicans.

 

[Towels]

As much as I find this kind of pandering insulting, it does give me heart:

Video games are becoming more and more respected as an entertainment/artistic medium because gamers are becoming a signifigant part of the voting population. These kind of things happened to Radio, Movies, and television, and now its Video Game's turn.

Perhaps the video game industry will form lobbyist groups. If a group thinks the way I do about censorship and net neutrality (Absolve censorship, grant neutrality) then I'm in. Then politicians would really take gamers seriously.

 

[James Raynor]

lol bribery.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I didn't mean to imply that the conspiracies in Deus Ex were somehow liberal ones, I was refering to a different recurring theme in the game.

Okay, I can see that now. I actually saw it as partly conservative in its own rights, because much of the game was against large government, and traditional conservativism is about more power to states and less large scale government (not neo-conservativism, hell no; neo-conservatives found actual conservativism to be inadequate for their dreams of total power over government).
But the game wasn't exactly strong politically either way. It certainly wasn't a platform for political strawmen, because none of it conformed to either side perfectly. Which is what I liked about it. It was more about ideas than it was about politics.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Deus Ex was libertarian, but there were some liberal leanings. Not really the main conspiracies, but some of the side ones deserve a second look.

1. Surveillance through the internet (Icarus) I would have chalked up to neutral, but after Bush I feel snooping to be conservative.

2. You defend Vandenburg with Communist Chinese mechs.

3. RX-84 was a real program approved by Reagan, but it's a contingency plan that's never been put into practice.

4. Notice how the big bad guy wasn't the government agent, even if he was the toughest fight, but the power-hungry businessman (Page).

5. Tapering with public water supplies. This one is a conspiracy Republicans have been worried about since McCarthy, so Deus Ex isn't all liberal.

And the endings had you siding with the New World order (liberal), blowing it all up (Luddite), or becoming God. It's not until the second game that there's a conservative ending (Templar). If you read interviews with Warren Spector, he comes across as somewhat liberal. I expected to find an AIDS cure in one of those labs.

Why would Republicans hate games, when so many games are gun porn? Shouldn't the left hate games more? It seems like the right hates RPGs, while the left hate shooters. And they both hate GTA.

It's kind of unsettling that the GOP likes playing MW2, considering about how its a future war with Russia. Bush should have played SimCity. (Floods in New Orleans! Fires in LA!)It would be hilarious if they played Bioshock at that conference. I wonder if any of them would disagree with Ryan?

1. Surveillance *is* neutral. Both sides do it fairly frequently, it's just that the republicans were the first to do it on a grand scale and they got caught.
2. Very interesting indeed.
3. Knew that.
4. Again, both parties are in bed with lobbyists and special interests groups. I honestly can't figure out why the republicans get more criticism for this when neither side can take the moral high ground.
5. I'd heard that one, but I actually didn't know that was primarily Republican. Interesting.

What I can't figure out is why either side gives a shit. There never has been any conclusive evidence to suggest that video games have any effect on people. Never. You would think that both parties would be falling all over it trying to use it as a medium to get a message across to the youth. I'm just fairly glad that neither side has made a concerted effort to taint games with politics. Although, this may be changing (please, God, don't let it happen).

 

[chronobreak]

I guess you think the young politically active crowd is very easily "lured" by video games to a political conference. Or, maybe the conference is the important part, and you don't go to the XPAC lounge unless you are a conference attender. Find me a story of someone being lured by some video games, then I will believe it. Until then, all this story does is try to belittle the conference because they chose to do something to appeal to gamers. If anything, we should be happy about this, and be able to put partisan bullshit aside, but then the article would have to be titled "Gamers get recognized at CPAC!".