The stupidity, it burns!
Been a time ago since I last posted (my 2 followers are probably upset). But never mind that. As I browsed The Escapist today (I highly recommend that site, check it out) and looked through the recent news in gaming, I came across this:
- According to a staff writer at The Orange County Register, videogames were created by Satan to turn children into “drooling, glassy-eyed stooges.” And it gets worse from there.
Marla Jo Fisher refers to herself as a “Frumpy Middle-Aged Mom” on The Mom Blog. Her post from December 27th was called “Videogames Were Invented By The Devil” and it details why she doesn’t allow games to enter her house. Despite the fact that she looks and reads like the fictional columnist at the Onion, Jean Teasdale, her anti-gaming message is all too real.
“After my son plays [videogames] at his friends’ houses, he comes home irritable and testy for the rest of the day,” she said. “Even though his skin is normally mocha-colored, after a day spent in a darkened room with a controller in his hand, he comes home with a sickly pallor.”
Fisher goes on complaining that she sees kids playing games everywhere, “On one horrible afternoon that scarred me for life, I even saw a kid walking out of the public library playing a Nintendo DS.”
From there, she extrapolates that kids are dumb and starts rewriting history:
When do kids ever think these days? When do they ever have brains free from electronics long enough to ponder the universe? To think of things that might someday lead them to a cure for cancer?
If Sir Isaac Newton had been playing a DS, I’m sure he never would have noticed the apple falling from the tree, so he never would have formulated the theory of gravity.
I’m going to refrain from commenting further on this article. I leave that to you, faithful denizens. -
Ugh, I’m just tired of it. I’m sick of this crap. Parents blaming a media that carries just as much guilt as any other electronic media, hell, even as much guilt as my radiator (those radiators, they’re plotting against us!). They have no valid arguments for this kind of thing, yet they still get the chance to talk in the media, while gamers who would love to speak for their own cause gets stuck sitting on their ass watching how these people keep blabbering on the TV. Oh, the wonders of the magic talking box!
The day they hire speakers on gamer’s behalf to debate these nutjobs, I will be the first in line. I will go through history of gaming, explain how gaming has not done anything bad, but in fact has also helped people(wanna ask how I have an A in English?) and best of all, shut up those idiots (I was going to write something much worse, but I hesitated) who try to destroy a media like they’re the almighty prophets of God. There is a simple solution to making your child not play games. Don’t buy him/her the fucking game and be a “good” parent!
And stop preaching to other people to stop gaming. I know how to handle my own life, no self-important bitch of a mother should walk past me and just take it from me. I’m happy as a gamer, I’ve met people through gaming, I joined The Escapist through gaming and have met some of the smartest people I’ve ever talked to. If gaming wasn’t there, I’d just be another depressed child sitting in my room, thinking if I should jump out the window. No, I’m not referring to emo or anything like that if that’s what you think, my point is that gaming has not only been a fun little hobby, but a life-saver to me. It has saved me from depression many times the last few years through the simple actions of distracting my brain from real life. Don’t people understand? We can simply ask how many have “ruined their lives” through gaming and the gaming community. Most would probably say that gaming has improved their lives, without having to lie!
If there’s one thing religion has made itself ironic over, it’s that people oppress other people through imposing their values on them. Yeah, that’ll get you into Heaven. Liberate a group of people of their choice. (“Hey, turns out we were wrong. It says “Deliver us from free will”, not “Deliver us from evil”") Doesn’t matter how small the group is, doing that is “the devil’s work”, if we are to speak in their terms. God, these people piss me off. If it’s my God that is real, he’ll be existentially face-palming over the universe (I’m a deist).
Let’s see, what more is there to say here…? Oh right, you were scarred by seeing a child walk out of a library with a DS? First of all, I applaud you for knowing what a DS is, you know have 0.0000000001 more respect from me. But seriously, did games kill your entire family or what? There is no, and I repeat, no good argument against gaming I have seen. One day when I get time and get the chance, I will speak against this bullshit. Because gamers never get a say, and it need to be said so that people realize that gaming is a good thing. It’s true, gaming has affected my life, for the better and for the worse. I’m not the coolest kid in the club, but that instead triggered that instead of becoming an idiot frat boy with no brain, I used my time alone in the dark reading on things that interested me. I read politics, I read science, and my biggest achievement, I found my dream of becoming a musician. I’m not saying we should all be sad loners, but we make our choices in life, and just because it looks bad, doesn’t mean it is. And who the fuck are those parents to criticize my life style when I’m perfectly happy?
Also, if I could get any person to hold this little speech in public, I’d resurrect the spirit of George Carlin. He’d be perfect for the job.
