U.S. State Senator Apologizes to Gamers, Insults Them Again
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"I mean, I don't judge, man. It's perfectly fine to like video games as long as you just keep it to yourself and don't enlist in the military openly. Wait, what was I talking about?"Entitled said:
If anything, the media's overblown coverage of the Sandy Hook situation was benefiting the deaths of children a helluva lot more than video games ever did.RyQ_TMC said:
It's happened, Video games are just the current boogieman. For all their criticisms of the US, the UK went even crazier with it banning a huge list of so called "Video Nasties".tangoprime said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Nasties
This is nothing new, it's pretty typical for politicians in the western world to want to attack boogiemen and people's freedoms than dealing with the real issues, which are usually big, and touchy, enough to be political suicide so they let the problems get worse while hoping someone else will make the nessicary sacrifices to their personal career to get the provlems solved.
As far as the differance between what Hollywood liberals say and do, yeah... it's been noted for years. One of the big reasons why I don't take the left wing and a lot of it's "faces" seriously, ditto for people who base their positions on what the left wing media says given what a mess it is.
Like Leland Yee, the bottom line seems to be that it's okay as long as they, or people they know do it, but for the rest of us poor pathetic goobers, we need to be protected from outselves, we can't be trusted with our own freedoms.
It's also noteworthy that there is a whole clique-thing involved here and a lot of big money that comes from being a political face. There have been articles on it before. When a celebrity stops being young, hip, and relevent, perhaps moving on to "movies with weight and meaning" since nobody wants to see them in summer popcorn flicks anymore, a good way to stay on screen is to become a "face" for issues and get into politics as a support man. That way you have your money, can push for critical (if not commercial) acclaim as a "serious actor", and can be seen on TV since you'll be given a moment in the spotlight.
One of the first big Hypocrits I followed was Danny Glover. This is a guy who made his name doing movies like "Lethal Weapon", alongside a number of lurid B-movies (I think one was called "Deadly Drifter" or something like that), as well as being well known in the action/B-movie scene to act as the fill in for Arnie in the quick cash grab sequel "Predator 2" which stands out more for combining the Alien and Predator mythologies than being a great movie (though Danny Glover DID do a decent job with it as far as he went). He came out years ago as being an anti-gun/anti-violence advocate, sure he did a few "movies with weight" but the bottom line was this is a guy who came up as an ultra-violent action hero, typically playing a cop who acts as a borderline vigilante (protests for the sake of humor aside).... yeaaah, okay Danny, we believe you weren't just after the exposure. I'm sure you really hated yourself for taking all that money and doing how many Lethal Weapon movies? I'm sure someone held you at gunpoint and made you fight Predator, you didn't want to do it, it wasn't about the money, they held you at gunpoint! Held your kids hostage even.... uh huh.
As much as people should know to ignore the Hollywood left wing on anything, it just doesn't happen.
Okay some basic backround on Mr. Yee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Yee
That's just some very basics. Basically the guy is a chinese-born American immigrant who came into the country at the age of 3, and whose profession before politics was being a Child Psycologist.
What I haven't been able to find here is some of the stuff showing his ties to China, but it came up during this contreversy over shark fins. He's been called racist, and a socialist/commie sell out for a lot of reasons, but one of the more telling moments was because he supported removing fins from sharks for cultural reasons and because it was a delicacy, despite standing up to similar practices when it's come to other issues.
The reason why we need to take Mr. Yee seriously is because he's both the second most senior/powerful Democrat in California, which is one of the most richest and most powerful states in the union, and also represents a token minority in political power being the first Asian to rise to such a position.
He's got his fans, he's got his haters, and his very nature puts him in an unusual position where he's difficult to question or do anything to without raising spectres of racism and discrimination, even while he does ambigious things in the other direction (shark fin contreversy), and apparently maintains some dubious connections to Mainland China. I haven't found anything reliable, but it seems like it's suspected China might also be funding his political campaigns, much like the the accusations for Al Gore.
Jump on that if you want, but I'm trying to give a balanced view of whose being dealt with even if you don't like it.
From the way things seem right now, Mr. Yee seems to mostly be involved in this for the attention. The majority of the left wing is going anti-gun, and attacking free speech and video games, so he's more or less on board. I think his problem is that he's receiving more resistance from the gaming population (on both sides of the fence) than he expected for what to him is ultimatly a "whipping boy"/"standing stone" issue. Hence his desire for the gaming community to "quiet down" so to speak, and ham handed attempts to handle the situation.
The guy represents a definate threat, but at the end of the day I think it's all about the position. Chances are when everyone else quiets down, Yee will too (though I could be wrong). Until then he's a powerful figurehead and will be used because of his ethnic nature, and the way it gives him a relatively untouchable status.
That's my take on the situation from what I've been reading about him and his career, and a quick scan of what else he's been up to "recently" and the criticisms made of him and his backround. If you look into the whole Shark Fin thing you can see a lot more about him, and what people say about him, outside of the arena of gaming. I make the ethnic comments because it really seems to come up there and yeah... his position seemed to largely be based off of cultural signifigance more than anything else. It might also just be me, but he seemed more personally invested in that than his video game posturing now that he doesn't have a frontline seat to be seen in with a case being argued at the supreme court.
He's annoying, but seems to be a bad target, because at the end of the day he's an oppertunist that goes where the attention is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leland_Yee
That's just some very basics. Basically the guy is a chinese-born American immigrant who came into the country at the age of 3, and whose profession before politics was being a Child Psycologist.
What I haven't been able to find here is some of the stuff showing his ties to China, but it came up during this contreversy over shark fins. He's been called racist, and a socialist/commie sell out for a lot of reasons, but one of the more telling moments was because he supported removing fins from sharks for cultural reasons and because it was a delicacy, despite standing up to similar practices when it's come to other issues.
The reason why we need to take Mr. Yee seriously is because he's both the second most senior/powerful Democrat in California, which is one of the most richest and most powerful states in the union, and also represents a token minority in political power being the first Asian to rise to such a position.
He's got his fans, he's got his haters, and his very nature puts him in an unusual position where he's difficult to question or do anything to without raising spectres of racism and discrimination, even while he does ambigious things in the other direction (shark fin contreversy), and apparently maintains some dubious connections to Mainland China. I haven't found anything reliable, but it seems like it's suspected China might also be funding his political campaigns, much like the the accusations for Al Gore.
Jump on that if you want, but I'm trying to give a balanced view of whose being dealt with even if you don't like it.
From the way things seem right now, Mr. Yee seems to mostly be involved in this for the attention. The majority of the left wing is going anti-gun, and attacking free speech and video games, so he's more or less on board. I think his problem is that he's receiving more resistance from the gaming population (on both sides of the fence) than he expected for what to him is ultimatly a "whipping boy"/"standing stone" issue. Hence his desire for the gaming community to "quiet down" so to speak, and ham handed attempts to handle the situation.
The guy represents a definate threat, but at the end of the day I think it's all about the position. Chances are when everyone else quiets down, Yee will too (though I could be wrong). Until then he's a powerful figurehead and will be used because of his ethnic nature, and the way it gives him a relatively untouchable status.
That's my take on the situation from what I've been reading about him and his career, and a quick scan of what else he's been up to "recently" and the criticisms made of him and his backround. If you look into the whole Shark Fin thing you can see a lot more about him, and what people say about him, outside of the arena of gaming. I make the ethnic comments because it really seems to come up there and yeah... his position seemed to largely be based off of cultural signifigance more than anything else. It might also just be me, but he seemed more personally invested in that than his video game posturing now that he doesn't have a frontline seat to be seen in with a case being argued at the supreme court.
He's annoying, but seems to be a bad target, because at the end of the day he's an oppertunist that goes where the attention is.
Well techically, any issue can be argued as "affecting the children" especially in a society where there is less desire to actually parent and filter media. If the parents are doing their job, any questions about the media and it's potential effects are irrelevent. "Think Of The Children" arguements generally come down to the arguement that everyone should give up their freedom so parents don't have to do their job.RyQ_TMC said: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.SonicWaffle said:
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.
That said, as I pointed out in my analysis of Mr. Yee, I think he's doing a very general job here, hence the stereotypes. He wasn't expecting as big a fight, or as much of one over the long term, especially not from grass roots gamers. I personally don't think he's invested in this issue, other than to follow the party line, and try and see to be taking an aggressive stance in order to further his career. Attacking the boogie man of the moment is always a safe way to go about doing that.
As I pointed out in another post, we've been here before, and the UK even went so far as to ban violent movies as "Video Nasties" at one point only to have it repealed.
The biggest threats right now are to #1 keep the goverment's fingers out of being able to regulate free speech by in some wa controlling video games and who can play them officially. #2 prevent the goverment from further eroding the right to keep and bear arms. Be less concerned about the posturing of guys like Leeland Yee and what they actually try and do.
Now, this is just sensationalism seizing on every remark this man says.
I don't agree with everything he has to say about videogames, but I respect that he apologised. And as far as it goes, his criticisms of violent videogames and the industry have some merit. It's hard to acknowledge that. The industry could do more not to glamorise extreme violence. But this should be in conjunction with the film and firearms industries. It is a cultural issue which can't be addressed by punitive legislation targeting one or the other.
I don't agree with everything he has to say about videogames, but I respect that he apologised. And as far as it goes, his criticisms of violent videogames and the industry have some merit. It's hard to acknowledge that. The industry could do more not to glamorise extreme violence. But this should be in conjunction with the film and firearms industries. It is a cultural issue which can't be addressed by punitive legislation targeting one or the other.
That's not what he meant author Mike, clearly. Nothing he says reads as an insult there. He might be misguided, might be some hyperbole, but I see no digs. And you're reading too much into it. Gaming is an activity, not an orientation, be willing to discuss it for good or for ill.
How can anyone get mad at a remark like that? It's a bit badly worded and totally unrelated to what he was talking about but come on. "Politician says misinformed thing" is not exactly news. Also he insulted the industry and not gamers and yeah I have to admit he has a point there, it does profit off of children. Just like a lot of other industries like baby food manufacturers and morning after pills.
As a gun owning gamer, sometimes I don't know just which attacks are worse.
The attacks from people who know nothing about video games that accuse me of being a bloodthirsty killer.
or,
The attacks from people who know nothing about guns that accuse me of being a bloodthirsty killer.
I'm going to go back to tabletop RPG's, nobody thinks I'm going to go insane and do horrible things because I play them...
...oh wait, Tom Hanks does.
The attacks from people who know nothing about video games that accuse me of being a bloodthirsty killer.
or,
The attacks from people who know nothing about guns that accuse me of being a bloodthirsty killer.
I'm going to go back to tabletop RPG's, nobody thinks I'm going to go insane and do horrible things because I play them...
...oh wait, Tom Hanks does.
Come off it. If you're so badly put off by one badly-behaved state senator, you'd have an aneurysm when you find out what our local political monkeys have been doing (BAD ALL POLITICIANS! BAD!).erttheking said:
OT: Merph. Someone convince me that he deserves any more reaction than "merph".
"...the industry has profited at the expense of children."
So...just like nigh-uncountable numbers of food, media, pharmaceutical, electronic, and clothing industries like Post, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Apple, and L'orange?
In short...just like almost everyone then, or am I counting wrong here?
So...just like nigh-uncountable numbers of food, media, pharmaceutical, electronic, and clothing industries like Post, Disney, Procter & Gamble, Apple, and L'orange?
In short...just like almost everyone then, or am I counting wrong here?