As we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this week, let us take the time to thank the people that are the real reason why our nation is going down the toilet. No, it's not the Neocons as many of you would believe. And it's not the Democrats. It's the fucking slobs in the picture to the left.Can you take a guess at what they are doing?
They are waiting in line at a Best Buy in
What a bunch of losers.
This was the picture, with accompanying story, on the FRONT PAGE of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune last Thursday, November 16th. Wow, that's some real news there, folks! These two dorks waited in line, camping out, for five days to be some of the first people to be able to buy the new video game system. There were similar scenes around the country and in
He was running so fast and out of control that he slammed into a pole, head first, and had to be taken to a hospital.
The sight of this mouth breather running into a pole for a fucking video game is, I believe, an excellent metaphor for the
A. Elect a man like George W. Bush
B. don't care about 50 million people who have no health insurance
C. are ambivalent about thousands dying in Iraq and elsewhere in the world
D. are the fattest, stupidest, laziest bunch of slobs on the face of this earth.
Video games are fucking stupid. They are complete waste of time and if these morons that spend days waiting outside for a PS3 spent that time to make the world a better place....the world would be a better place.
I know that my children will be soooo thankful that all the gaming douche bags of the world have their priorities straight. It's a wonderful feeling to realize that the two dicks in the sleeping bags in their little chairs up top are going to be running the country some day. Wonderful.
So, as you sit down to devour your holiday bird, give thanks to the thousands of brain dead sycophants who have elected to waste their time staring at a TV and carrying out frighteningly violent and sick fantasies.
14 comments:
Why did it have to turn into “all Americans are dumb” again? Maybe the Americans you come into contact with are that way but I know plenty of hard working, intelligent people as well as some dumb people.
As you know, I agree with the assessment that video games are stupid and that sitting in 1 spot playing them for hours on end is idiotic. Even more idiotic are people who run into poles in walmart (as mentioned), trample others trying to get into the store to buy the gaming system, and even shoot people in line (which happened). I feel the same way about moms around Christmas time who literally fight each other in the store over the latest “Tickle me Elmo” toy. Then their kids grow up spoiled rotten with a huge entitlement mentality.
My guess is that playing video games allows the player to tune out of every responsibility they have for several hours/days/however long they sit there and stare at the TV screen. Since this is a free country I tend to tell the gamers that I know that they can do what they want but that they would be better served spending time with people, developing friendships, etc. I don’t care how educated someone is – you take 2 people applying for a job with equal qualifications on paper...one is an introvert who keeps to themselves and the other is an extrovert who can strike up a conversation with anyone at any time...the extrovert gets the job.
Right up there on the stupidity chain is people who actually care about Tomkats wedding.
It’s just kind of lame and disappointing that it had to turn into “everyone in this country is stupid and uneducated” again. We may be the fattest but I disagree that we are the laziest and stupidest. If you’re under the impression that, say, Europeans are all more sophisticated, educated, hard working, and more informed on the issues of the day than Americans you couldn’t be more wrong.
Now I'd never tell anyone to "get the fuck out" but maybe you would be happier living in some other country on this planet. Sweden has universal healthcare...but if you'd move there you'd really see what the definition of "working harder for less" is as their tax rate is over 40%.
Maybe it has more to do with the fact that as I get older, I notice that our society is getting more idiotic. You are absolutely correct in your assessment of the Tom Cruise deal....those people are fucking morons too.
And the people that know every plot to every reality show on TV.
The reason why this frustrates me is that I can see the writing on the wall and where we are heading. This is the same spot the Romans were at towards the end. We think that because we are America we are better? Smarter? It won't happen to us? It's already happening...
Our priorities are completely out of whack and we are mainly the ones to blame...not the politicians...
You are sooooo about appearances!! Sure, a cynic would see these people as fat, lazy, and stupid. But, au conrare, a fat person wouldn't sleep in a tent, on concrete for multiple nights. A lazy person would simply wait six months and walk into a Best Buy when supplies are plentiful and the price is lower. And finally, a stupid person wouldn't be standing in line to get a shot at a $500 unit, then turn around and sell it on E-Bay for 15K!!! That, my so left, your right, neolib, is what the picture is saying. And that, is the America I so dearly love. It's capitalist hustle. And I'm quessing they have health insurance. No worries, my Boo Radley blogging buddy, Richfield is not burning.
On the other hand, a fat, lazy, and stupid American could easily be characterized as one who waste's time watching Bill Maher kaka, eats endless pounds of junk food, ceaselessly blogs leftist drivel while producing, well, nothing to the domestic GNP. By the way, which shelter were you volunteering at this "bird day?" Let me remind you that this holiday originated with "religious" settlers who placated the natives with baubles and trinkets, partied with them for three straight days, then systematically slaughtered them in the name of colinization. Go Cowboys!!
You are so right about the Rome analogy. "Nero fiddled while Rome burned..." that's us good ole Americans. While there are real issues about this country, affecting all of us, most of the populace cares more about Britney's divorce and TomKat's wedding, and getting the latest and greatest video game- meanwhile not even being able to name who the President of the US is, let alone care...a bunch of uneducated spoiled gluttons...that's what we are!!
I just caught up on some of your posts and found them to be very good! I really like how you are getting your point across. And I love the Bill Maher video! Bill makes some very good points. He is quick witted, with a slab of humor and truth.
This post is in response to the following comments by Markadelphia:
"These two dorks waited in line for five days ... to buy the new video game system."
"Video games are fucking stupid. They are a complete waste of time..."
"carrying out frighteningly violent and sick fantasies."
Video games are getting a bad wrap here. You guys really need to get a grip, and go bitch about something that ACTUALLY effects elections, Health Insurance, and Dying Iraqis.
Have you been to EBAY this week!? These guys on the sidewalk are not there to buy PS3s for themselves! They are there to flip them for PROFIT!! What's wrong with entrepreneurialism?! That's business brother, not 'slob'-like as you put it.
Yes, Video Games are obviously overplayed by a SMALL percentage of gamers who ruin their lives sitting on a couch eating Cheesy Poofs and drinking gallons of Kool-Aid a week in their parents' basement until their folks die and they are forced to become wrench stampers down at the Craftsman Plant. That's THEIR problem...not the Iraqi's'. THEY DON'T VOTE!! They're too busy getting to the next level, so don't pin George Co. on them either!!
I AM A GAMER!! I'm not afraid to say it! I play World of Warcraft. I usually rack up 10 to 15 hours a week at it too! Did I go sit in line for a PS3? No. I have a life. I have a wife. I have kids on the way (Twins ~ yea for me!). I play Volleyball 3-4 times a week. I'm sure that there are many people who fit YOUR stereo-type of a gamer, but it's a GREAT MINORITY my friend. I play online with one guy who writes computer applications that run nuclear fucking power plants. I hope to GOD that he's a responsible individual that takes a little pride in his intellect and is not a 'slob' with his code!
I read an article at economist.com about this subject and I have to paste in a few excerpts:
~
The opposition to gaming springs largely from the neophobia that has pitted the old against the entertainments of the young for centuries. Most gamers are under 40, and most critics are non-games-playing over-40s.
~
Eventually, objections to new media resolve themselves, as the young grow up and the old die out. As today's gamers grow older—the average age of gamers is already 30—video games will ultimately become just another medium, alongside books, music and films. And soon the greying gamers will start tut-tutting about some new evil threatening to destroy the younger generation's moral fibre.
~~
Read the full article...and stop flaming a community for the short comings of their minority...
...You don't see me calling all American's "unproductive" because I've seen their polititians at work, do you!? (ok, that was a bipartisan joke folks!!)
yeah, I just called Markadelphia OLD.
~Mu
Well Mu, I suspect the majority of gamers fall somewhere between your online friend and the slobs who are the end users of this product.
I'm sure we'll never know the true statistics but I suspect that for every gamer who helps run nuclear power plants, there is a gamer out there like my friend Shayla's ex-boyfriend. They just broke up and here is some of what she wrote me...
"Well, in the month and a half we were broken up, his gaming addiction got WAY worse. He works very little, and plays game in all of his spare time, which he has a lot of. He has a new best friend, which is great because everyone needs a best friend...but best friend gamer + boyfriend gamer = noooooo room for Shayla at all. I wasn't jealous. no, I was fucking pissed off. Pissed off that he'd call and say "come over after work." and I'd just sit there, watch him and his friend play games, fall asleep, wake up to go to work and he'd JUST be going to bed from all of his gaming. I don't want an addict boyfriend.
Well, one day he doesn't wake up until SEVEN MOTHERFUCKING PM. He claimed he was up watching movies all night. Yeah fucking right. That was the final straw. That just broke my heart. I knew he was lying. He stays up to play games, he watches movies to fall asleep. I know him."
10-15 hours a week is not that much. For the record, I'm in my low 30's...I still have a ways to go before I hit 40 years old.
I think 10-15 hours is too much but that's just me...
Shayla's story is far more common than might think. I have heard that story at least 100 times in the last year.
Regardless of the disdain you may hold video games in, they are a multibillion dollar industry. I don't have the numbers here, but they either already have or may soon overtake the movie industry in revenue.
These days many video games are slickly produced simulations of reality. They represent dozens of years of effort of computer programming, animation, art, creative writing, editing, etc. Armies of programmers, writers and artists are employed to produce them. Video games require very sophisticated algorithms to represent the laws of physics to produce a game where things fall like they do in the real world, where the lighting in a scene is both authentic and aesthetically pleasing.
Video games are really no different from other "empty" pursuits we humans engage in: Movies; television; fascination with celebrity trivia; romance, science fiction and mystery novels; comic books; interest in UFOs; slavish devotion to football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, chess -- all of the these things are condemned by someone who says these pastimes are bringing about the end of civilization as we know it.
You may defend your favorite pastime with any number of rationalizations. Such as, this scientist got turned on to physics because he read Arthur C. Clarke when he was a kid, or that movie director got his start reading Superman comics. In the future some great scientist or politician will tell us he got his inspiration from a particular video game.
Are 90% of video games junk? Yes, Sturgeon's law applies here too. Ninety percent of everything is junk.
You're just repeating the same complaints the Greeks did when they castigated young Athenians for wasting their time on pointless doodles with the straight edge and compass, or parents who yelled at the boys for wasting all their time on the baseball diamond, or sitting on the computer all day long.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Video games are not the sole corrupting influence in society, nor even a major influence. Our wealth, power and success are the primary source of apathy and lassitude. For the most part, Americans are rich, fat and lazy. We don't think we're that rich because we're always chasing another car, another plasma TV, a bigger house. But we are richer than our parents were, and our kids are rich too. They all have cell phones and $100 basketball shoes and drive cars to school because taking the bus isn't cool.
Kids either have too much idle time (spent playing video games, surfing the net, watching TV, texting friends) or their lives are entirely preprogrammed as their parents shuttle them from home to school, to swimming, to ballet, to soccer, to volleyball, etc., etc.
Each American generation has been richer than the last since the Depression. It's very possible that will change now because of the disastrous decisions that have been made in the last few years. Middle America senses that bad times are coming, but most people haven't been hit yet.
When Bush's mistakes come home to roost big time, and China pulls out of the US bond market, international competition gets even stiffer, oil prices skyrocket and our economy collapses, Americans won't be so rich. We won't be able to afford $500 PS3s, and we won't waste all day playing video games.
What the? I thought everything was going to be OK? According to my good buddy Crab, softball and fun will be had for time eternal...
Things can't possibly turn out like you say, blk....nah, no way....
Ummm, no. You told me that volleyball would cease to exist. The direct quote from you was "If we don't change things in this country, there WON'T BE anymore volleyball or softball!!" Should I get Paul Beadel on here to verify for everyone who wasn't there? I don't think I can get him to stop laughing long enough to do it though.
I never said fun will be had for time eternal...I said, and still do say, that I have fun. You'll rarely see me get upset anymore over anything I don't have control over. That's called an internal locus of control.
Some of the "empty pursuits" blk lists I enjoy doing. So what should we be doing with our time then? Getting upset on a daily basis over republican campaign commercials? Go to parties and get in arguments with 3 people in the span of 5 hours instead of getting to know them? I guess those are more noble pursuits than watching a football game. God, my priorities are all fucked up.
Damn right Americans are rich and I don't feel guilty at all about that. Context time - Europe has it's own system of haves and have nots. You may not like capitalism but it is the best system going right now. There is also lots of info out there that suggests that something has to give in China very soon - either the government or the economy.
I'm having a great time till it all comes crashing down. When it does come crashing down, I'll adapt and adjust just like everyone else, probably much better than everyone else too. Until then, worrying is a waste of time.
I agree that we live in a mortage society where in order for many people to realize the "amercian dream" they need to have debt in order to achieve their goals. The only debt I have is my mortgage.
I suspect that the people who are truly enjoying life have no reason to come and vent about how terrible things are going to end up ... they're too busy enjoying their lives.
So kind readers who aren't involved in the discussion...just remember that to balance your perception of things when using this blog as any kind of weather-vane of the economic status of our country.
I can't help but get the feeling that those who predict economic collapse, to an extent, actually want it to happen so their predictions can be validated.
Lastly, don't lump me in with people who are "working harder for less". Speak for yourselves.
Sorry Markadelphia,
You are way off base on this one. This, coming from the man who learned video games from YOU! Video games are going to be a big part of the future of this country and many others. They already are as posted by BLK and others. Economically they bring billions of dollars to our economy and the economy of other countries that we are dependent on. Second, video games ARE fun for those that choose to play them. They allow a little bit of freedom in an ever closing society. Some games allow for imagination, teach an in-depth and hands-on lesson in economies without government interference, let people explore their own morality and look into the possibilities of future technologies.
I AM A GAMER. I also play World of Warcraft (Darkspear and Magtheridon) and unless and until you play this type of game, you have no idea of what you are talking about. There are many other games out there that are equally stimulating and challenging. I find time to read philosophy, read the newspaper, watch the news and feel that I am well enough informed to make competent decisions when it comes to voting. So, again, don't judge me on the basis of what some people do.
And to add to the spanking, I do not come down on people who easily spend 10-15 hours on the golf course hitting a little white ball into a hole, or smacking a slightly larger ball back and forth over a net. Talk about a waste of time and valuable green space! My "hobby" takes up 5 square feet...how about yours?
And then there are the "video addicts" and all of the ruined relationships and lives that have been brought down on people. You mean like lives that have been wasted smoking pot, drinking booze every weekend with the "gang", or weightlifting and steroids... What a crock of shit. So you know a couple people who have had their lives impacted by people playing video games, I know people with all of the above problems at well yet oddly enough I don't think we need characterize broad segments of the population as being fat, lazy and stupid for those reasons.
Think about these small nuggets of information:
1. World of Warcraft is played by close to 5 million people on-line. They form social communities and interact with each other forming tight social bonds and dare I say it...gasp....friendships.
2. Business deals are being made in on-line communities such as WoW on a daily basis. Young executives have meetings in these games, learn to play and watch other executives in a different non-work setting. This is a fact, not an opinion.
3. There are some villages in foreign countries that are completly dependent on on-line gaming to support their populations. They generate characters for sale, farm certain resources in economy-based games, and sell money. I am not a user of such resources, but they do exist.
As for frighteningly violent and sick fantasies...you mean like the war in Iraq? Or were you thinking like Casino Royal, Saw, Hostel, Battlestar Galactica? Open your eyes...they are everywhere, in magazines, on tv, in the movies, on our streets. Some gamers may indulge in playing games that have those types of themes, but they are doing it in a place where it hurts NO ONE! There are no victims, no real casualties, no devestation. I would much rather see people relieve their desires on-line then in real life.
I am very disappointed in this topic folks....it shows a real lack of understanding of a very real, very large and growing phenomenon. You may not like it, so don't indulge in it. But don't lump everyone into the same crappy category or you may as well be calling us niggers, or fags, or turban heads, or fanatics, or anyone of a hundred names that are used to label people whose culture we don't understand and are afraid of exploring. Who is the ignorant one now?
John is a gay-mer?
j/k
Couple things – I used to play video games as well...I stopped playing about 12 years ago…I had just solved all 3 super mario brothers on my Nintendo.
I certainly don’t deny that it is a huge industry and if it creates jobs for people then I am glad. If the demand is there, someone will provide the product.
John, it sounds like you keep things in perspective, which is the key. You have family, your job, reading, etc that you do also. I didn’t think it was you who ran into the pole. I could write equally harsh columns on druggies, alcoholics, etc. My attention goes to the people who let it (it being alcohol, drugs, steroids, video games) get in the way of their responsibilities.
I've made quite a few friends over the internet as well so I know what you mean about social communities.
I see the weightlifters you describe on a daily basis at the gym staring at themselves in the mirror, going to tanning salons all winter, 45 year olds highlighting their hair...it’s all a little too vain for me and people who are all wrapped up in themselves make very small packages. One roidhead at my gym has already had a heart attack and he is only 32. Myself, I only lift about 4 days a week anymore because I have a lot of other stuff going on that I like to do. I keep things balanced and in perspective.
The 2 activities you described, golf and tennis, are exercise and people staying in shape and eating healthy so they can still perform those activities at a decent level is good for society. My insurance company takes $20 off my gym membership each month as long as I go 8 times a month. Guess they give people an incentive so they don’t turn into Joey Bag-O Donuts.
To me, it’s all about keeping priorities and responsibilities in check. I'd say the same thing about alcoholics or potheads.
This is all just opinion and people can do whatever they want. That said...
Gamers are dorks. IMHO People who play video games look really stupid as they are playing them. Besides the slack jaw, I mean come ON, you are playing pretend war or races or similar, and pushing some buttons. No, I'm totally with Mark on this. Losers, dorks, uncool and loser-y.
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