Cranky Editorials About Videogames

GamePolitics has a roundup of some game-related weekend editorials. Some of them are awful cranky and not terribly well thought-out. From the Peoria Journal-Star: "Many of my college students... seem to be less familiar with books than earlier generations. In part, you can blame the influence of video games in pre-teens' lives. If the choice is 'Moby Dick' or Playstation, I think we know which one a kid will pick... In other words, good writing means good salaries. Think about that the next time you choose between taking your kid to the video store or the library..." Another piece rails against the Columbine videogame, while papers in Louisiana are duking it out over the recently passed videogame legislation.

Re:I'd most certainly hope...

[Distinguished Hero]

As well, reading is much too passive an activity. It encourages mental passiveness, instead of being aware and engaged in our surroundings.

Exactly. The fact that most of the great thinkers throughout history have been illiterates who never bothered with books further supports your assertion.

P.S. This post employs a literary device. Figuring out the literary device is left as an exercise for the reader.

Re:books vs. video games

[merreborn]

"So what did they blame before radio?"

The novel, actually.

Re:books vs. video games

[benzapp]

You used your grandmother's memory to dismiss the idea in general, but were the warnings of your grandmother's time correct? There is some evidence that people are, in general, less literate then they were a century ago before radio, television, and now video games.

The evidence is flawed as it is based on the belief that egaltiarianism is scientifically true. Negroes score a full standard deviation lower than other races on standard intelligence measuring tests. Their large numbers, and recent inclusion in such statistics, greatly skews literacy statistics. Negroes, no matter what their country of origin, have abysmal literacy rates. In 1960, the United States was approximately 96% white. Today, it is less than 70%, and will be less than 50% by 2050.

Literacy has declined in the US every year since racial quotas on immigration were removed. Especially when you consider that other countries (which presumably have equal access to television and video games) have higher rates of literacy (say, Japan at near 100%), it is logical to infer that the problem is not technology, but certain people simply are not capable of reading or writing. The unfortunate reality is those people tend to have more animalistic instincts, and will thus reproduce at rapid rates. This causes population pressures in their home countries resulting in mass emigration, and once they are in the US, they continue to rapidly multiply.

Every white person in the US should ask themselves: When we are a minority in our own country, will our new rulers treat us with the same goodwill as we treated them?

It will happen in your lifetime.

Re:books vs. video games

[AoT]

Oh shit, you did not just say "Negroes."

What century are we in again?

Re:books vs. video games

[linvir]

Wow! Finally someone puts it into perspective for me! I can't believe I couldn't see it before, but it's just so obvious: blacks and poor people are just stupid!

JIM: Hey, did you know that literacy has declined every year in the US since racial quotas were removed?

DAVE: No dude, I hadn't heard that. Could that be because of the socioeconomic status of nonwhite races here and their substandard access to education?

JIM: What are you, retarded or something?! The only logical conclusion is that blacks are dumb!

DAVE: Of course! How blind I was! Now I must kill all the younglings!