Rant: Where's the Outrage?

On the Video Game legal front: the FTC has launched an investigation into RockStar Games for deceptive business practices, the governments of several states are throwing around bills banning violent video games, Jack "I Hate Videogames and the People that Play Them" Thompson is now going after The Sims 2 because it has somehow become a "pedophile training simulation", and various Senators have vowed to get to the bottom of it all.

Get to the bottom of what? Some digitized people dry humping each other?

(In the default version of the "Hot Coffee" minigame, the one that uses strictly the on-disk content, both characters are clothed for crying out loud...)

And yet so many people are treating it like it's the end of the fucking world. "Oh, Lordy, save us from the pixilated boobs!" Asshats!

Hillary Clinton for example, (who is my personal idea of the Antichrist, quite frankly) wants "put teeth into the rating system" via federal legislation. Specifically, she wants to make selling an M rated video game to someone under 17 an offense punishable by a $5,000 fine.

<sarcasm>
Yes, there's an excellent idea! Ruin something else by binding it in red tape and crushing it in the soulless grip of legislation! Brilliant! In fact, why not have a government run agency decide which games are okay and which games are not? That way, everyone gets to play only the nonviolent video games like Mario Power Tennis. (The real Mario Brothers, you see, would be too violent due to Mario stomping all those Koopas.) In fact, let's apply it to print and film as well! HELL! Why not apply it to SPEECH! I mean, we can’t have a SPEECH loophole! Someone might be offended somewhere down the line, and we can’t EVER let someone get offended! Who needs the First Amendment anyway? Freedom? Bah! Censorship is required! Do it for the children! We have a SOCIETY to protect from THEMSELVES!
</sarcasm>

...And I say again... ASSHATS!


Let me put this in a little perspective:

I could let a minor into an R-rated movie featuring violence and sex: No fine.
I could sell a minor an explicit CD with lyrics about violence and sex: No fine.
I could sell a minor a trashy novel filled with violence and sex: No fine.

But if it's a video game, OH NOES! I must be beaten down with a $5,000 fine.

Further perspective: I could sell your child BOOZE, and in my state (because even THAT is not a Federal offense, it is a State offense!) I would be subject to a maximum $2,500 fine.

Therefore, if I sold a minor a copy of Grand Theft Auto, I committed an act apparently twice as bad as selling a minor a bottle of 151 Rum (something that, in sufficient quantities, can kill them).

Bravo.

Of course, the government can focus on stuff like this! It's not as if there is anything more IMPORTANT happening! We can have politicians posturing about video games and spend millions in taxpayer dollars on inquiries because there is nothing more important right now we could be doing with it! I mean, the country isn't horribly divided over a multitude of issues right now! It's not as if we're fighting a WAR or anything.

I'm tired of it. I am tired of hearing how video game are evil. I'm also tired of hearing about how Jude Law fucked his nanny, about those stupid Mexican stamps that some found offensive, the new tower in Chicago that has barely left the "drawing board" stages, Tom Cruise losing his mind, and a mass of other crap that I really find to be NON-ISSUES. And due what seems to be an ever increasing amount of completely apathetic Lemmings who care about little but themselves, what happens is... Nothing. Not a damn thing. The media keeps treating bullcrap as top news, and the politicians keep ranting about stuff that doesn't matter.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?!

LEMMINGS! PERSPECTIVE!

The government works for US. It works for you. It works for me. It does NOT work for itself.

And the media is supposed to inform us, not merely entertain us. It is supposed to keep us informed about real issues, so when the time comes, we can make informed decisions that will affect our Republic. It is NOT supposed to blather on for hours about celebrity gossip.

Until you, as a collective group, demand that the politicians and media focus on stuff that truly matters, nothing will change. Politicians will tie this land up in Red Tape so tight you can't even fart without filling out a permission form in triplicate at your local government office, while the media will give you 24-hour coverage of the Runaway Bride (or whatever tomorrow's pointless story will be).

Remember: Apathy is the Enemy!

Now, for the love of God, get it in gear and press for change!