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Gamers Divorced From Reality?
nd01 writes "According to Gamepolitics.com, Bill OReilly has a few choice words for gamers and computer geeks in general. The well-known conservative pundit has harsh words for iPod owners, gamers, the PS3, and all of us 'disconnected from reality' by modern technological contrivances."
From the article: "Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don't deal with reality — ever. So they don't know what day it is; they don't know temperature it is; they don't know what their neighbor looks like. They don't know anything... because they are constantly diverted by a machine. Now what this does is it takes a person away from reality because they've created their own reality..."
"Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don't deal with reality."
What you and people *over* the age of 45 call reality, I call senile dementia, Bill.
I can respond by saying that people of the age group you are talking about are entirely the problem. They're just as divorced from reality as anyone else...and the thing is, that although younger people might be divorced from reality as well, they're not able to take their delusion and from that perspective *enact laws.*
Also, if you really want to go there...younger people on average are a lot more intimate with technological developments, particularly where computers are concerned. We're a lot more likely to understand issues because unlike you and your geriatric peers, we actually have to live with said issues. Your generation aren't the ones who've had to die by the thousands in Iraq...many of you, when you *were* our age yourselves, dodged service...which makes you sending members of my generation off to die that much more disgusting. You're also not the ones who are going to have to deal with the real consequences of what your generation has done to the environment...you'll be dead in 20 years.
You are a sick, deeply degraded human being, Mr. O'Reilly...and you shame yourself on a continual basis with your entirely voluntary ignorance and rock stupidity. The only thing that keeps me from fervently wishing that you and other individuals like you did not exist is the realisation that in doing so, I would myself go down to your level.
even funnier: MySpace is owned by FOX.
i disable sigs
Why is this on Slashdot? A pundit makes some commentary about video games...so? He bloviates about stuff every night, and has for 8+ years. He's in no position to craft laws, no position to do anything about it. This is on Slashdot for two reasons:
1) He mentioned games
2) He's considered right-wing by the decidedly left-wing crowd here, and that's bad.
If Bill Maher/Michael Moore/Robert Greenwald come out for/against video games, should that make news on here?
--trb
He is reasonably independent and straight talking.
As a catholic, he's got his position on abortion of course.
The right is finally starting to disintegrate a bit and break back into it's pieces.
There are fiscal conservatives (quasi-libertarian), social conservatives (o'reilly), war-hawks, corporatists, and not a few fascists among them.
He's probably right about reality- but you know-- reality can SUCK pretty harshly for a lot of folks. For $12.99 a month, they can sink into a reality where they are rich and powerful. If they could just add decent sex to the mix (via a direct brain implant) i'd probably hook up as well.
I can't play mmorg's like i used to- the hands just hurt too much.
Now the irony...
Bill O'Reilly and Millions of conservatives are in their OWN made up reality. It's called christianity and it has it's own rules and mythos. The lore is pretty good but the graphics suck except when they make a big epic movie about them. Lots of people playing christianity 3.2
a) believe they will live after death (even tho their own rules can be interpreted to say that only personality less "soul" (i.e. NOT THEM- just some kinda godfuel) will survive).
b) believe evil forces literally possess people and influence *reality*.
c) believe in magical powers that can't be observed or proven to exist in anyway.
d) make themselves miserable following the "made up" rules about morality and secretly breaking them (swaggert, haggerd, the local deacon who was having a 10 year long affair)
---
Reality is
Sex is fun and with fertile people who don't take protection, it makes babies.
There is not enough good stuff to go around for everyone.
It's great to love and be loved back.
If you want to get rich, you have got to be lucky, a law-breaker (and lucky), or work *EXTREMELY* hard.
Abortion makes sense under some circumstances.
There will always be more humans.
Being evil is probably not good for your society (but sometimes it is).
Being immoral is not good if everyone does it- but it works out fine as long as only a few are.
Either we let folks live their own lives- or we get out the sharp knives and start killing each other.
A *SECULAR* society is required or religious people *will* start killing people sooner or later.
etc.
etc.
Bill O'Reilly doesn't live in reality any more than gamers do. He just is a member of a *very* popular game and so he thinks that is reality when- it's really not.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
It's especially funny because it's O'Reilly in his characteristic hypocrtical form. ;) Reminds me of all of the times he's denounced Fox programs (esp. when he thought they weren't Fox programs).
"Who the hell is Nietzche? It's a question stupid people are asking." -- Newscaster, "Jesus Christ Supercop"
Did he also say that interacting face to face all the time hurts the ability for people to interact via technology...and that there would be serious problems down the road for old Luddites?
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)