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"Violent" Video Games To Be Banned In Venezuela
An anonymous reader writes "The country that has bought Sukhois, tanks and 100,000 AK-103's, is planning to build a manufacturing plant of Russian rifles, and oppresses peaceful marches has decided to ban 'violent' video games because they 'promote violence and can alter the behavior of children.' The new legislation in Venezuela says, 'The violence found in video games is translated into the real world.' This new law affects people who sell, 'use,' produce, import and distribute these games. Video games as a whole have been labeled as 'a consequence of savage capitalism' by PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela), which is the political party led by Hugo Chavez. Days before this law was approved by the National Assembly, Chavez promoted the use of traditional toys like the Yo-Yo and Trompo, and suggested that electronic toys like 'the Nintendo' be put aside because they promote 'egoism, individualism and violence.' Just today the AFP released a report showing Caracas as the second most violent city on the planet — even more violent than Baghdad. I guess all those violent gangs in Venezuela are addicted to video games."
Says the Strong Man who has been undermining the constitutional order of Venezuela and dreams of creating a Castro-like cult of personality for himself.
Most "violent" games (with the exception of games like GTA which could be seen as training materials there) tend to have a storyline emphasizing fighting for justice, freedom and stopping oppression. With a government that is opposed to those principles the biggest surprise is that it took them this long. Chavez evidently learned nothing from his own rebellion in 92 but then dictators tend to think oppression is fine as long as they are the ones giving it.
But being a violent, murderous asshole is fine if you're a lefty. Just ask any fucking hipster in a 'Che' shirt.
Mod parent up!
Although, to be fair, being a violent murderous asshole is even better of you're a righty. You get to defer the assassination and go straight to the presidential palace.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
You're joking right? Soviet style weapons to go along with Soviet style censorship. Yeah...no possible connection there when you consider how Chavez has been running his country.
Tin foil and kool aid stained lips for the loss.
That's the most propagandistic summary I have seen in a while. Chávez has been democratically elected and Venezuela has a freer press than Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan and other US allies, including puppet governments like Iraq and Afghanistan where the US could simply tell the leaders to enact laws and impose freedom of the press by decree. Not only that, TV stations actively collaborated with a coup d'état against Chávez, and instead of rounding up the criminals and sending them to jail or to the firing squad, he left them in place, and waited for the licence of one station to expire.
I do not agree with this law in principle, but this is not any different than what we have over here in Germany; for instance, Fallout 3 was heavily censored (no blood in Fallout 3. Seriously.), the other day I saw Apocalypto on TV and have seen almost no gore. I suppose I will torrent down the original version at some later time to see what the fuss was about.
What worries me is that I am seeing a replay of 2003 here: someone is whipping up unjustified hate for a foreign leader and disproportionally criticising every move of his; only, this time it's not a dictator (no matter what some elitist Venezuelan right-wing moochers who never worked in their lives may say), it is a man who won elections legitimately multiple times; he called for a referendum to amend the constitution, lost, and respected the vote and went on to another referendum to push his reforms through, he did not simply adjust the numbers or print trick ballots like Jeb Bush did in 2000.
I do not think Chávez is the second coming of Christ (he is not diplomatically savvy, not fighting corruption enough, and shows like Aló presidente are really cheesy), but I see you Americans going into Saddam-Hussein mode again. I am fed up with you starting wars and making life miserable for everybody else, and so is the rest of the globe. Please don't waste the PR capital you made by electing a guy with a brain for a change.
Uh, and guess what: Venezuela has oil. Maybe that has something to do with all that focus? Try putting your military money into energy research and maybe that will have a better payoff. And get off my lawn.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
Really, those of you who are trying to defend Hugo Chavez and Venezuela as "better than America" get a real argument please. Hugo Chavez is the epitome of ridiculous power hungry dictators. He thinks Nintendo is a bad thing for promoting individualism? That's the first sign of a dictator who is trying to control every aspect of his citizen's lives.
If anything he should be outlawing guns and making those illegal. If there's anything that promotes violence it's the guns that cause the violence. Or outlaw the gangs and cartels that cause ALL of the violence, kidnappings, and extortions. Come on, any of you who defend him. Are you serious? "He was democratically elected." Lol, really? He instills fear in his citizens to control them, bans certain items to control them but no he was "democratically elected" if that even means anything, which it doesn't. It means nothing, it just means his propaganda machine worked and he convinced people to elect him. Any of those people who supposedly 'voted' for him are brainwashed individuals who think he's some kind of saint with his God complex.
"The people doing this are the United Socialist Party. Hugo Chavez is a champion of workers' rights, a bane to American-style capitalist corporations, heavily influenced by Marx, and a socialist to the core.
He is also the democratically elected leader of his country."
He's also the moron who called George W. Bush the 'devil' which was pretty funny when he said it, because it made him seem delusional and on the verge of sociopathic.
IMHO, you're trying to look at the good stuff of this government just overseeing the objectives of the plans they have implemented, not the real outcome of those. This "gentleman" Chavez, has 10 years in the power..10 YEARS, and still the responsible of all the bad stuff Venezuela has is "the 40 previous years"...COME ON!, 10 years isn't enough for something? Dude, I live in Venezuela, I've been robbed 3 times and I consider myself lucky to not be harmed in any of those assaults. All my friends has been robbed at least once, and when I say robbed I mean, with a gun, and not in dangerous places...anywhere, even malls. It's easy to be seduced by the promise of a better world based on the principles that Chavez have popularized, but i think you're just as a lot of people here: seduced by his words, and by the cynic vision of the government. And by that many people here trust more in what they heard from them than in what they faces everyday. You mentioned that your parents teaches you several things besides TV and Video Games, and thats how it's meant to be..YOUR PARENTS, not your BIG BROTHER CHAVEZ. Of course, if you care enough the issue and watch news from Venezuela, i advice you to try to watch both sides of the coin...regrettably each side (opposition and government) have influenced the media so much that you don't know which one is telling the truth, but is fair to hear both sides without prejudice, if after that, you're still thinking Chavez is the man, i dare you to come and live this utopia of country for the rest of your life, where the government, and not you, decides what your children learn in schools, overthrown elected authorities just because they aren't of his party, throw chemical weapons at rallies, and supress your rights to argue. I'm not a rich guy, I'm not a poor guy either, I'm just your average neighborhood guy who enjoy freedom and to be alive for as long as possible. I just hope that you and your family, in whatever country you live, don't have to live in a cage, as us.