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Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs
Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."
Gamers sometimes learn bad fictional behavior. (Consider the evil character paths in various D&D games.) Gamers frequently learn good fictional behavior. (Consider the hero character paths in many D&D games.)
In contrast, a chapter of Hell's Angels in Hamburg ran multiple houses for the rape of teenage girls and women held as slaves. (Sources: Victor Malarek's The Natashas, Terry Lee Wright's River of Innocents.) They were responsible for enabling thousands of rapes in the real world.
Yes, it's atypical for a biker gang. But all things considered, it's more rare for the gamer.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
If there is a law, and the AG doesn't enforce it, it might as well not be a law. That's an (implicit) form of veto. Of course, the summary is hyperbole, but the key point (that the guy's a loon and in a position to affect how the law is applied) is correct.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
To be fair to the guy, if he's worried about threats to his family, none of that matters.
Of course, the fact that he uses ridiculous rhetoric (apparently he claimed bikers cooked a cat on a grill in his district; even though it wasn't a cat, wasn't in his district, and no bikers were involved) doesn't help matters. However, threatening the guy is the exact wrong way to go about fixing the Aussie rating system. Gamers making threats will just reinforce the stereotype that gamers are dangerous, giving him more reason to oppose adult classifications for games.
So, to everyone in Australia, the guy who made that threat is fucking it up for the rest of you. Maybe you should beat him up, or something...
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
for him to fairly make the comparison, he needs to try banning motorcycles and then telling us which is scarier
To be fair, he did introduce "guilt by association" legislation to make bikie gangs illegal in South Australia. That is why he is making this particular comparison.
Deny everything, admit nothing, demand proof, and reject the proof.
he's Jack Thompson on crack, its not only games he trying to control he also recently attempted to make anyone writing online about his political party to submit there name and postcode (zip code), thankfully this never came to fruition but it is extremely disturbing how much power this guy seems to have.