Think of a book maybe. I’ll pull a ready example medium out of the air. The Jungle. Some people blamed the fact that immigrants could read at all on the fact outrage and change came to the immigrant fueled meat, factory etc. industry. I don’t think it is apples and oranges. The impetus came from somewhere. Thus, I stand by “so what”. I get why this is misunderstood and don’t mind but if it was video games, so what? Still justified.
Apples and oranges. Especially since the people who primarily read that book and demanded change (not to labor practices, primarily, but to the meat packing industries practices of ignoring sanitation) were middle class people, many of whom were already interested in pursuing social change via regulation by the federal government. It’s pretty well-known that Sinclair’s point was to look at how workers were being exploited, but that was lost on the people who voted in progressives who would create programs aimed at regulating our food and drug industries.
Further more, there is no evidence that this is the impetus for these protests. Just literally none. These are people who have been deeply hurt by living in a racist society, experience that on a daily basis, and aren’t just mindlessly enacting violence that they see when playing video games (or watching films, or listening to music, or watching TV, etc). Dismissing it as just caused by exposure to violence in pop culture (even if you’re still calling it “justified”) does an incredibly disservice to the people who are fighting to been seen as full citizens in the French republic. It’s just accepting the bullshit bourgeois arguments always aimed at working class youths (and whatever race, gender, religion, etc), that they don’t really understand what they’re doing, and are merely being manipulated into violence by the media industries. Quite honestly, you’re really denying the protesters the agency that they deserve here by insisting that video games are their impetus, especially when there is little to no evidence to back up this claim.
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Are we seeing the start of the next French revolution?
If we can get these protesters to join up with the people protesting the reforms to the pension system… it might be more likely. Of course, there is the problem of the far right having a lot of backing in the current political enviroment, so it could end up with a far more right wing 6th (is that right? 6th?) republic.
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It’s way beyond video games, that’s certain. These are organized and massive scale. They are looting guns. They apparently opened the zoo and released elephants, lions etc in Paris. I’ve never played GTA but maybe GTA should copy this and let players release wild animals in the game.
Tous les flics sont des bâtards
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My bad! Thanks for catching it.
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US, ISIS, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference so I can see why you would confuse them.
ha ha yes america sucks good joke
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Who in the world “blamed the fact that immigrants could read at all” on the outrage that was stirred up by that book? “The Jungle” was part of a much larger movement by muckracker journalists to expose corruption, dangerous working conditions, etc. Their publications weren’t read by new immigrants, who were barely scraping by, but rather by established society.
Here’s a good summary:
Or are you somehow suggesting that if it isn’t video games, then maybe if the protestors in France weren’t able to read news reports about police brutality, then they wouldn’t be protesting at all?
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Since, as a woman, I don’t get to throw out points without an entire dissertation’s worth of sources without being either dismissed or mocked… yes, France is currently in its fifth republic.
But my POINT, if you care to actually address it rather than being dismissive, is that it’s a distinct possibility of this once again bringing the current constitutional order down and establishing a new one.
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Sorry, wasn’t attempting to mock you, was just trying to make a joke about keeping track of French politics. Genuinely, my apologies.
Editing to add that your posts are one of the reasons I keep coming back to mostly lurk and occasionally post on here. You’re one of the smartest and most incisive people on here. I really wasn’t trying to insult you, but do apologize for it nevertheless because that is how it came across.
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I’m afraid that in that in the neighboring country the situation, after these events will go out of the frying pan into the fire.
For sure our prime minister will be more than happy if this happens, me not very much.
Well, Macron, what video games were the cops playing to make them shoot that kid?
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Silly Macron. Blaming video games ç’est très passé.
The cool adults blame records now. Moral panics need to keep up with the cyclic tastes of cool kids.
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