George Will: Gamers Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Vote
- Scribbled on April 17th, 2009 by Jordan Lund
- Filed in Editorial Content, Interviews, WTF
I don’t make a habit of reading George Will. I find that conservative commentators in general only serve to raise my blood pressure a notch or two. But Kotaku was kind enough to point everyone to this editorial, where George Will decides to go off on a number of items in popular culture starting with denim clothing, moving on to slam television and films as well. In the middle of his screed is this line:
“Seventy-five percent of American ‘gamers’ — people who play video games — are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.”
The implication being that gamers are somehow incapable of making competent political decisions.
I wonder how he’d feel if some editorial writer went off on baseball fans saying that they shouldn’t be allowed to vote as they are too addled by testosterone from watching the over-inflated egos of steroid abusers? Or that the only reason they continue to be baseball fans is due to a misplaced sense of nostalgia for an era that hasn’t existed since the early ’60s?
Video games are a form of entertainment and considering most of us experience them as youths they become a sort of pop-culture comfort food for adults. I remember the excitement I had as an 8 year old playing Space Invaders or Asteroids or Pac Man (I completely RULED at Scramble and… believe it or not… Kangaroo!) Those are the same feelings I get when I fire up Street Fighter IV or Phantasy Star Universe today.
George Will loves his baseball and I’m not going to fault him for that. I expect that catching a Yankees game engenders the same feelings in him that it did when he was a young boy and it’s a similar experience for me playing games. What we choose as our entertainment is exactly that… our choice of entertainment.
To pretend that one form of entertainment is superior to another or that an American Citizen is unworthy of their rights based on their choice of pop-culture is asinine.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
From N4G:
April 17th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Hey! A conservative admitted that 75% of gamers are over 18!
April 17th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Here, here, Jonah! I couldn’t have said it better myself… :^)
April 17th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
I didn’t write the article, Jerry. Jordan Lund did.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Humble appy-polly-loggies… Good work, Jordan! :^)
April 24th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Hey. George. You know that Ron Paul guy? That you supported in the primaries?
That had all those youthful enthusiastic (if sometimes bat-shit insane) supporters?
Then that Bob Barr guy who was too flawed to garner the same popularity but none the less siphoned several of Paul’s supporters, including you?
Guess what.
Most of them play videogames. Tsk.