OT: Words fail me

[AMF]

Atrocities said:
But when we start passing laws that do away with our freedom of choice, we give up that which makes us free. I would never buy a game like this, but my neighbor might. I would never presume to tell him that he is wrong for buying it, because it is his right to choose what he buys. I would choose not to associate with a sick SOB like him in that situation, but I would never support a law that limits his freedom to buy such trash.

I guess living in America, and not under an imperial state, has somewhat spoiled me. I do apologize if my desire to keep my right to choose offends any one who feels that I as an adult should not have such rights.

And personally, I would have thrown the book at Janet Jackson for what she did. A ward drobe accident my arse.

See, we agree in part. I think, fully, that two consenting adults, in their own privacy, hey, let them chop each other up and make stew out of themselves. I don't care.

But I am not talking about that, at all.

When you say "I do apologize if my desire to keep my right to choose offends" you're using loaded language. No one is talking about taking away your right to choose anything in your own life. You can totally stay home and play your own version of "pimp out chicks" - whose stopping you? So long as you and your GF both consent, you can do anything you want (as far as I am concerned, not sure about the limits of the law, but this is my opninion here).

It's the effect on *society* I'm talking about.

But, hey, how do you square your statement that :

And personally, I would have thrown the book at Janet Jackson for what she did. A ward drobe accident my arse.

with your beleif that this card game is just fine? I mean, you're really going to tell me that the former is worse?

Oh, but here's a cogent and funny article you should read about it:

"U.S. Children Still Traumatized One Year After Seeing Partially Exposed Breast On TV"
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4104

I mean, woo hoo, an exposed breast! Call out the cops! Can't have that! (but, hey, headless bodies, blood and guts, that's fine...)

[dogscoff]

If my comments in this thread seem vague, flippant and self contradictory, it's because I'm not sure where I stand.Nevertheless I'm going to rant on authoritatively.

I believe that ppl should be able to make films, books, games, whatever, about anything they like, as long as access to negatively-influential material is restricted to adults. That there is a significant market for sick stuff like this pimp-game reflects a greater problem in society, but that shouldn't be allowed to interfere with freedom of speech. I guess I'm saying that I see this pimp-game as more of a symptom of the mysoginist attitudes prevalent in society, not a cause.

I'm reminded of some utter cretin of a woman I saw on TV a few years back. She was complaining about South Park, saying it was disgusting that stuff like that should be marketted at children. What she totally failed to grasp was that South Park was NOT aimed at children- however she had clearly ignored all the "18" stickers and bought her kids the video without a clue as to its contents, and THEN complained about the content.

This game will suffer from similar problems- in the hands of well-adjusted adults, it probably isn't harmful, and the game's age rating will reflect that. THe problem is that moronic parents who can't be bothered to consider how they are raising their children will go out and buy this game for their eight-year olds. Well, maaybe not in the case of a board game, but certainly in the case of a computer game like GTA. I guess many parents still look at computer games and think that they can't be any more sophisticated or influential than space invaders.

Spare the children, eat the parents. That's what I say.

[AMF]

dogscoff said:
Spare the children, eat the parents. That's what I say.

Yeah, I agree fully.

Censorship or governmental attempts to control social values or mores are a terrible thing and, in my opinion, should be avoided at all costs. South Park the mOvie was all about that - and was, incidentally, one of the best movies I've ever seen.

All I was trying to get at was

1) The debate over where, if anywhere we draw that line of deceny, and
2) The fact that it's ridiculous to say that such things have no effect on society at large, and
3) the concept that, no matter how much a lkot of people would like, we all do live in a society not just a bunch of individuals in the same geographic location. And that has implications for our individual actions.

Alarik


3)