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BillBrasky Memorial Political Chat Thread

I would

A lot of army recruiting is predatory, and for a certain segment of poor young men it’s the best path to economic and higher ed mobility they have

Literal children with developing brains playing call of duty with army recruiters on their twitch channels talking up the us army is a different deal?
 
i feel like Call of Duty itself is far, far more dangerous than some guys on twitch
 
Agree to disagree on that one

Still don’t get the riff
 
Political Chat Thread - All Topics & Rants Welcome

I see his point. Recruiting on Switch is easier to address though. Can’t just outlaw problematic first person shooters.

This discussion makes me think of this really good break down of Tom Clancy’s The Division. It’s basically practice for being a DHS brownshirt.

Extra Credits is a good YouTube channel on game theory and the social implications of games.

Tom Clancy's The Division uses the present day United States as a setting, but it runs roughshod over the real and troubling issues facing American society. It glorifies totalitarianism and the use of force against citizens whose rights are ignored and whose humanity is stripped away by mechanics that directly equate racial and class stereotypes with villainy.

 
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Here I am being a dumb naive extremist again frustrated at the military recruiting kids online
 
why doesn't the government ban the military calling kids' homes to recruit them?
 
well, i mean one of them is trying to get kids to sign up for risking their lives for dubious gain and the other is the military
 
Food for thought: Marine Corps doesn't have an esports team because "the brand and issues associated with combat are too serious to be 'gamified' in a responsible manner."

Conflating recruitment calls with esports teams is a bit weird, imo. Two wildly different rhetorical styles.
 
i feel like Call of Duty itself is far, far more dangerous than some guys on twitch

both can be dangerous and play a different role in military recruitment of naive kids.

also generally don't think Gen X'rs (or Boomers) have a good handle on Twitch's appeal or consumption. see: today's vote.
 
both can be dangerous and play a different role in military recruitment of naive kids.

also generally don't think Gen X'rs (or Boomers) have a good handle on Twitch's appeal or consumption. see: today's vote.

Agreed. One of many reasons I think that vote goes differently (although not a majority against) 18-24 months from now.
 
This thread has the largest assholes on the board genially chatting and Shoo is like, must defend Establishment and also be an even bigger dick!

Don't think I wasn't being genial, but I thought all rants were welcome here?

Not sure how this is different than advertising to kids/YAs through other forms of media, like TV or YouTube, but if they are doing shit like promising XBoxs and not delivering, Twitch should remove them, which it sounds like has been done on occasion.

Either way, I was not defending the establishment, just acknowledging practical realities. Carry on.
 
T. L. Taylor's new(ish) book is a really good read on game streaming and the differences between Twitch and traditional broadcast media btw
 
For some reason this discussion reminded me of the 80s sci-fi movie The Last Starfighter, where a teen who is a champion at some 80s arcade video game gets recruited by good guy aliens to be a starfighter and save the galaxy from an invasion of alien bad guys. Not a bad flick back in the day. Anyway, sorry for the digression, carry on.
 
For some reason this discussion reminded me of the 80s sci-fi movie The Last Starfighter, where a teen who is a champion at some 80s arcade video game gets recruited by good guy aliens to be a starfighter and save the galaxy from an invasion of alien bad guys. Not a bad flick back in the day. Anyway, sorry for the digression, carry on.

its a chat thread, talk about whatever you want. I do feel like I read about a dozen YA science fiction books where someone plays a computer game with military/existential implications. I remember specifically a Christopher Pike book where a guy helped his mysterious friend design a nuclear war simulation game where the game ended up being an alien test to see if humanity was worth saving from extinction.
 
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For some reason this discussion reminded me of the 80s sci-fi movie The Last Starfighter, where a teen who is a champion at some 80s arcade video game gets recruited by good guy aliens to be a starfighter and save the galaxy from an invasion of alien bad guys. Not a bad flick back in the day. Anyway, sorry for the digression, carry on.

did you mean the book Ender's Game?
 
did you mean the book Ender's Game?

Nope, this was a 1984 movie, and I don't believe it was based on Ender's Game. It was one of the first movies to use all computer-generated special effects, and it was the last film for actor Robert Preston. He was the alien con-artist recruiter who convinced the teen to become a starfighter pilot, he based his performance on his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man. It's not a bad film.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Starfighter
 
In the 80s military recruiters called our house constantly trying to recruit my brother and I. If you showed one iota of interest they ramped up for a few weeks.
 
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