George Will is an angry old man

[Fifthfiend]

and wants you to get off of his lawn.

[EVILNess]

Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.

Wow. I feel incredibly insulted by that entire article. I don't think I have ever read anything, ever, that insulted me so personally.

[CelesJessa]

Remind me again why I should trust the fashion advice given by this man?

[Funka Genocide]

I've got to say that I agree to some degree.

Not with everything all rolled into one, and not without a few key exceptions, but he's got a point.

Image just isn't what it used to be, everything is to convey sexuality instead of who you really are. Am I really a salt of the earth worky type? Fuck no, I press buttons for a living, and honestly I'd be better represented by slacks and an oxford.

when I'm his age, you can get the fuck off my lawn too.

also, I really don't think it's an article about fashion advice so much as it's an article about a certain degradation in the national character. Maybe he's just clinging to outmoded tradition, but I guess there is something to be said for a certain palpable responsibility you don when you wear the right clothes. Our physical appearance is the most basic and evident expression of not only our personality but of our position in our society. Maybe jeans are the resurgent afterthought of the hippy movement, just a shadow of some form of socialist sentiment. But America has always had winners and losers, and he seems to be railing against the fact that everyone dresses like a loser now.

[Lady Cygnet]

With all that is wrong in the world, he's bemoaning denim and the fact that gamers are allowed to vote? I hate denim, too, but it's more because jeans just aren't designed for women with narrow, high waists and gigantic rears, hips, and lower belly fat. It just doesn't happen. If i have to do yardwork or hardcore cleaning, I go to my trusty, forgiving sweat pants and t-shirt.

(I originally typed "swear pants," and I was oh-so-tempted to leave the typo in place, as I am more inclined to swear when I'm doing something that might result in a personal injury.)

My stepfather is conservative and a brick/stone mason, and he wears denim everywhere, even to church (for his wedding to my mother, though, he did go formal and put on a pair of black jeans :p). He might get permission from the almighty Mr. Will, as he does work in a backbreaking, somewhat dangerous trade, but where I come from, denim actually is worn by people who work very hard and care very much about how they appear in public. (And by where I come from, I mean rural Missouri, not the Chicagoland wasteland or any of the sophisticated metro areas.)

[Funka Genocide]

I wonder if he meant gamers as in people who play games, or gamers as in people who identify themselves as such, referring to it as it's own independent subculture.

there's a big difference between the two, I'd say.

[Rygar]

Originally Posted by Funka Genocide

I wonder if he meant gamers as in people who play games, or gamers as in people who identify themselves as such, referring to it as it's own independent subculture.

there's a big difference between the two, I'd say.

I'd say he has no idea of any distinctions like that and just thinks video games and the people who play them are childish. He also seems to have fallen into the trap of thinking anything animated is automatically for kids.


Anyway, he doesn't seem to know that quite a few games are only supposed to be played by people over 18. Or that The Dark Knight isn't exactly what you'd call a "juvenile" movie. Or that denim is not the physical manifestation of Satan

[Funka Genocide]

yeah, those would be the points I disagree with him on.

[Azisien]

This man was forced to watch at gunpoint as his family was raped and murdered by a pair of jeans, and then he too was raped.

At least, that is the only explanation I can come up with for the article in question.

[Funka Genocide]

I can't help but feel he's equal parts correct and out of touch.

The basic premise I agree with, he just shows his age with a few choice sentiments.

Video games are just a generational gap made manifest. Much like, I would assume, motion pictures were, or automobiles, or books made on a printing press, or manufactured clothing, indoor plumbing, electricity, pre slivced bread etc.

One of the obvious failings of age is the inability of the old to identify with the accoutrement of the young. However, society as a whole is largely indifferent to our technological panoply, we still go about warring and loving and striving despite the miracles of television and modern medicine. Sadly, we were unable to download the Messiah when the internet went live.

I really can't fault the old codger his grievance to be honest. We do run around looking like a bunch of 5 year olds, in comparison to earlier generations, and we do have a harder time understanding adulthood and it's itinerant hardships, just look at the astonishing number of single parents and failed marriages for proof.

maybe jeans aren't the devil, and it's likely they didn't rape his family, but from a certain perspective, he's dead on.