Obama scapegoats videogames

He's just asking parents to put down the video games... in the same vein as television and the radio. He's not saying VIDEO GAMES = DECLINE OF SOCIETY. I don't think he's scapegoating in this case.

Shoot, if McCain told parents to put down the PS3 and raise their goddamn kids, I'd agree.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']What's wrong with what he's saying?[/QUOTE]

It's overly simplistic and unrealistic. Are parents devoting time to games instead of their children. Is playing games/spending time with children an 'either/or' dichotomy? Parent can't play games with their children?

Why are "TV" and "Videogames" always 'devil terms' in political speech? Has anyone used the term in a positive way within a political setting?

His model is too simplitic. Shit, Obama how about giving more money to education so every kid has a book to read.? How about more money, so we can hire more teachers to reduce class size?
 
[quote name='fullmetalfan720']What Obama is saying is, people need to stop fooling around and actually do something, if they want change, or to succeed.[/QUOTE]

Agreed, but why bring TV and Videogames into the discussion? The average American is overworked, and barely has enough time to 'fool around'. Shit, I play games for about an hour a week (just look at my gamer score, not even 6000) while I work at least 40-50 hours.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']It's overly simplistic and unrealistic. Are parents devoting time to games instead of their children. Is playing games/spending time with children an 'either/or' dichotomy? Parent can't play games with their children?

Why are "TV" and "Videogames" always 'devil terms' in political speech? Has anyone used the term in a positive way within a political setting?

His model is too simplitic. Shit, Obama how about giving more money to education so every kid has a book to read.? How about more money, so we can hire more teachers to reduce class size?[/quote]


I agree with most of your points, except for the mo' money for education. Here in LA, the schools spend a shit ton of money on each pupil and our graduation rates from HS are about 50%... that's pathetic. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy in the school system is so huge that all the $ gets absorbed by useless cubicle workers and administrators.

What these retards need is some competition. More private schools!!!! Dude, with less than half the money that LAUSD spends, my HS graduated 99-100% easily.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']Agreed, but why bring TV and Videogames into the discussion? The average American is overworked, and barely has enough time to 'fool around'. Shit, I play games for about an hour a week (just look at my gamer score, not even 6000) while I work at least 40-50 hours.[/QUOTE]


Okay, let me clarify. Obama has said that change will not be easy. It will take sacrifices, including not having much free time to watch t.v./ play video games. However if we do not fight for change, then we will have the same old politics, and nothing will get done.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']It's overly simplistic and unrealistic. [/quote]

I'd agree it's overly simplistic. But that's American politics these days. If it can't be understood in sub-thirty second sound bites then it passes by unnoticed.
 
[quote name='BigT']I agree with most of your points, except for the mo' money for education. Here in LA, the schools spend a shit ton of money on each pupil and our graduation rates from HS are about 50%... that's pathetic. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy in the school system is so huge that all the $ gets absorbed by useless cubicle workers and administrators.

What these retards need is some competition. More private schools!!!! Dude, with less than half the money that LAUSD spends, my HS graduated 99-100% easily.[/QUOTE]

My sister teachers for LAUSD, and she always said her classes are overcrowded and nearly unmanageable. More money(in the right places)=more teachers=better teacher-student ratio.
 
I used to play videogames, watch TV, etc. My GPA was 3.53. I learned to focus, my GPA in the past three quarters has averaged is 3.93. It'll take a while to bring up the 3.53 that I had gotten while taking things lightly, but hopefully over these last two years I'll bring it up to the ~3.75 needed to stand a chance at getting into Boalt for intellectual property law.

Without sounding too arrogant, if America were filled with people like me (who have turned their TV/etc off) we'd be a better nation. We would achieve more. As it stands, work ethic in this country is absolute crap. My grades are much better than many peers much smarter than myself, and I understand the material far better than they do, simply because I choose to study while they're watching reruns of Scrubs.


[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']The average American is overworked[/QUOTE]

:rofl:

The average American is lazier than 80% of the world, laziness rivaled only by European countries and perhaps Canada.

The fact that I'm able to get top grades in a top university despite merely average intelligence is proof enough of that. People getting drunk on school nights, seeing a movie the night before an exam, etc, it's absolutely pathetic.
 
[quote name='Koggit']
The average American is lazier than 80% of the world, laziness rivaled only by European countries and perhaps Canada.[/QUOTE]

"Today, Americans work about as many hours each year as they did in 1970, and, instead of thirteen weeks of vacation, the average American now gets four (and that includes holidays). But there is a place that has got considerably closer to the leisure society of the futurists’ dreams—Western Europe. The French work twenty-eight per cent fewer hours per person than Americans, and the Germans put in twenty-five per cent fewer hours. Compared with Europeans, a higher percentage of American adults work, they work more hours per week, and they work more weeks per year."

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/28/051128ta_talk_surowiecki

How is this lazier?
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']My sister teachers for LAUSD, and she always said her classes are overcrowded and nearly unmanageable. More money(in the right places)=more teachers=better teacher-student ratio.[/quote]

DC school system spends the most money per student (it's one of the worst school systems in America).

Money is only one factor - management and accountability play a huge role.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']"Today, Americans work about as many hours each year as they did in 1970, and, instead of thirteen weeks of vacation, the average American now gets four (and that includes holidays). But there is a place that has got considerably closer to the leisure society of the futurists’ dreams—Western Europe. The French work twenty-eight per cent fewer hours per person than Americans, and the Germans put in twenty-five per cent fewer hours. Compared with Europeans, a higher percentage of American adults work, they work more hours per week, and they work more weeks per year."

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/200...alk_surowiecki

How is this lazier?[/quote]

That only proves my point. Thanks?
 
[quote name='Koggit']I used to play videogames, watch TV, etc. My GPA was 3.53. I learned to focus, my GPA in the past three quarters has averaged is 3.93. It'll take a while to bring up the 3.53 that I had gotten while taking things lightly, but hopefully over these last two years I'll bring it up to the ~3.75 needed to stand a chance at getting into Boalt for intellectual property law.

Without sounding too arrogant, if America were filled with people like me (who have turned their TV/etc off) we'd be a better nation. We would achieve more.[/quote]

Are you going to fight for consumer rights, fair use, and creative commons?

Because if you're going to lobby on behalf of the RIAA, MPAA, M$oft or similar copywrong lawsuit shop, I'd submit that you'd be doing America a service by going back and firing up the ol' boob tube ;)
 
[quote name='camoor']Are you going to fight for consumer rights, fair use, and creative commons?

Because if you're going to lobby on behalf of the RIAA, MPAA, M$oft or similar copywrong lawsuit shop, I'd submit that you'd be doing America a service by going back and firing up the ol' boob tube ;)[/QUOTE]

I was thinking more along the lines of working with patents for goods/services.

A professor of mine worked for an IP firm in downtown Seattle and he said it was the most interesting job he's ever had. One day working with a patent for drought resistant broccoli with someone who has a PhD in microbiology, and the next a patent for wakeboard bindings with a 20-year old wakeboarder.

I'm majoring in physics because I like to know how things work. I like the idea of being in a profession in which I'm constantly learning how things work.
 
[quote name='Koggit']I used to play videogames, watch TV, etc. My GPA was 3.53. I learned to focus, my GPA in the past three quarters has averaged is 3.93. It'll take a while to bring up the 3.53 that I had gotten while taking things lightly, but hopefully over these last two years I'll bring it up to the ~3.75 needed to stand a chance at getting into Boalt for intellectual property law.


The fact that I'm able to get top grades in a top university despite merely average intelligence is proof enough of that. People getting drunk on school nights, seeing a movie the night before an exam, etc, it's absolutely pathetic.[/quote]

More important then even GPA is the LSAT for Law School admissions. It's not that bad of a test (only half a day)... and your score will increase with practice. For Boalt or Stanford, you probably need at least high 160s or 170+ to be pretty competitive with a 3.75 GPA.

As you get higher and higher in your education, you will notice that intelligence gets one only so far... with a wide volume of info to memorize/understand, it becomes more of a question of who is willing to sacrifice more (although being smart can get you out of some sticky situations...)

Good luck
 
I agree to an extent, but the video game aren't the problem, it's the stupid ass parents. If you are spending so much time playing games, that your children are suffering, then you don't need kids.

Kind of goes with the "kids raising kids" saying i hear a lot.
 
[quote name='Koggit']I was thinking more along the lines of working with patents for goods/services.

A professor of mine worked for an IP firm in downtown Seattle and he said it was the most interesting job he's ever had. One day working with a patent for drought resistant broccoli with someone who has a PhD in microbiology, and the next a patent for wakeboard bindings with a 20-year old wakeboarder.

I'm majoring in physics because I like to know how things work. I like the idea of being in a profession in which I'm constantly learning how things work.[/quote]

Cool. I can already tell you're going to do better then that guy who is writing terrible and biased essays in the OT.
 
[quote name='DesertEagleXIX']It's overly simplistic and unrealistic. Are parents devoting time to games instead of their children. Is playing games/spending time with children an 'either/or' dichotomy? Parent can't play games with their children?

Why are "TV" and "Videogames" always 'devil terms' in political speech? Has anyone used the term in a positive way within a political setting?

His model is too simplitic. Shit, Obama how about giving more money to education so every kid has a book to read.? How about more money, so we can hire more teachers to reduce class size?[/quote]

Three things here:
1) I actually watched this particular rally and the quoted line requires a bit more context. He was talking about improving education. But the point he was trying to make is that a child's education doesnt just happen inside the four walls of the schoolhouse. He was encouring parents to take more of a role in education, not just rely on the teachers. In a similar speech he said:

I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that has built up over centuries, how hard it will be to fix schools, because changing our schools will require not just money, but a change in attitudes.
We’re going to have to parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away, and instill a sense of excellence in our children, and that’s going to take some time.
​
Click to expand...

2) I dont think he was even considering the 'parent-playing-with-child' scenario. Rather, I think he was going after the 'TV(video game)-as-babysitter' role. Basically he was saying that nothing should be a substitute for parental involvement.

3) He *does* advocate for more money for teachers/schools. But, as the quote above reveals, he belives that money is not the end-all solution. To paraphrase you, it's not an 'either/or dichotomy'.

On a personal note, IMO, the problem with schools is not *if* we have money, but *how* schools are funded. Too much of a schools budget is dependent on the area the schools are in. A significant portion of the school's budget is based on local property tax revenue. Well if you have a school in a shitty area, they are going to have shitty tax revenue and thus, not as much money to fund things like new books, art, and gym classes. Moreover, since the neighborhood is economically depressed, it is unlikey that they'll be able to make of the difference with bake sale and the like. No, there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way we think about public education. I have my ideas on this, but :whistle2:# I'll save those for another thread.
 
[quote name='Koggit']I was thinking more along the lines of working with patents for goods/services.

A professor of mine worked for an IP firm in downtown Seattle and he said it was the most interesting job he's ever had. One day working with a patent for drought resistant broccoli with someone who has a PhD in microbiology, and the next a patent for wakeboard bindings with a 20-year old wakeboarder.[/quote]

As someone who has worked with intellectual property for, going on nine years now, I *strongly* suggest that you get some experience with it before commiting to it. IP law is not *nearly* as jaw-dropping exciting as it may seem. Most "inventions" are minor changes in exisiting products. Sure, once in a blue moon you'll see something that gives you pause, but mostly, it's just a new combination of old things.

I dont know what stage you are in schooling, but if you *really* want to learn about US IP laws, the best place to go is the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). You will learn quickly if IP law is the right track for you or not. They have *paid* internship programs. You should really check it out.
http://usptocareers.gov/Pages/WhyWork/Students.aspx
 
CAGs tend to be more intelligent gamers- I think Obama's talking about the kids that come home and play Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 from 3 till 10 at night.
 
[quote name='JolietJake']Like the way they slightly change mickey mouse to keep him protected under law.[/QUOTE]

Pssh, they don't do that, they just go to Congress and say "yo extend copyright protection again" and Congress says "k" and most of the Supreme Court is too dumb to realize that constant extensions are NOT the "limited time" that the Constitution provides for.
 
:applause:

Obama's just trying to voice the popular opinion that positive parental involvement is never as high as it should/could be in many American families.
Saying we should "turn it all off" is extreme if taken literally, but he's just saying that when Junior comes home and needs some help with his science project,
stop playing Halo and help the kid!
(then promptly return to Halo once you're done):D
 
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