Tag: American Politics
-
A Minecraft Movie’s Genocidal Worship of Individual Accomplishment
A few months back, I started a reflection on A Minecraft Movie where I actually applauded many aspects of the film and felt the filmmakers demonstrate a sincere appreciation of the creativity and hard-work of the people involved in making it. My only bit of negative criticism was that I didn’t feel the characters really…
-
AI is the New Snake Oil
AI cares more about confidence than accuracy, which explains why it’s being sold by tech grifters with more panache than sense.
-
Yes, TikTok is Bad. But It Shouldn’t Be Banned
TikTok, like all social media, has serious problems. But banning it doesn’t solve those problems and gives those other platforms a free pass.
-
Another Millennial on Jon Stewart’s Return
Jon Stewart made a career of calling out media bias while occasionally falling for the same traps as the mainstream outlets he criticized.
-
Breitbart Leaks & the Terrorism of GamerGate
Joseph Bernstein’s article at Buzzfeed News — “Here’s How Breitbart And Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas Into The Mainstream” — includes larger implications for the video game community. Bernstein creates a narrative from a series of leaked emails from Breitbart which show Steve Bannon giving directions to Milo Yiannopoulis regarding their white nationalist agenda. They also “out”…
-
Hate Speech in Online Communities
Last week, we examined how hate speech can be used as a way to intimidate and upset opponents. We looked at Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg’s use of the n-word as an example of how, even though he was playing a competitive video game, he wasn’t using it this way. It’s important to look at the reasons…
-
How Hate Speech & Video Games Created the Alt-Right
In 2005, Steve Bannon got Goldman Sachs to invest $60 million in a World of Warcraft Chinese gold farming company. 1 Bannon eventually took control of the gold farming company, Internet Gaming Entertainment. Even though IGE flopped, Bannon said that these gamers were the pre-cursor to the alt-right. “These guys, these rootless white males, had monster power… It was…
-
Hate Speech in Video Game Culture
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg recently said the “n-word” on a stream of the popular online shooter Playunknown’s Battlegrounds.1 For those who follow Kjellberg’s “antics”, this is no surprise; earlier this year, he paid two men in India to record themselves holding up a sign that said “DEATH TO ALL JEWS”. In a half-hearted apology, he placed a lot…