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| Boycotting the eeeevil Duluth Air Show for peace |
| 2008-07-08 |
| James Lileks @ buzz.mn Some people are upset that the Duluth airshow will include a video game that lets you fight terrorists. From the article: Some community members are calling for a boycott of the Duluth Air Show because of a combat simulation that U.S. Army recruiters will bring to the show. Inappropriate? At an air show? One can understand their anger if the simulation was mandatory, and children were herded into vast rooms, drugged up, forced to ride the Humvee sim then marched into a recruitment office and told they were signing up for a free trip to Disneyland, but thatÂ’s not the case. I wonder if these people would have protested the comic books of the 40s as well. Before the crime and horror comics took over the market, kidsÂ’ comics were packed with anti-Nazi fisticuffs; the stands were full of pictures of Major Victory and the Bolt and the Flame and other guys in leotards, often accompanied by a cheerful and presumably emancipated minor named Bucky; they were wading into crowds of gaping fang-toothed fascists, punching and grinning and generally saving Western Civ from militaristic collectivism. Boys like to read about fighting the bad guys. Somehow a sim about saving relief workers by blowing up terrorists is BAD, but a game in which one plays a criminal who drives around town running over pedestrians is okay. One suspects the boycotters would also be down with an RPG simulation of the life of Che Guevara, in which you go about summarily executing "counterrevolutionaries" and "bourgeoise oppressors." IÂ’d say boys are getting mixed messages, but theyÂ’re probably not listening to the boycotters on either side. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #6 Frank, I doubt that will be a problem - when I was at the Sacramento air show in March, the line looked like it was hours long. Anybody trying to block access would be REALLY sorry. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-07-08 19:56 |
| #5 and if they try to physically block access to the simulator, you can warmup your defensive hand-to-hand skillz. Throat punch might be in order, eye-gouge held in reserve, k? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-07-08 18:35 |
| #4 Besides, if they boycott the video game, that will mean the lines will be shorter. |
| Posted by: Rambler in California 2008-07-08 17:44 |
| #3 The people who are calling for the boycott of the air show are the kind of people who don't go to air shows anyway because why would anyone want to hang around in the hot sun just to look at a bunch of airplanes? They define the English word wankers. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-07-08 16:57 |
| #2 I think the people upset about something like this refer to that literature as graphic novels and take them quite seriously; well as seriously as mid 20 and 30 somethings can when not playing 'Hail to the Chimp'. They probably get the subterranean homesick blues and don't need no weatherman to tell them which way the wind blows. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-07-08 16:28 |
| #1 Saw this demo at the Vidalia Air show. I didn't want to wait in the VERY long line, but my #2 son did, and did very well. Assholes trying to look big by challenging someone much bigger than they are, confident that if they are smacked down (easy to do), they'll just run crying to their congressman to lodge a protest. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2008-07-08 16:18 |