Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs 409
Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."
Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Insightful)
Where does Australia find these whack jobs? I mean, either the guy is a paranoid schizophrenic or a mental retard.
I'm pretty sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
...it would be opposite if he was proposing a ban on motorcycles.
Soo.. (Score:5, Insightful)
What he's saying is, every person under 30 who lives in Australia is scarier than Biker Gangs?
Does he ever leave the house?
Re:The guy's right (Score:2, Insightful)
What a tit (Score:5, Insightful)
In short, "biker gang" is not shorthand for dangerous thug. Nor is "gamer" shorthand for brainwashed serial killer. And while we're at it I'm pretty sure that "Australian politician" doesn't mean paranoid, misinformed and dangerously ignorant jerk"... but I could be wrong.
Just a thought Mr Atkinson but perhaps your ill-considered bigotry is what causes people to take such a dim view of you. A single gamer harrassing you is more likely indicative that you've pissed someone off personally than that all gamers are out to get you and your family. Gah.
Re:I'm pretty sure... (Score:3, Insightful)
The article states that he indeed, did:
Mr Atkinson was involved in introducing tough new laws to outlaw bikie gangs in South Australia several years ago.
At the time he said politicians and public officials had to put themselves "on the line" to take the gangs on.
How brave of him. Now he has to bravely face some teenager leaving a note at his door that most assuredly called him a "nigger faggot."
Re:The guy's right (Score:5, Insightful)
this guy thinks that gamers are generally more dangerous than bikers in order to discredit him.
Quote:
He didn't say "from a gamer" he said "from gamers", as in the whole group. As opposed to the outlaw motorcycle gangs, as in their whole group. He feels that gamers are more dangerous than bikers. If he's never received a death threat from anyone but a gamer, then perhaps he's justified in feeling that way, but I'm seriously surprised that this is the first death threat an AG would get.
I do have to say that the motorcycle gangs have a better long term plan than the gamers do at this point. Someone should start a gamer party and run for election on the grounds that you actually know something about what you're trying to regulate.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:5, Insightful)
As a politician and (assuming Rudd isn't running everything) a setter of policy, it's his job to look beyond personal anecdotes. If he's making policy based solely on the fact that some nutjob left a note on his door, and he can't get past that, then he has no business being in a position where he does form policy. I'm sorry someone made some sort of a threat, but if he's suffered that significant an emotional scarring from it, perhaps he should recuse himself.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, the context was that a gamer slipped a threatening note under his door. I think in general, zombies are scarier than my next door neighbor, but if my next door neighbor says he's going to burn down my house, and zombies remain fictional, temporarily my neighbor becomes scarier than zombies.
It's not a statement that should have been made by a politician in public though, and since he's keeping censorship going, he deserves whatever he gets (quotes taken out of context AND the threats). Furthermore, for him to fairly make the comparison, he needs to try banning motorcycles and then telling us which is scarier. I don't know much about motorcycle gangs, but I think they probably wouldn't have slid a note under his door, I think they would have slid a note on the end of their boot up his ass.
Shh, don't tell him... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hells Angels (Score:2, Insightful)
That originally popped into my head as a joke, but I think it's actually true! See also his recent law banning anonymous speech.
Re:The guy's right (Score:3, Insightful)
No. That generalization of his quote is incorrect. You are correct in gernealizing from "a gamer" to "gamers" -- but you are incorrect in generalizing from his family being at risk to other families, or individuals, or all of society being at risk.
Considering that he claims a credible threat was made against him by gamers, and none by bikers, you can see his rationale for believe that *his specific family* is more threatened by gamers.
That does not mean that you can generalize his beliefs to include *gamers in general* are more dangerous than *bikers in general* regardless of the subject of the risk assessment.
Aussie Jack Thompson? (Score:3, Insightful)
Were he to say, "I am more worried about black people* than Mexicans because a black person slipped a note under my door." he would get eaten alive by the public outcry. Apparently, it's ok to generalize based on traits that are chosen rather than inherited...
Re:Anecdotal Evidence Disagrees. (Score:2, Insightful)
well.... a corpse can't give consent.
Re:ok... (Score:3, Insightful)
"He was later forced to apologise. The animal was not a cat, the incident happened at another location and bikies weren't involved."
Wait, what?!
"Oops, my bad, it was a cow, not a cat. And it wasn't at my house, it was at the local Burger King. And I guess it was just a family of 4, not bikers. But it looked so delicious that I was understandably confused!"
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:3, Insightful)
I mean, either the guy is a paranoid schizophrenic or a mental retard.
Why not both?
Re:Article says he helped ban biker gangs (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:5, Insightful)
A gamer allegedly slipped a threatening note under his door.
Oh, great; there's MORE of these wackos? (Score:3, Insightful)
So basically, this guy is to Australia what Jack Thompson would be to the US if he ever got into a position of power. Guys like him would probably faint at the words I typically use to talk and think about them, not because of any actual obscenities, but because phrases like "enemies of freedom" would remind him too much of the way them thar turrists talk about the West.
That said, I can't help but wonder if maybe JonKatz was onto something. Not even 15 years ago, gamers and geeks of all kinds tended to be seen as mostly harmless: bumbling and socially-inept, but generally well-meaning (albeit odd). We were condescended to, and even bullied from time to time, but we were more or less given the benefit of the doubt.
That's changed, and it hasn't been for the better. The condescension and bullying haven't really gone anywhere, but now there's a palpable sense of fear mixed into it. We're seen as ticking time bombs, holding on by a thread that a pin drop in the wrong direction could snap. Some see us as pre-murderers, others as pre-rapists, yet others as pre-saboteurs, but the common thread is clear: we are sleeping monsters to be tiptoed around.
The stereotype is of course false, or at least it's no more true than it's ever been for any group of people. But like the old stereotype, the new one wasn't born in a vacuum. Gaming and geekdom have always had a few Creepy People doing Creepy Things, but it's only recently that they've risen to the forefront. That's our image problem, and it would do us as a group a lot of good to think about why it happened and how to reverse it, before people like Thompson and Atkinson manage to do it for us.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:2, Insightful)
I think we need to see the actual 'note' for evidence. After all the drama surrounding the issue we have a very very high chance of this all being a stunt.
Gamers as a whole are unlikely to approach someone's home and leave a PHYSICAL note. Most gamers have enough concept and paranoia of the real world law (just see what happens if one of their buddies mentions they got a 'cease and desist' type notice for pirating a game or movie) that they generally do not like doing things that might bring the real world authorities into play.
Not to mention also a threatening note is easily a candidate for investigation/arrest material even simple fingerprinting is possible to apprehend a suspect for threats.
If it was a gamer doing this we would be more likely to see something about a threatening email or website, NOT a physical letter under his door. /. are gamers, would you write a threatening letter to someone in a position of power and leave it at their door?
Considering a large majority of
The other fishy thing here is no vandalism, if someone was UPSET or bothered enough to actually travel to his home and leave a threatening letter then I don't see why vandalism was not an issue here. Someone young enough to do something as silly/stupid as leaving the note would certainly not be smart enough to avoid the temptation of vandalism at the same time.
Political Disenfranchisement (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:1, Insightful)
Fosters is the beer we export not the beer we drink - XXXX, Tooths Tooheys, VB, MB, Swan etc
One of the things that annoys me as an Expat Aussie is watching this pandering to the religious right that we never had so openly before -
Was in the past that australian pollies would tell the Rev Fred Nile and his cronies to take a hike - now they are doing the same thing the Republican party does here in the US
We got the Convicts NOT the Puritans - since when did that change????
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hells Angels (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, Aussie slang is pretty easy to get the hang of, merely cut the word in half and add "ie" at the end of it. That probably amounts to 95% of Aussie slang
In the case that a citation is required, is it enough to say that I am Australian
Re:The guy's right (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it's all a load of bullshit.
1. The contents of the note haven't been made public, so we don't know how threatening it really was. My guess on the contents: "I want my left 4 dead 2 you fucking fucker"
2. There is no indication that the police have been involved. If Atkinson was actually scared of the supposed death threats you'd think he would have called the cops.
3. It is currently legal to leave a note under someone's door, even at 2am.
4. He is more at risk from bikie gangs than gamers. SA has some nasty anti-bikie laws that he introduced recently. These laws are a horrible attack on freedom of association, and in theory could be used to rule other groups illegal in the future.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:3, Insightful)
So, to everyone in Australia, the guy who made that threat is fucking it up for the rest of you.
I'd argue that it's mostly the target that is fucking it up for everyone else. He was blocking it well before the claimed threat. Banning all adult games for sale to because one gamer threatened you is incredibly bad justification for an incredibly bad move.
Re:Bwahahaha! (Score:3, Insightful)
plus fucking 1 on that score. How the hell did we end up with a religious nutjob for a prime minister?
Re:Hells Angels (Score:3, Insightful)
Solution - Vote for the opposition on March 20. (Score:2, Insightful)
Michael Atkinson is a Labor Attorney-General.
The incumbent South Australian Government is Labor.
Vote for the opposition (Liberal, Independant, etc.) in the impending South Australian State Election on the 20th of March 2010 and the new government will invariably give us a new AG.
If you are in the Croydon electorate - which is where Michael Atkinson's seat it - then you should rally all your friends and vote for the opposition - then he won't even have a seat, let alone be AG.
Democracy at work people.
Re:Well, i guess so... (Score:3, Insightful)
Gamers as a whole are unlikely to approach someone's home and leave a PHYSICAL note. Most gamers have enough concept and paranoia of the real world law (just see what happens if one of their buddies mentions they got a 'cease and desist' type notice for pirating a game or movie) that they generally do not like doing things that might bring the real world authorities into play.
Well, there are stupid gamers in this world, just like there are stupid attorneys-general.
Everything is NOT bigger in Texas (Score:3, Insightful)
BTW, Most Aussies including me enjoyed the first Crocodile Dundee but Hoag's lost his popularity with Aussies when he dumped his wife of 20yrs and ran off with the woman from the movie.