O'Reilly warns against machines taking us over; killing John Connor
Written by Dan Zuccarelli   
Monday, 20 November 2006 15:42
BOR.jpgNot really taking like killing us, but destroying the youth of America from the inside. WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!

Bill O'Reilly, doing his very best to top Jack Thompson, went on what one could call a little bit of a tangent about today's youth being controlled by machines. I could write-up all kinds of stuff debunking this or that but I think I'm just gonna cut this one loose. Dear readers, tell us what you think about what he's got to say.

[Transcript courtesy of GamePolitics.com]

American society is changing for the worse because of the machines… In the past to flee the real world people usually chose drugs or alcohol… now you don’t have to do that, Now all you have to do is have enough money to buy a machine…

Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don’t deal with reality - ever. So they don’t know what day it is; they don’t know temperature it is; they don’t know what their neighbor looks like. They don’t know anything… because they are constantly diverted by a machine. Now what this does is it takes a person away from reality because they’ve created their own reality…

The newest thing is the PlayStation 3. Now this is a machine that allows you to play games in hi-def and all this other stuff… It’s the newest state of the art system from Sony…. It has a video game console, plays DVDs, connects you to the Internet, tells you how handsome you are. It’s six-hundred bucks. Now people lined up for hours to get this thing. Hours!...

But wait! There's more!

The problem with this stuff is that some people can deal with it constructively… but other people get addicted to it, just like opium, just like drugs and alcohol… So this is a big, big problem. It’s going to change every single thing in this country...

The have-nots are growing. Why are they growing? Because the skill set that is necessary to earn a decent living is being deemphasized in a fantasy world of football games and shooting zombies and all that…. Now you have the “knows” and the “know-nots”, because if you spend all your youth being prisoners of machines….. you’re not going to know anything…. You’re gonna fail.

I don’t own an iPod. I would never wear an iPod… If this is your primary focus in life - the machines… it’s going to have a staggeringly negative effect, all of this, for America… did you ever talk to these computer geeks? I mean, can you carry on a conversation with them? …I really fear for the United States because, believe me, the jihadists? They’re not playing the video games. They’re killing real people over there.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Playing games, listening to your iPod, not knowing what day it is, being worse than the jihadists...


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Comments (14)Add Comment
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written by greshkov, November 21, 2006
firstly, i love the title. i'm still laughing. secondly, i like how he pretty much advocates people doing drugs to escape because it's what people used to do, but the youth today using "machines" is the down fall of society. i wonder what would happen when he found out most people smoke weed and play madden, at the same time! to be fair, i didn't read any more than you posted because i think o'reilly is a moron, and reading or hearing about what he has to say just pisses me off. so i'll save the little bit of anger this caused and put it towards my next rant.
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written by Andarko, November 21, 2006
So according to Bill-O, it's worse for "computer geeks" to kill zombies for fun in a video game than it is for "jihadists" to kill people for real, because at least jihadists are grounded in reality?! Well, if we needed further proof that Bill-O is 100% certifiably insane, now we've got it.
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written by Harpua Scorpio, November 21, 2006
"i like how he pretty much advocates people doing drugs to escape because it’s what people used to do, but the youth today using “machines” is the down fall of society."

Remember, he loves him some painkillers.
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written by 3Deal, November 21, 2006
But not as much as Limbaugh does
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written by OPTIMUS PRIME, November 21, 2006
I like Bill O'Reilly, unlike pretty much all of the the Left wing net and media (as evident of most blogs, news, etc.). It's funny how everyone just hones in on everything except for the fact that he said "The problem with this stuff is that some people can deal with it constructively" the keyword being SOME here. SOME can, SOME cannot. That is absolutely true. I have played games since the NES came out, and I played a ton of GoldenEye 007 and MarioKart when I was younger. The difference between what I did and what kids do today is that I actually played sports, rode bikes, did activities outside. For example, a friend of mine (who is a great parent I might add) has a son who has actually said to me that he can't stop thinking about playing video games, that's all he wants to do. That is crazy coming from a 9 year old. My friend has had to sell his systems just to get his son to stop asking him if he can play. I definately think that the youth today has major issues, whether its a lack of parenting, or other reasons as pointed out in this article, I don't know for sure. But I do know that getting out and experiencing things isn't all that bad to do sometimes.
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written by jon mcnally, November 21, 2006
Bloviator! A pasty faced gas bag who is afraid the world has passed him by. He decries the fat that there is another choice to escape reality-drugs, alcohol, FOX News and now video games. Oh wait, I forgot to add harassing female interns and PA's. The have-nots are growing because of video games? I think he may have taken too many pain killers today...cloudbuster
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written by danzuke(NetPhantom), November 21, 2006
Optimus: All opinions are welcome here and I have no problem with people expressing themselves, but I take serious issue with your "kids today" speech.

To take 1 person from your past (you) and 1 kid from today (whoever) to base an entire point around is both misguided and out-of-touch. To say that somehow today's kids are different than kids back then is just silly.

I guess it would shock you to find out that 3 writers of this site get together to play Soccer on the weekends, as well as get together to play games. We also do other bizarre things like go out, spend time with friends and family, and travel.

To make such a blanket statement discounts your entire point, I imagine your parents also had the same "kids today" speech about your generation, just as you grandparents did before.
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written by OPTIMUS PRIME, November 21, 2006
Danzuke,

Usually when you argue a point you site examples, hence the reason I gave an example of what I was like (and tons of my friends) and what I have seen with "kids today" (as you put it). I know a lot more kids that are just like my friends son, I can think of at least 10 just off the top of my head that I personally know and many more just like him. I am only stating facts about the "kids today".

To write off my argument as a "kids today" speech pretty much discounts your whole point, and you contradict yourself by making a generalization that all or our parents did the same thing. You also make statements that I am misguided and out-of-touch when you know nothing about me and what I do, thats no way to make a point, in my opinion at least.

When over 1/3 of kids is obese (http://www.obesity.org/subs/fa...outh.shtml),
I think we have a little bit of a problem, whether or not its only because of video games (I highly doubt that), but TV, computers and electronics definately play an important role in the problem, (as well as parenting basically going down the toilet).
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written by OPTIMUS PRIME, November 21, 2006
What cracks me up the most about most people's posts here (and on other blogs) about this story is that they attack O'Reilly instead of actually trying to argue why he is wrong.
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written by greshkov, November 21, 2006
i took issue with what he said, not who he is. he's a tv personality, and therefore has no soul. i could care less about the person. the words coming out of his mouth i disagree with, and i took a shot at that. i don't know bill o'reilly, so i can't comment on him as a person.

i can say that kids are fat and lazy because of more than video games. i'll admit that video games do play a role in some cases, but you can't generalize that video games are bringing down society. as a video game blog, and more specifically, one that deal with the more adult aspect, we take great offense to this. we don't make comments that talk show hosts are bringing down society. it's too general a statement.
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written by NetPhantom, November 21, 2006
People getting fatter may be true, but the reasons are leigon. One could blame the rise in obesity on the gov't subsidies on corn, which we then use as fattier and harder to digest sweetener.

My kids today remark was merely to show that every generation takes issues with the one that comes after. Elvis was the worse thing to happen to kids, then the Beatles, then Alice Cooper, Then Marilyn Manson. Same goes with other forms of media.

I meant no offense, and didn't mean any attack as personal towards you. Honestly.
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written by OPTIMUS PRIME, November 21, 2006
I didn't take it as an attack, don't worry about that. Subjects like these can definately spark people to have widely differing opinions, which is good. I just think that video games, tv, (or anything for that matter) are ok in moderation, but can definately be abused, which I think is becoming more and more prevalent. Bill O'Reilly is by no means advocating using drugs, he was merely making an extreme analogy, which isn't that far off. Think of it like this, drugs can cause you to become isolated and cause you to fail to keep commitments, etc., and so can video games. Greshkov, he in no way says that video games are going to bring down society, he states that machines are going to have a "staggeringly negative effect" on society, which is not the same thing. Video games are not to blame for everything, which O'Reilly didn't say (he said machines to be specific), but they can be to blame for some problems.
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written by Pridna, November 27, 2006
Wow... I used to have respect for that man. :| Seems my conservative (Yes, conservative. Deal.) mates are going to let me down on videogames forever. -sigh-

(No, I'm not some 40 year old dude.)
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written by Danzuke, November 27, 2006
In all honestly this isn't a conservative/liberal issue. Lieberman and Hillary are two big baddies when it comes to game legislation. So this is one bipartisan issue sadly

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