WaPo on Tea Party Zombies Must Die

Another interesting editorias about Tea Party Zombies Must Die - this time in the Washington Post. What's interesting about this opinion piece is that the author, Alexandra Petri, is a recovering (I think) comedian and part-time pundit who can see both sides to some degree but shrugs off the manufactured outrage as.. well, manufactured:

"I tried to get indignant about the game. I really did. This morning, I sat and furrowed my brow and thought dark thoughts for a good half-hour.

But I couldn’t do it. The only time I get indignant about video game violence is if I hear that someone has used a video game cartridge to physically injure a real person. Up until that point, you can do whatever you want to whatever animated hookers you’d prefer. As the Supreme Court noted, this is what the Founders would have wished. Jefferson was notorious for his affinity for Grand Theft Carriage.

Talking about video games reminds me of an Oscar Wilde quip about the weather — “Don’t talk to me about the weather,” one of his characters says. “Whenever people talk to me about the weather I always feel quite certain that they mean something else.”

That’s how it tends to be with video game indignation. The sets of People Who Get Upset About Violent Video Games and People Who Have Played Video Games Even Once Or Twice With Any Enjoyment Whatsoever tend not to overlap at all. The game is a proxy. Too much violence amongst youth? There must be a game we can blame! This isn’t free speech! Free speech doesn’t include zombies!"

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - even if that imitation is dead and is surrounded by a message that you are diametrically opposed to. No worries - there's no such thing as bad PR.

Source: Washington Post