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Video games are political but only because gamers think being a brown person or a woman or gay is political
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Nov 10, 2021 18:20
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| # ? May 31, 2024 14:14 |
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Yeah its one of those things: Everything is political. Everything makes a statement, whether you want to or not, but especially things like Media (Movies, Shows, Games, etc.)
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Nov 10, 2021 18:33
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Casimir Radon posted:Call of Duty was already skating on the edge of poo poo before they hired Oliver North and “Press F to pay respects”. Part of why I haven’t bought one in 10 years. I’m quite sad that “Press F to pay respects” is now also intrinsically linked to Kevin Spacey in some capacity, because that was his game it came from.
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Nov 10, 2021 18:45
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nine-gear crow posted:I’m quite sad that “Press F to pay respects” is now also intrinsically linked to Kevin Spacey in some capacity, because that was his game it came from. Also that particular entry at least was like "hey PMCs getting more authority/power is bad" but thats such a low bar to clear.
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Nov 10, 2021 18:54
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CommieGIR posted:Yeah its one of those things: Everything is political. Everything makes a statement, whether you want to or not, but especially things like Media (Movies, Shows, Games, etc.) I think there's probably a dividing line between things that are intending to send a political message and something that isn't. Like, making Mario the hero who saves a woman of royal blood isn't trying to say anything about patriarchy or hierarchy, but does anyway. But then you can also make a game that has a more overt and guided message, and while both are "political" there is a difference. The way that these are received also depends on the biases of the intended audience. Sometimes a game can even try to send a political message one way but undermine itself by including political/cultural assumptions that are below the developers' consciousness - like, I imagine there was a sense of feminism in making Zelda the titular character and giving her the greatest amount of power in the narrative, but making the player character a male anyway (because boys don't want to play as a girl!) also betrays a political POV.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:07
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Casimir Radon posted:Call of Duty was already skating on the edge of poo poo before they hired Oliver North and “Press F to pay respects”. Part of why I haven’t bought one in 10 years. poo poo, man, I'm pretty sure the last Call of Duty I played was the original. I've never understood the appeal of the yearly tac-ops-hard-man shooter game.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:08
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Intentions wrt media matter little tbh, death of the author can be applied to just about anything. Even artists who claim that they didn't have greater themes or statements to make in their art are doing it subconsciously, and even the decision to make something decidedly non-political is itself a political position. As long as a given read can make sense, it's totally valid imo.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:15
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How are u posted:poo poo, man, I'm pretty sure the last Call of Duty I played was the original. I've never understood the appeal of the yearly tac-ops-hard-man shooter game. I played the CoD series up until Black Ops because I liked the 10-20 hour campaign for a dumb action hero game. Once the focus was shifted onto multiplayer I entirely lost interest.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:19
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How are u posted:poo poo, man, I'm pretty sure the last Call of Duty I played was the original. I've never understood the appeal of the yearly tac-ops-hard-man shooter game. I’ve heard complaints about how so many games villains these days are generic PMC. Which I don’t get because that’s pretty realistic.
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Nov 10, 2021 19:49
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https://twitter.com/BlockbusterPlus/status/1458507625897906182?s=20
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Nov 10, 2021 20:54
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Mellow Seas posted:I imagine there was a sense of feminism in making Zelda the titular character and giving her the greatest amount of power in the narrative Except in Breath of the Wild because she was too busy playing with robots to awaken her powers so Hyrule gets destroyed and Link has to save it because he's the best ever. Which is why Age of Calamity is better than Breath of the Wild because instead of that happening Zelda actually awakens her powers because of her playing with robots and then she says "I'm gonna kick Ganon's rear end."
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Nov 10, 2021 21:19
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CommieGIR posted:Yeah its one of those things: Everything is political. Everything makes a statement, whether you want to or not, but especially things like Media (Movies, Shows, Games, etc.) Unless it's an Ubisoft game, of course.
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Nov 10, 2021 21:28
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Twelve by Pies posted:Except in Breath of the Wild because she was too busy playing with robots to awaken her powers so Hyrule gets destroyed and Link has to save it because he's the best ever. This is why the most recent trailer for Breath of the Wild 2 is loving hilarious. A sequel to Breath of the Wild has Zelda rescued and present and potentially a character with actual agency, which got people going "Oh neat, is Zelda going to be a persistent AI companion this time? Is she going to be playable?" and Nintendo's response was a gigantic "gently caress YOU!!!!" by showing Zelda falling into a pit and getting captured or killed in what's implied to be the opening minutes of the game and Link off on his own again, because Nintendo is terrified by the prospect of change or deviating from formula at its cold conservative core. The one hidden away behind all the whimsy and bright colours and rubbery plastic aesthetic. Zelda is only allowed to be active and competent and interesting in properties not handled by Nintendo: the 80s cartoon, Wand of Gamelon, Hyrule Warriors, and Age of Calamity.
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Nov 10, 2021 21:31
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nine-gear crow posted:Zelda is only allowed to be active and competent and interesting in properties not handled by Nintendo: the 80s cartoon, Wand of Gamelon, Hyrule Warriors, and Age of Calamity. Well, also Ocarina of Time, but only if she dressed in drag.
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Nov 10, 2021 21:43
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Mellow Seas posted:Well, also Ocarina of Time, but only if she dressed in drag. Same with Wind Waker, but it's not drag there, just pirate tomboy clothes. Oh and Spirit Tracks turns her into a ghost in a suit of armor. Basically whenever Zelda is not Zelda in a Zelda game, she can have agency, but the second she becomes Princess Zelda again, she gets kidnapped or erased from the story.
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Nov 10, 2021 21:50
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Twelve by Pies posted:Except in Breath of the Wild because she was too busy playing with robots to awaken her powers so Hyrule gets destroyed and Link has to save it because he's the best ever. I've never played Age of Calamity but the way I remember it in Breath of the wild Zelda couldn't awaken her powers because her dad was an emotionally abusive pos who wouldn't let her play with robots or do anything to de-stress and told her if she didn't do it exactly right everybody would say she's worthless. And even then she still single-handedly held Ganon back for 100 years.
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Nov 10, 2021 22:21
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nine-gear crow posted:I’m quite sad that “Press F to pay respects” is now also intrinsically linked to Kevin Spacey in some capacity, because that was his game it came from. I never played CoD but I remember pressing buttons to pay respect to my dead parents in Batman: Arkham City
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Nov 11, 2021 00:15
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BotW Zelda couldnt use her magic because her mom died before she could teach her how to magic. Also none of them thought to write a manual backup in the thousands of years. Also techincialy its Link's fault. Pre-game Link is such a perfect guard , frame perfect badass he just no sold mobs. He should have jobbed more.
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Nov 11, 2021 01:47
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Mellow Seas posted:I think there's probably a dividing line between things that are intending to send a political message and something that isn't. Like, making Mario the hero who saves a woman of royal blood isn't trying to say anything about patriarchy or hierarchy, but does anyway. But then you can also make a game that has a more overt and guided message, and while both are "political" there is a difference. The way that these are received also depends on the biases of the intended audience. you know, this kinda reminded me. while their overall quality was questionable, ironically the Dic cartoons for mario and zelda had some of the better portrayals of both peach and zelda. they weren't just dainty little things that needed mario and link to do everything for them, but active, competent and resourceful characters.
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Nov 11, 2021 08:08
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Zeroisanumber posted:The "Hot Coffee" outrage wasn't a right-wing thing. Hilldog herself led the charge on that one. It's circumstances like that that made the politicization of games in mid-2010's play out so strangely though, like in some ways they were transgressive and in some ways they were conservative, often the same content (like gratuitous T&A) doing both at once. The bipartisan needling of it was also basically the fuel for framing it all as "outsiders" vs. "gamers" and all of the downstream reactionary bullshit that entailed. Professor Beetus posted:Intentions wrt media matter little tbh, death of the author can be applied to just about anything. Even artists who claim that they didn't have greater themes or statements to make in their art are doing it subconsciously, and even the decision to make something decidedly non-political is itself a political position. As long as a given read can make sense, it's totally valid imo. Casimir Radon posted:I’ve heard complaints about how so many games villains these days are generic PMC. Which I don’t get because that’s pretty realistic. OneEightHundred fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Nov 11, 2021 |
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Nov 11, 2021 08:43
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Mr Interweb posted:you know, this kinda reminded me. while their overall quality was questionable, ironically the Dic cartoons for mario and zelda had some of the better portrayals of both peach and zelda. they weren't just dainty little things that needed mario and link to do everything for them, but active, competent and resourceful characters. Making Link into a sexually harassing jerkass was a bold decision, the funny thing is he actually was a really incredible fighter (even if sometimes it was just dumb luck) so he had the skills to back up his bragging. They actually kind of did the same thing in Hyrule Warriors, after Link gets the Master Sword he becomes a lot more arrogant and starts charging recklessly into battle with the attitude of "I'm the legendary hero with the most powerful weapon, why bother with tactics and military strategy when I can beat everything myself?" Anyway more on topic actually even ignoring side games and going off main ones, Peach has been given more agency than Zelda, mostly because of the multiplayer focused games like New Super Mario Bros. Wii/U and Super Mario 3D World where she's one of the playable characters. Both multiplayer focused Zelda games just had...Link get split into separate Links. Zelda can't even catch a break in the multiplayer focused games of her own series! Peach also got a lot more active and a lot sooner if you put sidegames in too, since she was a party member in Super Mario RPG way back on the SNES, and even though she still got kidnapped in both of them, she had her own story chapters where you played as her in the first two Paper Mario games, and then becomes fully playable in Super Paper Mario. Plus she gets to race karts and play sports along with everyone else in all the Mario sports games. And even though female Villager got added to Mario Kart 8 along with male Villager, the Zelda series representation for MK8 gets...Link. Just Link. They won't even let Zelda race loving go karts.
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Nov 11, 2021 10:39
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Hot Coffee was also fully clothed dry humping that required hacks to even access lol
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Nov 11, 2021 13:49
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PhazonLink posted:BotW Zelda couldnt use her magic because her mom died before she could teach her how to magic. Also none of them thought to write a manual backup in the thousands of years. Does seem like a scenario that should have come up before. Like, lots before.
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Nov 11, 2021 14:24
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Good loving god
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Nov 11, 2021 15:09
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Mercury_Storm posted:Hot Coffee was also fully clothed dry humping that required hacks to even access lol I recall the naked girlfriend textures were on the disc, whether they were naked in sex scenes depended on the version of the mod you had. But yeah, even that was harmless low-poly nudity and it was regular consentual sex you needed a hack to ever encounter. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 now I frequently flash back to what a dumb scandal that was.
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Nov 11, 2021 17:52
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Killer robot posted:I recall the naked girlfriend textures were on the disc, whether they were naked in sex scenes depended on the version of the mod you had. But yeah, even that was harmless low-poly nudity and it was regular consentual sex you needed a hack to ever encounter. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 now I frequently flash back to what a dumb scandal that was. It's the perfect microcosm of everything wrong with the ratings system. They should have put it back in for Trilogy and been like "we were right all along." OneEightHundred fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Nov 11, 2021 |
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Nov 11, 2021 18:26
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OneEightHundred posted:The supply of obvious American military enemies has been steadily fizzing out with the Cold War being over for decades, the War on Terror being an obvious debacle that has itself been fizzing out. And the regular-forces options are basically down to Russia (yawnnn) and China (a.k.a. get banned from the Chinese market, so absolutely not happening). Actually “Don’t offend China” is so baked in a this point that they’d never get to that point. The Homefront games did that, right? At least when Crysis had the enemies be North Koreans it was because it took place on a contested island, and didn’t make them out to be able to extend their reach to the US mainland.
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Nov 11, 2021 18:37
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Casimir Radon posted:You just change the skins a bit so the Chinese enemies are North Koreans. Yeah Homefront and the needless Red Dawn remake changed their villains from Chinese to Korean.
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Nov 11, 2021 19:21
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Casimir Radon posted:The Homefront games did that, right? At least when Crysis had the enemies be North Koreans it was because it took place on a contested island, and didn’t make them out to be able to extend their reach to the US mainland. Yeah, although in order for it to work, the first game involves a lengthy chain of historical anomalies that would make Harry Turtledove's head explode. I remember thinking that it would've been distinctly more believable if they just said North Korea had found the Spear of Destiny. The second game's got its own domino chain that's slightly less ridiculous (IIRC, it involves some breakthrough in the '50s that turns Korea into the electronics warehouse for the world), but only slightly.
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Nov 11, 2021 21:02
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Brawnfire posted:Does seem like a scenario that should have come up before. Like, lots before. We don't know how long the royal family has had sealing magic though, since it didn't exist in any of the other Zelda games. It seems like they mostly relied on the Master Sword to take care of Ganon, in fact Ganon has been sealed by the Master Sword twice (once in Four Swords Adventures, where Ganon is sealed inside the sword itself, and once in Hyrule Warriors, where a fragment of Ganon's spirit was locked underneath the pedestal where the Master Sword slept). Killer robot posted:Playing Cyberpunk 2077 now I frequently flash back to what a dumb scandal that was. I feel like part of the reason that it was a big deal because it was (maybe?) the first easily obtainable game to have sex in it. Like there were porn games on the Atari 2600, but those weren't officially licensed or released, you couldn't just walk into a store and buy a copy of Custer's Revenge. The real reason it was a big deal is because it showed a flaw in how the ESRB rates games. The MPAA can just watch a movie from start to finish and they've seen everything in it and can rate it accordingly. It was unreasonable for the ESRB to have to play from start to finish every game ever made and see 100% of the content, so the developers mostly just show "This is the worst content a player would see in our game" and get the rating that way. The problem really was that the content was still on the disc, and although it was inaccessible through normal means (which is why Rockstar didn't show it to them I'm sure), you could mod it and make it accessible, which would change the rating according to the ratings standards they used. The moral outrage over it was dumb as poo poo but the question of "Should inaccessible content be factored into a game's rating?" was an important one I think.
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Nov 11, 2021 22:42
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Thing of it is, though, they'd already fought and won the battle to have ratings put on video games (similar to movies) and that no kid under the age of of 17 or so should really have been playing it but a large amount of parents don't take the responsibility to monitor the stuff their kids consume. I know from personal experience because my 10 year old doesn't understand why I wont let him watch The Exorcist even though Miles and Quinn have seen it. I know it's impossible to keep an eye on poo poo they do at another kid's house but conservatives have mainly been the ones banding the drum for these ratings and often outright censorship but, for the most part, the only ones that pay much attention seem to the religious nuts that won't let their 12 year old read Harry Potter or play D&D because Satan.
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Nov 11, 2021 22:55
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There was some dumb controversy where they ended up changing Oblivion’s rating from Teen to Mature because it was discovered there was a topless skin locked away in the PC version accessible through modding.
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Nov 11, 2021 23:10
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BiggerBoat posted:Thing of it is, though, they'd already fought and won the battle to have ratings put on video games (similar to movies) and that no kid under the age of of 17 or so should really have been playing it but a large amount of parents don't take the responsibility to monitor the stuff their kids consume. That's true but there's a distinction between M and AO in the ESRB system, just like how there's a distinction between R and NC-17 in the MPAA, and as far as I'm aware it's the same distinction: kids shouldn't be playing/viewing something R/M, but they are prohibited from playing/viewing something NC-17/AO. This makes a lot of difference, and some parents who would be okay with their kid playing an M rated game where there's a ton of violence (even if they shouldn't be okay with it!) would absolutely not be okay with their kid playing an AO rated game where there's a sex scene.
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Nov 11, 2021 23:17
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Casimir Radon posted:There was some dumb controversy where they ended up changing Oblivion’s rating from Teen to Mature because it was discovered there was a topless skin locked away in the PC version accessible through modding. Lol, every rpg that lets you change clothes, the first fan mod removes the perma-underwear for dongs and boobies.
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Nov 11, 2021 23:50
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Casimir Radon posted:There was some dumb controversy where they ended up changing Oblivion’s rating from Teen to Mature because it was discovered there was a topless skin locked away in the PC version accessible through modding. And then in Skyrim people just made their own and modded them into the game.
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Nov 12, 2021 00:16
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Casimir Radon posted:There was some dumb controversy where they ended up changing Oblivion’s rating from Teen to Mature because it was discovered there was a topless skin locked away in the PC version accessible through modding. Wasn't that just people applying the male skin to female models in game since the undergarments were part of the skin?
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Nov 12, 2021 00:20
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Twelve by Pies posted:That's true but there's a distinction between M and AO in the ESRB system, just like how there's a distinction between R and NC-17 in the MPAA, and as far as I'm aware it's the same distinction: kids shouldn't be playing/viewing something R/M, but they are prohibited from playing/viewing something NC-17/AO. This makes a lot of difference, and some parents who would be okay with their kid playing an M rated game where there's a ton of violence (even if they shouldn't be okay with it!) would absolutely not be okay with their kid playing an AO rated game where there's a sex scene. Yeah. My point is that these watchdog groups clamor for these ratings and stuff and then basically ignore them. The Bible Beaters won't let their kid play anything regardless. And whoever brought it up was right when they pointed out that when it comes to video games at least, it's mostly been Democrats leading the charge for ratings and regulation. I've let my 10 year old son play his fair share of content but I always make sure I play it first. Same with R rate movies. ... Also, I've been thinking about this lately and been unsure where to post it but I notice that a majority of conservative leaning types always think everyone accused of a crime is guilty. There's still a ton of people that think the West Memphis 3 and the Central Park Five did it and many of them refuse to believe in the phenomenon of false confessions. Let's just get on with the death penalty 2 x 2.
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Nov 12, 2021 00:21
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Well Only certain people are guilty
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Nov 12, 2021 02:37
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Doctor Butts posted:Well No no no Everyone is guilty, but some are more guilty than others.
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Nov 12, 2021 03:07
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| # ? May 31, 2024 14:14 |
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Good breakdown on the Project Veritas raid last week and what kind of scumbaggery O'Keefe gets into: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/us/politics/project-veritas-journalism-political-spying.html quote:The documents show, for example, Project Veritas operatives’ concern that an operation launched in 2018 to secretly record employees at the F.B.I., Justice Department and other agencies in the hope of exposing bias against President Donald J. Trump might violate the Espionage Act — the law passed at the height of World War I that has typically been used to prosecute spies. quote:The document discussed the perils of the Espionage Act at length, and warned that Project Veritas should not try to obtain or publish any information related to national security. “In addition, as more facts and developments occur in these investigations, further legal consultation is advised,” the memo stated.
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Nov 12, 2021 05:33
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