Dopass.com

This is a rare one for me: I'm gonna talk about a topic in the news without linking an article. You know why? I don't want the PTC to get back links from me. They're not worth it.

Here's the deal: Right now, as I type this, the Parents' Television Council (political action group) is calling for game legislation that would limit and restrict the distribution and content of video games. On top of this, they're actively targeting politicians that the Entertainment Software Association have made contributions to for slam ads and ridicule.

Why are they doing this? Their stance is that the ESA has pushed against game legislation in a deliberate effort to market adult games to children and thus, anyone who allies with the ESA is a filthy child-toucher who wants to corrupt the minds of young Americans, everywhere. They claim that without the legislation that the PTC is pushing for, Little Timmy's mom and dad will be unable to prevent the poor lad from seeing digital orgies of sodomy on demand, like those seen in that filthy game Mass Effect.

This is where I start to have a problem with the PTC. Little Timmy's mom and dad must be illiterate if they can't see the large black and white M rating on the box that designates it as a game for MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY. They must be technologically backwards to not know they can configure Little Timmy's state of the art gaming machine to NOT PLAY M RATED GAMES.

In short, the PTC seems to believe that all Americans are:

• Stupid
• Ignorant
• Unobservant
• Incapable of protecting themselves or their children from the choices they themselves make

I don't feel that way, personally. I think that Americans can be smart, witty, observant and above all else, independent. I think we don't need the government - especially the federal government - to decide for us what is and isn't appropriate for our children. Above all else, I refuse to believe that our parents are willing to let someone else raise their kids. I have more faith in America and its citizens, than that.

Though, I do think they've been duped into believing there's no other choice except to legislate and for that I lay the blame squarely in the hands of the PTC and other such groups that are using video games as their current straw man. We've become very conservative as a culture, and they're playing on the fears inherent in this new conservatism to garner more power for them and the classes of people they represent.

That alarms me.

If we Americans wish to be more conservative, then that's our call. I might prefer we weren't, a view echoed by many of our founding fathers, but I support our ability to do so. I do not however accept or condone some small cabal's use of that desire to take away from us our ability to decide things, for ourselves. Conservatism used to mean less government interference. It used to mean that the families decided what family values meant while the government dealt with the outside world. Don't let people turn that around on you, if family values are what you truly want. After all, are they your family's values if they were decided by someone else?

If I had the resources of the PTC, do you know what I'd do? I'd target them the way they're targeting politicians. I'd be buying TV time to show the world how little faith the PTC has in the Americans it claims it wants to protect. I'd be doing everything in my power to get one question across:

"What makes the PTC better than you, at deciding for you and your family, what's right and wrong?"

Think about it. Why do these groups want to take that power away from you? What are they going to do with the world, once you've given them that power by not stopping them? We already feel like we can't trust the government thanks to what's happened in the last 8 years... how much worse is the world going to be once they also control the media you consume?

Do you really want your decisions made for you? Is that sort of mindless existence really what you want? If not, why don't you do yourself a favor and send the PTC a letter asking them politely to back off and let us make our own decisions?

Here's their address:
Parents Television Council
707 Wilshire Boulevard #2075
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: (213) 403-1300
Email:

- Snipehunter
Just remember, this is an argument - not abuse. Be polite and be thoughtful, don't stoop the level of name calling or threat making. Let the PTC be the ones to stoop so low.