NationStates

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:-moronic snip-.[/spoiler]

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

If you forfeit voting you also forfeit the right to complain about the government, or to criticise it because you didn't vote.

That's an even dumber statement as politicians don't simply represent voters, they are meant to represent their entire boarder.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

New DeCapito wrote:Thank you. Now, to reiterate an earlier post... why did you bother making a thread about this?

to generate very meaningful discussion

You've failed miserably then.

Herrebrugh wrote:

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

If you forfeit voting you also forfeit the right to complain about the government, or to criticise it because you didn't vote.

That's stupid. There are plenty of reasons not to vote. Just because you choose not to, doesn't mean you don't get to complain about what the government of your country does.

Though, "I won't vote because I'd rather game" is a pretty stupid reason...

no its a completely reasonably justified decision

its a much better use of your time utility-wise

Dyakovo wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
to generate very meaningful discussion

You've failed miserably then.

Discussion requires at least two. . . Best not to forget your failures, else repeat them at a later date.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
That's stupid. There are plenty of reasons not to vote. Just because you choose not to, doesn't mean you don't get to complain about what the government of your country does.

Though, "I won't vote because I'd rather game" is a pretty stupid reason...

no its a completely reasonably justified decision

its a much better use of your time utility-wise

Voting doesn't take a lot of time and gives you more influence in your country than gaming does. So if you care about having influence in your country at all, voting is obviously the better option.

It's comparing apples to oranges, anyway...

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Ifreann wrote:If meaning is deciding the course of national politics, then accomplishing things in video games is less meaningful than voting.

but voting will never allow you to personally decide the course of national politics

whether or not your one vote is in or out, it makes no difference in the ultimate determination

Yes it does, just not the different you apparently want to make. But, again, you are one person, no better or worse than any other. You should not expect to be able to personally decide the course of national politics.

in a video game, you put in the work, you will get the results if you practice enough

Playing video games will never allow you to personally decide the course of national politics. What you achieve in video games will have exactly zero impact on national politics, whereas your vote will make exactly one vote's difference. A measurable difference.

Herrebrugh wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
no its a completely reasonably justified decision

its a much better use of your time utility-wise

Voting doesn't take a lot of time and gives you more influence in your country than gaming does. So if you care about having influence in your country at all, voting is obviously the better option.

It's comparing apples to oranges, anyway...

you are engaged in self-delusion if you think you have meaningful ''influence'' in choose to waste your time at the ballot box

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
Voting doesn't take a lot of time and gives you more influence in your country than gaming does. So if you care about having influence in your country at all, voting is obviously the better option.

It's comparing apples to oranges, anyway...

you are engaged in self-delusion if you think you have meaningful ''influence'' in choose to waste your time at the ballot box

You haven't refuted anything I said, you know...

Herrebrugh wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
you are engaged in self-delusion if you think you have meaningful ''influence'' in choose to waste your time at the ballot box

You haven't refuted anything I said, you know...

the token but ultimately empty ''influence'' that you exercise by voting when your vote decides nothing... is worth less than the utility and achievements that you can acquire by spending the time on video games instead

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
Voting doesn't take a lot of time and gives you more influence in your country than gaming does. So if you care about having influence in your country at all, voting is obviously the better option.

It's comparing apples to oranges, anyway...

you are engaged in self-delusion if you think you have meaningful ''influence'' in choose to waste your time at the ballot box

You engage in self-delusion by thinking that achieving something on a little light box spewing pixels at you is meaningful. There's a lot of people in syria who can't vote AND can't play video games because their electrics have been bombed to hell and their leader is an undemocratic despot. You're clearly underachieving if you think playing video games can get you any sort of tangible achievement.

Unified Heartless States wrote:

Dyakovo wrote:You've failed miserably then.

Discussion requires at least two. . . Best not to forget your failures, else repeat them at a later date.

There's really nothing to discuss... This, like the rest of his threads, is just a blog for him to bitch about something has inconvenienced him in some fashion disguised with a moronic hypothetical so that it'll fly under the mod's radar.
I mean seriously, in this hypothetical you have to choose between giving up one of two "rights"... Of which, only one is actually a right.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
You haven't refuted anything I said, you know...

the token but ultimately empty ''influence'' that you exercise by voting when your vote decides nothing... is worth less than the utility and achievements that you can acquire by spending the time on video games instead

If you think games are more important to you than having an influence in national politics, choose games. If vice versa, choose voting.

And it's still two entirely different things...

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
you are engaged in self-delusion if you think you have meaningful ''influence'' in choose to waste your time at the ballot box

You engage in self-delusion by thinking that achieving something on a little light box spewing pixels at you is meaningful. There's a lot of people in syria who can't vote AND can't play video games because their electrics have been bombed to hell and their leader is an undemocratic despot. You're clearly underachieving if you think playing video games can get you any sort of tangible achievement.

achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

Dyakovo wrote:

Unified Heartless States wrote:Discussion requires at least two. . . Best not to forget your failures, else repeat them at a later date.

There's really nothing to discuss... This, like the rest of his threads, is just a blog for him to bitch about something has inconvenienced him in some fashion disguised with a moronic hypothetical so that it'll fly under the mod's radar.
I mean seriously, in this hypothetical you have to choose between giving up one of two "rights"... Of which, only one is actually a right.

the two rights are different and distinct

I have explained this very clearly in the OP

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:
You engage in self-delusion by thinking that achieving something on a little light box spewing pixels at you is meaningful. There's a lot of people in syria who can't vote AND can't play video games because their electrics have been bombed to hell and their leader is an undemocratic despot. You're clearly underachieving if you think playing video games can get you any sort of tangible achievement.

achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

The point of voting isn't to "challenge yourself"...

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:
You engage in self-delusion by thinking that achieving something on a little light box spewing pixels at you is meaningful. There's a lot of people in syria who can't vote AND can't play video games because their electrics have been bombed to hell and their leader is an undemocratic despot. You're clearly underachieving if you think playing video games can get you any sort of tangible achievement.

achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

But it's actually meaningless, you show up in a ranked board, wow, congratulations. You know what is happening to all the boards and records of the older online games? They're being deleted and forgotten as the servers for the games are shut down. The impacts of an election can resonate through the ages, like FDR and the New Deal.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Dyakovo wrote:There's really nothing to discuss... This, like the rest of his threads, is just a blog for him to bitch about something has inconvenienced him in some fashion disguised with a moronic hypothetical so that it'll fly under the mod's radar.
I mean seriously, in this hypothetical you have to choose between giving up one of two "rights"... Of which, only one is actually a right.

the two rights are different and distinct

I have explained this very clearly in the OP

"Playing video games" is not a right.

Herrebrugh wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

The point of voting isn't to "challenge yourself"...

there is no point then since one vote doesn't make a difference and will in practice never decide a candidate, let alone policy

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Valyrian Freeholds wrote:
You engage in self-delusion by thinking that achieving something on a little light box spewing pixels at you is meaningful. There's a lot of people in syria who can't vote AND can't play video games because their electrics have been bombed to hell and their leader is an undemocratic despot. You're clearly underachieving if you think playing video games can get you any sort of tangible achievement.

achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

You can achieve those in sports and other activities. It is not exclusive to video games making video games worthless in context compared to vote.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
The point of voting isn't to "challenge yourself"...

there is no point then since one vote doesn't make a difference and will in practice never decide a candidate, let alone policy

To "challenge yourself" isn't the only point something can have...

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Dyakovo wrote:There's really nothing to discuss... This, like the rest of his threads, is just a blog for him to bitch about something has inconvenienced him in some fashion disguised with a moronic hypothetical so that it'll fly under the mod's radar.
I mean seriously, in this hypothetical you have to choose between giving up one of two "rights"... Of which, only one is actually a right.

the two rights are different and distinct

I have explained this very clearly in the OP

Right... Which is why it's stupid to attempt to compare the two...

Socialist Tera wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
achievements in many video games in ranked games is a very worthwhile achievement, it shows dedication, skill, and a capability for teamwork

whereas anyone can show up to cast a statistically insignificant vote, not everyone can achieve the same things in the games, its actually challenging yourself

You can achieve those in sports and other activities. It is not exclusive to video games making video games worthless in context compared to vote.

the availability of various avenues does nothing to undermine the value of one relatively effective avenue towards that desirable objective

voting on the other hand, isn't by any measure an effective way of achieving its stated objective for any given individual

Herrebrugh wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
there is no point then since one vote doesn't make a difference and will in practice never decide a candidate, let alone policy

To "challenge yourself" isn't the only point something can have...

Infected Mushroom wrote:
the two rights are different and distinct

I have explained this very clearly in the OP

Right... Which is why it's stupid to attempt to compare the two...

the two rights are distinct but when you put them in conflict (you can only choose one), it does make for a meaningful comparison

Herrebrugh wrote:

Infected Mushroom wrote:
the two rights are different and distinct

I have explained this very clearly in the OP

Right... Which is why it's stupid to attempt to compare the two...

Well... No.
It's moronic to compare the two because one is a right (voting) and the other isn't(playing video games).

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Herrebrugh wrote:
To "challenge yourself" isn't the only point something can have...



Right... Which is why it's stupid to attempt to compare the two...

the two rights are distinct but when you put them in conflict (you can only choose one), it does make for a meaningful comparison

No. It doesn't.

Infected Mushroom wrote:

Socialist Tera wrote:You can achieve those in sports and other activities. It is not exclusive to video games making video games worthless in context compared to vote.

the availability of various avenues does nothing to undermine the value of one relatively effective avenue towards that desirable objective

voting on the other hand, isn't by any measure an effective way of achieving its stated objective for any given individual

Voting by democratic mean in capitalist countries can mean a lot of difference. Imagine having laws that negatively impact you and people you love because you were too selfish to vote. You would pressured to vote by your friends and family, video games would be vilified in the society you are talking about. I am showing you that video games are not as positive as you may think they are.