Mary Moneybags MEP is incandescent with rage. Amazon were selling a computer game which included a scene where the player raped a woman.
Disgusting. I won’t buy that game (not that I buy games anyway, having no Playstation or similar device) and I would be shocked if anyone else gave their child a game like that. On the other hand, it was bound to happen sooner or later, wasn’t it? Car theft, shooting, stabbing and more feature in all such games and always have. I can lay claim to having completed Doom and Quake on the tough levels by killing everything in the way. I have never gone out in the street waving shotguns and plasma weapons around, blasting everything that moves. Nor, if I were to see this game in action, would I then consider rape a reasonable hobby. It’s not going to influence me at all. Still I think it should not be part of a game, not because it might incite people to copy it but because it’s a step beyond my limits of taste – and believe me, those limits are a long way out.
Amazon apologised and withdrew the game from their listings once it was pointed out to them. Good for them. Is that enough?
Never. The apology is an admission of guilt and now that Amazon have made it, they must be pursued and villified and finally tied to a stake and burned while the Book of Righteousness is read aloud. Quoting from it now is Mary of the Righteous herself:
I do not want anybody sacked, but I do want Amazon to be open about what happened. I want to know which “executives” bought this game. I want to know how many “executives” played this game and thought it was “fun” I want to know their names. I want to see the notes on who they thought their market was? How much money they projected making. All these seedy, sleazy men and women who work for Amazon and thought making some money out of rape was mighty fine by them.
She is clearly under the impression that Amazon executives play every game on the site. No doubt she believes they read all the books too, their houses are stacked floor to ceiling with electrical equipment and every cupboard is stuffed with toys.
Of course she doesn’t. She knows perfectly well that nobody in Amazon will have played this game. She knows perfectly well that until someone did play it, then complain about it, nobody in Amazon had the slightest idea the game contained this particular scene. As soon as it was pointed out to them they withdrew the game. They did not think ‘making some money out of rape was mighty fine’ because if they did, they would have left the game on sale. Righteous Mary knows this.
Ah, but Amazon have confessed by apology. They cannot be released now.
I want to know the names of all the contaminated people, not one of whom had the conscience to whistle blow.
Then let’s publish the names on the internet they make their living from, so their friends, neighbours and colleagues know these are the people who think rape is a nice fantasy, and “just a bit of fun”.
The contaminated people. As with those the Inquisition considered contaminated by association with heretics, and Stalin’s little helpers considered contaminated by association with capitalists. None of them spoke up, these executives, and so they must burn in Righteous Hell. How could they speak up? If they play every game in their inventory, read every book and play with every toy they won’t have time to speak up.
If Righteous Mary wants us to think she truly believes that every shop owner, whether High Street or Internet, has personally sampled each and every item they sell, then she has stretched public gullibility to breaking point. Although don’t we all just know that the Unthinking Horde will rally to this?
She knows, must know, that nobody at Amazon had the slightest idea of the content of this game until it was pointed out. She must also know that the only reasonable thing Amazon could do about it was withdraw it from sale and apologise. They didn’t publish the game. They didn’t write it. The only thing they can control is point of sale, and only their own point of sale at that.
The publisher and game writer are difficult targets though. It would take some work to find them. Far easier to go for the seller who has apologised and therefore confessed.
Never, ever apologise to these people. When you apologise to someone sane, that’s usually the end of the matter.
With the Righteous, it’s just the beginning.