Joe Biden calls game developers “little creeps” who “teach you how to kill”

https://www.techspot.com/news/83623-joe-biden-calls-game-developers-little-creeps-who.html

by CharlesW • 7 years ago

47 25 7 years ago

techspot.com

quaquaqua1• 7 years ago

Thanks Joe, very cool!

I'm sure video games are much worse than the actual wars you voted for.

HenryKissinger• 7 years ago

The jokes practically write themselves, so I'll leave that to others.

When asked about Silicon Valley’s expansion of power during his time in the Obama administration, Biden said: “And you may recall, the criticism I got for meeting with the leaders in Silicon Valley, when I was trying to work out an agreement dealing with them protecting intellectual property for artists in the United States of America. And at one point, one of the little creeps sitting around that table, who was a multi- — close to a billionaire — who told me he was an artist because he was able to come up with games to teach you how to kill people.”
"And then one of these righteous people said to me that, you know, 'We are the economic engine of America. We are the ones.' And fortunately I had done a little homework before I went and I said, you know, I find it fascinating,” Biden continued. “As I added up the seven outfits, everyone’s there but Microsoft. I said, you have fewer people on your payroll than all the losses that General Motors just faced in the last quarter, of employees. So don’t lecture me about how you’ve created all this employment.. The point is, there’s an arrogance about it, an overwhelming arrogance that we are, we are the ones. We can do what we want to do. I disagree.”

Given Joe Biden's fuzzy memory, I would take his recollection with a grain of salt. Even if this anecdote is true, I'm puzzled about what segment of the electorate Biden is trying to appeal to. If anything, he would gain sympathy by livestreaming himself playing some popular AAA title.

arcticfox• 7 years ago

As much as I disagree with it, I doubt this is particularly calculated, this is probably just how he feels.

jakeogh• 7 years ago

Authortarians have a real problem with anything that introduces children to the idea that they can defend themselves.

JadaPaller• 7 years ago

With each of these out of touch comments creepy uncle Joe Biden's hands grow.

DiabloD3• 7 years ago

I don't really care for politics on the front page HN; but yeah, the willful (and hostile) ignorance of our leadership in this nation shouldn't be tolerated.

We should be voting for the dude that doesn't have strange angry nonsensical outbursts. You know, the dude that's not Trump, Biden, Warren, or Bloomberg.

foxyv• 7 years ago

I kinda like Andrew Yang. He seems to be proposing actual solutions to our economy rather than just papering over everything. Then again I haven't heard much from his detractors yet.

https://www.yang2020.com/

desireco42• 7 years ago

IMHO (after all this HN), Yang is great but not president material, he would be great if future president would include him as VP or some other leading role.

magduf3• 7 years ago

I normally try to refrain from too-direct political discussion here too, but I feel I need to comment on this:

Stuff like this is why we have Trump as President: because the Democrats somehow just can't keep from shooting themselves in the foot, over and over and over again.

Seriously, how out of touch do you have to be to make a comment like Biden's?

And don't forget, this is a guy who voted for the Iraq War in 2003, so somehow he has a problem with game developers "teaching how to kill", but he has no problem with actually sending young people overseas to kill real people because of some obviously made-up BS about WMD. What a hypocrite.

My prediction: this year, the Democrats will nominate yet another lousy candidate, who will go on to lose the general election to Trump. Then we'll have a huge recession. China will eventually take over as the sole superpower.

ggggtez• 7 years ago

I'd be careful making blanket statements like that. If you think Biden is unique because the article might give that impression... You'd better look again. In my estimate, nearly every politician in the House and Senate publicly blame video games for murderers.

Here are a few Republicans saying the same thing a few months ago.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2...

fulafel• 7 years ago

I think we shouldn't badmouth all of politics because of these kinds of subject matter. The front page has lots of politics in the form of issues with major societal implications and it's good that there's lively public discourse about them.

Spreading the politics = bad meme just makes the public disengage from the good part of politics (active civic discourse), whereas the ultimate thinking behind the meme usually is that professional party-politicians in high standing shouldn't be listened to too much. So it's kind of self-defeating.

boublepop• 7 years ago

Games that “teach you how to kill”: bad. Institutions that literally teach you how to kill and then send you off to actually kill people: great!

davidmott• 7 years ago

So predictable...

bdcravens• 7 years ago

The stereotype is that developers lean liberal, and tend to be in favor of gun control and opposed to glorifying war. As such, is there a conflict between those positions and working on games like CoD?

fastball• 7 years ago

I've never come across that stereotype.

cestith• 7 years ago

Perhaps this is just Joe Biden trying to refocus the term "creep" this election cycle, since he has trouble keeping his hands and nose to himself.

rasz• 7 years ago

This is precisely the same trick Boris Johnson used to seed google with fake results for "boris johnson bus" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21122806 "Boris Johnson uses search terms in interviews to hide negative articles"

Google: "creepy joe biden" and look at the pictures :o :/

hactually• 7 years ago

Ooft, wait until he finds out about the US army. He's in for a surprise.

rhizome• 7 years ago

"Mr. Biden, I have some bad news about the Middle East."

Joe Biden calls game developers “little creeps” who “teach you how to kill”

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