But when the promises the government makes fall through- when you no longer have food, or housing, or medical care, or security- there's nothing about democracy in and of itself which is desirable.

So who gives a fuck about it?

You want food. You want housing. You want medical care. You want security.

And to the extent that democratic forms of government promises access to all these things, and a method of negotiating conflicts over access to them, you accept democracy as a method to get the things you actually want.

piyenji

listen, some things are not meant to be shared, they're meant to become cryptic ingroup references to video games no one in the group has actually played but which, somehow, we all know enough about regardless

Put your energy into building good things instead of supporting evil things.

This position is never really openly espoused, but is nevertheless omnipresent in the world around us. It, itself, is part of why most people feel so comfortable with the systemic censorship of art, in the form of video games or otherwise; if the purpose of art is just to kill time, then who cares?

'Good Art' isn't meant to make you uncomfortable with the world you live in, after all. It's not meant to make you think about relationships of power, about what it means to be human and to be dehumanized.

It's meant to kill time.

All of these upset the sensibilities of people who view games- and art in general- as a vehicle for idle distraction between moments of real importance.

So they call it degenerate. Propaganda. It's corruption, not real art like Gooner Gacha 69. It's criminal- or if it isn't, it should be.

A game which is intended to actually express some idea- or especially to serve as a criticism of power- is not 'art' to these people, because it isn't filling what they see as the purpose of 'art'. It may fill empty moments- but it has a message, it requires attention, and it makes you think.