KratosEnergyDrink
Member
PC gamers are cosmopolitan confirmed.
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Michael Pachter says "PC Gamers are like Racists"
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Chipmungus
Neo Member
The word "like" in this context means "similar in one or more respects to".
For example, I have facial hair. I'm like Hitler.
mr teaspoon
Member
Ha ha ha ha, yep, and the quote stopped there!
edit: I believe the full quote was "PC gamers are like racists - they're both bad people who are known to commit violence against others, and the world would be a better place if their blight were removed."
LordRaptor
Member
Oh, he's declaring some form of equivalence? To real world actually-affects-people racism?
No. I bet he meant something along the lines of "They think they are superior gamers with superior rigs and have no reason to look at lesser devices. They belittle and claim to be unable to fathom console peasants." Peasants aren't a race. This is elitism--this caricature of PC gamers--not racism that Pachter is drawing on and he's being a moron.
Raonak
Banned
Based on what ive seen of r/masterrace....
Id say hes right to an extent. Not racist, but elitists to a level that could make apple fanboys cringe.
I know some of my Pc fanboy friends cant wrap their heads around the idea of platform preference. Its very interesting to say the least.
Id say hes right to an extent. Not racist, but elitists to a level that could make apple fanboys cringe.
I know some of my Pc fanboy friends cant wrap their heads around the idea of platform preference. Its very interesting to say the least.
mr teaspoon
Member
Sort of how racists think *they're* superior!
I'm not sure if this is a joke referring to how White people accused of being racist say "I have colored friends." Or if this post was dead on serious with no joke behind it.
texhnolyze
Banned
Again, like many have explained here so many times before, that's elitism not racism.
That's still not a good attitude though, tbh.
Not at all. Racists think they are superior by birth on account of their perceived race. Elitist think they are superior by what they own and have access to that others don't or what they've done.
It was a joke. I'm pretty sure it's been made like 10 times already.
Freshmaker
I am Korean.
A few of them saying MKX was still the best version of MK despite the iffy port and LOL support was a highpoint.
mr teaspoon
Member
Racism is inherently elitist, don't even try to fuck around on this. More bogus word policing. "He *could* have said, this, that, or the other, so he was wrong not to!"
Huge Succeeded
Banned
No, it's how you've chosen to reduce the specific examples Pachter gave into something more vague and defensible. You keep harping on this 'zealotry' argument of yours. Pachter didn't simply vaguely allude to that PC gamers are overzealous, by using racists as a point of comparison. He provided several specific examples of superficial, surface-level behavioral similarities he perceived, between a small subset of hobbyists and horrible people who actively do damage to society. "Arrogant. Don't like to intermingle. Prefer their own kind." These are things that don't even intrinsically imply zealotry - because being overzealous isn't just simply having a strong belief in something bad. They're just the expansion of a reductive and poorly-conceived analogy, that's all. In the end, his comparison and his generalization only serve to help perpetuate unfair negative stereotypes surrounding the PC gaming community as a whole.
Heckler456
Banned
Do you think "moving goalposts" is the most overused metaphor on these boards?
Because I do.
Anyway, I'm not sure which goalposts you think I'm moving, but I think "using it in an ironic way" is the same as saying "Even the mere mention in a joking manner should be shunned", which was my second sentence on this subject. And with that, I'm speaking about examples like post number 6 in this thread, or both times that picture with the PCMR dude was posted. I think there must be a misunderstanding here, because I don't remember mentioning that I thought loads of people on here were using it in a totally straight-faced manner, and that it was somehow completely accepted here. I'm just saying that, really, like using racism within the context pachter used it, it shouldn't actually be used in any type of joking manner, seeing as how it's a very loaded word to a lot of people.
(This isn't me saying how you guys should mod here btw, you're doing a great job in that specific regard. My actual point is that it's going a bit overboard to be so absolutely strict regarding these types of words, but I got lost along the way.)
J
JoJo UK
Unconfirmed Member
When I read the title my reaction was pretty much Father Ted in this episode.
No one else will know who Father Ted is 
Because we are talking about toys here, and racism is a serious issue.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
You could replace PC Gamers with practically anything when you boil racist down to a group that doesn't like to interact with anybody else and trashes anybody that's not them. You see it on Twitter all the time.
Terrible comparison.
Terrible comparison.
Even if that were so, the reverse is not the case lol. Basically, you are telling people to throw all discernment, all good, clear use of language out the window so that it is okay to use an inflammatory word where it isn't even particularly apt because... why?!
mr teaspoon
Member
It's not an argument, it's a plain, common sense reading of what he meant.
As I've said, the English language is enormous. There are other words I could substitute for zealotry, they'd all be leading toward the same point: Pachter so obviously wasn't comparing PC gamers with the evil/violent/societal aspects of racism, just the bull-headed stubbornness and dumbness. Whether you agree with him or not is a separate discussion, and one I have no interest in participating in. All I'm saying, and all I've been saying, is that the outrage and offense is so bogus.
Something being a serious issue doesn't mean you can't joke about it, or that you can't be anything other than serious with a term.
Heckler456
Banned
Absolutely true. Which is why I'm willing to bet that the context in which it was used during the interview was entirely different than how it seems in this article.
LordRaptor
Member
Bro, you need to read up on what George Carlin stood for.
It sure as shit wasn't defending the establishment by diminishing the experiences and struggles of minorities.
stan423321
Member
Methanol is inherently a type of alcohol.
Wine contains alcohol.
Therefore, drinking wine is just like drinking pure methanol. Quod erat demonstrandum.
mr teaspoon
Member
Well there's the fundamental disagreement. I don't find words, by themselves, inflammatory. I care about how they're used. Nothing Pachter said made light of racism or belittled victims of racism in any way whatsoever.
Heckler456
Banned
Do you really think that the net result of Pachters comparison was the diminishment of the experience of minorities? Isn't implying that something as benign as that quote could even diminish the plight of a lot of minorities all over the world a diminishment in and of itself; as if they haven't got anything worse to worry about?
mr teaspoon
Member
Again, whatever you think of me, you are 100% not aligned with George's thinking and are in no position to lecture to others about him.
George didn't care for people who got hung up on insignificant shit and employed word-policing. You're doing that right now. Instead of worrying about actual racism, you're throwing a temper tantrum over what was obviously a very innocent, benign use of the word.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
Fair enough. Problem is that I disagree vehemently with the core concepts behind the comparison to begin with. PC gamers don't even tend to be 'like racists' (and I'm perceiving the term here in the way that you, and I suppose common sense, would have me - as a benign and surface-level comparison, unmerited or otherwise) in the specific ways that he elaborates. I mean, sure, there's a small but loud subculture of elitism amongst the PC gaming community, they're certainly a presence, but I need receipts for his assertion that PC gamers simply don't like to play games on other platforms. And in the event that he was simply describing that subculture that I mentioned before - as per the quote available in the OP, it appears that no attempt was made to insinuate as much, so the whole thing just comes off as an unfair generalization that encompasses PC gaming's entire userbase. It's the generalization in particular that makes the whole quote unsavory to me, and given Pachter's history with commenting on PC gamers, it also comes off as totally intentional, or at the very least, not a comment that was simply meant to describe the PCMR Subreddit and friends.
Be racist as in do a racist act? Sure. I'm not sure I follow what you're saying otherwise. People can take advantage of a culture of racism and perpetuate it without believing it to be true, but I'd call that person just that--a moral midget taking advantage of racism rather than a racist.
Or do you mean that the belief isn't immediately present to the mind but rather deep-seated, unconscious prejudice? I'd say that person does believe they are inferior or superior even if they do not think they do and perhaps even claim as much.
If you care about how they're used, why doesn't it matter if they are at all apt?
mr teaspoon
Member
That's all completely fine. I haven't been defending the underlying idea of what he said at all. If anybody cares, I think it's also clear that he was just talking about the loudest, dumbest segment of PC users, as opposed to throwing a whole group under the bus. But I'm happy to agree to disagree on that. It's strictly he accusation that he's somehow belittling people or making light of actual, real, day to day racism that I completely reject.
MrCunningham
Member
Console Lives Matter...?
LordRaptor
Member
Equating "I think a certain group are annoying and that's why they won't buy a PS4Pro" to racism trivialises racism.
Sorry. It does.
Oh, okay the "u mad bro" card.
Casual appropriation of someone elses struggles you will never deal with to make a point about fucking consumer electronics purchase patterns is insiduous, not benign.
mr teaspoon
Member
I think it was apt. I mean, do you think every comparison has to be 100% spot on to be apt?
Person A: My family is like a tree - deep rooted, and we've been here for a long time.
Person B: Yes, but your family is comprised of animals, and you don't produce fruit, nor are any of you covered in bark.
No. But it needs to hit at an important feature. Roots are an important feature of trees. So is being stationary.
The stuff you are picking out are not even identifying qualities of racism and on my reading of what he said, which is more in line with the 'PC Master Race' conversation, it is mistaking elitism for racism which is to say it isn't apt.
mr teaspoon
Member
Love that you're throwing the "u mad bro" accusation at me in the same post you're deploying the unbeatable "because I said so" technique.
It honestly must be a strange, terrifying world that you live in that you think what Pachter did was "appropriate someone else's struggles." In all seriousness, you should stop replying to me because we can't even agree on reality.
LordRaptor
Member
Its the world where you're defending a middle aged affluent straight white male investment bankers right to declare anyone not purchasing a multinational corporations latest product as akin to racism
¯\_(ツ
_/¯
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