It's just a silly game. I'm a rightist and I don't even take it that seriously.
For example, no one in their right mind actually thinks that China is a more comfortable country to live in than the US. Not now and not in our lifetimes. Newly affluent Chinese citizens are increasingly expatriating their children out of the country as they attain the means/money to do so.
It doesn't bother me because I have such a low regard for a lot of the political things most people say. The general US population just isn't that intelligent, especially the young leftists who hop onto a bandwagon and then accuse the older generations of blindly following the Bible.
When you have no respect for the intelligence of anyone, nothing bothers you anymore.
Hmmmm.... Only right wingers are intelligent? What a pity most of our Ivy league college students are being misled by their Predominantly left wing, and therefore uneducated Professors. Tsk Tsk.
To me the outrage in the OP's post borders more on nationalism than it does Patriotism.
The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Much like Apu, I enjoy celebrating the independence of my nation by blowing up a small part of it. But, I didn't enjoy logging onto my Simpsons Tapped Out today. The reason had nothing to do with what skins or character are or are not available to me, or how many free donuts rolled into my lap. It was because I was treated to some very un-American dialogue courtesy of Lisa and Homer as soon as I logged in. At the risk of sounding stogy, I have to protest to this sort of biased rhetoric being thrust into my face on a day meant to celebrate my nation.
I like the fact that the Simpsons poke fun at pretty much everyone, I really do, and I don't think that America should be an exception. But this was beyond gentle ribbing. To imply that our country is not only not the 'greatest' is one thing; to suggest that numerous other countries, (including two which have current serious human right issues) are perhaps greater is another thing entirely. And then for poor Lisa to have to defend her patriotism to Homer who goes on to enumerate some serious U.S. problems while she 'tries' to celebrate and be festive, really just ruined my patriotic mood.
This wasn't cute, it wasn't a 'gotcha' naughty little comedy moment. It was really bad timing for some writers to push their own political agenda into a game that's supposed to be fun and light-hearted on Independence Day. For once on a holiday event, I did not smile, I did not chuckle out loud, and I have not picked the game back up today. I am not certain if I will which saddens me because I have been playing Tapped out for over a year now, and have several friends who I have gotten to play. EA should be ashamed for putting this garbage out, and frankly I am surprised not to see other, similar posts. Am I just looking in the wrong place and missing them?
At any rate, I felt that this needed to be said. Happy 4th of July!
(edited for my bad spelling)
I completely disagree I was literally laughing out loud at that dialogue. I mean America promotes freedom of speech so if you dish it you should be able to take it (im American btw) Also this made me feel more patriotic because we live in a country where people can actually say things like this!
You're right. Our country is perfect in every way and we shouldn't be allowed to say anything bad about it. Freedom of speech is for suckers.
I would like to clarify, and then I will no longer respond to avoid turning this into a whole thing.
So you start a heated discussion and then fade into the background as you watch people debate? Was that your intention? If you wanted to fade into the background, then why make a thread about this in the first place?
So what you're trying to say is right wing politics is the only real politics, and anything else is just anti bible freaks who don't know better and their opinions aren't intelligent? :?
I mean I know we don't have the brightest population but your statement doesn't sound right. (I'm putting that as nicely as I can)
No, that is not what I was insinuating. I did not cite rightists being incorrect because this thread is discussing the politics of TSTO and the game/show had always had a leftist political leaning plus almost everybody on the internet and that I know IRL is a leftist.
I've actually never met one of those anti-science, Bible toting, gun carrying crazy conservatives that leftists are always bashing and my mother is a Christian. If you read up on Pew Polls, you would understand why... they pretty much don't exist. The Republican platform is rather empty and become obstructionist/heavily based on people disagreeing with the Democratic platform rather than people who adhere to the Republican ideals. (There's NRA and there's Christians etc. etc. but it's difficult finding a person who believes in these things in combination like you do with the Democrat platform.) The result of the incoherence of the group is that "rightists" tend to be more open-minded and moderate since each individual only agrees with like a fraction of the party platform, anyway.
I've actually never met one of those anti-science, Bible toting, gun carrying crazy conservatives that leftists are always bashing and my mother is a Christian. If you read up on Pew Polls, you would understand why... they pretty much don't exist.
Fascinating.
I grew up in and lived in the south for the first 18 years of my life, and I couldn't begin to count the number of people I've met who fit that description.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, and PS: all of my family are Christians.
I thought it was hilarious and I'm way more American than any of you!
Nebraska baby!!!!! Midwest!!! The Heartland!!! Right in the middle!
USA USA USA USA
Ok Direwolf, you're as American as me!
Well howww-dee fellow Midwesterner, I am a real live Hoosier, livin' the dream here in Indiana. I also enjoyed the humor
( I enjoyed it last year too ) and I am purty darn American. A liberal, pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, laid-back American, but yep, purty darn American nonetheless.
Prepare for an onslaught of replies telling you that it is satire and you should relax and learn to take a joke.
I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to point out that, without any doubt, the writers of the TSTO script are not the same writers of the television show knows as The Simpsons. The people writing game dialog don't actually understand what satire is. They could actually benefit from simply reading the dictionary definition of the word satire.
This has come up a few times before. The in-game dialog about the NRA comes to mind. When the writes of the television show tackle the NRA, it's hilarious and fits the definition of true satire. When the writers of TSTO try to do it, it comes across as insulting, hostile, and not even remotely approaching satire.
It's a franchise that uses the characters and framework, and I like The Simpsons, so I look the other way when this happens. But yeah, the morons who wrote and approved today's dialog deserve to be smacked and replaced.
I second this. As a libertarian, I'm very pro-every amendment in the Bill of Rights, but I could enjoy the NRA episode that The Simpsons did. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny and balanced. I loved how they got super mad at Homer when he opened his beer with a gun (lol!) and how Marge (the more responsible member of the household) took the gun at the end. It was satire, but it wasn't mean or divisive. It was great humor and pretty reasonable. I found myself just skipping though all the Herman dialogue in the game because it was so hyperbolic and politically polarized. It was way too radical and kind of straw-man-ish (yes, I just made up a word). I said this in another thread, but I just have to ignore some of the dialogue in the game (not much, but some) because it's insulting to me and my beliefs. I've never felt that way watching the show. When I see that it's getting too preachy, I just start tapping/skipping away. No thanks, TSTO developers. To each their own and all that, but I wasn't into the July 4th dialogue. If there's any time that Americans should cast aside their political agenda it's today (and Christmas ). Our country is polarized enough as it is. Let's just spend the day appreciating what we ALL are blessed with from living in this country without getting snarky on each other. That's my point-of-view anyways. Personally, I did not enjoy the dialogue, but I did enjoy the event.
You're right. Our country is perfect in every way and we shouldn't be allowed to say anything bad about it. Freedom of speech is for suckers.
That's a bit of a straw man argument. Nobody made any of those claims. The OP is just a little offended that on a day of American unity and celebration that TSTO would be so divisive and snarky. I feel the same way. No one is calling for censorship. So, the freedom of speech thing doesn't really apply. We're exercising our freedom of speech by disagreeing with the dialogue. Or should we not say anything? That argument works both way. Yes, we all have freedom of speech, just don't be surprised when someone doesn't agree with something you say. America is FAR from perfect right now, but we're all kind of going through a hard time in this country right now (socially, politically, financially). It would have been nice if TSTO didn't try to exacerbate the already gaping schism and instead tried to promote some unity and recollection of the ideals this country was founded on (individual freedom, limited government, & personal responsibility). Instead, they went off on some weird diatribe about how awful America is. That's not very patriotic and whether you like or not, July 4th is a patriotic holiday where Americans come together to celebrate the gift of freedom our ancestors fought for and won for us.
Well I was told once, as I headed into the Carolinas on a vacation that to avoid being to be in heap of of trouble I and others had better hide the "northern" memorabilia such as the NY Yankees cap I was wearing. The good ol' boys in Hicksville County apparently still held a grudge over Gettysburg or something. And the tour guide wasn't joking.
I thought the States were United nowadays?
From the perspective of a European who doesn't get the right to bear arms thing as school after school gets shot up these story lines always seem pretty accurate to me.
So what you're trying to say is right wing politics is the only real politics, and anything else is just anti bible freaks who don't know better and their opinions aren't intelligent? :?
I mean I know we don't have the brightest population but your statement doesn't sound right. (I'm putting that as nicely as I can)
No, that is not what I was insinuating. I did not cite rightists being incorrect because this thread is discussing the politics of TSTO and the game/show had always had a leftist political leaning plus almost everybody on the internet and that I know IRL is a leftist.
I've actually never met one of those anti-science, Bible toting, gun carrying crazy conservatives that leftists are always bashing and my mother is a Christian. If you read up on Pew Polls, you would understand why... they pretty much don't exist. The Republican platform is rather empty and become obstructionist/heavily based on people disagreeing with the Democratic platform rather than people who adhere to the Republican ideals. (There's NRA and there's Christians etc. etc. but it's difficult finding a person who believes in these things in combination like you do with the Democrat platform.) The result of the incoherence of the group is that "rightists" tend to be more open-minded and moderate since each individual only agrees with like a fraction of the party platform, anyway.
As interesting as this discussion can get I don't want to get too into it as to not throw the OPs thread off. I will say this though. Anyone who tries to attach themselves to any political party is just selling themselves short. You kinda touched on why they do. People need to learn how to have opinions and not be scared that it doesn't match their political party. This ultimately leads even intelligent people into making very foolish mistakes just to fit in. Case in point, the whole businesses not having to give their workers coverage for birth control. I'm sure you're aware of the case. The whole case was a joke, and the fact that private corporations (who are profit organizations) won the case is completely obsurd. They traded off one bill over multiple bills, and potentially went against not mixing state and church (not going into too many details to avoid turning this into a research paperesc post.)
Also what Snowden did wasn't anything horrible. In fact everything he leaked was suppose to be public knowledge. Why are American people being spied? It's completely unwarranted. People who say they have nothing to hide are the ones who are going to turn the US into a 1984 (Goarge Orwell) society. Could he have done it differently? Sure, but would it have gotten the same result? Probably not. For all we know, he could've been imprissioned and all of this would've been swepped under the rug without anyone knowing what has happened. As a US citizen I have the right to know when I'm being looked into. If I don't then what's they point of warrants?
Like I said this can be an extremely lengthy discussion, but it's always best to see both sides to these sorta things, and not believe everything the news says. Chances are the news is all controlled by the government in some way, and that's not tin foil hat thinking, that's fact unfortunately. Worst of all, anything that happens here, especially politically, ends up potentially harming the rest of the world... No wonder America is so hated by everyone.
The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Much like Apu, I enjoy celebrating the independence of my nation by blowing up a small part of it. But, I didn't enjoy logging onto my Simpsons Tapped Out today. The reason had nothing to do with what skins or character are or are not available to me, or how many free donuts rolled into my lap. It was because I was treated to some very un-American dialogue courtesy of Lisa and Homer as soon as I logged in. At the risk of sounding stogy, I have to protest to this sort of biased rhetoric being thrust into my face on a day meant to celebrate my nation.
I like the fact that the Simpsons poke fun at pretty much everyone, I really do, and I don't think that America should be an exception. But this was beyond gentle ribbing. To imply that our country is not only not the 'greatest' is one thing; to suggest that numerous other countries, (including two which have current serious human right issues) are perhaps greater is another thing entirely. And then for poor Lisa to have to defend her patriotism to Homer who goes on to enumerate some serious U.S. problems while she 'tries' to celebrate and be festive, really just ruined my patriotic mood.
This wasn't cute, it wasn't a 'gotcha' naughty little comedy moment. It was really bad timing for some writers to push their own political agenda into a game that's supposed to be fun and light-hearted on Independence Day. For once on a holiday event, I did not smile, I did not chuckle out loud, and I have not picked the game back up today. I am not certain if I will which saddens me because I have been playing Tapped out for over a year now, and have several friends who I have gotten to play. EA should be ashamed for putting this garbage out, and frankly I am surprised not to see other, similar posts. Am I just looking in the wrong place and missing them?
At any rate, I felt that this needed to be said. Happy 4th of July!
(edited for my bad spelling)
thanks for sharing your opinion.
My opinion is that the attitude expressed by the game dialog is fairly accurate. So not only do i think that it's satire and a game not to be taken so seriously that you get all emotional about it, but i also think it's sad but true that America is being ruined by the very people who proclaim to care so much about it. The levels of hypocrisy in americans today is off the chart and very disappointing.
But that's part of being an American. We accept the opinions of other citizens even if we disagree. The day we stop accepting differing opinions, is the day we stop being the land of the free.
United we stand, divided we surely are falling. Thanks for bringing it up.
All my designs look unfinished because i can't place as many plants, streetlights, and fences as i would like. PLEASE REMOVE THE LIMIT, EA!
As a Brit I really enjoyed seeing that bit of dialogue (although why weren't we mentioned as best Country?!) as too often I see comments about people getting angry at anything anti-America, something you don't get in this country because even at the most patriotic of days we laugh at ourselves. I remember watching WWE after **** died, and me and my Brother felt physically sick by the cheering going on when his death was announced, and on Raw, Rock's opening line of "We got him!" Was unneeded, terrible things were done to America in his name and by him, but don't celebrate a death, just have a minutes silence or something to reflect on some sort of justice being brought for those who suffered and died. I thought the dialogue was funny and enhanced my view of America even more by seeing what I thought was a sea change in accepting America isn't perfect and you can say that, but these comments, which I totally support by the way, you absolutely have a right to have your say, as do I and the game producers, suggest that it was just a one off.
Hey guys, I'm AO (not AOF). I create and run the Event Strategy Threads.
Wow.... Americans without a sense of humour about their dwindling relevance, rapidly declining influence on the world stage and continued refusal to understand patriotism is loving your country, warts and all.... shocking.
Replies
Hmmmm.... Only right wingers are intelligent? What a pity most of our Ivy league college students are being misled by their Predominantly left wing, and therefore uneducated Professors. Tsk Tsk.
To me the outrage in the OP's post borders more on nationalism than it does Patriotism.
I completely disagree I was literally laughing out loud at that dialogue. I mean America promotes freedom of speech so if you dish it you should be able to take it (im American btw) Also this made me feel more patriotic because we live in a country where people can actually say things like this!
So you start a heated discussion and then fade into the background as you watch people debate? Was that your intention? If you wanted to fade into the background, then why make a thread about this in the first place?
I've actually never met one of those anti-science, Bible toting, gun carrying crazy conservatives that leftists are always bashing and my mother is a Christian. If you read up on Pew Polls, you would understand why... they pretty much don't exist. The Republican platform is rather empty and become obstructionist/heavily based on people disagreeing with the Democratic platform rather than people who adhere to the Republican ideals. (There's NRA and there's Christians etc. etc. but it's difficult finding a person who believes in these things in combination like you do with the Democrat platform.) The result of the incoherence of the group is that "rightists" tend to be more open-minded and moderate since each individual only agrees with like a fraction of the party platform, anyway.
What I have met IRL and on the internet are a lot of close-minded, uninformed leftists. Former NYC Mayor Bloomberg makes a good point about liberals and the growing culture of intolerance: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/31/bloomberg-at-harvard-blasts-ivy-league-liberals-for-trying-to-repress-conservative-ideas/. It's disturbing to me because it is breeding youth like Snowden who I would characterize as "hating" America and it's all bound to blow up in our faces sooner or later.
I grew up in and lived in the south for the first 18 years of my life, and I couldn't begin to count the number of people I've met who fit that description.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, and PS: all of my family are Christians.
Well howww-dee fellow Midwesterner, I am a real live Hoosier, livin' the dream here in Indiana. I also enjoyed the humor
( I enjoyed it last year too
Maybe your unamerican programmers actually programmed the thing to only work in america that day.
I second this. As a libertarian, I'm very pro-every amendment in the Bill of Rights, but I could enjoy the NRA episode that The Simpsons did. In fact, I thought it was pretty funny and balanced. I loved how they got super mad at Homer when he opened his beer with a gun (lol!) and how Marge (the more responsible member of the household) took the gun at the end. It was satire, but it wasn't mean or divisive. It was great humor and pretty reasonable. I found myself just skipping though all the Herman dialogue in the game because it was so hyperbolic and politically polarized. It was way too radical and kind of straw-man-ish (yes, I just made up a word). I said this in another thread, but I just have to ignore some of the dialogue in the game (not much, but some) because it's insulting to me and my beliefs. I've never felt that way watching the show. When I see that it's getting too preachy, I just start tapping/skipping away. No thanks, TSTO developers. To each their own and all that, but I wasn't into the July 4th dialogue. If there's any time that Americans should cast aside their political agenda it's today (and Christmas
That's a bit of a straw man argument. Nobody made any of those claims. The OP is just a little offended that on a day of American unity and celebration that TSTO would be so divisive and snarky. I feel the same way. No one is calling for censorship. So, the freedom of speech thing doesn't really apply. We're exercising our freedom of speech by disagreeing with the dialogue. Or should we not say anything? That argument works both way. Yes, we all have freedom of speech, just don't be surprised when someone doesn't agree with something you say. America is FAR from perfect right now, but we're all kind of going through a hard time in this country right now (socially, politically, financially). It would have been nice if TSTO didn't try to exacerbate the already gaping schism and instead tried to promote some unity and recollection of the ideals this country was founded on (individual freedom, limited government, & personal responsibility). Instead, they went off on some weird diatribe about how awful America is. That's not very patriotic and whether you like or not, July 4th is a patriotic holiday where Americans come together to celebrate the gift of freedom our ancestors fought for and won for us.
I thought the States were United nowadays?
From the perspective of a European who doesn't get the right to bear arms thing as school after school gets shot up these story lines always seem pretty accurate to me.
Also what Snowden did wasn't anything horrible. In fact everything he leaked was suppose to be public knowledge. Why are American people being spied? It's completely unwarranted. People who say they have nothing to hide are the ones who are going to turn the US into a 1984 (Goarge Orwell) society. Could he have done it differently? Sure, but would it have gotten the same result? Probably not. For all we know, he could've been imprissioned and all of this would've been swepped under the rug without anyone knowing what has happened. As a US citizen I have the right to know when I'm being looked into. If I don't then what's they point of warrants?
Like I said this can be an extremely lengthy discussion, but it's always best to see both sides to these sorta things, and not believe everything the news says. Chances are the news is all controlled by the government in some way, and that's not tin foil hat thinking, that's fact unfortunately. Worst of all, anything that happens here, especially politically, ends up potentially harming the rest of the world... No wonder America is so hated by everyone.
My opinion is that the attitude expressed by the game dialog is fairly accurate. So not only do i think that it's satire and a game not to be taken so seriously that you get all emotional about it, but i also think it's sad but true that America is being ruined by the very people who proclaim to care so much about it. The levels of hypocrisy in americans today is off the chart and very disappointing.
But that's part of being an American. We accept the opinions of other citizens even if we disagree. The day we stop accepting differing opinions, is the day we stop being the land of the free.
United we stand, divided we surely are falling. Thanks for bringing it up.