Ripped from Today’s Headlines!
by Olivia_Allin, HSM team writer
I think it was Will Rogers that once said,”it is sad when politicians are laughed at and comedians are listened to.”
So many of us nowadays sadly seem to get our news from admittedly biased, yet less agenda driven comedy shows and talk shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Real Time with Bill Maher and so on.
American government may be run by big business. Big business also owns the media outlets. This conveniently allows them to control the information that we based public opinion on. This makes it increasingly difficult to find unbiased news sources.
I am not owned, sponsored or subsidized by any business large or small. This allows me the freedom and the flexibility to make up my own version of the news. Some serious, some humorous, with underlying serious nuances, and some just outright goofy.
Sitting down to write this article I had to research what were the hot topics and how I could apply them in our Home environment. Obamacare, not seeing it. Anthony Wiener, way too easy and not going there right now – right now.
The NSA on the other hand… okay, let’s try this.
Now that Edward Snowden has released vital secret information about the NSA and how they operate, maybe we should take a look at its relevance to Home. One of the main duties of the NSA is to monitor electronic communications. This includes the article you’re reading right now and your text and voice chats that you have on Home. Just mentioning the NSA in this article probably has flagged it.
Do we really know whether or not some government agency is monitoring what we say and do while on Home? Am I just being paranoid or could the Department Of Homeland Security or National Security agents be using default avatars to gather information on us? After all, I get asked at least thirty times a day where I’m from, what’s my age, if I’m single and other profiling information. During our magazine staff meeting where I pitched this article idea, NorseGamer joked that the NSA is the only one who really knows our genders. This makes the wonder if NSA stands for Natural Sex Analysis.
Next headline: the vanishing middle class. This intrigued me. There is obviously a class system on Home. The other day a troll was making fun of me for spending money for various things on Home. He claimed it was a waste of money. I quickly told him that the value of said items versus the cost is subjective to the consumer. His reply was “DERP!” I then asked him if he ever paid to go see a movie, carefully wording it in a way as to not imply that it was a date of any sort. You’re lucky if after buying the ticket, something to drink, stale artificially buttered popcorn and your choice of candy, you somehow come out under $20. That’s $20 for junk food and a two-hour show that will be on cable or DVD in three months. I was hoping this would put perspective to the value to cost ratio but sadly his reply once again was “DERP!’ and he was quickly off to either hump someone’s leg or gather information for the government, whichever came first so to speak.
I do, in all seriousness, see a widening in the gap between those who choose not to spend money, and those that seem to spend a lot. Those are the two extremes, and I have to admit that it’s hard to gauge how many people fall in the middle.
So is the middle-class vanishing? Let’s take a look at the word vanish. This could mean to disappear from existence or to no longer be seen. The first half of that definition which suggests that the middle-class was actually losing the actual number of people that could be classified as such. The second half of that definition would suggest that they’ve had become less visible. This is food for thought, and could be interpreted in a variety of ways. By no means is this a call for revolution or some protest like Occupy the Hub.
I’m sure there are many more ways to apply what is considered newsworthy in real life to our virtual lives in Home. Please feel free to mention them and why you would think they were newsworthy in the comments below.
And here is a safety tip before I go. If you are confronted by a shirtless avatar asking if you want to cam and his screen name is Carlos Danger, either run or agree and find a way of recording it so you can send it to CNN.
You had to know I was bound to mention something about Anthony Wiener.
August 15th, 2013 by Olivia_Allin | 1 comment
Olivia_Allin is a team writer, photographer, model, curator, graphic artist, researcher and comic relief for HomeStation Magazine; she lives in Texas with her boyfriend, and Home is more than just a game to her. Years ago she discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. On weekends, to let off steam, she participate in full-contact origami. She saw a Bigfoot once, made a sound you never want to hear twice, and was so proud of her Special Olympics gold medal that she had it bronzed. She is, in her own words, adorkable.
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I mean, wow! I was in service on a Saturday and went to pick up a Newspaper (of which I don’t ever read at all) to see on the front page about how Obama is ajusting NSA or something along the lines of appealing it. Personally, I seriously feel that is a scary to even have it announced.
As far as the “middle class” on Home the analogy on spending money on junk and a two-hour movie used was good. I often times as a person if you spend money on a Call of Duty DLC, are you having a good time and if so, what would be so different than spending a dollar on Home would provide?
The only answer that I got was “its just stupid”.
As far as Anthony Weiner, well….*backs away slowly* o.o