Violent Video Game Tax Ignores 1st Amendment

According to the Washington Examiner in an article posted today, the House Ways and Means Committee has singled out violent video game developers in a tax reform bill.

[TheBurger29]

Words cannot describe how much I hate our government and all the stupid people who think they can do what they want when they want! I hope our country revolts against our government that's supposedly "for the people". So sick of living in a country ran by idiots!

[Majin-vegeta]

I second this notion.
http://cdn.memegenerator.ne...

[PoSTedUP]

i sware they create such distractions in these bills with comming up with the most Outlandish freaking "laws". certaintly they dont want people to really know whats going on in the more important issues such as the big drug companys manufacturing our "vitamins" And pharmaceuticals , whats in our food and water, the 2 year on-going nuclear meltdow in Fukushima, Japan, passing laws unter the tale and overnight etc. its like operation de-population, its so corrupt over money, they are trying to bring everyone down in the worst way possible while milking our pockets and keeping ppl ignorant. stay healthy and be informed.

[Soldierone]

@PsSTedUP THAT is exactly what they do, but at the same time you can't help but to argue about these bills too. We might see this specific one, get mad and watch it fail, while a bill that does the exact same thing passes on the same day and nobody notices.

Remember the whole internet spying one that everyone was fighting a few months ago? SOPA or something.... It failed, but a similar one (I think it was PIPA) that had the same idea in it passed and hardly anyone noticed....

So the truth is, no matter what you need to voice your opinion on this stuff because its a double edge sword, but at the same time you have to fend off all their other stupid ideas at the same time....

[FarEastOrient]

The bigger problem is the people that are voting these people into office. The majority of votes are cast lacking a strong basis of informed decisions. As someone that continues to work for the government, we are limited by competency of our leaders that the voters elect. :(

[360ICE]

Congress is pretty messed up, but the administration is far better than what we can count on electing with the current moronic electorate.

[ExPresident]

This administration is terrible.

[360ICE]

@ExPresident

Well, the people are as educated as socks, so what do you expect. You should expect someone like Bush, but instead we got someone like Obama.

[webeblazing]

we aint going to revolt to the old people die sorry to say, but old people in this country is stuck in their old ways. funny thing is young people is too caught uo in their problems to notice or stop to fight for something. but no matter what you what you want to believe i love the USA but we are corrupted. money over everything. my believes weigh more than yours

look at the degree of this article and look at flame bait articles.

[PoSTedUP]

agree, funny thing is i was going to first comment with "i cant wait till i get older to see the people in power, not in power" hah.

its like obama making a big speech telling all the older people to go back to school... yeah to get urselves into even More debt and go broke while being tricked to fund the economy! cuz "there still aint no jobs, oldtimer! muahah". the sad part is, people dont realize how much they are being deceived and manipulated...

[webeblazing]

its obama but its really not.

it politic period. just because hes black dont mean he going to fix it all especially when everything in this country aint decided by one person. i think he was on point with the go to school because its no security no more. no job is secure, that an old way of thinking. the best old way of thinking is make your own, and a lot of ypung people are doing it. they trying to make their own business.

big business run this country. the people thats broke and doing dirt isnt worrying about a new ps4, xbone, wiiU, or pc , theyre thinking about getting money how ever they can get it. its common sense. if your broke, starving, and cant find a job what your going to do? its been happening since this country was born no matter what shape, color, religion, creed you reside to, most likely your going think "it better me than them." thats the definition of the suvivual of the fittest. harsh and Fuk up i know. but people that made mistakes, people that cant get a break, and people that just shouldnt be in society without counseling contribute to most of the violence. a lot of murder in the US is revenge and crimes that have to do with prohibition, people thats not stable.

im not giving excuses it goes on everywhere but were not where we suppose to be. and your right i want to see them too hit the with a pie still trying to figure out the filling.

[Makakal]

amen dude,

They have their hand in everything.... goodbye good 'ol America. Obviously they don't remember what happened last time people f***** with our freedoms and liberties. This is just plain unconstitutional. There will be a fight....not a matter of if but when. Obviously we don't have bigger problems in our country than freakin video games. Unreal.

[NegativeCreep427]

God bless the Divided States of Embarrassment.

[JsonHenry]

When they move to try and confiscate by force the arms of the over 100,000 people who refused to register their weapons (registration leads to confiscation!) in Connecticut and the first shots get fired in defense of their 2nd amendment rights you will see the start of this. Look at Ukraine and Venezuela. That could easily be us.

Just takes that first shot. :/

[Makakal]

I would say 100,000 is a mere fraction.

[DC777]

How about a shitty parent tax instead?

Shame on the gaming companies for not banding together and allowing idiocy like this to be brought to congress.

It would be telling to know how much this amounts to for AAA companies because if it's enough it may bring about the crash that has been expected.

[TheBurger29]

If Irrational just closed just imagine how it will be with this tax. Gaming is growing and congress hates it, the government hates video games so they will do what they can to stop it.

[FantasyStar]

Violent video game makers won't be able to feed their violent video game families and violent video game children.

[sleewok]

Hey, it's what "we" voted for! Yay to ignorance!

[xx4xx]

Remember: They aren't violent video games....they are murder simulators.

[Soldierone]

It's total BS! How can they single out the industry? Nothing is fishy that they specifically go after video game companies, but not movie studios? Did someone in congress not get their bribe?

I mean seriously, this angers me so much and it should anger so many more people. They have been promising a better economy, better jobs, etc... then they go attack one of the fastest growing industries in the country? Come on, these guys are so useless and people need to realize things need to change!

[JsonHenry]

You know the saying - "The power to tax is the power to destroy."

[thebudgetgamer]

This is just election time carp that always happens so stupid politicians can get their stupid constituents to vote for them, then nothing comes of it.

[Hicken]

I hate election time carp.

[JsonHenry]

Carp never tastes right. Not even with some butter and lemon pepper.

[Milruka]

Um its not breaking the first in anyway. The company is still allowed to make the games they just do not get a tax break for it...

[CerealKiller]

It is a violation of the 1st bc government is incentivising some forms of expression and punishing those that go against their beliefs, effectively trying to censor or give unequal treatment. This takes the freedom out of the equation.

[Milruka]

Except you didnt care till video games became involved. Certain organizatikns have had tax exceptions for years or extra taxes. Yet you all never cried before.

Its pathetic and in no way stops freedom of speech.

[Hicken]

Your retort makes no sense. If those organizations are directly producing some form of media or other expression, then it IS just the same.

What organizations, by the way? I want to see if a) you know what you're talking about, and b) if there's even the most remote hint of a parallel. Given who I'm talking to, I imagine neither is true.

[gamey]

People don't seem to realize this wasn't "the administration" or "the government". This was Republicans in Congress. This isn't about the government interfering with our "liberty" whatever the hell that means. This is a few misguided republican ideologues in Congress trying to hammer on an old talking point of videogames cause people to shoot other people. There is no big fight or battle or lame threat we can direct at some generic big government. The way we take care of this sh*t is by voting for a different congressperson or campaigning for/giving money to an organization that fights their b.s. or by calling and writing their offices and giving them an earful. Again, this was a REPUBLICAN written provision. Any other finger-pointing is a waste of your energy.

[WingZero351]

Hi everyone. I'm the author of this story. I just joined n4g (I was aware of it, but never bothered to sign up)

Simply excluding video game developers from a tax break isn't necessarily against the First Amendment. However, excluding developers who make violent video games while extending that same tax break to creators of non-violent games is in clear violation of freedom of speech. It's censorship by proxy. You don't like a form of art, and so you make it harder for the artist to create that art. This is, without question, wrong. You can't define something as art (video games are legally art) and then cherry pick which games you'd like to exclude from that description. Even bad paintings are recognized as art, yes? Paintings people don't like still count as art. As do violent video games, no matter your stance on them. As I said, it's indirect censorship, which does violate the First Amendment.

[kingPoS]

It's the exclusions that sticks out the most. That's what makes it unequal. It's like being told you have to pay more because you have the preference of the color red. Obviously someone up top is trying for a chill effect. [puts on coat] The cold fronts cometh. It's going to get worse... *cough* timewarnercomcast *cough*

[kingPoS]

It's the exclusions that sticks out the most. That's what makes it unequal. It's like being told you have to pay more because you have the preference of the color red. Obviously someone up top is trying for a chill effect. [puts on coat] The cold fronts cometh. It's going to get worse... *cough* timewarnercomcast *cough*

Gateway MT6706 2008
darn proxies!