Andrew Bolt, with a handy assist from Fairfax technology writer Asher Moses, has today made one of the funniest attempts at whipping up some moral outage that I can remember.
Is Gillard trying to get Guantanamo Bay back into high gear? Waterboarding Asylum Seekers? Actually it’s worse, the ALP are parodying Tony Abbott.
The online election campaign has begun early, with web attack ads spreading on Facebook and YouTube and a new viral game that allows players to torture Tony Abbott.
With a federal election expected to be called any day now, Labor has shown that it’s not above getting down and dirty, with a new web flash game called “Abbott Hospital Cuts” allowing players to pull organs out of Tony Abbott as he’s lying on an operating table.
Torture? Really? Do you mean that since the mid 60s the evil geniuses at Milton Bradley have been turning kids in to torturous fiends?
Asher Moses and Andrew Bolt take a bow, you’ve managed to top Double Rainbow Guy as the funniest thing on the internet this week.
20 Comments
Hilarious, and the troop of standard replies to Bolt’s sententious idiocy make for laughable reading, including one idiot justifying waterboarding. They’re like a troop of gibbons.
I thought that was hillarious, myself.
Yes. Clicking on a flash game with a stylised representation of a politician is just like torture. Yet pretending to drown somebody isn’t. Very good.
I can’t imaging what sorts of games are allowed in the bolt house. Hungry hungry hippo is just like gluttony. Operation is just like torture. Risk is just like global domination. Chess is much too violent.
Sweet Creepin’ Jesus. It’s the strawman to end all strawmen.
Whilst I’m here, may I say how the Kevin O Lemon adds clearly indicate that genetic manipulation is going to be a free-for-all in an Abbott Government and that hideous half-human / half-citrus abominations will be rife if you vote liberal. What amoral and megalomaniacal mad scientists do they have working in the Liberal campaign?
This really does reek of desperation on the part of AB — the “game” would seem to me to be a pretty immature and harmless political stunt, its hardly worth the heights of outrage some over at his blog seemed to have scaled.
“Chess is much too violent.”
Ever seen Battlechess Matthew — I had it in the old days on my Amiga 1000, now that was violence in chess
Gibbons would be insulted MW!
give animals more credit, they’re much more intelligent that the drones in the Bolverse™
You really have to laugh:
“give animals more credit, they’re much more intelligent that the drones in the Bolverse™”
Anyway. I’m totally baffled, Quantize.
I Googled “Bolverse” and while it does appear to have something to do with Peruvian music (I really couldn’t be stuffed translating every page) it certainly doesn’t look like it’s “trademarked”" by anyone.
???
There is a children’s game called “Hangman” too, but the Conservative Party in America would never put out campaign material and games where they changed the figure in the game to Obama and then told people to hang him. “Haw! Haw! Haw! It’s just a game!!!”
Rallying the supporters of your political party to torture and/or kill your political opponent in effigy should be seen as pretty poor form no matter who does it.
Boltverse™ (obvious)
typo Pedro….boggling that a simply typo would send you into googling. Makes the original joke all the more pertinent…it’s an alternate reality your mind resides in.
the trademark is mine.
Just to assist in unbaffling you Pedro, you can use the TM without registering a trademark. It is an indicator that you are using that word, symbol etc as a mark. It is still worth searching the databases before you do this to avoid using someone else’s trademark. The little R in a circle means that the trademark is registered.
Apart from the fact that Quantize was using the TM in a satirical, humerous manner that you seem blind to (intentionally or otherwise), I would be very surprised if you did find a TM’d word simply by doing a Google search.
Hope this helps.
Look at the moral outrage that game sparked from one reader:
“What kind of dishonest and vicious children are running Labor’s campaign?
Well, Andrew, let me tell you what kind they are.
These are the same people who gave us the French Revolution, initiating decades of murderous revenge and wars of conquest that blighted Europe; these are the same people who brought Stalin to power in Russia, who murdered tens of millions of his own people; these are the same people who inspired Hitler’s programs, emulated from Stalin’s example; the same people who worshipped Mao Tse Tung, who murdered scores of millions of his people; the people who created and followed Pol Pot and a dozen smaller genocidal lunatics around the world, like Mugabe. These are the people who thrive on hatred and resentment, who take revenge on anything good, strong and vital. These people are the haters and destroyers of mankind who claim to be its saviour, insisting on programs of “improvement” and “progress” yet ultimately seeking violence and destruction.
And every vote for the Left is a vote for these same people, the soulless anti-individualist insect swarmers who want to make the world their hive, the haters and resenters who hide beneath a cloak of benevolence but bring destruction.”
Apparently, people who were anti-Abbott can be linked to many mass murderers throughout history. The logic of cause and effect here is raped and perverted beyond comprehension. Each event in history has its own unique cause and effect relations. To link that game and mass murderers requires one’s cognitive faculties be dismissed.
{Removed – those comments aren’t relevant to the topic of this thread – Tobby}
{Removed – off-topic and long – also, see Marek Bage’s response to Matthew of Canberra below – Tobby}
blastbeater @10
Ok, this is spooky. Are you actually mulga mumblebrain after some sort of transformation, perhaps something related to the phase of the moon? Seriously – everyone, check out their icons. Does the ghost in the machine know something we don’t?
Despite all the loft rhetoric, do you realize that your post actually said nothing interesting? It’s just a long-winded (and somewhat unhinged) NO vote for labor, and you could have written than much more succinctly.
And no, I’m pretty sure the people who commissioned that game aren’t the same people who gave us the french revolution – they’d be far too old by now, and I doubt they’d know ActionScript.
Wow, when the usual suspects cannot even acknowledge that the game of Operation has nothing to do with torture, you know that they are operating from faith alone.
Actually MoC, I think Blastbeater was satirising the Right’s desire to link all evil, including the greatest evil not wanting to vote for Abbott, to being to the left of Wilson Tuckey.
I get that sense from his last paragraph.
Perhaps /satire tags should have been used.
Cheers
KMason @7
“There is a children’s game called “Hangman” too, but the Conservative Party in America would never put out campaign material and games where they changed the figure in the game to Obama and then told people to hang him.”
Hmm. Now that you’ve said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody does.
One problem is relevance. They’re attacking Abbott on hospital funding (justifiably or otherwise). The game is relevant – and something of an icon. The ad is quite recognizable as a parody of the game. If you can tell me how a game of hangman might be made relevant to an actual policy, then you’d at least be off and running.
““Haw! Haw! Haw! It’s just a game!!!””
Another difference is that the US has an unfortunate historical feature of black people being hung for entertainment. That’s going to take a long time to fade. Australia doesn’t have a history of people ripping out organs from people with red glowing/buzzing noses.
I guess if there had been something recently in the news about somebody being murdered and their organs removed, then this would be seriously Not Funny because of those parallels. But other than that, it’s obviously just the buzzer game. it’s also rich for the claims of “torture” to be coming from the side of politics that SUPPORTED it. You know, it’s possible that our conservative bloggers have written more words criticizing this advertisement than they ever wrote to criticize actual torture – at least the sort done by our side.
“Rallying the supporters of your political party to torture and/or kill your political opponent in effigy should be seen as pretty poor form no matter who does it”
He’s not being killed – look, he’s smiling!
Marek Bage @15 (via blastbeater @10)
I see … I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake. Sorry bb
Marek Bage @ 15, yes you are correct. I used quotation marks, not sure how it was missed. No rational mind could link those mass murderers of the past to someone who votes for Labor. It would only take a few minutes to ask the average Labor voter why he/she votes as he/she does, and you’d probably receive answers related to work choices, and/or the ETS; not because one is a blood thirsty tyrant.
“No rational mind could link those mass murderers of the past to someone who votes for Labor”
That doesn’t mean people don’t do it. Johan Goldberg got quite a few fans over here.
True. Those who already have a preconceived end in mind will gather whatever means possible to achieve it. Like our friend who linked mass murder to Labor voters. Easy done if you preach to a bunch of people who already hate Labor.