Boycotting a games system due to its parent company’s connections to a disliked regime¹ is simplistic, and imposes a ‘tyranny of virtue’² on others who wish to enjoy a perfectly legal³ product,” says video game historian and Time Extension contributor John Szczepaniak.
“Reading up on real-world history reveals a litany of sins, globally, none of which are ever addressed,” he adds. “America, for example, is a nation built on stolen land, made rich through the labour of stolen people. Should we therefore boycott everything created by the USA?⁴ Do you realise your mobile phone contains cobalt, which is mined using child labour?⁵ Or that Apple’s $2 billion acquisition of Israeli firm Q.ai now directly connects every iPhone to the genocide in Gaza?⁶ Or that large numbers of US politicians receive funding from AIPAC and thus are complicit in the Gaza genocide? Are you boycotting paying your taxes because of this?”⁷
¹ Genocide should be disliked, in any regime. Opportunistically avoiding calling al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya as-Suʿūdiyya totalitarian² is tyrannical praxis.
² What’s your virtue again?
³ Perfectly “legal” warcrimes btw.
⁴ Yes.
⁵ And it should be abolished.
⁶ And are you implying we shouldn’t be boycotting espionage?
⁷ Nazis in America don’t pay taxes, what even is this argument‽
Zionist translation:
¹ Genocide should be disliked, in any regime. Opportunistically avoiding calling al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya as-Suʿūdiyya totalitarian² is tyrannical praxis.
² What’s your virtue again?
³ Perfectly “legal” warcrimes btw.
⁴ Yes.
⁵ And it should be abolished.
⁶ And are you implying we shouldn’t be boycotting espionage?
⁷ Nazis in America don’t pay taxes, what even is this argument‽