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I don't know why this has become such a hot-button issue. I figured it was quite well established that video games are synthetic goals, and have always been tied to escapism. That is not to say that they are inherently wrong. Unless you are playing competitive games on the highest level (Dota, CS:GO), your charisma and looks are a greater predictor of your success in YouTube and Twitch than anything else.

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Almost all goals in modern society are synthetic. That's the core of Ted Kaczynski's argument for destroying it all. But most people see no problem with synthetic goals, which is a good thing when the alternative involves the death of billions.

Other than basic survival and sex, all goals now and in history are and have been "synthetic." It's irrelevant and certainly not new or noteworthy. Of course most people are ok with it. They've been ok with it since the dawn of civilization. Ted was just a whiny little bitch having an existential crisis who wanted to murder people for pleasure. His ideas were extremely stupid, delusional, and hardly new or interesting. The alternative is not the death of billions. The alternative is for scumbags like him to just shut the fuck up or kill themselves before they start murdering people based on their extreme stupidity and delusions.

There is an interpretation of "video games are synthetic goals" which cannot be dismissed with the argument you just used.

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