The Stupidity Poll: Jack Thompson vs Paul Thurrott

[GFLPraxis]

We all know them. One is considered the most insane lawyer who ever lived. The other is considered the most biased journalist who ever lived (though this position is threatened sometimes by Dvorak and others).

This thread is a stupidity contest. Between our two contestants, Jack Thompson and Paul Thurrott, which is stupider? Which is more obnoxious? Which is more annoying? Which is more biased?




Jack Thompson quotes:

I am not interested in 'gamer's thoughts,' as that constitutes the latest oxymoron.

I am the foot-soldier of god

He is going to use your sin to bless me. He already has. It has deepened my resolve, for example, to destroy the makers of the Grand Theft Auto games. Amazon.com, and what it is showcasing here about the depravity of the video game culture, mandates that Rockstar Games be destroyed.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepolitics/2005/10/01/

kiss the game industry good-bye

(after being informed that when the blur is removed, the Sims are like ken and barbie and have no genitalia: )

The sex and the nudity are in the game. That's the point. The blur is an admission that even the 'Ken and Barbie' features should not be displayed. The blur can be disarmed. This is no different than what is in San Andreas, although worse.

EA is cooperating, gleefully, with the mod community to turn Sims 2 into a porn offering.

"The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people," Thompson says. "Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does. Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. … That's a core essence of the religion. … Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition. The Koran teaches that the Infidel should be killed simply because he is an Infidel. Islam is the most violent religion that has ever cursed the face of the earth. 9-11 was an extension of Islam, not an aberration. Study Muhammad and what he did. A brutal man who created a brutal God in his own image.”

"Honestly, are all of you gamers on drugs, or what?"

Rather sad, but wholly predictable, that a bunch of video game whackos wouldn't understand or wouldn't care that "pixelante," a word I coined is a contraction of pixel vigilante. It is a perjorative term that puts anyone in that category in a category with the KKK and skinheads.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the fact that some or most of you are so divorced from reality that you prove my point by not even recognizing a pejorative term and category when it bites you on the lip, but really, are you all that hopeless?

What's next, a "Child Molester" t-shirt contest sponsored by Game Politics? Actually, that ought to be sponsored by ESA, with Doug Lowenstein's face underneath the label "Child Molester for Hire." ESA has facilitated, for money, the mental molestation of other people's children with adult video games.

Pixelante on, oh confused ones. Your tragic dithering because you have nothing else today helps condemn your entire generation. How sad.

Video gamers are in the same category as the KKK?

Few comments added because Jack's comments speak for themselves, while Paul's stupidity is vieled under seeming rationality.

Jack Thompson's email exchanges though must truly be read to comperehend his sheer stupidity.

http://www.aelon.net/2005/07/jack-thompson-straw-man/
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/q-a/jack-thompson-declines-to-speak-out-on-gaming-violence-025471.php
http://croqaudile.com/?article_id=10299

The man is incapable of defending his arguements or even keeping a conversation without resulting to personal insults.

Paul Thurrott quotes:

HP’s blockbuster deal with Apple will have one exciting side effect. The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft’s superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year. You heard it here first.

Superior?

You run an OS that has provided you with 113 security fixes, critical updates, and feature updates over an 18 month period. Are you ... a) pleased that you're running a modern OS which can automatically download and apply such fixes ... or ... b ) freaked out because this OS is obviously pretty broken if it needed that many fixes? If you answered "a" you understand why Windows XP is so excellent. If you answered "b," you're an idiot.

Wait, so more holes makes Windows XP excellent?

Spotlight’s biggest claims to fame, presumably, are its near-instant search results and support for document meta data, both of which are, again, planned features of Longhorn. But no matter. While Apple has been busy copping Windows features since Jobs returned to Apple in late 1996, the company’s tiny market share ensures that very few people will benefit from Spotlight, despite Apple claims that it will deliver on desktop search a year before Microsoft ships Longhorn.

And speaking of Apple Computer, everyone's favourite little OS imitator -- excuse me, innovator -- this week made an interesting patent bid that could have ramifications for Longhorn.

CPU. A custom-made IBM PowerPC microprocessor running at 3.2 GHz and offering three symmetrical processing cores, essentially providing the power of three CPUs to the system. This system is capable of 1 teraflop of computing power. By comparison, Apple's fastest PowerPC-based computer, the PowerMac G5, is offered at speeds up to 2.5 GHz, with only a dual processor core, and that system costs $3300 without a monitor.

Worst comparison ever- he's comparing a console with a stripped down, high-clocked PPE to a desktop system with a full G5 processor, hard drive, gigabit ethernet, a full array of ports, etc etc...it's not a valid comparison, in fact neither system are remotely similar, and further, this is a year before the 360's release.

Despite seeing its current-generation console, the Game Cube, get a thorough drubbing in the market at the hands of the more capable Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo believes it still knows what its customers want in a next-generation game machine. The Revolution, the company says, will be a game machine only and won't offer any digital hub functionality.

note that the GameCube is more powerful than the PS2, the XBox's marketshare is only 2% higher (a 'drubbing'?), Microsoft's profits were negative, and Nintendo had the highest profits of any of the three company's games divisions (yes, they beat Sony in cash earned).

Sony announced at the show that it has sold more than 100 million units of the PlayStation Portable (PSP), making it one of the most popular portable game players ever made.

The PSP has yet to hit 7 million units sold, let alone a hundred million- compared to the DS's 13 million and GBA SP's 70 or so million, this is hardly the most popular portable game player ever made. Talk about exagguration.





Please post any other nominees for Stupid People, as well as any other idiotic comments you find from the above people, in this thread

 

[iAlan]

I said 'Other' and the 'Other' is...

Me!

And I was first to vote - woohoo! That makes me better than all of you. I am the original 'King of the World' not that lame Titanic guy. And I rock. I rock so much that I am better than Mt. Rushmore. In fact I am so cool I make polar bears shiver. I am also sexy - I'm so sexy I make the new MacBook Pro look like a Dell. And I am great in bed - I don't have to be told this, I just know I am. And boy am I smart - I am so smart I don't need any Apple version of Excel, I can calculate everything in my head.

See now why I voted for my self….

 

[mad jew]

This thread is a stupidity contest. Between our two contestants, Jack Thompson and Paul Thurrott, which is stupider? Which is more obnoxious? Which is more annoying? Which is more biased?

Who? Not which...

I hadn't heard of Jack Thompson before but I still think Paul outdoes him.

 

[Counterfit]

Who? Not which...

I hadn't heard of Jack Thompson before but I still think Paul outdoes him.

No, Jack is approximately 50.863x the idiot Paul is. Paul can at least sometimes commend OS X/Apple for something. I mean, he at least cares about what formats the iPod plays (even if he does claim that WMA is "superior" than AAC). jack, on the other hand, won't admit that he's wrong (because God's On His Side™), and even reneged on his offer to donate $10,000 to a charity of Paul Eibler's choice if someone made a specific game, which a group did.
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He's beyond stupid, he abso-****ing-lutely NUTS! If he wasn't from Floriduh, I'd be amazed he hadn't been debarred yet.

 

[dubbz]

Thurrot says a lot of stupid things, but he's not even in the same league as Jack Thompson.

Thomson is not just stupid... to me he seems utterly insane... dangerous, even. I whouldn't want to be in the same room as him.

 

[ReanimationLP]

Wheres the option for both?

 

[heaven]

Wheres the option for both?

I agree, they both are. Period.

 

[MattG]

It's neck and neck!!!

 

[Abstract]

Not voting until I see a "BOTH" category.

 

[Chundles]

Who? Not which...

I hadn't heard of Jack Thompson before but I still think Paul outdoes him.

I thought briefly they were talking about the Aussie actor with the voice that everyone here can recognise. I was about to tear them a new arsehole until I read further and found out it was this psycho god-squad lawyer guy.

 

[jdechko]

No, Jack is approximately 50.863x the idiot Paul is. Paul can at least sometimes commend OS X/Apple for something. I mean, he at least cares about what formats the iPod plays (even if he does claim that WMA is "superior" than AAC). jack, on the other hand, won't admit that he's wrong (because God's On His Side™), and even reneged on his offer to donate $10,000 to a charity of Paul Eibler's choice if someone made a specific game, which a group did.
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He's beyond stupid, he abso-****ing-lutely NUTS! If he wasn't from Floriduh, I'd be amazed he hadn't been debarred yet.

Of course, the best thing about that whole $10,000 donation is that while he didn't cough up the dough, the guys over at Penny-Arcade did.

As mentioned, at least Paul Thurrott sometimes gives Apple due credit, and he has a reason to be such a... well... you know. I mean, he's probably on Microsoft's payroll. What's Jack Thompson's excuse? He lumps all gamers in the same category... the sims? Come on, someone's grasping for straws here.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Well, the big difference here is that Jack Thompson is simply phsychotic. He's uninformed, refuses to listen, and when told puts his fingers in his ears and chants "la la la I can't hear you!" or "Ha, the fact that you gamers are trying to argue with me proves I'm right!" It's usually simply his opinion that is outrageous.

Paul Thurrott, on the other hand, is well informed. He actually has information. He actually knows things. And yet, somehow, he is STILL able to make these ridiculous statements that can be disproven with five minutes of research.

So who is stupider? The one who refuses to learn, or the one that learns and still doesn't understand?

Not voting until I see a "BOTH" category.

The poll is, which is stupider. They're both very, very stupid

 

[Lord Blackadder]

What about Steve Ballmer? He's easily as stupid as Thurrot and as obnoxious as Thompson.

 

[greatdevourer]

http://www.netjak.com/review.php/1091