this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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Showerthoughts

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When people say the phrase "Don't hate the player, hate the game", it removes responsibility from the player (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by ViscloReader@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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I'm talking in the context of the "capitalist rules". If you say the aforementioned sentence, you remove the responsibility of the player by dismissing the fact that the winner makes the rules.

PS: Doesn't work for every context: if the player aims to change the rules because he doesn't like them, he might see winning as a way to change them. "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" I guess...

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[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If a game inevitably leads to billionaires unless you can count on all individuals being moral people, I take the liberty of hating the game that sets things up like that.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Any system can be abused. Amoral assholes will always exist. We have a system that rewards amoral assholes with wealth and power. Hate both the player and the game.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Of course you can hate both. But I think the phrase tries to make you focus on systemic issues instead of individualising them.

I can hate Elon Musk. But if he wasn't there, someone else would fill the dipshit shaped hole the system leaves for him.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I understand the meaning, and you're right that the system would just reward a different dipshit. But Elon is there, and he is a dipshit deserving of scorn. If it was someone else being a dipshit, then I'd hate them for being a dipshit.

The system should prevent people like Elon from amassing so much wealth and power. But even if it did, he would still be a dipshit.

Hate the game, hate the player, because both fucking suck.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

We have a system that rewards people for producing value. You can see the effects of this system all around you, in the absolutely massive wealth that surrounds and serves you every day.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 1 points 10 months ago

"Value" is a socially loaded construct. Some people value golf courses more that a healthy ecosystem.

Someone else has to suffer for the wealth you enjoy.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

"Producing value." Nobody produces a billion dollars worth of value. It takes thousands of people to produce their value, and they keep most of it by fucking over the people that work for them.

The system is fundamentally exploitative and cruel, leveraging fear and violence to extract value from poor people for pennies on the dollar.