“Thoughts and Prayers” Video Game Shows How Useless the Phrase Is

• Source: thegoparcade.com

•  A programmer created a satirical game making fun of the use of politicians’ phrase “thoughts and prayers” in the aftermath of a mass shooting (most recently the one in Parkland, Florida), and you can play it here.  Every time there is a mass shooting, the trends that follow from the GOP are depressingly rote. Rather than try to do something about gun violence, the politicians in question advocate for “thoughts and prayers” — which is both an attempt to appeal to their core base and, more importantly, delay the conversation on gun control. This tactic is used with such a dispiriting commonness that one Twitter user compiled the total times Marco Rubio has called for thoughts and prayers and put them into a single tweet.

• Source: twitter.com / Via: twitter.com

•  One programmer went even further and created a video game that you can play in your browser where you try to stop mass shootings in America using two buttons — one labeled thoughts and one labeled prayers. When you click on them, they cruelly do nothing as the number of deaths continues to pile up. When you try to pass sensible gun control laws, the computer begins shouting at you with a dispiriting frequency with all of the usual talking points.  It’s a wonderfully satirical and tragically unwinnable game (if you can honestly call it that) that does not shy away from just how ugly all of this can be.  The game is part of a collection called GOP Arcade, which includes satirical games including The Voter Suppression Trail for the NY Times showing how non-white people are suppressed from voting by various forces, and the incredible upsetting Good Guy With A Gun.  What do you think of the game? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.

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