I know it’s summer and school is not in session, but I’m sorry. It’s time for a pop quiz.
What is better for men in their late teens and early 20s?
- Playing video games
- Going to war and dying
I think we’re all in agreement that a world where teens don’t have to march off to foreign lands and give their life for quixotic national causes is probably—in an ideal world—better. War is—uhh, duhhh—bad. It makes people die. Most all agree with that.
So the answer to that quiz is No. 1.
Unless you are MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough.
It began with him tweeting this morning about how smartphones are ruining teens. A laudable—if essentially imbecilic—cause.
Our smartphone culture impacts young men in the most profound way. It is often younger women who suffer the most. https://t.co/cagBUD9rUE
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
But he continued with this non-sequitur over how video games are to blame for… the lack of world wars over the past half century?
Young men in the 1940s liberated Europe from Nazism and the Pacific from the Japanese Empire. Today, too many stay home playing video games. https://t.co/e7FTe0O20P
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
Hrrmmm.
Sure, too many video games is not great, but also isn’t too much war not great as well? Like, shouldn’t we be happy that those things are not happening and that our youngest and brightest are shooting virtual zombies instead of other real humans? Like… wouldn’t that be great? If you thought so, welcome to what EVERYONE on Twitter thought as well.
I actually prefer to live in a world where the young can play games rather than die in wars. But that's just me. https://t.co/bbNIOREB5s
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 7, 2017
love when these National Greatness conservatives pine for the old days when millions of young people got killed https://t.co/P2R8fB3nSW
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) August 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/Bro_Pair/status/894560568862023682
The Dunkirk evacuaton was Uber, but for troop's. imagine if surge pricing was around back then smh https://t.co/ReHuLumsNg
— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) August 7, 2017
He's right, it's a real shame that nobody is still fighting World War II. https://t.co/nzVmKG11vm
— Jenny Trout (@Jenny_Trout) August 7, 2017
https://twitter.com/lukeoneil47/status/894568855238062080
https://twitter.com/MattZeitlin/status/894565013851185153
As some also let Scarborough know that America has been involved in a constant state of war ever since 9/11. So there’s that too.
Motherfucker we've been at war since 2001 https://t.co/4JN19jTINR
— Jared Keller (@jaredbkeller) August 7, 2017
After a constant barrage of roasting, Scarborough doubled down.
If you'd get off your XBox & back away from your 3 fantasy baseball league computer screens you'd see data supports my Old Man concerns. https://t.co/RFZQ5OxDln
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
These are only millenials that neither you nor I personally know, and certainly none that follow me on Twitter or watch Morning Joe! https://t.co/Ux50bMwPuw
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
If you want to commit mass slaughter, YOU enlist you goddamn sociopath.
— jordan (@JordanUhl) August 7, 2017
Tired of crusty boomers with nothing to lose banging the war drum. https://t.co/cdVEyptdJS
This is a typical response today to a long-stated concern about certain societal trends. The more subtle suggest I want wars with Nazis. https://t.co/K7tmIDlOJF
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
When someone called his take dumb, Scarborough just said that everyone else was dumb.
https://twitter.com/philhornshaw/status/894586309183848448
Actually, go on my Twitter mentions and you will be flooded with dumber, hotter takes suggesting I want millions to die in warfare. https://t.co/nF6Oe04iCQ
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
In the end, though, Morning Joe literally rode off into the sunset.
The stupidity of these responses suggest an ignorance of current trends and the need to get out in the sun…which I am going to do now.😀 https://t.co/ohluLxirwS
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) August 7, 2017
You can be a functioning member of society without having participated in the storming of Normandy, as proven by literally currently every member of society, who was not directly involved.
Also Joe Scarborough was born in 1963.