Macron backtracks from further persecution of gamers

[FT-02 Senator A.F.E. 🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦]

French President Emmanuel Macron is extending an olive branch to video gamers after previously linking computer games to rioting that rocked France earlier this year.

Posting on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, Macron backpedaled on remarks in June where he blamed video games for having “intoxicated” some young rioters.

Those comments dismayed some in the gaming community, even beyond France. Japanese game director Kastuhiro Harada tweeted in response that “blaming something is a great way to escape the burden of responsibility.”

Macron started his unusually lengthy post this weekend with a mea culpa, saying: “I startled gamers.”

He then sought to clarify his thinking and showered video games and the industry with praise.

“Video games are an integral part of France,” Macron declared.

“I expressed my concerns at the end of June because delinquents had used video game habits to trivialize the violence on social networks,” he said. “It is this violence that I condemn, not video games.”

https://fortune.com/2023/09/18/video-games-integral-part-of-france-emmanuel-macron-riots/

[CumbrianLefty]

Backtracking from a stupid and evidence-free comment, in other words.

[Harlow]

“I startled gamers.”

[...]

“Video games are an integral part of France,” Macron declared.

I'm sure it's just the translation but these are two of the funniest sentences I've ever heard.

[Damocles]

They targeted gamers.

GAMERS!

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Too little, too late. Every settlement on his minecraft server must be razed to the ground.

[Punxsutawney Phil]

I tried to find something good under 'Macron gamer copypasta' (which turns out to be the same in both English and French?) and nothing along those lines came up.

I did find this. Don't know the Youtuber/Twitch streamer's politics though. (French autotranslated captions->English)

If anyone is wondering what his conclusion is and doesn't want to see the video though (perfectly understandable and normal): he seems to say basically that Macron fails to form a link with the world of video gaming. But he has also said that increased state support for the e-sports sector (which Macron has promised) is nice to have. This could be profound for many French gamers!

Personally however, this is not an area that is worth spending much more time for the vast majority of people (me included) on besides meming on Macron.

In closing: his minecraft server is silly, someone steal his axolotl.