DISPATCHES PERSPECTIVE
Trigger Happy
Shoot first, ask questions later
STEVEN POOLE
Are generation’? I only ask because the Pentagon recently dissed videogamers you part of the ‘Nintendo in these terms by saying they have fragile bones. Army Major Jon-Marc Thibodeau was quoted in an official press release as saying: “The ‘Nintendo Generation’ soldier skeleton is not toughened by activity prior to arrival, so some of them break more easily.”
As literally everyone pointed out immediately, this is rather anachronistic since the last generation to grow up when ‘Nintendo’ was the prevailing synecdoche for ‘videogames’ are now middle-aged and quite unlikely to be showing up at boot camp for basic infantry training so that Major Thibodeau can attempt to break their skeletons. Or, as one commenter on the DoD PR website put it, unimprovably: “It’s not Nintendo Grandma, it’s called a PS4.”