Is Pokemon Go 'a totalitarian system close to Nazism'? Ask the bishop
Technically Incorrect: An Italian bishop reportedly worries that Pokemon Go is turning people into the "walking dead."
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
A threat to society?
We are gathered here today to discuss whether Pokemon Go is the work of the devil.
The game that has captivated so many minds has disturbed some.
Take Antonio Stagliano. The bishop of Noto in Sicily apparently isn't a fan.
As Agence France-Presse reports, he's described the game as "diabolical."
It seems he fears that the vast minds at Niantic Labs who created this summer phenomenon might be in the serpent's clutches.
The bishop has very definite ideas about what the game has done to society. It's "alienated thousands and thousands of young people," he's reportedly said.
He's also reportedly suggested that the game has turned people into the "walking dead."
Here's my favorite, though. AFP notes that the bishop has said Pokemon Go is "a totalitarian system close to Nazism."
You will be busy Googling to see who is the Hitler in all this. Niantic Labs didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did the diocese of Noto.
The bishop, though, isn't merely appealing to celestial minds. He reportedly claims he may take the matter to the courts.
Please put yourself in the position of the judge and jury in such a matter.
How might the bishop even attempt to prove that young people have been alienated -- at least alienated any more by Pokemon Go than they have been by gadgets in general?
Will he present experts in Nazism to draw similarities between monster hunting and, oh, must we go on?
Of course the bishop isn't alone in his quest to Pokemon Stop.
The French village of Bresolles has ordered Niantic to cease creating virtual inhabitants of its area. The mayor claims Niantic has no right to plant its monsters in Bresolles' environs.
My suggestion for Bishop Stagliano is a simple one. Sicily is home to one of the greatest detectives of all time: Commissario Salvo Montalbano.
Yes, he's fictional. But so are the characters in Pokemon Go. If anyone can deal with them, he can.
Once he does, the bishop could launch a new augmented-reality game in which young people could follow in Montalbano's footsteps and learn how to eradicate all virtual evil in the world.