Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), a game made by Rockstar Games, is one of the most highly anticipated games to ever be released. This anticipation has also brought on a lot of criticism. Some have pushed back on elements of the game design, the characters, and the controversial all-digital release. But one area of pushback many fans did not anticipate is that people are now breaking up over GTA 6. After the extended look trailer was released on Netflix and then YouTube, gamers were introduced to the dynamic between the two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, who have an optional romantic relationship depending on player choice. This romantic pairing has caused many people to encourage women not to “let your boyfriend or fiancé or husband play Grand Theft Auto VI.” Many women have claimed that men who not only choose to partake in the relationship but also simply buy the game in general are “cheating.” One of the features the game offers players is the ability to maintain or destroy Jason and Lucia’s relationship, where going to strip clubs, not answering text, or not spending time together will diminish their bond and doing the contrary will make their connection stronger. This information sparked concern among women that their boyfriends or husbands will treat a video game girlfriend better than their real-life relationship. Some are even “banning” their partners from playing the game, with one TikToker saying: “In absolutely no human way is my fiancé playing GTA VI. You literally have to maintain a relationship with a girl in the video game and text her, and she’ll get mad if you don’t text her back. You have to take her on dates, and you can have [sex] with her.” Meanwhile, others are calling this attitude absurd and saying that people who do this are in very fragile relationships if a video game is enough to destroy it. Many are bringing up the fact that Lucia is a fake human who players do not even have to romance in the game if they do not want to. Others note that people are taking one of the game’s main characters and reducing her role to nothing more than a romance option and a threat to their own relationships. In retaliation, some men are drafting relationship contracts that let them play GTA 6 as much as they want without their girlfriend or wife getting angry. Others are mocking their partners about how well they are going to treat Lucia. Ultimately, the whole situation does not seem very healthy for either side. Men should not be bragging to their partners about romancing Lucia, and women should not feel the need to be insecure about a fictional character. Of course, girlfriends are allowed to be uncomfortable with their boyfriends playing a game where they go to strip clubs and partake in borderline pornographic material. Still, if people genuinely worry they will lose their relationship over a game, maybe that’s a relationship not worth having in the first place. But this controversy does beg the question: if romancing Lucia is cheating, then is enjoying other forms of media also cheating? There are plenty of dating video games, as well as a whole industry built off of romance novels and movies. Is engaging with any form of romantic media while in a relationship cheating? And if it isn’t for those things, then why does this idea apply to GTA? Ultimately, there is a difference between fiction and reality, and many are forgetting the fact that Grand Theft Auto is a series about robbery and crime. It was never meant to promote moral behavior. And if those who say that having a relationship with Lucia plants the seed for cheating, do they also believe that playing the game will plant the seed for their partner to become a crime lord too? It is not unreasonable to criticize GTA 6 for promoting immorality. Still, the whole situation does harken back to the old days of parents berating the games industry, falsely insisting that video games caused players to become violent in the real world. People who ultimately worry that their partners will love their pixelated girlfriend more than them say far more about the state of their personal relationship than about any issue with the game itself. Every relationship is different, but being unable to differentiate between fact and fiction is unhealthy in any case. Because, after all, at the end of the day, it is just a game.
By Alexandra Miskewitz
Has the response to the September 11th attacks of 2001 made America safer from terrorism? Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the Federal Government has capitalized off Americans’ fear of terrorism to encroach upon more and more of our liberties. The passage of the USA PATRIOT Act directed law enforcement agencies and even private banks to help governments spy on millions of Americans’ transactions and use of technology, in violation of our essential right to privacy. The War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan has cost thousands of American lives and added trillions of dollars to the national debt, all while creating massive political instability throughout the Middle East through failed nation-building plans. Has more tyranny been the solution to fighting terrorists who hate the liberty and freedom that made America so prosperous?
By Edward Kim
The American pharmaceutical industry is certainly an outlier among developed countries. Americans face by far the highest out of pocket costs for prescription medications in comparison to every other OECD country, causing millions to ration their supplies of drugs. In particular, brand-name drugs, such as Xarelto, Enbrel, and Harvoni, are often magnitudes more expensive in the United States. And this divergence has shown a k-shaped trend over time, largely due to the pharmaceutical industry’s oligopoly over most prescription medications, as well as a lack of price controls in the United States. Thus, this leads to massive economic inefficiency for injured customers. But is it even a free-market if Americans are legally required to consume Big Pharma’s products? Vaccine recommendations for children in the United States are far more comprehensive than most developed countries. Specifically, in 2024, 84 vaccine doses were recommended by the CDC before Trump’s second term for American children, more than twice as many as many European countries. These vaccines continue to be required in the United States for school entry, whereas many countries in Europe have no child vaccine mandates at all. Furthermore, the ability of Americans to make informed decisions about their health has been hampered due to vast social media censorship of dissent on vaccine policy, as well as vaccine producers’ redaction of key documents during the Covid-19 pandemic. So despite the United States being one of only two developed countries that allows paid advertising of prescription drugs, it appears that customers are not getting the full picture of what is being sold to them. Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, American vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna have made record profits, despite the failures of their vaccines to significantly reduce the spread of the virus. And as these vaccines produced massive adverse side effects ranging from myocarditis to blood clots and diabetes, they have only widened Big Pharma Corporations’ consumer base that will become dependent on them for blood thinners and insulin. This should not have come as a surprise due to Pfizer’s massive criminal fine that was handed to them for illegal marketing, and other pharmaceutical giants’, such as Purdue Pharma’s, role in the opioid epidemic. But as long as Big Pharma pours billions into our politicians’ electoral funds, structural reform of the industry that will allow us to catch up to every other developed country will require a long and tough battle.
By Edward Kim
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