Video games are what caused the Virginia Tech shooting!

[ButterflyBlood]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2007/04/va_tech_dr_phil_jack_thompson.html?nav=rss_blog

The level of stupidity in this country that anyone could seriously make such a claim makes me :mad:

[ThomWV]

1. Would You Accept That TV or Movies May Have Played A Part?

daily make believe (but acceptable) violence at every turn of the head

[ButterflyBlood]

4. Then with all the video games I play, I should be a serial killer by now

But I've never even touched a gun!

[yellowcanine]

10. That is not good logic. The fact that video games might contribute to a culture

of violence doesn't mean that everyone who picks up a video game will become a killer any more than everone taking a drink becoming an alcoholic. And I don't think anyone is saying the video games alone cause violence. But I can easily see a disturbed young person using violent video games to cultivate their violent inclinations, just as a pedophile uses child pornography.

[trumad]

14. Really---can you now...

then I guess you can see Marlyn Manson being the reason that Columbine happened.

[yellowcanine]

38. Your strawman argument, not mine. I will make my own arguments thank you very much.

Please don't make people's arguments for them. It is poor form. If you can argue the point, argue it.

[CRF450]

35. Yeah maybe I should stop playing F.E.A.R.

NOT!!


http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j283/joshnc101/?action=view¤t=Juggeranutmppart2.flv

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. Would you accept that literature may have played a part?

He was after all an English major, and was there by potentially exposed to daily make believe (but acceptable) violence at every turn of a page.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. At least they're not blaming the violence on TV anymore

It's exciting to see how technological advances have changed the world. :eyes:

[Taverner]

3. Or Comic Books

Back in the 1950's, EC Comics were the whipping boy for the Dobsons of the day

[Javaman]

7. in a few years it will be the gardening fanatics of global warming. nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

12. Yes, it's always better to find an easy excuse

While they ignore the fact that his note made references to "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" And then there's the fact that he was said have spent a lot of his free time playing basketball, with no reference to video games at all.

[Reverend_Smitty]

5. Yeah those are believable experts...

Dr. Phil and Jack Thompson possibly two of the biggest self-important wankers to ever have walked the planet...because nobody ever snapped and killed people before the advent of Doom and Grand Theft Auto :eyes:

[yellowcanine]

6. I think the case can be made that video games might contribute to the culture of violence.

And I didn't see the broadcasts, but I suspect that is all they were saying.

[Reverend_Smitty]

9. I understand what you are saying...

but I believe that this country has always had a culture of violence from murdering Native Americans to the deplorable treatment of black people throughout our history.

[ButterflyBlood]

24. Go look at Japan

and compare the level of violence in their media to their crime rate.

[politicat]

33. I would say that violent video games are a reflection of a violent culture,

not a or the cause of the violent culture. There are more discussions/images/realities of acts of violence in everyday life than video games could ever hope to produce.

Human culture has been violent since we came out of the trees, and before then, too. The difference now is that the tools are more effective and the knowledge of the action travels faster and farther than it did in the past. We also don't have the cultural channels for violence we used to have (though I will say, as a gamer, that exploding kobolds - and heavy workouts - pacify the mental urges to commit actual violence) so that when violence does happen, it shows up in inappropriate places. There is no culture-wide, ritualized warfare training that every boy/child gets, no hunting-as-responsibility-of-adulthood, no violence-redirections.

[yellowcanine]

39. Yeah that too. One doesn't rule out the other.

[kwolf68]

8. Well

Some video games are very dangerous in my view. What about the video game "DOOM" that lead to the mass shootings in Germany.

The Columbine boys were heavy into violent video games. The games look and seem so realistic it may desensitize people.

Freedom of speech and all, but yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater is not protected by the first amendment, and I question whether some of these amazingly violent video games should be as well. What happened to playing a video game of basketball or car racing? Why now do we have to simulate murder?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. I blame poetry.

The shooter was an English major.

Clearly Keats is responsible.

[ButterflyBlood]

15. hahah, Doom led to mass shootings in Germany?

Never heard that one before. These stories keep getting more humorous.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. Last month, I heard GM foods caused school shootings.

Because GM foods pollinate in the spring, and that's when most school shootings are.

:rofl:

[firefox_fan]

19. Do GM food pollinate or ovulate?

Just asking...

[Forkboy]

27. Note the take on Lieberman's "Murder simulator" quote.

Funny how the people who say stuff like that are usually the ones who are totally clueless about games.

[firefox_fan]

18. Games such as this one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind:_Eternal_Forces

[drbtg1]

23. Actually, you can yell "fire" in a crowded theater...

...provided there is a fire. You can't yell fire falsely to cause a panic or terrorize. That's what the Supreme Court said in Schenck v United States. Schenck said that people who disagree with being drafted should have legal redress. Didn't start a riot, no panic, but for that he got jail time and a ridiculous analogy comparing what he did to falsely yelling fire.

I find it interesting that the origin of this misquotation was a legal decision to limit relatively benign free speech.

[Forkboy]

26. Thank you for spouting every right-wing psycho talking point about games.

Any links to the Doom story?

You don't think games should protected by the first Amendment? How about books? Any type of movies you feel we shouldn't be allowed to make?

Your attitude is scary as hell,and exactly what clowns like those in this story hope for.

[firefox_fan]

13. And the guy being a loner.

I knew it.

[murloc]

20. There are no simple answers

I suspect everyone, from the far right to the far left wishes there was an easy answer to tragic events like this.

Simple answers make people feel better and safer. But there are none really.

[Norrin Radd]

21. Super Mario Bros made me want to stomp on mushrooms. n/t

[Solon]

36. No, it made me want to EAT mushrooms...

And Pac-Man made me eat pills.

[ButterflyBlood]

22. good graphics

[soothsayer]

25. Great graphics! I wonder what happened in the early 80's that

caused that spike?

[Forkboy]

30. Answer.

[Reverend_Smitty]

28. Release of pong on home game systems...

and a spike in violent crimes, coincidence...I think not!

[chefgirl]

31. You beat me to it Reverend!

HAD to be Pong. No doubt.

-chef- (who thinks that the capacity to do violence exists in us all whether we play video games or watch slasher movies or listen to 'the devil's music')

[Forkboy]

29. They'll have to find another boogeyman.

The good thing is so many people do play games now that this dumb ass shit gets less and less traction.There's always a few squeeky wheels looking for grease but most people know how inane this is.

[Hippo_Tron]

32. Stop making sense!!!!

:spank:

[TheWraith]

34. I wonder what those people have to say about the killing of 16 people at a school in the 1960s.

Or the mass school shooting that happened in 1937. I wasn't aware that video games had been invented back then.

How about this: a man shot and killed 32 people because he was mentally disturbed, and no one acted in time to stop him.

[Norrin Radd]

37. Pinball. ;^) n/t

[jberryhill]

40. He was an English major

...as an engineering graduate, that pretty much sums it up, doncha think?

I told my sons today that I know exactly what caused the shootings.

They asked me what it was.

I said, "Whatever it was that you didn't like three days ago - that's what caused it. Here's the proof that you were right all along."