Violence caused by Movies/videogames

[Ghostface]

I want to talk about an issue where society when they can't find something logical to blame they blame mediums like movies or videogames. I find that most violent people are pathological liers or smooth talkers with complete lack of empathy. They know that people will understand that "fake" violence pretty much could show them how to do something and that it must have inspired them to commit violence. In my opinion that is not the case why you might ask. Simple they're Smooth talkers and are pathological liers who will say so many lies and make you believe them. Hell studys showed that if they get caught in a lie they won't care! They will make up more lies to justify the lie they were caught in and then you'll believe them again. I honestly am sick of people like JACK FUCKING THOMPSON blaming mediums for peoples actions. They were born that way or planned it from the beginning.

Let's hear others opinions on this matter.

[Inferno04]

Jack Thompson lost all credibility and was disbarred awhile ago anyway. I don't think we have to worry about him anymore. Honestly, whatever happened to just ignoring something? This issue isn't that big. :/

"Moral Guardians" have always been around and always will be.

[jimmyjoejangles]

I agree completely. We live in a society where people feel like they have no personal responsibility. Video game and film violence are fake, if you can't see that its already too late for you.

[Ghostface]

Jack Thompson lost all credibility and was disbarred awhile ago anyway. I don't think we have to worry about him anymore. Honestly, whatever happened to just ignoring something? This issue isn't that big. :/

"Moral Guardians" have always been around and always will be.

It is big and its everywhere, I bet every 5 minutes someone is getting mutilated or raped or whatever and people blame mediums because its an easy explanation. It happens all the time. Most small communities, and large one's are plagged by violence in some way, shape or form.

[Bertha]

Media is a scapegoat. Most people I know (myself included) have played video games since we were kids, many of them violent. I don't think any one has ever done anything extremely violent or criminal because of a video game. People just dont want to have to blame...oh...say....parents? When a bullied kid shoots up his school, people always want to blame the media (games, movies, music, etc), but no one ever stops to think of why said kid decided to go with such drastic action. No one wants to blame other students; no one wants to blame parental neglect. Instead, its much easier to say "Mortal Kombat and Ozzy made the kid evil!" and place the blame elsewhere. I've heard the rhetoric on how first person shooters are "training kids to kill", yet honestly how can they? They aren't showing kids how to load a weapon at top speed, they don't teach kids how to manage gun recoil, etc.

Most parents are content to blame a child's violent nature on video games, but if the kid is under age, they are the ones that purchase said material for them anyway. I remember when parents bitched about the Grand Theft Auto games...and I'm willing to be not one single person bothered to consider that it was M rated for a reason.

I'm sure that someone, somewhere, did get an idea from a video game...but if they were so willing to act upon it, their mental state was already decided to do something, they just wanted to find a 'cool' way to do it.

[Inferno04]

It is big and its everywhere, I bet every 5 minutes someone is getting mutilated or raped or whatever and people blame mediums because its an easy explanation. It happens all the time. Most small communities, and large one's are plagged by violence in some way, shape or form.

Read my last line again. People like that have ALWAYS BEEN AROUND AND ALWAYS WILL BE. It doesn't matter what country, what time, it is a fact of human nature to try to find scapegoats and duck personal responsibility.

Also, not everybody is this pathetic either, not everyone immediately points to video games or movies, some people are rational enough to think otherwise. Jack Thompson is a quack, most people know it, and the ones who can't see it will always be around anyway.

[Darkmoon]

My response to this topic is usually, 'Oh for crying out loud, this is so dumb. I'm gonna stab some of these people in the face and say I did it because the news showed me, and see the journalists suck there own faces off trying to spin that one.'

The truth is a lot of these parents are too busy doing what society has told them...work 40 hours a week, make money, buy cars, throw everything away and rack up a credit card buying it all again in a different shade and such to have time for kids. But they do it anyway. Seriously, fucknuts, unless it's survival then try working 30 hours and talk to your child.

It's easier (and cheaper) to throw some kinda eletronic device in for them to do stuff with than to hire a sitter, and certainly easier than getting off your arse and dealing with them yourself. And it's easier to blame those exact same devices when Darling Little Timmy decides the only way anyone is gonna hear him is if he blows away half his school and eats a round himself. Sure, the parents could have listened to his problems, maybe tried to deal with them, but that requires time, effort and attention, and those go on making more fucking cash or, of course, on the TV.

The media has to have something to blame...music, TV, books, films, professional wrestling and now the internet and video games. Although not so much the net anymore, since the net tends to bite back. And asking the parent's 'Do you think maybe if you'd PAID SOME FUCKING ATTENTION you'd have noticed Timmy packing enough guns to take Liberty Islands under his bed? Or the bruises and scrapes from the bullying he suffered? Or how depressed he was?' isn't nearly as exciting as, 'We've had reports Timmy may have seen an Xbox in a shop, Bob, so this is clearly another videogame related slaughter.'

[Inferno04]

My response to this topic is usually, 'Oh for crying out loud, this is so dumb. I'm gonna stab some of these people in the face and say I did it because the news showed me, and see the journalists suck there own faces off trying to spin that one.'

The truth is a lot of these parents are too busy doing what society has told them...work 40 hours a week, make money, buy cars, throw everything away and rack up a credit card buying it all again in a different shade and such to have time for kids. But they do it anyway. Seriously, fucknuts, unless it's survival then try working 30 hours and talk to your child.

It's easier (and cheaper) to throw some kinda eletronic device in for them to do stuff with than to hire a sitter, and certainly easier than getting off your arse and dealing with them yourself. And it's easier to blame those exact same devices when Darling Little Timmy decides the only way anyone is gonna hear him is if he blows away half his school and eats a round himself. Sure, the parents could have listened to his problems, maybe tried to deal with them, but that requires time, effort and attention, and those go on making more fucking cash or, of course, on the TV.

The media has to have something to blame...music, TV, books, films, professional wrestling and now the internet and video games. Although not so much the net anymore, since the net tends to bite back. And asking the parent's 'Do you think maybe if you'd PAID SOME FUCKING ATTENTION you'd have noticed Timmy packing enough guns to take Liberty Islands under his bed? Or the bruises and scrapes from the bullying he suffered? Or how depressed he was?' isn't nearly as exciting as, 'We've had reports Timmy may have seen an Xbox in a shop, Bob, so this is clearly another videogame related slaughter.'

I love this post. I think this mentality has been around a long time and won't go away anytime soon, hence my idea that scapegoating will NEVER go away.

It all comes back to bad parenting. Maybe if people would actually think harder before having kids, considering the time and effort needed, this kind of stuff could be avoided. I'm not saying all parents or unplanned kids are bad. I know of some awesome parents and well behaved kids. I've seen far more bad than good though. However, it's possible to be happy and gain money without having to have kids, and it seems like a taboo of society to choose to not have kids. I keep getting shit about it. But this is a semi-related rant for later.

[Mr. Spencer]

Unfortunately we live in an age where society's failings must be held up to the light for all to see, to let these people know their shortcomings as parental figures. To be honest I'd rather have my child killing people in a videogame than going out onto the street and doing it to real people.

[Ghostface]

Parents must be sick of people saying it all starts in the family, I mean look at Mrs Loomis...ahh thats a movie so it doesn't really count.

[Darkmoon]

Sometimes, it's true, a child will be just born wrong and the parents will refuse to accept that. But, and I speak as a parent here, a lot of the problem is parents who simply don't have the time to deal with there kid, nor the will to put the effort in. It's so much easier to plug little Timmy into whatever game he wants, and if that game says 18 on the box...well, it's just a game, it can't be THAT bad right? I've been tempted to use electronics as a baby sitter. Hell, I've done it a few times when I've been badly behind and my wife is busy too. Difference is I'm savy enough to know that, while a few hours isn't a problem, more can be. My oldest son is already getting a little too hooked on games for comfort, and so we're giving him less time to play them for a while.

And I also spend time with my kids. It's important.

[Wrathborne]

I remember when I was a kid and read a book about setting off a Nuclear explosion, naturally I myself went out and set off a Nuclear explosion because I read about it in a book and it warped my mind.

Fuck you Media, people do rotten shit because they're rotten people. Not because of games, books, movies, or the internet.

[Rombie]

I don't disagree with most of what's been said in here, but asking people on a forum for videogames to discuss if violence is caused by a medium they're generally passionate about it's about as bias as asking a porn director if they think they're possibly exploiting someone for money. They're both going to point and blame someone else and argue they're not at fault.

I don't think I'm silly enough not to say there will be some events out there influenced by people playing games, but I think it's just as likely as any other medium.

[Canas Renvall]

This is what I do to people who say video games make kids violent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6FuBiQxu4

[Darkmoon]

I don't disagree with most of what's been said in here, but asking people on a forum for videogames to discuss if violence is caused by a medium they're generally passionate about it's about as bias as asking a porn director if they think they're possibly exploiting someone for money. They're both going to point and blame someone else and argue they're not at fault.

I don't think I'm silly enough not to say there will be some events out there influenced by people playing games, but I think it's just as likely as any other medium.

I think the issue is there's something in that persons life, whether it be a mental health issue they're born with or depression from bullying or whatever that leaves them that way. Most people are able to see this stuff and it have no more impact than a well done book or movie. Obviously, if a 6 year old is playing an 18 rated game with sex, violence and the like then that might have a big effect. Again, though, they're at an age where they aren't capable of fully processing the differences between a story and reality, so there's something wrong. And it's quite possible mommy or daddy bough Little Timmy that game anyway, despite the label.

The issue is people, usually the kids parents, simply aren't paying enough attention to spot the issue there kids are having. If they were, they'd have spotted that Little Timmy likes knives a little too much, or that he's comming home minus his lunch oney but with a new black eye each day or that he's just...sad. But for a parent like that, and you fuck up to the point that your kid takes a gun and kills others, well you've never really taken responsiblity before. Games, movies, music have all likely been used to keep the kid quiet and happy...now they're the cause of the problem, not you never talking to them. They parented your kid for you; clearly it's there responsiblity now.

So the medium gets the blame. And we've all seen it. TV shows, movies, music, wrestling...I'm shocked Forumal 1 and such haven't been blamed for teenagers who like driving fast. Very rarely does the parent even consider admitting they were at fault. But that's where the fault should go, most of the time.