Video Games Are 'A Bigger Problem Than Guns'

[FriendlyFire]

Video Games Are 'A Bigger Problem Than Guns'

CHUCK TODD (MSNBC): Can you envision a way of supporting the universal background checks bill?

LAMAR ALEXANDER: Chuck, I'm going to wait and see on all of these bills. I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games, and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns.

"Video games affect people," of course, is not actually an argument. Monet paintings affect people. Long waits at the DMV affect people. If there's anything that diminishes my worry about whether or not Alexander will seriously consider the prospect of beefing up background checks, it would be the way that this thought sort of floated out of him like flatulence, unattached to anything serious. If I could assure Alexander of anything, however, I would point out that we have spared no expense in trying to ascertain the ways in which video games affect people, up to and including whether they can be connected to violent tendencies in real life.

It's true that Americans spend billions of dollars on video games every year and that the United States has the highest firearm murder rate in the developed world. But other countries where video games are popular have much lower firearm-related murder rates. In fact, countries where video game consumption is highest tend to be some of the safest countries in the world, likely a product of the fact that developed or rich countries, where consumers can afford expensive games, have on average much less violent crime.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/30/lamar-alexander-video-games-guns_n_2584837.html

Ralph Nader calls violent video games “electronic child molesters.”

Wow. The continued demonisation of violent games following the shooting at Newtown, CT is to be sadly expected. But there’s political bluster, and whatever agenda lies behind it, and then there’s Ralph Nader’s recent comments to Politico.

In an extremely rant-filled interview about Obama’s then impending inauguration speech, the activist and two-time Green Party presidential candidate said, “We are in the peak of [violence in entertainment]. Television program violence? Unbelievable. Video game violence? Unprecedented.”

And then, this quite astonishing sentence: “I’m not saying [Obama] wants to censor this, I think he should sensitize people that they should protect their children family by family from these kinds of electronic child molesters.”

Nader was speaking about Obama’s gun control package, and criticising the president for not being tough enough on violent games. On the January 16th, it was reported that the administration were looking to set aside $10 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “study the root causes of gun violence, including any relationship to video games and media images.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/22/r...o-games-electronic-child-molesters-seriously/

While I agree that ME3 ending made me want to do violent things to EA. Republicans also make me want to do violent things. .... wait.

Ironic that the US has strict game controls for anything a tiny bit sexual. While the most extreme violence is perfectly fine ? Strange cultural aversion to sex but not glorification of violence.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So apparently more people are beat to death with video game cases than are shot to death.

And video games molest children.

Gotcha there.

I'm actually quite pissed off about the molestation thing. You do NOT compare something like that to bleeping sexual assault.

 

[Goodfella]

Ironic that the US has strict game controls for anything a tiny bit sexual. While the most extreme violence is perfectly fine ? Strange cultural aversion to sex but not glorification of violence.

So you support censorship of violence in video games?

 

[Lillefix]

So you support censorship of violence in video games?

I don't want to answer for him, but in the quoted text he was merely pointing out an inconsistency. One which we all find strange.

 

[warpus]

You can't shoot a person in the head with a video game.

But I'm probably preaching to the choir here..

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

You can't shoot a person in the head with a video game.

But I'm probably preaching to the choir here..

No but you can clobber them over the head with one. I can't imagine that being very good for the disc though.

 

[Goodfella]

I don't want to answer for him, but in the quoted text he was merely pointing out an inconsistency. One which we all find strange.

Yeah, that's what I thought, except it doesn't make sense in these contexts.

Here's my interpretation of FF's post:
"Okay, so it's cool to censor sex but not violence? Therefore we shouldn't censor violence."
It doesn't make much sense...

And it's fallacy tu quoque anyway.

 

[emzie]

As an avid WoW player, I am frequently overcome with the urge to summon up elemental energy and channel it through my hands to burn off the faces of those who wrong me.

 

[Phrossack]

Remember the days when, after playing Pac-Man, people would dress up in colored sheets and chase each other in a dark maze while eating fruit and pills?

Me neither.

 

[warpus]

Remember the days when, after playing Pac-Man, people would dress up in colored sheets and chase each other in a dark maze while eating fruit and pills?

Me neither.

Uhh yeah man, you just described a rave

Pac man came out in the 80s, raves were big in the 90s. Do the math

 

[NickyJ]

Uhh yeah man, you just described a rave

Pac man came out in the 80s, raves were big in the 90s. Do the math

What about Tetris, though? Were we also arranging steel beams in boxes?

 

[warpus]

What about Tetris, though? Were we also arranging steel beams in boxes?

The Russians sure were. Ever seen a commieblock? That's where tetris came from.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yeah but I bet nobody done this.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20004635/I am a very terrible person.mkv

 

[cybrxkhan]

Them Japanese folks love their video games so much, no wonder they have serious problems with violence and sexual crimes.

 

[ace99]

Ironic that the US has strict game controls for anything a tiny bit sexual. While the most extreme violence is perfectly fine ? Strange cultural aversion to sex but not glorification of violence.

The US has no such thing. You can put whatever kind of filthy sex you want in your videogame without fear of it being banned. It'll simply be given a suitable rating, and a bunch of people will picket your front door in outrage until you apologize and pull it.

The Constitution protects you from government action, both state and federal. It doesn't protect you from private action.

 

[Dachs]

As an avid WoW player, I am frequently overcome with the urge to summon up elemental energy and channel it through my hands to burn off the faces of those who wrong me.

I prefer lightsabers and blaster rifles.

 

[Skwink]

Them Japanese folks love their video games so much, no wonder they have serious problems with violence and sexual crimes.

Luckily for their neighbors, a Japanese person will usually keep the violence to themselves.

 

[WindFish]

 

[Formaldehyde]

If video games lead to violence, what do the incessant ads to join the military and the glorification of warmongering by the right wing press do?

Shouldn't the police hide their firearms, tasers, and billy clubs while driving around in subcompacts with tiny little horns that go peep, peep, peep?

Shouldn't football be banned or at least highly regulated? Shouldn't hockey players who get into fights be arrested on the ice by scrawny cops who coax them to come along peacefully?

Shouldn't gym memberships require a background check? Shouldn't they all be registered with the police?

How many extra cops are we going to need to crack down on those who jog without a license?

 

[Farm Boy]

Them Japanese folks love their video games so much, no wonder they have serious problems with violence and sexual crimes.

I think most of that violence stems from rage induced from trying to get the translation software to work correctly on that cartoon cheerleader graphic novel, so perhaps that's a rational avenue to try and justify prohibiting out-of-country media created in poor taste. Has to be more reasonable than attempting to justify victimhood status for underage animations.