Trump: video games and movies are to blame for young people's violence, not guns

[#gravelgang #lessiglad]

The thing that's peculiar about this argument is that there's more sound scholarly research suggesting a reverse correlation between gaming and acts of violence (i.e., that, due to stress relief aspects of gaming, an individual who games is less likely to be violent) than there is showing a positive correlation between gaming and violence.

Even if violence in games and movies weren't protected speech, this whole thing would essentially be a poorly disguised moral panic argument with little chance of success. Because it is protected speech, thankfully anything that comes of this moral panic will be struck down as unconstitutional.

[pbrower2a]

What is the problem with a first-person-shooter game if one has to shoot one's way past Nazis, terrorists, ISIS, or drug cartels? Part of what makes the game so challenging is that you do not want to kill innocent people. You want to shoot the bad guy, and not innocent people. So if it is a Mossad agent facing Nazis with hostages...

The FBI trains agents to shoot decisively but cautiously. Its course (as I saw in a video years ago) intersperses an armed robbers with innocent people. If you have any conscience at all you feel  very bad about shooting a bank teller instead of a bank robber.  It is real-time, and real in size. It is not a video game; it is a walking game.

[Wells]

Does anyone still think Generation Z will be conservative? This certainly won't help.

[Roronoa D. Law]

Does anyone still think Generation Z will be conservative? This certainly won't help.

They said that about Millennials until economy crashed and Obama got elected.

[Storebought]

Looking at the Wikipedia list of first person shooters, Americans are the targets in the video games set with human beings as actors, not involving magical/fantastical/space creatures, or superheroes, or historical personages. In these games, the people killed for hit points and leveling up and moving to Stage 3 are not merely "human beings in general" -- the people killed are Americans. That remains true even for the games developed after Columbine and the implementation of game ratings in the 1990s, and even for games not developed within the US at all. Within the romance world of the first person murder simulator, the killing Americans is to a large extent evident within the industry normalized.

[ProudModerate2]

And yet most Republicans approve of this Clown.
Go figure!

[Frodo]

I didn't know he was such a fan of Tipper Gore. 

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Are we seriously going to deny that the way our culture is constructed doesn't socialize us to approve of certain types of violence?

[Beet]

Are we seriously going to deny that the way our culture is constructed doesn't socialize us to approve of certain types of violence?

Oh, yes. Our violent government and military industrial complex does normalize extreme violence every day.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Are we seriously going to deny that the way our culture is constructed doesn't socialize us to approve of certain types of violence?

Violent video games still exist in countries that don't have mass shootings every other week.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Tipper Gore is that you?

[Dr. Arch]

This administration is making all the right moves to make sure they lose another generation.

[Fuzzy Bear]

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This may be another case of Trump being right when he doesn't know he's right.

I don't see our society meditating on these things, but I certainly see folks all the time that are tortured and tormented, anxious and depressed, never at peace.  People blow off Godly suggestions, and that's their right, but I'm not going to join them in denial.

Violence in video games and movies can't be blamed for school shootings, but they are not a positive development for our collective mental health.

[Koharu]

Are we seriously going to deny that the way our culture is constructed doesn't socialize us to approve of certain types of violence?

Violent video games still exist in countries that don't have mass shootings every other week.

Precisely. Some of the folks I game with the most often are Canadian and Australian. One multiplayer "shooter" game that I played was a favorite of Europeans and the Europeans were considered some of the most skilled and dedicated players.

Of course, my experiences are anecdotal, but as has been discussed here, there is research indicating that gaming may help prevent these issues. I would prefer to see more research on that topic myself before fully accepting that stance, but the evidence really does seem to indicate that gaming (I can't speak for movies) doesn't encourage violence.

[HillGoose]

Are we seriously going to deny that the way our culture is constructed doesn't socialize us to approve of certain types of violence?

yeah because the Mongols, Romans, Aztecs, etc. had way less violence in their culture than America right?

Usually people who use your talking points like to say "kids today are too desensitized to violence" but I think watching someone actually be lynched for being black as a child in the 1920s is a little worse than shooting someone in a game today.

[Badger]

Oops, your 90s Boomer mindset is showing, Mr. Trump.

90's? Dude, that f#$ker is just plain old. He's slightly older than baby boomers!

[HillGoose]

Oops, your 90s Boomer mindset is showing, Mr. Trump.

90's? Dude, that f#$ker is just plain old. He's slightly older than baby boomers!

not as old as Ivar the Boneless :<

[Badger]

Oops, your 90s Boomer mindset is showing, Mr. Trump.

90's? Dude, that f#$ker is just plain old. He's slightly older than baby boomers!

not as old as Ivar the Boneless :<

Um, yes?

[HillGoose]

Oops, your 90s Boomer mindset is showing, Mr. Trump.

90's? Dude, that f#$ker is just plain old. He's slightly older than baby boomers!

not as old as Ivar the Boneless :<

Um, yes?

or even Serene Doge of Venace Enrico Dandolo