Expert Says Blaming Games on Massacres is Racist

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jkflipflop98

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[citation][nom]fokissed[/nom]"Expert Says Blaming Games on Massacres is Racist", shouldn't it be" Expert Says Blaming Massacres on Games is Racist"?[/citation]

I'm surprised this error still stands after days of it being pointed out.
 

kartu

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[citation][nom]utengineer[/nom]I am not a clinical psychologist. Yet, I have come to various conclusions:Cause-No Affect- I have played CODMW2...but haven't gone on a killing spree.- I watched Lord of the Rings....but never obsessed and searched for a ring.- I watched Jersey Shore...but never wore Ed Hardy shirts.Cause-Affect- I played Road Rash as a teen...bought a sport bike at 19.- I watched a porn...and tried to do dirty things to my girlfriend.- I saw a commercial for a Chia Pet...and bought it.So after decades of research and experience, my findings support and debunk all theories. Maybe the real answer is some people just have a few screws loose. Maybe some people aren't loved. Maybe some people just cannot be figured out.[/citation]

Except NOBODY said that ALL people go postal after playing violent games. Hence your experience does not contradict "violent games provoke more violence" at all.
 

kevith

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I don´t think video games ever DIRECTLY caused anything else but a sore wrist and square eyes..

But I will not be so absolutely 100% cathegoric in rejecting, that it CAN have SOME effect on SOME people SOMETIMES, as the majority here.

Every day our limits for the "normal" changes: As a lot here mentions, when radio was new it was banned, it would deprave humanity, when Elvis Presley made his first videos, you were only allowed to see him from the hips and up because his pelvis-shaking would ruin all moral forever. (Rather amusing when you think of Madonna or Lady Gaga) And the same for video games when they showed up.

But when these boundries change all the time, it can be harder to tell what´s right and wrong, what´s reality and what´s not. Lokk at the phenomenon "road-tage". People, that step out of their car and almost beat someone to death. Why? He shifted lane a little to soon! That kind of behaviour was NEVER even heard of when I was a boy in the 60´s and 70´s.

So what do you make of that? Is that simply because men are born more violently now? No, it is because the term "normal" has moved.

It´s NOT a proper argument to say: "I played so and so many violent games, and I never shot nobody." If that´s the case, it´s irrelevant. It is in the minds of the very very few, that distinguishing between game and reality CAN become a problem. And IF it does the consequenses can be so outrageously horrible, that the impacts of these games are worth a second thought.

I´l bet you, that the number of shoot-outs and killing sprees have MULTIPLIED after video games arrived. In Europe we don´t have a tradition for school-killings like you have in the USA. We also don´t have this - in my opinion - rather weird idea, that EVERY single person, in Washington DC, Chicago, Alaska or Iowa has a RIGHT to own and carry all the guns he want, pistols or AK-47´s.

And we ARE critical to any kind of violence, also the one, that are represented in video games.

So maybe it´s not so strange, that almost everyone here sees people like me, that questions these things, as ignorant, useless, crazy, "tools" etc. etc.

 

Khimera2000

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I am under the impression that video games cover every genre, so if they want to continue to blame games for violent acts, then we have no choice but to blame them for our greatest recent advances.

I know for a fact that there are scientist that are gamers, and I also know that science fiction does a lot to inspire scientist by showing what technology could be in the world of the future. Because games allow you to directly interact with these elements, and inspire these scientist, its safe to say that games have had a helping hand in all mans greatest discoveries since Nintendo : ))

Just saying with the way the government thinks, you can use there same logic and give video games credit for every scientific, and agricultural discovery in the last 15 years... probably 20 if you count old DOS titles.

I still remember sim city2000, and wing commander... which made me love plains, and join the service when i grew up !!! so we can thank games for making youngsters interested in joining the military to... and in essence games are responsible for making our country safe >.<

we can do this all day people. :) the government has no solid research, so we can make claims using the same logic.
 

11796pcs

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TV DOES rot your brain, just FYI. And before you say that I'm being as silly as the people who blame violence on video games, let me tell you: TV rots your brain only if you allow it; but since 90% of the TV content doesn't carry any other purpose, I don't see a point in owning a TV. My house doesn't have a TV connection and never will, as long as I can help it. When I'll get the TV, I'll connect it to my PC to watch movies and play games on it, nothing more. If you waste your time on watching news and political debates on TV, I feel sorry for you.
I know, playing a video game uses your brain more than watching TV by a landslide. You actually have to plan a strategy to win. TV is just mindless crap people want you to believe, and yet people pay monthly for a service that is about 1/3 commercials. I don't get it. But there are some golden nugget TV programs that are pretty good which you can get on Netflix.
 

Marthian

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I hate it when they try to pin the blame on video games. I'm starting to think they want people to not play video games, and instead watch their brainwashing propaganda so they actually make money.
 

Marthian

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[citation][nom]kevith[/nom].I´l bet you, that the number of shoot-outs and killing sprees have MULTIPLIED after video games arrived. In Europe we don´t have a tradition for school-killings like you have in the USA. We also don´t have this - in my opinion - rather weird idea, that EVERY single person, in Washington DC, Chicago, Alaska or Iowa has a RIGHT to own and carry all the guns he want, pistols or AK-47´s.[/citation]

Its true, not EVERYONE should have a right to own a gun, especially the crazy idiots, that's the USA's problem. On the other hand, guns are supposed to be used for Self Defense, and for a majority, it is (you're more likely to get robbed if you don't have a gun/weapon, especially if its a known fact), but its not just for violent purposes, some of us actually own them for sport (Clay Pidgeons.)
 

back_by_demand

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[citation][nom]pangedit[/nom]I dont get the connection. Video games are to blame for the shooting? I thought he did all of this because he is anti muslim?[/citation]
Your logic is sound, games are not the cause, but idiots like Jack Thompson would have you beleive otherwise for their own stupid reasons.
 

back_by_demand

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Time to explode pop-psychology kids - let's assume for a minute that violent computer games cause massacres, specifically school shootings because they are usually perpetraded by the target demographic of games players. Then let's further assume that access to violent computer games came with the rise of Windows 95 and the FPS genre.

How do you explain all the school shooting that happened before 1995?

Name - Location - Date - Year - Number of Victims
University of Texas Massacre Austin, Texas, United States August 1 1966 16
SC State killings1 Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States February 8 1968 3
Kent State shootings1 Kent, Ohio, United States May 4 1970 4
Jackson State shootings1 Jackson, Mississippi, United States May 14–15 1970 2
Olean High School shooting1 Olean, New York, United States December 30 1974 3
California State University, Fullerton massacre Fullerton, California, United States July 12 1976 7
Cleveland Elementary School shooting San Diego, California, United States January 29 1979 2
Deer Creek Middle School shooting Littleton, Colorado, United States April 7 1982 1
Parkway South Middle School shooting Manchester, Missouri, United States January 20 1983 2
Goddard Middle School shooting Goddard, Kansas, United States January 21 1985 1
Portland Junior High School shooting Portland, Connecticut, United States December 10 1985 1
Pine Forest Senior High School Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States May 6 1986 0
Pinellas Park High School shooting Largo, Florida, United States February 11 1988 1
Hubbard Woods School shooting Winnetka, Illinois, United States May 20 1988 1
Atlantic Shores Christian School shooting Chesapeake, Virginia, United States December 16 1988 1
Cleveland School massacre Stockton, California, United States January 17 1989 6
University of Iowa shooting Iowa City, Iowa, United States November 1 1991 6
Lindhurst High School shooting Olivehurst, California, United States May 1 1992 4
Palo Duro High School shooting Amarillo, Texas, United States September 11 1992 0
Berkner High School shooting Richardson, Texas, United States November 6 1992 1
Edward Tilden High School shooting Chicago, Illinois, United States November 20 1992 1
Simon's Rock College of Bard shooting Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States December 14 1992 2
East Carter High School shooting Grayson, Kentucky, United States January 18 1993 2
Fairfax High School shooting Los Angeles, California, United States January 21 1993 1
Amityville High School shooting Amityville, New York, United States February 1 1993 1
Reseda High School shooting Reseda, California, United States February 22 1993 1
Wauwatosa West High School shooting Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, United States December 1 1993 1
Central Middle School shooting Sheridan, Wyoming, United States September 17 1993 1
Margaret Leary Elementary School shooting Butte, Montana, United States April 12 1994 1
Grimsley High School shooting Greensboro, North Carolina, United States October 12 1994 1
Wickliffe Middle School shooting Wickliffe, Ohio, United States November 7 1994 1

And that is just the USA, there are plenty more around the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting
 

swamprat

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Most of the comments seem to be answering an entirely different article - noone here is actually claiming that the games do anything are they? The chap's point was just that referring to them is racist, not that they do contribute.

You can see why he makes the assumption it's racist .
[citation][nom]ivaroeines[/nom]I do think its racism, the logic is quite simple:Muslims kill because the culture and their religion is bad and this cause them to become violent. Blacks kill because their genes make them violent. Whites and Christians haven't got bad genes or a violent culture, they only become killers because they get influenced by outside sources like black people, muslims, games, etc etc...[/citation]
- but I think that view is too simplistic / assuming that there's no different influences on different societies/parts of society.

There's probably a (flawed) set of assumptions people have about risk, so games might (wrongly) be attributed with say a 1% chance of being violent with everyone who plays. When you have a person in a run-down area in a gang-related crime, being (1) in a gang infested area (2) having poor socio-economic prospects etc probably massively outweigh the perceived influence from games. It doesn't mean it's not thought to be there. Having those other assumptions isn't really wrong.
When you get someone with no other 'influencing factors', who doesn't even play games, see adverts, films etc then you draw a blank as to why they did it, or end up at "I don't like Mondays".

ivaroeines - I think you miss the point by looking at Christianity over its entire history, rather than at the relatively moderate / agnostic version of it that prevails now
 
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Its always amazing what the racist card people can somehow manage to call anything under the sun racist. Kind of demeans people who have been the real victims of racism I would say.
 

ivaroeines

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[citation][nom]swamprat[/nom]ivaroeines - I think you miss the point by looking at Christianity over its entire history, rather than at the relatively moderate / agnostic version of it that prevails now[/citation]

My comment was meant to be a little inflammatory, but i dont think im wrong, i can only speak for myself and i know i am guilty of having preconceptions about people with another skin color and religion. I do not like that i have them and i try not to give in to them or express them openly, but i do have them, but when our society think that is a good thing to have preconceptions and when our society treat people with another racial and cultural background differently, then we are on a very dangerous path.

Just look at this case in my home country, now the reporters and people speculate that Breivik did what he did because he played violent, some speculate that our immigration policies drove him over the edge, that he is plain mad etc, etc, there are alot of theories floating around. There have even been stores that have pulled games off their shelfs, because the speculations. If he had been a Muslim from Pakistan there would have been far fewer theories floating around, we would have concluded that he did what he did because he was a Muslim from Pakistan,
 
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This smacks of "Waah, all 'those' people play the race card all the time, so I'm gonna do it too!" First, the statement 'Blaming games for massacres is racist', makes no sense. That implies that you're being racist against either gamers or video games themselves, depending on how you interpret it - and I wasn't aware that either of those groups had achieved distinct racial/ethnic status. If anything, that stereotype can be viewed as being an 'out' for white males - it's not their fault, it's the games. Also, it could be seen as a positive stereotype - that most gamers are white males because they are predominantly the ones with both the economic means to afford gaming systems and the mental acuity to master the games. So I don't understand how this "expert" wants to cry racism.
Coincidentally, and significantly, I received a mis-addressed copy of a gamer magazine just a couple a weeks ago, and happened to notice and read the opinion column of the magazine's editor. He, as a long-time gamer, was criticizing the increasing, pervasive use of hate speech in the game chatter of on-line gaming, primarily racist but also sexist and homophobic.
So, an 'expert' takes umbrage to his perceived linkage of gaming to violent acts not just perpetrated by white males but also committed against specific racial/ethnic/religious groups which the perpetrators view as enemies of or threats to whites/Europeans/christians. Then, a gaming insider calls out to the gaming community that maybe they should chill on calling everybody ni&&ers and f@gs and ragheads and whatever else the kids are saying these days. Who knows? What's the cause/effect relationship here, if there is one? Here's my theory - people just suck, period, all of them, and sometimes an individual's suckiness maxes out and they do something particularly crappy.
 

billcat479

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If they want a culprit they should start with the news service.

They do a great job of getting people all worked up and hostile towards anyone that they spend a lot of time bashing or what religion has gone and done again. It's easy to make everyone mad and the people already on the line step over and do some lets get even kind of crazy. And with the world in such a fix I feel it will get a lot worse.

And this nut likes to play the racist card. It's a survival trait that is inheritance in our very makeup to be suspicious of anyone that doesn't conform to the majority which can disrupt and weaken any group. In the long run diversity does more harm than good and the U.S. is about to get real nasty with the flood of people from Mexico that are not required to speak this countries common language and this is making people very mad. It's always in the past been a requirement to help bring them into this country and conform to it's way of living. Now the country has to conform to their way is just out right wrong.
The whites have little respect for blacks and the blacks are the same toward whites, Jews against Muslims, Muslims against everyone that isn't one and even ones that are not part of their tribe and on and on it goes. It takes a lot of work to bypass these ways of living as it's in our very makeup. It's been a way of living before we even left the caves and started to become a hunter race.

Only when respect is earned, won or given can people get around the racist factor. People split into their respective groups and shun any outsiders right off. It starts out early in schools where the Jocks feel they are better, the smart people are seperated and face huge bias as being labeled a geek, Girls are very into this kind of judging. So it's easy to blame it being racist because it's very easy to spot the human condition and run with it for what it's worth.

People have acted out movie excesses like what happened after Clockwork Orange was out some wacko's in England acted out the rape aspect and everyone wanted Stanly's head on a stick after that for putting the movie out. Lots of death threats were sent his way probably by the fact that their daughters were basket cases after suffering though that section of the movie. And I sure don't blame them. We live in a world where no one can do any wrongs when it comes to entertainment because of the free speech aspect and I know if the founding fathers had a glimpse into the future it would have been redone quite a lot because people will always try more and more to see what they can get away with in movies and have whittled down the ratings control for them and they have cut though pretty much all the things that tried to hold them to some sort of decency that just isn't there anymore and anything goes.
If this doesn't worry you then you have not read any history books of how degenerating morals have played a large part in fracturing any society and in the end helped it collapse.

 

jlats26

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Even the fact that people consider video games like MW2 to have an impact makes ZERO sense. It's like saying "I got so much better at basket-ball after playing NBA2K11". Pressing a couple buttons provides absolutely no physical training, clearly.
 

eddieroolz

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In the old days, people blamed spirits or Satan for killings. Now, people blame games. Society will never realize that people that kill, will kill.
 
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