Ehh. I love gaming, but I find it hard to believe FPS games, in particular, have zero influence on someone with mental illness who consumes violent content all day long and then guns a bunch of people down in the real world. Also, let’s legalize prostitution so these guys can go bang a hooker and let off some steam every now and then.
We'd be seeing a much more widespread problem if that were the case. I stand by my statement that the biggest risk you take by playing these games is potentially ending up friends with one of the other psychos you play with.
I’m with Juice. If someone is fucked in the head, violent video games can have a negative impact. No different than booze. Or drugs. Or a host of other things. That’s because they are fucked in the head and are susceptible to those influences where normal people are not. To say otherwise is silly.
It kind of is a widespread problem. I don’t buy that Internet forums can influence a mentally ill person to carry out mass shootings but interactive media magically does not. Doom was one thing, but this also isn’t the same environment Abramoff was pearl-clutching about: Now add in easily accessible firearms and lack of socialization and you have a lot of nutjobs ready to pop off with no mechanisms to effectively deal with it.
give someone with an addictive personality access to booze and guess what? They become an alcoholic. Take someone who lives in an unstable environment, potentially has some antisocial disorders or proclivity for violence, then give them unmonitored internet access where people say and you can read fucked up shit, and guess what? They might become a mass shooter. It's not rocket science. There's some nature, some nurture, and a lot of "wrong person, wrong place" going on. Then on top of all of it, you have the media constantly talking about it and giving these assholes the attention they seek, only makes matters worse. Used to be serial killers, now it's mass shootings. I'm sure if these sick fucks were to start using cars to run over groups of people like they do in Europe, the media would latch onto that and it would become the thing to do then.
We watch things and they influence us to act out. The easiest example of that is Jackass! It spawned the need to film anything, it spawned the popularity of YouTube and streaming platforms, it spawned all those countless and stupid “social experiments” that annoy us to tears, it spawned the desire to become a celebrity by being an idiot. To this very day 22 years later, it hasn’t lost a single bit of its influence over social media and pop culture .
Then listening to a Chappelle special isn't going to get trannies killed. You really can't have entertainment both ways. Now I dont follow continental Europe news that close but outside of a couple of noted terror attacks with trucks. Not really a big problem over there with disaffected youth trying to up the body counts with any weapon of choice. They have the same video games and internet forums we do but aren't slaughtering people for internet funsies. Something is sick in our culture that precipitates this. It might be a lot of factors be it seems to be uniquely American.
I mean, it's got to be something of both, right? The vast majority of people can play a violent video game and never internalize or accept that violence, in much the same way that most people can shoot guns and never seriously contemplate shooting a person, or practice martial arts and never get in a fight. I think there's a fine line between an acceptable preocupation with the potential for violence and folks who actively seek it out a la Rittenhouse, and right now there's not a lot of things pushing these folks in the direction of humanity. Also, these are very isolated individuals. I read "Seek You" by Kristen Radtke over the weekend, and one of the things that struck me is how isolation truly harms us. It warps so much of our perception, and fucks us irrevocably up. You mix this cocktail of isolation,uncertainty regarding their base needs (as far as I know, none of these guys had a good job, or really any prospects of things like financial independence, steady/rewarding work, etc.) rage, and dehumanization of the larger public, you create several key ingredients for this kind of depersonalized violence. Put another way, as our social cohesion declines (citing Putnam's "Bowling Alone" here), the antisocial elements strengthen. I hate to say it, but the guns are the most tangible and visible element to this plague, but we gain the least by addressing it. The problem is there's not any more ready-made or palatable solution. This issue is the result of so many compiled and compounded problems, with some key tenets of it damned near impossible to dislodge, that I don't see this going anywhere anytime soon. I will note that these incidents are socially-motivated in that one inspires another, and I can't recall the research, but there were studies that show these incidents are "clustered" around one that's particularly noteworthy. Ie, the coverage of Uvalde somehow inspired or encouraged other potential shooters to proceed with their "plan". I'd imagine there's something of a competition to it, where they alter plans based on what "worked", the shock value, etc.. Also, they use the plethora of information generated by an investigation, demanded by an outraged and insatiable public. Recognizing it as a form of suicide I think is a key step, as is getting the media to report this stuff in a way that's discouraging to other shooters, as opposed to the sensationalizing they currently do. "Natural Born Killers" was made a long time ago, but not a damned thing has changed.
Man, this area is getting bad.* Young man comes into my office saying he's parked across the street getting ready to change the billboard sign, accidently locked his keys in his truck and was hoping we could help him out. He's parked in a restaurant parking lot that is usually open just for dinner so it's currently empty other than his truck which is parked right out front one spot from the sidewalk. I tell him let me finish this phone call and I'll go over there and see what we can do. Not five minutes later, one of those methmobile RV's pulls into the spot between his truck and the sidewalk. He watches a dude get out, take a mattress, slide it under his truck and start to climb under it. He runs outside and yells at the guy who quickly jumps back in the methmobile and takes off. This street sees between 45,000-52,000 cars a day. It is VERY busy but these criminals just don't care anymore. *The ridiculous part is that this area isn't bad. Less than a half mile from here there are multiple $2M+ homes for sale. Freaking Gavin Newsome lived in the area.
Wait, like a twin size mattress? That's really thick and heavy for something like a quick and dirty converter theft; I would have thought something like a piece of cardboard, or maybe an old pissed-on rug that could really tie a room together...
WILL THE FUCKING UVALDE COPS SHUT UP ABOUT THE UNLOCKED DOOR? I just heard the latest release/ admission from the Uvalde cops, and there were two new details: 1) An officer had a clear shot at the shooter BEFORE he got into the building, but didn't do it because he was waiting for further instruction. 2) Another officer could have stopped the gunman, but he was "distracted " by a fast moving vehicle. I guess you'd better keep shiny objects away from that guy... Anyway, every time I hear anything new about this case, they ALWAYS throw in: "And by the way, the door was unlocked." Do they expect us to believe that this guy would have just given up and surrendered if the door was locked?!
Ron Johnson tried to put out a "the latest mass murder didn't involve guns" ad, but the window before the next mass shooting was so short he wasn't able to get it out in time: https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1545117297806905349
I know this comes as a shock to everyone who totally predicted it, but elon musk ox is no longer buying Twitter. Just wanted to peek behind the scenes I guess.
yes but he’s doing his part to help the world’s population (his words) so really they should be thanking him
This Highland Park shooter's parents seem like real winners: His mom was involved up with a guy that sexually abused the shooter's half sister. His mom was arrested multiple times; once for leaving him in a hot car for almost 30 minutes when he was a baby. His parents got into multiple domestic incidents during his childhood that required police intervention. His mom had another boyfriend that had the cops called on him multiple times. Police also showed up to the house a couple years ago because the shooter was making threats of violence, but the parents refused to file charges. After the violent threats, including a suicide attempt and threatening to murder his family, his father sponsored him for a gun license in Illinois, which allowed him to buy the rifle he used in the shooting. Well done, Mom and Dad.