[quote]therajraj wrote:
Question: do you believe video games like this can have an effect on antisocial loaner types?
Yes or no ?
[/quote]
My gut reaction is sure, of course. But giving it a bit more thought I’m not too sure. We’ve always been a brutally violent bunch and look back at history to other antisocial loners who’ve dealt out violence to society long before video games. cough Hitler cough Al Qaeda?
I tend to wonder if we are naturally a violent bunch and without sending our worst off to wars periodically they are left to fester.
Historically we are nasty fucking creatures. Perhaps understanding that and how to control our worst is the key to preventing more tragedies. I am just not sure if video games have a role in that at all.
Jesus Christ video games aren’t to blame. I understand that people want a scape goat that’s easy to find, but sorry, it’s just meaningless. Trust me, I know the demographic that actually comprises the vast majority of heavy video game players, and they aren’t any more likely to be violent than anyone else. In fact they’re probably less likely. They’ve studied the correlating factors amongst people who do shit like this you know. Video games isn’t on the list. Shit like an abusive father (either to the child or his mother), a broken home, and serious shit of that nature are factors. Video games aren’t any more likely to make someone a mass murder than they are to make them a fucking sword fighting boy with a fairy or a goddamn astronaut.
I think it also might be a mistake to try and figure out what was going through this guy’s mind–at least applying the same logic and reason you and I use everyday to live peacefully in this world.
[quote]csulli wrote:
Jesus Christ video games aren’t to blame. I understand that people want a scape goat that’s easy to find, but sorry, it’s just meaningless. Trust me, I know the demographic that actually comprises the vast majority of heavy video game players, and they aren’t any more likely to be violent than anyone else. In fact they’re probably less likely. They’ve studied the correlating factors amongst people who do shit like this you know. Video games isn’t on the list. Shit like an abusive father (either to the child or his mother), a broken home, and serious shit of that nature are factors. Video games aren’t any more likely to make someone a mass murder than they are to make them a fucking sword fighting boy with a fairy or a goddamn astronaut.[/quote]
I agree with you but you can’t blame anyone for trying to make the link because from the outside it looks like a horrific pastime. It seems logical to think that someone play killing people might take to real killing because that’s how we tend to think and operate.
My in-laws are annoyingly critical about violence on tv and videogames but they also are Germans who grew up under Hitler. So it’s easy to shut that argument up lol. But I am not insensitive to their feelings that have a lot to do with that background. They are horrified that their son and myself blow up people gleefully in war scenarios playing battlefield. They are incredibly sensitized to violence and cannot tolerate it at all even in fiction.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
The guy was trained by his mom who would take him to shooting ranges.
[/quote]
Yeah. This one bothers me the most.
The current reports are that she knew that her son was troubled, but she still didn’t keep her guns secured from him. I really won’t ever be able to understand what she was thinking. Reports are that she died while she slept. Have to admit, any anger I feel about this is towards the mother.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
The guy was trained by his mom who would take him to shooting ranges.
[/quote]
Yeah. This one bothers me the most.
The current reports are that she knew that her son was troubled, but she still didn’t keep her guns secured from him. I really won’t ever be able to understand what she was thinking. Reports are that she died while she slept. Have to admit, any anger I feel about this is towards the mother.
[/quote]
Yeah.
This article has been plastered all over facebook but it ignores those details about his mom.
The woman in the article would deserve to be shot if she gave the boy she’s describing access to weapons.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
The guy was trained by his mom who would take him to shooting ranges.
[/quote]
Yeah. This one bothers me the most.
The current reports are that she knew that her son was troubled, but she still didn’t keep her guns secured from him. I really won’t ever be able to understand what she was thinking. Reports are that she died while she slept. Have to admit, any anger I feel about this is towards the mother.
[/quote]
I agree completely and this is what I was saying on the gun control thread.
I have also appreciated your comments earlier requesting people to store away their guns safely.
[quote]debraD wrote:
You have to consider that perhaps mom was not running on all cylinders either.[/quote]
I have thought that, but I have no sympathy for her. I get a bit ill when I hear her described as his fist victim. I think of her as an accomplice.[/quote]
In terms of accountability for sure but to the question, how could someone in their right mind give this guy a gun?? Maybe she wasn’t.
I haven’t read all the gun control debate in this thread but are pro-gun folks generally opposed to psych testing? Because I wonder if mom would have passed.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
The guy was trained by his mom who would take him to shooting ranges.
[/quote]
Yeah. This one bothers me the most.
The current reports are that she knew that her son was troubled, but she still didn’t keep her guns secured from him. I really won’t ever be able to understand what she was thinking. Reports are that she died while she slept. Have to admit, any anger I feel about this is towards the mother.
[/quote]
I agree completely and this is what I was saying on the gun control thread.
I have also appreciated your comments earlier requesting people to store away their guns safely.
Sheer common sense, really.
Nancy Lanza failed everybody.[/quote]
Thank you. And I hate to blame the mother, but no one knows a child as well as those who live with them. It is common sense, but those who own weapons really need to take a good honest look around them at those who might have access to them.
[quote]debraD wrote:
You have to consider that perhaps mom was not running on all cylinders either.[/quote]
I have thought that, but I have no sympathy for her. I get a bit ill when I hear her described as his fist victim. I think of her as an accomplice.[/quote]
In terms of accountability for sure but to the question, how could someone in their right mind give this guy a gun?? Maybe she wasn’t.
I haven’t read all the gun control debate in this thread but are pro-gun folks generally opposed to psych testing? Because I wonder if mom would have passed.[/quote]
I wonder that too. While we are still early in this, the reports about her are not all that good. But I don’t know enough about psych tests to know if they would have been any help.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Question: do you believe video games like this can have an effect on antisocial loaner types?
Yes or no ?
In this country (usa) we hold the fredom of speech in high regard. This includes video games and movies. This freedom will not be limited because a few crazy individuals cant handle it. These violent games and movies have an age recommendation. Would you limit this further?
Sure they have an effect. So do comics. So do some cartoons.
IMO freedom is more important than security in this instance. [/quote]
Not interested in banning either, just asking people whether they believe it has a tangible effect on youth or not
[quote]BeefEater wrote:
This is where we will simply have to disagree as I don’t believe that the 2nd Amendment was at all concerned with concealed carry or stand your ground laws.
[/quote]
Please see my post above where the 7th Circuit explicitly stated that the 2nd Amendment guarantees the right to not only keep arms in the home, but also to bear them, in other words, carry for self-defense.
[/quote]
This would be an example of where I feel that the 2nd Amendment has been expanded based on a later judgement. This judgement appears to focus solely on what the founders meant by “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” based on an educated guess. Regardless the intent of my discussion all along has been that the way we are using the 2nd Amendment now is problematic.[/quote]
So now you disagree with judicial review. Okay. So, the Constitution should mean, whatever your hormones tell you is just right, dammit? [/quote]
Now you ARE trolling. I think that I am entitled to my opinion, if the judgement had gone another way what would your “hormones” be telling you?[/quote]
If the Supreme Court rules a certain way there isn’t a whole damn lot I can do about it. In the case of the 2nd amendment, however, the rulings have been pretty standard across the board, as has been demonstrated. If anything, I would argue that the right to take arms against a tyrannical
government encompasses the right to individual self-defense.
Again, “the right of the people to keep and bear arms [u]shall not be infringed[/u]” reads pretty clearly to me.
The mental illness that seems to be blossoming amongdt youth is a byproduct of the rise of divorced and single parent households.
Kids in these situations are much more likely to become delinquents and have mental illnesses. And instead of realizing this what do we do? We put these kids on psychiatric drugs only fucking them up further. There IS a link between psychiatric drugs and violence.
I would say the recent phenomena of 2 working parents has also contributed to this. Kids need their mommies especially boys.
If single motherhood continues to grow (as i exPect) id highly recommend investing in titty bars and/or the bail bonds industry because business will be a boomin!
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Question: do you believe video games like this can have an effect on antisocial loaner types?
Yes or no ?
[/quote]
Yes, I believe it can have an effect.
Although your question is overly broad.
[/quote]
Being that the subconscious mind can neither differentiate fantasy from reality nor right from wrong nor can it make utilitarian judgements, I’d say that to suggest otherwise would be nothing short of willful ignorance.
However, I don’t see any good coming from restricting access to them, either. One of my favorite games of all time is the God of War series. Anyone who’s played that knows there is just nothing good to be gained from it. But it’s fun. Fun. Fun!
I think the solution lies more in what we need to DO for people, rather than looking for one more thing to restrict, take away or punish for. We need to do a lot less reacting and start getting out of our selfish, closed off mindsets and paying attention to those around us. Parents actually raising their kids like parents should would go a long way toward tipping the balance back to what it used to be.
Dare I say it, more parents who are HOME for their kids and INVOLVED in their lives in a positive fashion would save countless more lives than banning more scary looking guns.
[quote]Cortes wrote:
Being that the subconscious mind can neither differentiate fantasy from reality nor right from wrong nor can it make utilitarian judgements, I’d say that to suggest otherwise would be nothing short of willful ignorance. [/quote]
I don’t understand. The “subconscious” doesn’t work the way I think you’re talking about.
[quote]Cortes wrote:
Being that the subconscious mind can neither differentiate fantasy from reality nor right from wrong nor can it make utilitarian judgements, I’d say that to suggest otherwise would be nothing short of willful ignorance. [/quote]
I don’t understand. The “subconscious” doesn’t work the way I think you’re talking about.[/quote]
It’s really simple: your mind is a sponge, it will soak up whatever you expose it to
[quote]Cortes wrote:
Being that the subconscious mind can neither differentiate fantasy from reality nor right from wrong nor can it make utilitarian judgements, I’d say that to suggest otherwise would be nothing short of willful ignorance. [/quote]
I don’t understand. The “subconscious” doesn’t work the way I think you’re talking about.[/quote]
It’s really simple: your mind is a sponge, it will soak up whatever you expose it to[/quote]
No, your brain is quite far from being that simple.
