Exactly. Another Strange "issue" where loony Liberals and Nutso Right Wing Conservatives agree on.
They agree on it because it's an easy target and, like the PED witch hunt, a big red herring (what changes in this country if some jackoff pro baseball player is tested for steroids regularly?).
It wouldn't be so bad if the plebs weren't easily swayed by bullshit arguments like "so-and-so is violent, and he liked violent videogames; therefore, even if we can't prove videogames made him shoot up a crowd of people, it certainly didn't help!" The masses will buy into almost anything with such a sufficiently tenuous, even questionable correlation so long as it's an emotionally-charged issue. Introduce kids into the mix, and BAM: it's more than likely the majority of Americans will hitch their wagon to the idea, even if they can't even explain why they support it.
The whole second-hand smoke thing isn't all that different. Of course it's gross and it's obvious to any sane human being that, over time, inhaling even something much more diffuse than what makes most smokers him/herself sick simply cannot be good for you. Just the same, the people who conducted the research which suggests SHS is such a menace cherry-picked their data something fierce. One of my favorite vloggers, Krissiespeaks on Youtube, talks a bit about that. (Naturally, most people will dismiss her contention out of hand because she smokes like there's no tomorrow. But I say attack the reasoning, not the person. There is such a thing as the Appeal to Motive fallacy, itself a variation on the red herring.) Walking past some hipsters smoking outside a coffee house or even going to a smoky bar every month or two will have no measurable effect on an otherwise healthy person's well-being. Asthmatics might have some trouble, but then, Lindsay fucking Lohan has asthma and she's chain-smoked since she was a young teen -- nevermind all of the other shit she's done to her body. I just see it as another step in the utter faggication of Americans. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't eat salt, don't drink large sugary drinks, don't spend time in the sun, don't eat much red meat, wash your hands fifty times a day, etc.
But I digress. The extreme liberal morons and conservative fucktards never, EVER have a counterargument to the countless examples of us who grew up watching violent movies, playing videogames like Mortal Kombat and watching bloody sports like hockey, boxing, Tough Man shows, this MMA shit, rugby and even your personal favorite, Adam: American football
When I was a kid -- and even now -- I loved the parts of Conan: The Barbarian where he, Valeria and Subotai infiltrate one of Thulsa Doom's temples and chop off legs, heads and arms. I howled with laughter at those old, fake-ass "Faces of Death" movies. I was fairly numb through "A Clockwork Orange" but shit, even parts of that were comedic. (If anything, the part that most disturbed me wasn't either of the rape scenes, but how Alex's former droogs, now policemen, took him out in the country and tortured him via near-drowning.)
And as much as I enjoyed my 8-bit Nintendo, I knew I was really an avid gamer when Golden Axe came along. You'd hack dudes to death, hear their death cries, then their bodies would drop -- and stay there (albeit the fact they turned brown)! For fighting games, the Neo-Geo took it to the next level with the Art of Fighting series. The first one was clunky, but the second was quite good. And it was so much fun to literally watch as you pounded your enemy's face -- including your own daughter, if you played as Takuma! -- into a swollen, purplish pulp. But as I said, I doubt anything quite topped the Mortal Kombat fatalities back then. Modern games bring you a whole new brand of fun violence. I bet anyone who's played Red Dead Redemption, one of my favorites, has tied someone up and left them on the train tracks, only to be pulverized in a big squish of blood.
And for all the fun I had playing those games, I've never committed a violent crime. I haven't even run a fucking stop sign or short-changed a retarded employee at Jack in the Box. Why? I'm a decent, kind fellow. I try to observe the Golden Rule. The only people upon I truly wish harm are habitual abusers or even child molesters that my ex-fiance (and current girlfriend) have told me about. I'd think nothing of going Theon Greyjoy on their asses, at least for awhile. But again, it's worth noting that, in spite of me absorbing all of this violent "media," never once have I thought to repeat it; and, if anything, I abhor it. I get sick at the sight of some automobile accident footage. And shit, I even teared up watching some of the live footage from this tornado business in Oklahoma.
So, Mr. Biden, Mrs. [batshit insane] Feinstein, Misters Chris "Parade Float" Christie and Diane Black, where do I and the countless people like me fit into the picture you've grossly distorted for your own petty political gain?
Here's an idea!
Maybe we should burn those games and, while we're at it, VHS tapes, DVDs and Blu-Rays of violent movies. And there remains much description of truly horrific violence in print, so we might as well throw the books and magazines onto the fire. SEIG HEIL! Hitler would be proud ... if not for the fact that the Nazis singled-out anything they thought might promote dissent; "violence" as such never even entered the radar of most fascist regime in Earth's history
SEIG HEIL! SEIG HEIL!
Fucking shitty government and its focus on the most obtuse
