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Hey, Trump - the 90's called and want their fear-mongering back.
Does anybody else remember how Mortal Kombat was going to destroy America? Because I do. It was a crock then, and a crock now.
Look, mentally ill people are always going to find an outlet for their illness, and one can only hope it doesn't turn to real-world violence.
Let's take a game series like Grand Theft Auto. It can be a very violent game, yes. But if your kid is just playing through the game, doing missions, blowing random stuff up, and seems normal otherwise, it's probably OK. If, on the other hand, your kid does nothing in the game but buy hookers, torture them, and then kill them before taking the money back... you almost sure have a kid with a problem.
It's no different than cops and robbers back in the day. Kids running around the back yard shooting toy guns at each other? Sure! Lone kid out in the backyard, putting fake rounds into the back of his stuffed animal's heads, over and over... yeah... not good.
This focus on video game as the cause of violence is just a distraction, and while America DOES have a violence fetish, and there are certainly some games I would not be OK with any kids I had playing, the real problems with guns, mental illness, and so forth go much deeper than violent video games.
Don't forget that in the 90s it was also blamed on heavy metal music. Guess that didn't pan out for them after someone tried to legally blame Judas Priest for the action of a couple of screwed up kids with guns.
Hey, Trump - the 90's called and want their fear-mongering back.
Does anybody else remember how Mortal Kombat was going to destroy America? Because I do. It was a crock then, and a crock now.
Look, mentally ill people are always going to find an outlet for their illness, and one can only hope it doesn't turn to real-world violence.
Let's take a game series like Grand Theft Auto. It can be a very violent game, yes. But if your kid is just playing through the game, doing missions, blowing random stuff up, and seems normal otherwise, it's probably OK. If, on the other hand, your kid does nothing in the game but buy hookers, torture them, and then kill them before taking the money back... you almost surely have a kid with a problem. But the game did not CAUSE that problem - it just brought it to light.
It's no different than cops and robbers back in the day. Kids running around the back yard shooting toy guns at each other? Sure! Lone kid out in the backyard, putting fake rounds into the back of his stuffed animal's heads execution-style, over and over... yeah... not good.
This focus on video game as the cause of violence is just a distraction, and while America DOES have a violence fetish, and there are certainly some games I would not be OK with any kids I had playing, the real problems with guns, mental illness, and so forth go much deeper than violent video games.
Since I have never played this game, I am asking.
How old should one's kid be before they start playing it?
About killing hookers, it reminds me of Duke Nukem 3D and the outrage at the time of a game that offered women money to open their tops.
Me, I took the game a different way. I saw the dancers as distractions, even decoys to pull me into the killing zone. After all, those were tricks I had employed when I was training troops.
So at the very least, I ignored them and continued on with my sweep.
I don't think it's one thing only which led to this and other similar tragedies, and I don't think some of the simplistic fixes being offered are likely to make much change. I would suggest extensive interviews with the surviving offenders to try to see where their heads were - what led them to murderous behavior - and to study the backgrounds, any writings or journals, either hard copy or online, etc. of those who were killed before they could be arrested and brought to justice.
I'd also interview parents, other family members, neighbors, classmates, friends, teachers, doctors, counselors, and anyone else who had significant contact with the shooters. I'd look for common threads: mental illness, certainly, but what particular kind of MI? Radical attachment disorder? Sociopathy? Sadism? Self-harm? Odd fixations? Depression? Obsessive-compulsive behavior? Any learning disabilities? Autism? Brain damage or dysfunction?
How did the shooters spend their free time? Warning signs? Animal abuse? Threats to or harm to younger kids? (I was victimized, emotionally and physically threatened by a significantly older neighbor boy when in elementary school - he wound up in the pen, many years later. His parents made excuses for him during his childhood, when he enjoyed threatening and hurting younger kids).
What possible early warning signs were overlooked or ignored or minimized? How can we identify such signs and address them effectively, to try to prevent future tragedies?
In this case, the early warning signs were abundant and screamed for attention. They received some attention - but not enough. That has got to change. The easy availability of military-style weapons to people who are so profoundly disturbed has got to stop. Parents who enable their disturbed kids in their illness need to be brought to reality. Schools need to do a better job of identifying dangerously disturbed kids. Treatment needs to be more effective.
No, it isn't a simple issue. But belief in god doesn't prevent people from becoming violent. For mentally/emotionally shaky people, religion can be a trigger or motivation for violence.
Broken families may have something to do with it. The fundamental cause of this kind of violence IMO is a profound loss of connection. Normal people feel a positive or neutral connection to most people around them, even if it's just a live-and-let-live association. Someone like Cruz has developed a negative association toward people, and that can happen for many reasons.
Satan and demons exist. Make no mistake. You keep God out of your house, fail to get your children baptized or confirmed you are inviting them in.
Human are spiritual beings. There can be no vacuum of faith.
Don't forget that in the 90s it was also blamed on heavy metal music. Guess that didn't pan out for them after someone tried to legally blame Judas Priest for the action of a couple of screwed up kids with guns.
We also had Jack Chic blaming Dungeons and Dragon back in the 1980's. You know, if your kid would get into tabletop roleplaying games, he'd turn into a fireball tossing satanist or some lunacy.
Honestly, if you go back into human history, I'll bet every new form of entertainment was met with the same lunacy. Why, those people who go and see Shakespeare's raunchy plays are all going to turn into dangerous people!
So what is the answer? To ban video games because some maladjusted troglodytes can't function in society? Banning anything does not work. How often do we have to go through this with people?
Who is this Satan and what will happen when he arrives at my house?
Nothing - you'll mow him down with your AR15 filled with holy-water blessed bullets, obviously.
Maybe THAT is why the right is so desperately in love with average citizens owning massacre-inflicting weapons of war! It's the only way to mow down the bullet-resistant demon mutants that stalk the barrens and wastes of red states! It all makes sense now!
When a rightie comments on how he "needs" an "assault weapon" to stop a robber, it's because the robber is some eldritch mutant that can only be defeated if at least 45 rounds per minute are pumped into him, ideally in a cross-shaped pattern across the chest with holy-water dipped bullets, of course!
Satan and demons exist. Make no mistake. You keep God out of your house, fail to get your children baptized or confirmed you are inviting them in.
Human are spiritual beings. There can be no vacuum of faith.
I’m a Christian but come on, this sounds ridiculous
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Guess that didn't pan out for them after someone tried to legally blame Judas Priest for the action of a couple of screwed up kids with guns.
