Trump thinks video games desensitizes kids to violence

[BoneyardDem]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/trump-to-meet-with-video-game-industry-leaders/vi-BBK1mvV


...clearly he doesn't think armed teachers and guns in schools do the same thing. Games are more dangerous that reality?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/03/08/trump-talk-video-game-makers-critics-thursday-white-house-meeting/406374002/

The game makers will likely face off during the meeting with some other long-time industry critics also in attendance including retired Lt. Col. Army Dave Grossman, who called violent video games "murder simulators" after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center. He criticized President Obama for targeting gun makers but going soft on violent video games, TV and movies.

After last month's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 were killed, President Trump voiced concern about violence in video games, as well as in movies and online. "I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts," he said

Red Herring

[lark]

1. And this happens to American youth only - why?

These video games are out all over the world, why is this only happening in this country with our billions of guns and not in countries where firearms aren't available to people on the street? This is just another damned RW lie to avoid the truth about guns, the NRA and their Russian funders.

[Fresh_Start]

4. you forgot to add American MALE youth only

there are plenty of american female youth who play video games and watch violent movies

[BoneyardDem]

7. great point....I know of female gamers. None are prone to violence

or want guns or want to shoot people.

[HipChick]

21. I've been gaming since I was a teen..

I don't go on rampages...

[lark]

18. Good catch. you are right.

[herding cats]

2. Japan has double our use of video games and doesnt have a problem with gun violence.

Wonder why that is?

[poboy2]

3. He also 'heard' about all the shocking things being found in HI.

He heard about Ted Cruz's father's role in the Kennedy assasination.

He 'hears' a lot of bullshit. I hear he makes this 'hearing a lot about things' shit up.

[NewJeffCT]

16. "many people are saying"

was a big one during the campaign.

[Liberal In Texas]

22. Oh, let me guess. This was recently said by someone on the Fox Newschannel. n/t

[Atman]

5. Video are responsible for mass shootings, so...

...give everybody more guns. Sounds like a plan.

[Sanity Claws]

6. I think Trump desensitizes us to lies and other appalling behavior.

[BoneyardDem]

8. +1000

we really thinks we are all his puppets on a string.

[shraby]

9. More important question, what desensitized him to humanity?

[Glamrock]

10. I'm on the old PS4 as we speak (yeah it's been on pause for awhile)

Surprisingly, I have no desire to go to a theatre, church, school, mall, concert, or middle of the street and start wasting fellow human beings. Is something wrong with me? Why haven't I been programmed?

[NightWatcher]

11. Let's say it does, that's even more reason to make sure they can't get a gun.

[BoneyardDem]

12. yup...the obvious

[Initech]

13. 1995 called - they want their straw man back!

[DBoon]

14. Video games are considered Entartete Kunst by Trump and the right wing

Produced by Hollywood and Silicon Valley, they embody the rootless cosmopolitanism of the California coast, rather than the traditional values of rooted "blood and soil" americans.

Degenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe Modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, such art was removed from state owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that it was un-German, Jewish, or Communist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art.

...

While modern styles of art were prohibited, the Nazis promoted paintings and sculptures that were traditional in manner and that exalted the "blood and soil" values of racial purity, militarism, and obedience. Similar restrictions were placed upon music, which was expected to be tonal and free of any jazz influences; disapproved music was termed degenerate music. Films and plays were also censored.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art

This is pure culture war. The 20th century has seen this before.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. I Think Being A Silverspoon Twit. . .

. . .desensitizes most everyone about everything. Case in point, the focus on this article.

[el_bryanto]

17. Truth is it probably does - but not in the way he thinks.

The worst thing about games where you participate with other players (or the internet in general) is that you can say and behave however you want without any real consequences - yes if you are an asshole in a guild or a team or league you will be kicked - eventually. Games and internet participation can in general allow you to distance yourself from your actions.

I love video games and I obviously participate on the internet - but I am not sure we have learned to recognize the humanity in people you only see in online posts.

Bryant

[Jspur]

19. As a kid of the 90's

I remember the outrage back then parents and politicians had about violent video games such as Mortal Kombat. As a kid during that time I thought it was pretty silly how they believed kids were influenced to commit violence due to video games. I never had the desire to commit fatalities in real life even though I committed them on Mortal Kombat. Like always Trump is behind the times.

[Dave Starsky]

20. I've been playing violent videogames since they were INVENTED!

Remember this one? It was my first.



Oh, and I listened to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Dio, Blue Öyster Cult, the Electric Light Orchestra, and every other band that was guaranteed to turn me into a bloody, raving Satanic maniac. I STILL listen to them, on an almost daily basis.

I have never bought a gun and have never had any desire to do so, nor would it ever even enter my head to try to harm anyone.

Anyone who would believe that videogames or music or TV shows would actually drive someone to murder is someone who has a hard time discerning FANTASY from REALITY. This includes our President. It also includes all of his followers.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

23. Best thing about this is the furious GamerGaters out there...

(Many of which went on to join the New American Nazis...er...the "alt-right&quot are. They're in a massive state of denial that their "God Emperor" would take this stance.

Even though he's been saying this bullshit about video games for well over a decade.

Hell, GamerGaters cozied up to Jack Thompson when he decried the opposition to GamerGate, so they have few if any cohesive thoughts.