What actually causes violent children? The news media!

I came about this thought a strange way tonight.  I was browsing the news on the web, and I came across this video clip from CNN. 

While this may seem unrelated to what I am about to talk about, it really fired me up.  Regardless of what you think of the subject matter, the method of "reporting" is so fucking awful!  The story is about a proposed law to penalize the third parties in adulterous relationships when a marriage breaks up.  OK, interesting subject...BUT.  The "reporter;" instead of bringing in two legal experts from each angle to talk about the subject, takes the pro side, and brings in the webmaster of a site that allows married people to hook up in adulterous rendezvous to defend the other side.  WTF?  How is this journalism? 

The "reporter" (note that "Prime News" is described as being a show "delivers the stories and information that impact your life;" not an opinion or talk show), is obviously overacting to draw you in, and they pick not a legal expert, but a webmaster who financially benefits from adultery to defend against the need for the law...again...WTF?

So...now to totally change subject.  I was sitting there, aghast at this utter crap and how we put up with it, and I started thinking.  Every time a teenager (or lately, a young adult), shoots up his school, the news media and their resident slimy talking heads come out swinging at two of my favorite pastimes:  Guns...and Video Games (and in the past; violent movies/TV and rap music, although this is SOOO five years ago now).

Now of course the guns argument is always fun.  If there were no guns, the argument goes there would be no school shootings (although the bombing plots would continue).  The media never seems to mention Switzerland, where every household with a male between the ages of 20 and 42 is required to have a fully or semi-automatic rifle; and has a murder rate that is around 13% that of the US.

Next comes video games.  Everyone who watches the news (and doesn't think for themselves) knows that video games causes kids to be violent. Yet in South Korea, where violent video games are possibly even more ingrained in the popular culture than in the US, there is less school violence (although, probably more MMO starvings).

So what is the straw that breaks the camel's back?  I posit that it is the news media in this country.  A news media that agonizes over every detail of some doped out worthless celebrity; epitomizes the lack of self-responsibility by promoting a war and then capitalizing on the results of their drum-beating by about-facing and attacking the politicians who drove for it (and drove up their ratings); and of course, by making celebs of these psychos who choose to go out and shoot up schools. 

They have to know that by publishing the intimate details of these sociopaths that they are providing EXACTLY the kind of exposure these sickos want.  They HAVE to know that by splashing the pictures of these violent people on every website and newspaper around that it will encourage the next imbalanced loner to get the same kind of fame that the current one has.  But do they stop?  No.  Why?  BECAUSE WE KEEP WATCHING.

Nancy Grace, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc, etc.  These people are poisoning our youth.

Now, I'm really into that whole Constitution thingy (and all those pesky amendments that so many people tend to forget when they want to ban guns, secretly wiretap, shut down "seditious" speech, or hold people without charging them...oh and I don't count the tenth one, since that one is dead and no one seems to care).  So...am I calling for a ban on these scumbags?  Nope.  I just wish people would act.

Turn them off. 

Go to the range.  Play a video game.  Read a book (preferably George Orwell, John Ross, or Smedly Butler). 

But most of all...think for yourself. 

[/rant]

Comments

[CD]

Well said. I agree.

I also like guns and video games, and I consider myself to be quite peaceful.

[John Morrison]

Great article, I wholeheartedly agree, but one step beyond the argument of the media would be that of parents' teaching their children to use their brains (like they do when playing videogames) to actually think critically.

It's an absence of free thought and curiousity that allows these seeds of misinformation to grow so well..

[Alex]

I'm pretty sure thats the EXACT same conclusion that michael moore came to in Bowling for Colombine, that other countries with just as many guns like Canada, have far less gun crime.

However, to suggest that everyone should have a semi automatic seems a bit freakin stupid, because the mentality amongst kids, drunken adults etc would need to change.

They're already reckless enough as it is, easy access to guns just seems counter productive.

Oh but other people having guns is a deterrent...right?
Yeah, like the death penalty is a deterrent for crime, it makes little to no sense at all.

A country where you would be REQUIRED to own a gun, which I don't even believe is the case at all, doesn't sound like a great country to live in.

But factor in several other things from switzerland, better standard of education, better standard of living, lower poverty levels, mandatory service in the army...they all account to more than just GIVE EVERYONE GUNS

Its an entire mindshift that would be needed in how to run this country, facts are people in america and a fair few other countries are not responsible enough to own guns, and theres no place for semi automatics, not even in hunting.

[Erik]

While it's fun to poke away at the news media that's been so horrible of late, your conclusions are based on some shaky suppositions.

Switzerland mandates weapons because they have mandatory drafting into the army of all adult males. These men then retain their weapons in civilian life as a means of defense should the country ever be invaded.
One could look at other nations that ban weapons and find similarly low murder rates. I think the American problem arises from everyone thinking they have a right to a weapon, and a right to USE it. Americans in general seem to be rather aggressive about using guns, rather than as an actual self-defensive measure.

Culture plays a big role in these school shootings, and the media is a very nasty reflection of that culture.

[Parallax Abstraction]

"The media never seems to mention Switzerland, where every household with a male between the ages of 20 and 42 is required to have a fully or semi-automatic rifle; and has a murder rate that is around 13% that of the US."

Or Canada where I'm from where we have incredibly strict gun control laws and also have a fraction of the gun violence that the US has. Or for that matter, any other number of countries who are the same. Giving more people guns doesn't lower violence. Having citizens not so steeped in a violent past and who don't follow the rhetoric of "do what I say or I'll hurt you" does. Until your citizens can learn to stop killing each other so much, maybe there shouldn't be as many ways for them to do so.

[Ghost Recon Recon Fan]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gizmo/article1106225.ece

GTA IV verdict

By Andy Mcab "Former Bravo Two Zero Solider"

SAS Hero and Sun Security Advisor

I DO play games like GTA, although I’ve never been very good at them.

The only thing I see wrong with them is that they are bringing up the next generation to think that it is easy, quick and clinical to kill someone.

The real guys who have done that out in the field soon find out it’s not like that.

Every soldier I’ve met treats things in different ways, but the one thing they always have in common is that when they find themselves in a killing situation they are scared – no matter how much they may try to hide it.

If you kill someone you can see the look in their eyes, you can even smell their breath.

Playing one of these games you may think you’re experiencing a lot, but in reality you are just sitting near a computer screen.

All you have to lose if something goes wrong is dropping back a level.

In real life if you make a mistake you lose your legs.

The game takes place in a virtual world but today’s kids will become the decision-makers of tomorrow.

It concerns me that they could grow up thinking violence and killing are as simple as they seem on-screen and so commit others to go and fight before considering the consequences.

They need to know the real thing is nothing like GTA.

These games are just entertainment.

From the same newspaper.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1106460.ece

A HOODIE queuing to buy violent video game Grand Theft Auto IV STABBED a passer-by who taunted him.

Violent ... character in game

The victim, 23, was knifed four times with an eight-inch hunting blade.

He’d made a rude remark to gamers outside the store just before the game’s midnight launch yesterday.

Stunned witnesses thought it was a STUNT laid on by the developers of the 18-rated game – until cops arrived.

Marcus Henderson, 24, said: “It was like a scene straight from the game itself.”

Malcolm Critchell, 22 – one of 100 people queuing outside Gamestation in Croydon, South London – said: “The victim was covered in blood and had cuts all over him and a huge gash on his back.

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"I thought he was promoting the game. Then the police turned up.”

The lad later left hospital refusing to make a complaint.

Meanwhile, muggers broke an 18-year-old’s jaw and nose as they stole his £40 copy of the game in Leyland, Lancs.

GTA IV – featuring casual violence and drug dealing – sold out within hours of going on sale across the UK.