Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Ummm...why is Grossman still going on that videogames are used to teach soldiers to overcome their innate distaste for taking a human life (which is something he claimed existed)? They aren't.

Soldiers do more drilling now, with the variety of weapons they are expected to use and actual ammunition, and this makes firing their weapon at threats more automatic. They are also drilled in means of recovering their weapons from a misfire, permitting them to put a blocked weapon back into play so they can use it again. Not to mention how Grossman's studies compare firing rates of older, less reliable weapons (like the musket) to today's weapons. Semi-automatic weapons mass produced are easier to care for and fire repeatedly.

Military's version of laser tag helps teach teamwork and strategy, including terrain use; military's range firing teaches proper gun control and accustomizes soldiers to the feel of actually firing the real weapon; military's video simulations teach teamwork and awareness of (virtual) enemies; military's indoor ranges (video simulations without the soldier moving) provide scenarios to accustom soldiers to the types of situations they might be most likely to face in their combat arena.

Nowhere in this list does desensitization or dehumanization come into play. Which anybody who's actually been involved with the military since the video simulations came into regular play as training tools would know, unlike Grossman. Who stoops to blaming videogames for increased anti-police violence because they're found in gang hideouts frequently, when the age range of gang members puts them securely within the age range in which videogame systems are almost saturated, making it extremely unlikely (and notable if) they WOULDN'T have a game system amongst a gang.

It's already been said, but blaming videogames for increased gang violence against cops just because the videogames are present is almost as ridiculous a logical fallacy as would be blaming a DVD player. The existence of two things together DOES NOT tell us that one caused the other. And I thought that youth violence continued to plummet while adult and repeat-offender violence, particularly against cops whose kill ratio has also drastically increased, is on the rise. Maybe I read that wrong, but even if I did, that makes Grossman's argument no less predicated upon an unfounded and ignorant logical fallacy.

I wonder why he keeps delving into the extremist anti-videogame attitudes when there's no actual support for them and he had a greater influence when he was being moderate...did he get converted by JT (and I don't mean to Christianity, a belief system to which JT obviously does NOT subscribe)?