Where Politics And Video Games Collide

Two things here that the police chief in question and JT should really consider before they run their mouths like idiots. The first is that what harvests an environment for gangs more than anything media can be held responsible for is an assortment of negative conditions that we as a society fail to address often that are specifically targeting young people. A lack of an adequate and supportive education system, a mostly non-existent system of low-income recreation programs around the country (or failure to make use of facilities and resources alloted to target these at-risk youths), a culture of work and parental responsibility leaving children to be raised by other children and in some cases their television sets, and any number of other societal issues that further affect the viable options young people see themselves having. Additional factors range from identity, peer pressure, youth culture, to self-fulfilling prophecies (the looking glass self). This last one, the creation of a version of themselves to fit what society expects (a cop out in the worst degree agreed) is in part shaped by how law enforcement and other adults treat youth in general. Assuming all youth are in gangs, are thugs, or are up to now good, generally assures a handful of them will live up to that diminished expectation. I have volunteered in both the at-risk youth and the recreation field so I know what I'm talking about. If you don't give youth options other than running the streets and causing mayhem (and no one forces them to if they lack restraint), then you leave them to the wolves. If their parents aren't doing their jobs and the school is reinforcing the notion that they have nothing left to lose, it only makes it easier to break the norms we try to enforce by laws. Most of the youth in the juvenile courts are there out of boredom, stupidity, or merely trying to get someone to notice them.

Secondly, the obvious fact that these mature titles are adult titles that are not made for youth should be underscored into each of the naysayers foreheads. Free choice of adults should never be compromised due to sloth by the parents, the retailers' occasional lazy clerks, and personal choice by the youth. The Goddess gave us all free will, but restraint has to be exercised otherwise some part of the population's free choice will eventually be curtailed. Many of the officers I've known locally and in other states were gamers, for many years. They played the GTA games and enjoyed them all the same. This is not empirical but anecdotal yes, but those who delegate videogames to inspiring violence or to be the pastime of weak-minded-violence-mongers are selling their supporting legions of staff short as well. If media (including videogames) really made people as violent as some falsely claim (without evidence, citations, stats, or methodology of the study in question) then we have leagues of killer cops, paramedics, doctors, nurses, educators, politicians, and so forth that have been brainwashed by videogames are are silently killing, beating, stalking, and maiming our population.

Until any of these critics genuinely uses scientific method in an unbiased fashion they are worse than a opinionated blogger ever will be. Critics forget that each of us have various role sets. 'Gamer' is one mere label amongst our myriad overlapping coats, and it does not rule us. We deserve to be disgruntled and even angry with the way we are represented, as there is no real truth, logic, or fairness to it. As a blogger we need not have to prove videogames do not cause societal woe. The weight of that burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the researcher, something that not one of these critics ever will be able to realistically calls themselves. Instead, they are champions of nonsense. Thank you for taking time away from real problems critics, and also for giving us a laugh during the course of our days working real jobs with real problems.

You are ever so good for a laugh, sometimes to tears.