Advocate for Unaccountability
Posted on April 17, 2007 by Brian under Family, Games, Life, News.
OK, I know I don’t Blog much but every now and then I come across something that I just can’t keep my mouth shut about.
If you have been under a rock I’ll fill you in on the latest happenings so that my rant will make since. The other day a Student of the Virginia Tech School woke up and decided that it would be ok to shoot 33 students. That’s the short and skinny of it and that’s all you really need to know for my rant to make since. So here’s my rant!
Jack Thompson one of the largest protestors of video game violence and video game sex is claiming that this incident in Virginia is caused by video game violence. That this grown man (I consider anyone 18 or older grown enough to know right from wrong) played some video game like “GTA”, “Bully” or “The Warriors” (yes this was modeled after the 70’s film of the same name) and then went insane and shot up all of these people. Here is one point that good-ol Jack seems to forget! If the shooter seriously was affected by video games then he wouldn’t have shot himself. That’s right; you can’t commit suicide in video games. Instead he would have run out of the building in front of all the cops and started shooting at them thinking that he still has the ability to start the level over again, only to realize in the last minutes of his life that he is not in a video game. But these thoughts do not come to Jack, no! Instead Jack blames the video game industries and the distributors of the video games for contributing to the violence that he feels is caused by video games.
On Jacks web site he posts that he has tried to sue video game companies (and other various companies that he feels is offensive) for too much violence and too much sex. He admits in his site that he had sued Rappers; video game companies like RockStar Games and has yet to win a case. He goes on to show that other cases that he has fought for like the Columbine High School and Washington Sniper Shootings have been dismissed as well. He even goes as far as stating that the “God Mode” cheats available in some games that make you invincible lead to extreme aggression and violence. He even states that he uses a “Games Made Me Do It” defense when defending violent murders. Here is a direct quote from his site.
   “Jack is also one of the foremost proponents of the “Video Games Made Me do it” defense, which has so far failed to convince any judges. This defense is employed in an attempt to lessen the sentence of violent murderers, shifting the blame over to video game makers and distributors.”
How messed up do you have to be to try to get Violent Murders off and free by blaming video game companies. Why are we not blaming the murders for the events that they caused, what happened to taking responsibility for your actions? What happened to accountability for ones own mistakes? What happened to blaming the parents for the improper upbringing or telling the world that he was a good kid but fell into the wrong crowd.
Here is what I don’t understand. I am a 32 year old male that plays video games. I have played them all, GTA (all of them) Manhunt, 13; you name it I have probably played it. I grew up in the time when the advocates were saying that television was causing children to go mad and they blamed MTV (danged rock music) for the violence. What I am failing to understand is why the video game companies and distributors are being blamed. Why not the parents! That’s right the parents that buy these games for there children. If they are under the age of 18 they can’t buy these games for themselves, they have a mature rating. I’m 32 years old and I have friends that work for companies like Game Stop, and even though they know me I still get carded if I buy a Mature Game. Hell, I got carded to Buy World of Warcraft when it came out. So that goes back to the parents. Why are the parents not being reprimanded for buying there children these games, are the parents even looking at the games that they are buying or do they let the children control there lives and would rather buy the game that they are screaming and begging for rather then listen to there child bitch and whine about how they hate them.
This world has gone soft. In my day (I know that makes me sound old) if I was acting out in a store talking about how I hated my parents, I would have got my ass whipped in the middle of the store while the other parents watched and told there children that if they ever did that to them they would get the same. I would have been made an example of in front of the world so that the other children would learn from my mistake and not make it themselves. Now we have 9 year old children bucking up to lawyers because there parents swatted there butts because they disrespected them or grounded them. What is considered abuse by parent’s standards now was considered parenting when I was a child. Children of today do not understand that there are consequences for there actions. They think that if they do something wrong they will get sit in the corner for an hour in “Time Out”. Instead of getting all there worldly possessions taken away from them and grounded to there room only to see the light of day and there friends when they went to school, or in some cases if you really did bad you got your ass wiped and the rest on top of that.
I’m sure I am not the only one that sees things my way. I’m sure I will not be the last person to voice his opinion about parents taking an active role in the upbringing of there children. I had one man I work with say that it is the parents responsibility but how do you stop them from getting this influence from other children when they go over to there house. I told him that if you were active in your child’s life then you would know who he hung out with and what type of parents that child had. If anything the first few times you went to play it wasn’t so that you could play, it was so your parents and there parents could get to know each other. At least that’s the way my family was. I may of had my days when I was disrespectful, who didn’t. But you know what, I took my lumps when I did and moved on. I learned to respect others, to respect property and life in general. I love my parents for the upbringing that they gave me and would change a thing about it. I was an evil child growing up and wouldn’t wish that upon anyone, but look at me now. I am an upright citizen, never been in trouble with the law, happily married and living life to its fullest extent.
If only the rest of the world learned how to parent from parents like mine. Jack Thompson has a good heart; I know he is looking out for the innocent people that are caught in these unfortunate accidents. However, he’s point his fingers in the wrong direction. Jack, take some advice from someone that grew up in the same time frame as the people you are defending. It’s not the Video Games, it’s the people. Our generation is one of the most manipulative of them all and they know how to play up the sympathy card and unfortunately most of my generation was taught that there is always someone else to blame. You are playing into there hands and doing exactly what they want. Blaming someone else except them!
Think about it!Â
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Replies to "Advocate for Unaccountability"
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Ching on April 17, 2007
You are only an upright citizen because you have two legs. =P