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Lawyer Blames Video Games for NIU Shootings
Few things makes us more angry than taking advantage of tragedies to push personal and political agendas, especially when when that agenda lacks things like supporting evidence... or logic.
Jack Thompson, a self-described Christian conservative and Republican (which is an insult to Christian conservative Republicans everywhere), has made a career of crusading against so-called obscenity and violence in media such as rap music and video games.
His latest rant came on Fox News about the Northern Illinois University shooting and its connection to the first person shooter 'Counter Strike.' The Fox News interview is shameless on so many levels. Thompson refers to video games as simulators for practicing massacres, implies that he predicted the NIU shooting in a book he wrote (plug, plug), and he referred to a Harvard study suggesting that people are likely to copycat behavior in video games. He failed to mention that the killer spent time in a psychiatric institution or that he recently decided to stop taking his prescribed anti-depressants.
Let's take Thompson's logic and apply it elsewhere. According to him every school shooter has played video games, therefore video games are the cause of school shootings. The Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11th attacks were perpetrated by morally and socially conservative religious fundamentalists, so perhaps Thompson is a potential terrorist -- let's ship him to Gitmo. We still water-board don't we?
From DailyTech
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Comments
24
Subscribe to commentsdrktranquillityFeb 20th 2008 3:42PM
Excuses, displacement of blame, total lack of personal accountability. THAT is what's wrong with this country.
It has nothing to do with religion, political leaning, lifestyle or cultural background. It is a matter of personal integrity, no one can just man-up and take responsibility for their own lives and their own problems.
Always has to be an excuse, always has to be a finger pointed.
RonFeb 20th 2008 10:32PM
Here at Columbine, we learned that the shooters were avenging a bad arrest. Has this guy been arrested lately? Google "Revolutionz final report Columbine" to watch the National Geographic documentary that supports our findings on the CRTF website.
NickFeb 26th 2008 8:54AM
What an idiot. Jack Thompson is a clueless politician. He is an embarassment to the GOP. I am a Republican, and I also play video games. This guy has no clue. Video games are not training simulators. You cannot "plan" routines in video games. You cannot plant 30 students, and go practice shooting them up. You fight terrorists...not students. If its a simulator, then by default, you have to admit it produces good soldiers and citizens.
And to other people on these boards posting BS about Fox and Republicans...grow up. This isnt Fox News opinions...its Jack Thompson's. They interviewed to show how much of a weenie and out of touch reality moron he is. Jack Thompson is a closet Liberal. Republicans are no where near supporting gun control because we understand its the criminals who committ the crimes....we dont make excuses for why a gunman shot people up. We wouldnt blame guns, and we arent going to blame video games. Liberals play the blame game. They blame guns, society, and video games for all the violence, never the gunman.
kpilkerMay 17th 2008 9:42PM
I like to play video games as much as the next guy. I think there is too much violence in video games today, but that is just my opinion. My other opinion is that people see things on tv, video games, etc. and think it looks cool and then want to recreate in in real life. We also call these people morons and we can only hope natural selection gets to them.