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This country doesn’t have a chance of continuing as one nation.

In the news, “Chicago crime stats debated as magazine calls police claim of 'progress' an illusion.” “Chicago Magazine claims that under pressure from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago cops have been reclassifying murders and violent crimes.”

“McCarthy and Emanuel held a press conference Friday morning” “Once again, they both continued to insist the problem would not be solved without toughening up gun laws.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04 ... latestnews" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As long as people refuse to even consider that violent movies contribute to violence in society and younger people and teenagers ridicule the idea that violent video games contribute to violence in society we will continue to become more violent as a society.

People refuse to believe these things because they love violent movies and video games. The oldest truth in the world is probably “you can’t fix a problem until you admit you have a problem”.

Blaming guns (or knives) for violence is the easiest “solution”. Wrong but the easiest. People don’t see the sacrifice necessary. “I don’t have a gun so I don’t have to give up anything”. They don’t see that they give up their ability to resist criminals and/or a totalitarian government, possibly for the rest of their lives.

People think to themselves, “that’s only a movie or video game”. “I would never kill someone for revenge or go on a killing spree because I got fired from a job”. “Someone else might do that but I wouldn’t”.

It never crosses their mind that “someone else” goes to the movies they do, “someone else” works where they do, “someone else” goes to the school their children do.

I believe most of the older folks on this board remember that when we grew up, guns were common but you didn’t hear of the school and other mass shootings you do now.

As long as people sit quietly and don’t keep pointing out the real problems, this country doesn’t have a chance.

Video games and movies may be a small part of the problem but it's not the root. I've played and still play first person shooter video games and enjoy movies like Rambo. To lay all the blame on movies and games as the cause of violence is just as bad as the anti gunners blaming guns or assault weapons as the cause.

nightmare69 wrote:Video games and movies may be a small part of the problem but it's not the root. I've played and still play first person shooter video games and enjoy movies like Rambo. To lay all the blame on movies and games as the cause of violence is just as bad as the anti gunners blaming guns or assault weapons as the cause.

nightmare69 wrote:Video games and movies may be a small part of the problem but it's not the root. I've played and still play first person shooter video games and enjoy movies like Rambo. To lay all the blame on movies and games as the cause of violence is just as bad as the anti gunners blaming guns or assault weapons as the cause.

I agree as well. Both the idea that violent video games or movies or that guns are responsible for the current sick mass murder trend continues to leave out the largest factor. The person who chooses to commit the crime. I've known a lot of great people who pay these games or watch some of these movies yet would never commit murder. Regardless of what causes someone to murder or with what weapon they choose, the fact is, it was a person that chose to murder.they made a decision.

While I believe the problem is the person who chooses murder, I believe this trend of mass murder in seemingly safe places is partially due to media sensationalism of past crimes and the idea to "one up" the last or go out in a blaze of glory.

There are a lot of factors that can affect a person, and there are a lot of methods they choose to commit their crimes. But one factor remains the same consistently; the decision to become a killer.

nightmare69 wrote:Video games and movies may be a small part of the problem but it's not the root. I've played and still play first person shooter video games and enjoy movies like Rambo. To lay all the blame on movies and games as the cause of violence is just as bad as the anti gunners blaming guns or assault weapons as the cause.

I will only point you to a study of the issue and how the US military "toughened" up combat troops beginning in the Vietnam war era. The book is entitled: "On Killing" by Lt. Col. Grossman. You don't have to buy it even. It is available in .pdf format here:
http://www.kropfpolsci.com/cognitive.grossman.pdf

As an old grizzled Marine drill sergeant said back in the late 60's, "Holdin' this rifle won't make you a killer...what I train you to do will make you a killer." How true that is: Guns don't kill. People kill. People acclimated to violence make superb killers.

Most people disbelieve the effect of graphic portrayals of violence on society because they have never lived in a time when those portrayals were taboo on TV and in movies. We truly did live in a much kinder, gentler society during the first part of my nearly 7 decades of life. That way of life began to change in the early 1970's and is, in my view, accelerating at an ever faster rate. Today, nothing is taboo. We are reaping what we have sown.

Does watching violence like boxing, MMA, football, ice hockey, pro-wrestling, etc. turn people into killers?

No.

While violent movies and games are not uplifting neither are they the cause of violent crime.

Were I on a jury and heard a defense of: The violent movie/game I watched made me do it, I wouldn't be persuaded...

We don't get to keep the second amendment by sacrificing the first

Look, egregious violence in movies/video games is wrong. However that is not what is flushing our country down the toilet.

Would you like to know what is?


A lack of family cohesion. A lack of good fathers. A lack of good mothers. A lack of two parent households where the kids are raised in a loving but firm environment with parents tending to their childrens' upbringing. The destruction of societies central unit the family is what will take this country to it's knees.



Bad nutrition is not good. Bad video games is not good. Too much adult topics on TV is not good. The school are in most cases barely functioning and in other cases entirely adversarial to education. However, all of those factors with a loving set of parents and a loving father to guide his boys into manhood and nurture his daughters to womanhood will not be checkmate.

Any of those factors without a father's gentle hands of guidance is check and mate.

mamabearCali wrote:Look, egregious violence in movies/video games is wrong. However that is not what is flushing our country down the toilet.

Would you like to know what is?


A lack of family cohesion. A lack of good fathers. A lack of good mothers. A lack of two parent households where the kids are raised in a loving but firm environment with parents tending to their childrens' upbringing. The destruction of societies central unit the family is what will take this country to it's knees.



Bad nutrition is not good. Bad video games is not good. Too much adult topics on TV is not good. The school are in most cases barely functioning and in other cases entirely adversarial to education. However, all of those factors with a loving set of parents and a loving father to guide his boys into manhood and nurture his daughters to womanhood will not be checkmate.

Any of those factors without a father's gentle hands of guidance is check and mate.

I'm with you on this. Its a lack of proper family values; in fact, today what so many of us think of as a family is derided by those in positions of power. If you speak of such things, you will be ridiculed and verbally assaulted by those in academia and the self-appointed cognoscenti. There are two sets of standards" in any society. One is the laws on the books. They are enforced (with the root of that word being force) by police agencies. The second set of standards is not on the books. They are instilled in children via their family, and when instilled properly, are self-enforcing. So many kids today either don't have a proper family, or they have a family that is all messed up. And thus these kids have no one to instill that vital second set of standards, the ones that truly underpin the laws. The majority of shootings aren't done by evil crazies, they're done by criminals in gangs and happen in specific areas in large cities in this nation...and those areas aren't known for their thriving family life, either.

Abraham wrote:Does watching violence like boxing, MMA, football, ice hockey, pro-wrestling, etc. turn people into killers?

No.

While violent movies and games are not uplifting neither are they the cause of violent crime.

Were I on a jury and heard a defense of: The violent movie/game I watched made me do it, I wouldn't be persuaded...

Yes, but you miss the point. There's an old aphorism that you can't get in a pig sty without getting some on you. The same is true of violence in movies and in games. They affect your mindset. They change the culture, and not in a good way. Can you blame someone's behavior on them? No. But it's naive to think that they have no effect whatsoever.

Why do you think that Hollywood makes so many movies that promote the liberal point of view? Because they think they will have no impact at all? There's a cumulative effect, and you are seeing it in the society now. Less respect for honor. Having children out of wedlock is no longer shameful. Abortion is considered a good thing. Younger members of society see nothing wrong with killing and stealing. Foul language is routine and non-controversial. All of these things have changed in my lifetime.

Every man is responsible for his own behavior and actions. One cannot blame video games for one's actions. But one can certainly blame our rotten, stinking, immoral society on the flood of filth with which we are surrounded, and that includes violent movies and violent video games.

mamabearCali & K.Mooneyham

I love the way these two stalwarts think!

baldeagle,

I agree with you.

Yes, we're dumbing down/accepting what was once culturally unacceptable.

I do wonder though, how many similar parallels were a concern to generations before us with their own frightening concerns about the "new" destructive norms...?

When I was growing up, violence was to be used only as a last resort, for self defense. People now laugh at Roy Rogers and other older cowboy movies. Then movies started showing up with a revenge theme. “Death Wish” with Charles Bronson was one of the earliest one I can remember.

In a lot of movies now, killing someone for revenge is “OK” and with as much blood and screaming as possible.

I did not intend to say these are the sole cause of violence, just that they contribute to society to lower our humanity just a little. A steady stream of this every day is bound to have an effect on the adolescent mind whether people realize it or not.

I wonder what Roy Rogers would say about the movie “The Unforgiven” if he saw it now?

As I said “People think to themselves, “that’s only a movie or video game”. “I would never kill someone for revenge or go on a killing spree because I got fired from a job”. “Someone else might do that but I wouldn’t”. It never crosses their mind that “someone else” goes to the movies they do, “someone else” works where they do, “someone else” goes to the school their children do.

People who play video games are less able to control impulsive aggressive behaviour, a new study suggests.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/v ... tudy..html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Science has come to a general consensus that violent TV does have an effect on kids' behavior, although doesn't say it causes children to act out the violence they see on the screen.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/vi ... lence1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Violent movies can increase violent responses in real life.
Two recently published studies show that prolonged exposure to gratuitous violence in the media can escalate subsequent hostile behaviors and, among some viewers, foster greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution.
The two studies were conducted by James B. Weaver III, head of the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech, and Dolf Zillmann of the University of Alabama.
http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/scien ... lence.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So what are you wanting to do here? Ban violent games and movies? Just like guns, violent games and movies are here to stay. I will continue to play and watch them and I have no disire to commit acts of violence.

I recommend a free market solution. Do not buy that crap. Do not permit it in your home. If anything like that came into my home it would be out before you could blink an eye, in ity bitty pieces. I do not care how much it cost.

I cannot and neither can you do anything about the feral children or youths down the street. Violence sells. It will not go anywhere no matter what the studies say.

However we can do something about our own homes.