Episode 88: Video Games: Do They Cause Violence?

No.

Anyway, see you next week!

  Just kidding, that's not the whole episode. I just wanted to make my stance clear from the get-go.

  In these times, it seems like mass shootings and other horrific acts of violence brought about by young people are somewhat commonplace. Naturally, people want to know what the cause of these heinous acts is, and they want to stop the cause. You know what most young men like doing? Playing video games. You know what a lot of video games are? Violent. Thus, it's easy to make the connection and think that the video games are what made them violent. However, I very strongly believe that that is not the case.

1. I myself am a counter to the idea that video games cause violence.

   I play tons of violent video games. I have shot enemy soldiers in Call of Duty, hunted down dumb teenagers in Dead By Daylight and Friday the 13th, killed zombies in The Walking Dead, Dead Rising, and The Last Of Us, and literally torn human beings to shreds in Mortal Kombat.

  Yet, I can't imagine taking someone's life. I even feel bad when I kill a bug. Even if it's a big spider. If video games make you violent, then I would be a violent person. But I'm not.

2. Unchecked psychological issues.

   You know what's a common thread with murderers? Mental illness. As in, some deep-rooted psychological problem that they didn't get help for and they eventually snapped. Before the Uvalde shooting, people who knew the shooter knew he was unstable and had made fun of him, even calling him a "school shooter". If people like those people and his family had actually cared, and gotten him help when they saw he was unstable, maybe those kids and their teachers would still be alive. Maybe his grandmother wouldn't have a bullet wound in her head and he himself would be alive and becoming a better person instead of planning to slaughter children. 

   Of course those are all big "ifs", but my point remains. The people who do these things are already mentally ill, and playing some video games doesn't make you ill. Does the violence in video games desensitize you? Maybe. I can agree that maybe they do, but I really don't think it makes you murder people yourself.

3. It's just entertainment.

   Video games are just entertainment and are usually fictional. To not be able to separate them from reality shows an issue on your part, not on the games.

4. People have always been violent.

   People have been committing atrocities ever since the fall. Violent people are nothing new. It's just more prevalent now because of a shocking lack of mental health awareness and all-too-easy access to guns. Seriously, that's a topic for another day, but there is absolutely no reason a psychotic teenager should be able to buy an automatic murder machine. 

Anyway, see you next week!