1. Blood, brutality, violence and destruction. An abundance of studies show that visual or imagined violence can lead to actual violence. People cannot fill their minds with wanton brutality without mental and moral consequences. One of those consequences is an insatiable lust for an ever-growing intensity of thrills. As the virtual violence of the past becomes boring, only a higher level of shock and brutality can satisfy the craving.
The steps toward moral depravity include desensitization to the nature of evil and justification of sin. Both play a part in the mental process of a Matrix fan who immerses himself in the Gnostic myth and identifies with immoral
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The bloodiest and most violent wars and conflicts (including both World Wars and the 30 Years War, to name just three) have been long before all those “violent” new media, let alone the Matrix movies, came about.
This idea that people are going to want more and more and more seems to be a running thread with fundies. Just like the useless war on drugs, they claim that alcohol or marijuana are gateway drugs, and if you try it then you're going to want something stronger, and then want something even stronger until you're shooting heroin into your eyeballs. They say the same thing about porn, that if you look at pictures of naked women you'll progress into looking at video of people having sex, then you'll want to watch people having sex with children & animals, etc. Now they claim that depictions of violence in a movie or in a video game are going to make people want to see more and more extreme violence.
If only they understood the concept of moderation, and the fact that people are only going to go as far as they're comfortable with.
Why is not the same said about goodness and happiness, that they too have an insatiable lust for an ever-growing intensity of thrills? That the love for your spouse and children becomes boring and only a higher level of love and happiness can satisfy the craving?
They said something on the news yesterday that right after playing a violent game, people might be a bit desensitized. It sounded like it wore off pretty quickly.
Enjoying video games since I was 4(dad was a programmer for as long as I could remember), one of the first things I ever played was wolfenstein and later doom. somehow didn`t turn me into the bloodthirsty maniac shooting opiates with a dirty needle. Hell, without a healthy slaughter in one of the many shooters I enjoy, I`d be a lot more stressed gal.
I enjoy my poison as I did from the time I was a teenager and although I will admit to liking a bit of blow on occasion, I`m a living breathing example that yes, you can control your drugs and not immidiately slide down the pipe after lighting a joint. Weed is still my go to choice for relaxing drugs just as it was a decade ago.
@Skidie
<Hell, without a healthy slaughter in one of the many shooters I enjoy, I`d be a lot more stressed gal. >
Seconded. After spending most of my adult life working in customer service, I'm convinced I would have gone on a serial killing spree by now were it not for videogame violence as an outlet. I especially recommend the Dead Rising games for any of my fellow c.s. people.
Nothing says de-stress after hours of being yelled at by the vacant unwashed hoard like grabbing a nail bat and pounding the bejeezus out of a vacant unwashed hoard (of zombies)
@Skidie & Oxymoron’s Razor:
While studying I had to share a very small apartment“ with a co-student for three months. Even though we almost literally sat on each other’s lap and were very different from each other, personality-wise, we didn’t have one argument over the entire time. Why? Because every afternoon when we came home, we played at least half an hour of Soul Blade and beat the virtual snot out of each other.
"1. Blood, brutality, violence and destruction. An abundance of studies show that visual or imagined violence can lead to actual violence"
Then the likes of Timothy McVeigh, Eric Robert Rudolph & Scott Roeder must've been reading the Old Testament.
I've played every id Software game from "Castle Wolfenstein" to "Rage" - with all the "DOOM"/"Quake" games in between, and all their WADs & PAKs to hell and back - yet my criminal record (if it exists) has so much as spitting on the pavement curiously conspicuous by it's absence.
Or perhaps there are sane people who can tell the difference between fantasy & reality .
GTA and such will tip an already fucked up person over the edge, but whose to say that said fucked up person wouldn't have killed a cop or whatever without GTA? It's all just an excuse in the end. I've played Grand Theft Auto, I've played lots of first-person shooters, and I've never killed anyone nor ever seriously considered doing so. Nor have over 99% of the people who have played these games. All I see is that people who are fucked in the head shouldn't be allowed to have guns.
Violence may be the most abused word in the English language. It means whatever anyone needs it to mean, and it's always negative.
I mean, for god's sake, Burnout is a game where cars violently crash into each other, ON PURPOSE, at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Do you see people commonly imitating that in real life?
I don't usually go to movies like that. If I ever feel the need for "Blood, brutality, violence and destruction", I'll read the bible. Don't hold your breath.
I'll admit, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of overly-violent video games, but I'll just say one thing.
A PrayStation is 100% more likely to cause violence than a PlayStation.
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And yet I'm not the one who celebrates a man being tortured and crucified because a long time ago two people ate an apple, and that's the only way God could forgive us all for wearing clothes. Well not all of us, but God hates nudists and women who dress provocatively even more amirite?
I am amused quite a bit by the randomness of Matrix statements there.
As for the rest, I do note that my experience of violent shooters have given me a rather... distasteful view of real violence.
Studies have shown the opposite, actually. Violent acts following video game playing only occurred in individuals who were already prone to violence. Violent people are drawn to violent media, but violent media doesn't turn people violent.
"People cannot fill their minds with wanton brutality without mental and moral consequences. One of those consequences is an insatiable lust for an ever-growing intensity of thrills"
Such as, say... 'Reality TV':
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Tee (r): 'Put that between two slices of bread, you'd have a crocodile sandwich, and make it snappy !'
So why is it that the only hideous thing about "Salvage Hunters" are Tee's puns?!
People cannot fill their minds with wanton brutality without mental and moral consequences.
"When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you."_______________Nietsche
All the reason necessary not to read the OT.
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@Insult to Rocks
... Burnout is a game where cars violently crash into each other, ON PURPOSE, at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Do you see people commonly imitating that in real life?
Do you ever watch the Russian traffic accident compilations on YouTube?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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