Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is a name that pops up in anti-videogame circles now and then. He's an author and former military man who believes that children can train themselves to become snipers by playing Halo, and has criticized videogame violence for many years. He views games (as well as movies and TV) as such poisonous material that he believes kids need a ten-day "detox" period to clean the filth away.
"[Grossman] described, in chilling detail, school massacres at Columbine High... the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota and Virginia Tech. Just as graphically, he conjured the brutality of videogames such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, reports the Grand Forks Herald. "Grossman, an expert on school violence, went on to trace a connection between the two, complete with brain scans and a study of juvenile murderers. And he pitched a singular idea to gathered educators -- a 10-day television, movie and video game "detox" ..."
Grossman adds that violent videogames are evidence of society going mad: "This is not business as usual. This is our world coming unglued. This is our society coming unhinged."
I've always found Grossman to be faintly ridiculous, not least due to his belief that a videogame could provide children with all the tools necessary to operate a gun to deadly effect. His scaremongering, hyper-reactive claims do little to serve his point, making him sound more like a frightened old man than a man with legitimate concerns. Also, this ban is never going to happen, because most people, deep down, know that videogames really aren't the root of society's great moral decline.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
1:20 PM on 08.04.2009
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Most of the beyond-ignorant population honestly believes that video games are bad and, thus, anyone with insecurities can just jump on the "video games are what is ruining our country" bandwagon and BAM, all their problems are solved.
Except not.
On a related note, the VT shooter's psych records were found in the house of a school psychologist...two years after the event. They apparently show that the guy was pretty screwed up in the head, and not because of video games. Doubt the lieutenant colonel mentions that.
And if Grossman is trying to make some kind of comparison between drugs and alcoholism to violence in the media it only shows his ignorance of both types of addiction. The human mind doesn't have a reset button.
Yes, and he's great evidence of why.
If you think back, violence didn't exist before the late years of the nineteenth century when film was first introduced. The world back then was a perfect paradise inhabited by loving, caring, and selfless beings.
of course he could just be wanting people to drop all forms of entertainment that aren't his bread and butter to help push book sales.
How many video games has this guy ever played?
Lol moral panics. Haven't laughed about a header image in a long time though, good job(e) :)
And the irony of a man that was in the Military having an agenda against Video Games 'causing' violence.
Please just fuck off, and take your ill-informed, halfwitted, cretinous and nonsensical blatherings with you, you pompous, arrogant dickpipe.
Not yours, at all, in the slightest,
Redeye.
Either he'd milk it to promote his book some more or he'd think that the gamer community was training specifically to take him on.
Apparently not.
I'm not saying the worlds going mad (Well not 'cause of games...), but some kids should just not be playing violent games. They soak it in like a sponge.
The society is changing in a direction that doesnt appeal to some old, sad, religios fuckbins. Change =/= decline.