As the United Kingdom becomes more of a cesspool, Oasis' Noel Gallagher has rolled up his sleeves and done his bit to help, by blaming violent videogames. His comments come after lamenting that "scumbags are taking over our streets."
"People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it.
If kids are sitting up all night smoking super skunk [cannabis] and they come so desensitised to crime because they're playing these video games, it's really, really scary."
A creator of good music Noel might be, but a social commentator he is not. As usual, for all this talk of videogames and that oh-so useful buzz term "desensitize," not once does someone talk about the parents. Nobody ever dares talk about the precious, untouchable parents. In Britain, the parents of a group of boys who attacked a goth couple by stamping on their heads allegedly smirked in the dock, finding it amusing as their own children were found guilty of murder. Parents refuse to accept responsibility for unruly kids, and nobody seems to dare hold them accountable for the actions of their loathsome spawn.
As an even better musician, Jarvis Cocker, once sung; "the parents are the problem, giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies." The problem that we now face in the UK is a mass of uneducated scum opening their legs and squirting out more uneducated scum. As chavs and pikies get old enough to grow their own disgusting miniature versions of themselves, they spread like a disease. The new parents of this country are retarded, worthless, thoroughly unaccountable sacks of sh*t wrapped in human skin who should be sterilized. That's the problem. Not videogames.
[Thanks, Rorschach!]
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I live in the east end of Glasgow so i see these idiots day in and day out. Been mugged at knifepoint by two 'junkies' who have most likely never even played a videogame in their lives. And i personally believe that videogames are the blame for violence(or the increase of) ridiculous.
I myself have experienced the most violent of games in my days, and having had a reasonably rough childhood, am not someone that goes around uppercutting people into pits full of spikes.
i love you Jim
you sum up my point of view so well without me ever having to say anything.
i've lived in the north and now the midlands and it's the same everywhere you go, bags of uneducated fucking idiots wanting benefit for popping out more sprogs than wanting a job.
Music is a worse influence, especially as now kids have amy wino and pete docherty to look up to, drugs and violence is all they see. Noel can say nothing anyway he used to get pissed and beat people for no reason.
wankers.
Yeah, because council estate kids can afford computer games to become 'desensitised' to violence... what a tit.
Mass Genocide? Id be more then happy to take to arms and do some Ethnic cleansing. Me and my mate were saying that its only going to get worse in England until someone decides to step up and makes some revolutionary plans on how to stop cretins giving birth to sacks of shit.
My plan would be to insert a bear trap inside the vagina of any scum bag slag born which would surely deter anyone going anywhere near her privates. If she doesn't like it then stick a grenade in her and sow the bitch up.
From own experience, it's not like EVERYONE of them is stupid cunts, several is really intelligent in their own way. It's mostly that their family situation and such has ruined their trust for society.
Doesn't make them much less fuckheads though. Most of them.
Yea, like oasis music doesn't influence cannabis smoking..
"Where were you while we were getting highhhhh.." [Champange Supernova]
For some reason I expected more from Noel. In hindsight I dont really know why.
It's a sad state of affairs for society, huh?
Jim, you hit the nail on the head.
I blame all that rock and roll music for Noel Gallagher's ignorance and egotism.
Also, cocks.
I hated Oasis before, now the rage has hit a new level I didn't even realise existed.
Go fuck yourself Noel.
I'm surprised that anyone listens to word that comes out of this mans mouth, especially after a comment he came out with a few years back in which he stated that he wished two members of a rival band died of AIDS.
Dude, Jim.
Stop holding back.
Tell us how you really feel.
Hehe, I quite regularly tell my friends that the people who live on the estates surrounding me should be chemically neutered. Mandatory sterilisation is about the only thing that you can do with these degenerates, you can't educate them.
Glad to see someone shares my opinion :P
Noel has proven time and time again that he is an ignorant tit.
Noel Gallagher Doesn't Care About Gamers.
People still listen to Oasis, let alone care what their lead singer thinks? Hmm. You learn something new every day.
Well least we know his opinion of his brother Liam now XD. I think hes just bitter cause he always gets player 2 XD.
How Noel, remember when your own musical genre was blamed for all you problems of the day?
All those kids listening to those fast beats with their bodies twisting and cavorting and TOUCHING while they danced? Disgraceful!
Go back to pretending you're a Beatle, mate.
If memory serves me correctly, Noel wasn't exactly a nice guy back in the 90s. Didn't he have a temper problem that made the papers more than once?
Wonderwall inspired me to murder an old woman
Yeah yeah he's looking for his 5 more mintues of fame that he despertly wants.
Nobody ever blames the parents. Ever. If someone were to write a book chastising the parents of the world for the apparently crappy job most of them have been doing, I would purchase 12 copies and eat five of them.
It seems like Jim has some serious issues. That's some extreme hatred for the less fortunate members of our society. If he feels equipped to talk about the social impact of video gaming, perhaps he could also take some time to understand what society is and how it works. It might help shape his frankly disgusting attitude if he was able to understand how it is that people end up in poverty, living in areas abandoned by the government, with no chance for education, employment, or a chance to pull themselves up. A good place to start might be Googling the word 'socioeconomics'.
Jim sounds like nothing short of a Nazi. I've been reading videogame journalism for twenty years, and I'm disturbed and saddened to see this ignorant sub-tabloid horsesh*t being peddled in the name of playing video games.
Dick.
Noel Gallagher who?
I think he might have a point. I've been known to smoke super skunk, play violent video games, and go on killing sprees and have baby punching parties.
good thing oasis sucks anyway. now to find me some super skunk
@Finsbury
Your argument would have substance in it if the crime in question was motivated by money. But when the crime is plain and simply motivated by causing suffering to other human beings, then I can agree with Jim's "Nazi attitude".
Just now I read about a murder case in the UK where a 17 year old boy was tied to a tree, then forced to drink fluid before they set him in flames. Try to defend that one, will you?
Oh Noel, you silly silly man.
Oasis sucks. Noel is just mad that he's seeing his popularity fade away into nothingness as a hack who's contribution to society is a bunch of albums where he and his brother play-pretend The Beatles, only if the Beatles were deaf kids stuffed in a sack and beaten with bricks before recording. He's jealous that videogames are still relevant and that he's not, end of story.
@Projectexodus
I'm not defending the behaviour of individuals, rather criticising Jims use of de-humanising language:
"a mass of uneducated scum opening their legs and squirting out more uneducated scum. As chavs and pikies get old enough to grow their own disgusting miniature versions of themselves, they spread like a disease. The new parents of this country are retarded, worthless, thoroughly unaccountable sacks of sh*t wrapped in human skin who should be sterilized."
That's not funny or useful. It's deranged. And anybody with any sense of history can see the Nazi language being used. Jim appears to foster a contempt that has long since left any logic or reason behind, and ploughed headlong into paranoid fear. Just saying. If you're that messed up when it comes to hating on people who live in impoverished urban areas, perhaps it's best to keep your bizarre ideas under wraps.
Dudes getting killed is terrible, obviously, but criticising Noel's lack of understanding on videogames and then drawing wide parallels with sensationalist news stories to fit a personal agenda that has even less to do with videogames than Noel's original comments just makes him seem a bit screwy. Certainly wouldn't call it 'reporting'. I guess this is what happens when you blog though.
anyway. I'm totally obsessed with seeking out irresponsible social commentary. I do play videogames as well.
hang on, that should be NOT totally obsessed. Oh dear. Freudian slip?
"It seems like Jim has some serious issues. That's some extreme hatred for the less fortunate members of our society."
That's a typically out-of-touch assessment of some of society's scumbags. Although a lot of chavs and the like have poor backgrounds, not all of them do. Citing "bad luck" as a reason for the types of horrific crime that happens in London is a cop-out, and goes even further to take accountability away from criminals. It's that kind of attitude that has seen political correctness give criminals a ridiculous amount of "human" rights.
"If he feels equipped to talk about the social impact of video gaming, perhaps he could also take some time to understand what society is and how it works."
I feel more than adequately equipped to discuss my country's society, thank you very much. I'll tell you a little about my background in a moment.
"It might help shape his frankly disgusting attitude if he was able to understand how it is that people end up in poverty, living in areas abandoned by the government, with no chance for education, employment, or a chance to pull themselves up. A good place to start might be Googling the word 'socioeconomics'."
Don't need to -- I've lived it. Your points would hold water if I was the privileged and rich middle classer that you seem to think I am, but sadly I'm not. I live in South East London and work as a cab firm operator, I grew up in a single-parent family in some of the poorest areas of the nation, including various places in London and the Midlands. I've been homeless, and spent a lot of my childhood so poor I couldn't eat.
I didn't want to be like the filth that grew up around me though. I taught myself how to be a civilized and productive. I worked hard to the point where I now have two jobs and do what I can to provide for my family. And all around me I see people who refuse to do it. It disgusts me, and I'm sorry if you think I should be more sympathetic to people who had as many disadvantages as I had.
"Jim sounds like nothing short of a Nazi."
Achtung, baby!
"I've been reading videogame journalism for twenty years, and I'm disturbed and saddened to see this ignorant sub-tabloid horsesh*t being peddled in the name of playing video games."
I am not ignorant, sir. I live on a street where a 15 year old girl had her face burnt off by a 19 yr old girl who thought her boyfriend had been kissed. That's not "sensationalism," that is what happened on my doorstep. Further down the road someone was recently stabbed, and just across town a kid had his throat slit. Before the pub across from where I work was closed, we used to sit and watch vicious head-stamping fights go on every week.
Don't assume that I'm some ignorant writer in an ivory tower who doesn't understand reality. I've seen it with my own two eyes. You can say what you like, I'm not about to have my own life experiences challenged by some guy.
If I may finish off that song lyric you quoted Jim.
'So pamper to your pampered little princess, of such enormous size.'
No reason, I just wanted to say I know the song.
Not point it bothering with the opinion of this chap, who also shamelessly uses drinks, while selling loads of music.
This will be his view til he gets his Rock Band/Guitar Hero royalties, or gets more music into those games. An irony indeed.
I blame Noel Gallacher for make shitty useless music and disrespect de very soul of rock music
also cocks
also Oasis is a gay band
That caption is wrong because do not, in fact, rock at all.
Absolutely spot on Jim, I couldnt agree more.
Yep, I grew up relatively poor myself until my mother remarried. We were on WIC/food stamps for awhile. Lived in some not-so-great areas of town. I also have a few friends who went to less-than-great schools. They're also some of the most intelligent people I know.
That's because they actually picked up books of their own accord, because they wanted to learn, because they desired to have better but knew they couldn't wait for it to just be handed to them. If ALL poor people ended up completely destitute their whole lives, comprised ALL of the criminal element, one might have an argument.
But the truth is, if you WANT to do better, have better, and be better, you can. There ARE the opportunities. You simply have to want to work for them, and have a desire to be a decent person. Fewer and fewer do.
And that's not even taking into account the amount of absolutely hooligans who come from very privileged backgrounds. So less whining about "socioeconomics", plz.
Who's this Noel asshole?
The this Sterling fellow's jib? I like the cut of it.
I can understand some outrage at the dehumanizing language used, but being impoverished and having social ills as a part of your life is no reason for rampant irresponsibility and ignorance. I'm a hell of a nice guy and think socioeconomics doesn't change the fact that some people should be sterilized.
I'm not so sure that Noel truly believes what he's saying. To me it sounds like Noel was asked whether he thought violent video games and drugs had something to do with the rise in knife crime and he simply shrugged his shoulders and said "yeah I guess so."
That being said it isn't exactly uncommon for one of the Gallagher brothers to make a short sighted comment only to retract it later when he starts to look like a prick. You only have to see his comments about Jay-Z at Glastonbury as proof.
Jim, your area sounds lovely! Makes my hometown seems rather pleasant. Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Once described as the arsehole of the universe by a national newspaper. Cheers guys.
@Jim Sterling
Hello Jim. I wasn't questioning how tough you've had it, and certainly don't want to enter into a pissing contest about who lives in the roughest area. I'm sorry you had it so hard, but that's a huge amount of anger and hatred you've got, and you're tarring a fairly broad area of society with your rage.
Your ignorance is only that you seem unaware that the language you are using is targeting a specific demographic and de-humanizing / reviling its members using incredibly violent language, simply because of their social status ( ie "uneducated scum"). I find it hard to believe that you aren't aware what the words 'chav' and 'pikie' mean within the media, yet you're trying to now say that you're only hating on murderers. And their parents (and their parents? Where does the chain begin?). How is "The problem that we now face in the UK is a mass of uneducated scum opening their legs and squirting out more uneducated scum" anything but a twisted personal agenda? You can't seriously be saying that you have a 'right' to spout this kind of hatred on a video games website because you had it rough as a kid?
And, I'd like to point out to our American cousins that the UK and London are not actually bursting with monstrous sub-human savages. Just like everywhere else in the world, it's just people, not matter how fucked up they may get. Hopefully, through a careful plan of media demonization, daytime TV humiliation, and vigilante justice, we can somehow make everything okay again.
I mean, I guess you do totally have a 'right' to do so, but, come on Jim. You totally went over the line there.
I'll stop saying totally. And go. Try and keep it together, Jim.
Finsbury: I'm not about to debate whether or not I am an angry, hateful misanthrope. I am those things and I fully admit it. However, I only speak ill of what I see and experience, and what I have seen and experienced is some of the ugliest stuff that British society has to offer.
The fact of the matter is, there ARE a lot of "uneducated scumbags" out there, and I am not about to feel sorry for them as if they are victims. They are not. They are people who could all better themselves and refuse to, actively wallowing in their own stupidity, destroying things because they can't create.
And I never said I am only hating on murderers. I am hating on kids who slash tires for no reason, who burn down people's property and who no longer settle for a simple kicking nowadays, but stamp on people's heads. Again, this is not based on stuff I've seen on the news, this is based on stuff I have seen with my own eyes.
Am I wrong for not viewing them as people? In my opinion, to be human is to strive above the animal, but I have seen these people out on the street and they're just ... feral. They're worse than animals. Their violence is born out of pure sadism and senselessness. These aren't just naughty scamps who have gotten into some scrapes. These are psychopathic sadists who take pleasure in causing pain and suffering.
I have no intention of trying to "understand" those so-called people. I don't have any respect or sympathy for sadists and social cancers who contribute nothing and destroy everything they touch. Sorry if that makes me a "Nazi," but I'm never going to feel I owe the people who stomp on each other's heads any form of understanding.
Everyone stopped giving a shit what anyone in Oasis thinks about 12 years ago. I'm pretty sure the only place to hear Oasis anymore is over the PA at the local supermarket. (I guess the BBC calls this the "Silver Clef music awards in London" which seems a little odd but they also call trucks 'lorries' so wtf do I know.) I must say though, it is nice to hear a little Wonderwall while I'm comparing prices on canned peaches.
Ya I didn't read the comments but marijuana does NOT make you more violent, more like less violent. Noel obviously doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about and frankly, I don't know why we should even bother listening to him. He's in a shitty band and his opinion matters no more than anyone else in the UK.
So really, STFU Noel Gallagher.
You can't dehumanize that which doesn't even ATTEMPT to act human. And people CAN cease being human. "Only human", as an excuse, only goes so fucking far.
And it's precisely the "wah wah wah, they're people too!" constituent that ends up creating nothing but more opportunity for them to carry on their abhorrent behaviour with little to no accountability whatsoever. Cheers to you.
Did someone here read Atlas Shrugged or just played Bioshock?
I live in South America, in a poor country named Uruguay, I wont say I didnt have luck, I grew up in a family who had luck and is doing ok. But the 33% of the population is not. Im not going to blame them for everything that is wrong, but Im not going to defend them either.
I study medicine, I have to go to some pretty fucked up places, the sort of places you see in movies about Africa, " just go and be a doctor". Some people are a waste of spcace, some try to work, others more heroic try to work and study. I wont say is my decision to judge, I try not to, but is hard not to when you see the fucked up things in what they say is "reality".
Now the university here is free, that means that anyone who wants (and have the grades finished), can enter the state university, in my case Medicine. I know people who doesnt have a lot of money, but they are brillant, they work their ass off and study 24/7. I know people who does have money and they are equaly good.
So there is a little bit of everything in this world.
Noel comments are stupid, thats what I think. And ignorant, games=violence... yeah, sure it does in a videogame maybe, but it does not apply in the reality, people commits acts of violence everyday, and not those in which you murder someone. And guess what? Most of them watch tv, there it goes, tv=violence. Is easy you see?
I love Oasis, but I guess now Noel Gallagher has officially hit that age. You know, where technology scares you and the kids are to blame for everything. Maybe he thinks national service will sort the little rascallians out, eh?
Let us all look to celebrities and artists to tell us how shit really goes down. Because they've done their research.
I can see him having an old fogey's view on video gaming, but you'd think he'd have a more enlightened stance on cannabis use.
I fail to see how his comment is that unacceptable. People do stupid shit when they're high or drunk, sometimes. He's clearly saying that, if they're not in their right minds, they could be partly influenced by games. Once again, gamers blow something completely out of proportion because someone took a small poke at their hobby. Grow up, people.
But yes, Noel Gallagher is an idiot, either way.
Meh. Oasis hasn't made anything relevant since 1995's What's The Story, Morning Glory?.
Just because they haven't had any commercial hits in the US, they're no longer relevant? They've put out some great stuff over the years, their dickishness not withstanding.
Mr Sterling FUCK YOU! for being so on the pulse LOL.
I myself live in Scotland Where we call them N.E.D's (non educated delinquents) and Gypsies not chavs and pikies but they are indeed one and the same, so the part of Scotland that I'm in was a total shit hole and has only recently calmed down due to the fact that most of the scum are junkies and too fucked up to be able to do anything but the exceptions have managed to breed and i have noticed that a lot of them are actually teaching their kid what they can and can't get away with and we are totally helpless to do anything about it because if we were to even grab them by the arm to take them home to their parents after they for instance throw stones at our window or something WE would be the ones getting arrested and they know that, and it pisses me off that i have to raise my son in this environment,
but now that i think about it parenting is a tricky issue you do have the SHITE parents like the ones we have stated but then you have the other parents that produce arseholes because they are not willing to discipline their kids, what we need is a decent level of discipline perhaps enforced by the law, i'm not saying that parents should be held accountable for not disciplining their kids, well maybe in some cases but i believe the Police need to be given a bit more power when it comes to antisocial youths cos right now they can't do a damn thing except tell them to move on.
OH! and to comment on Noel, he's just trying to get publicity cos they are doing shite, ermm hold up i'm guessing Liam playes Video Games then cos he's a bit of a fucking NED/CHAV.
Gallagher is a fucking asshole.
Im not saying this because of this story, he just thinks Oasis is the greatest band of all time.
Applause Sterling, applause. You know very well we're singing from the same hymnsheet on the state of this country, but that was one of the finest summations of the self-perpetuating idiot-virus I've read in a long time.
The only thing smoking pot and playing violent video games influenced me to do is call the pizza delivery guy.
I know where you're coming from Jim. I've just finished my first year of a uni, but I went to a pretty poor school and I HAD to work to get the grades I wanted, so I could do something with my life, rather than end up like the scum. The sixth form I went to was shared with another school, which (somehow) was even worse (they're now both on the list of schools threatened to be closed). Me and my mates couldn't stand going to the place and would often just bunk off early. (Un)fortunately, the teachers were shit too so we didn't lose out on anything.
To sum up our feelings about the scum, here's one of our typical daily excerpts: "This place could burn down with everyone inside it and it wouldn't bother me."
I just find it hilarious that he's got any room to talk with the behaviour he and his brother carried on with. Besides, if you're the type to 1) stay up all night (not as if people normally have jobs or school or anything worthwhile to do) and 2) smoke weed, then I'd say that THAT is your problem, not playing video games. And I think that's exactly what Jim was talking about - uneducated scumbags. The kind of morons who want nothing more out of life than to use mind-altering substances, zone out in a completely different world and totally ignore that there's one in which they'd do better to attempt to function.
Those ARE the exact kinds of people who do this kind of dumb shit. Of course, it's going to be video games thrown under the bus. There always has to be SOME joining link - video games. "Satanic" music. Violent movies. And the latter two don't even get the same heat as the former. It can never be that maybe some parents have raised their kids wrong, or that people get into drugs in the first place because they're simply weak, irrelevant people that can't seem to find anything else to do with their lives.
Idiots breeding idiots comes closer to explaining why such things happen than "It was the videogames!" ever did. I mean, Jesus, far more people . . . I don't know, drink water every day than those who play video games, but you don't hear people whining about a tainted water supply, because correlation is NOT causation. Yet, people don't seem to understand that the same holds true with games. Millions of people can play games and not get up and go kill someone.
There are other factors in Noel "Mom, Liam Hit Me!" Gallagher's statement that could explain why kids do this shit. But rather than consider those, he MUST toss video games in there. Along with the ever-loved buzzword "desensitized", which really doesn't mean anything, especially out there. How could anyone BE sensitive to crime or violence when it happens ALL the goddamn time, and NOT because of games, but because parents won't raise their kids properly, won't put any restrictions on them, let them roam around randomly slashing tires and destroying things, and so on?
But no, it's the games. And a few years into the future, it'll be something else. I'm not outraged that he blames the games; I'm outraged that he's yet another in a LONG LINE of people who adamantly REFUSE to put the blame where it belongs. God forbid we EVER admit there are people in the world who simply shouldn't ever breed.
"the parents are the problem, giving birth to maggots without the sense to become flies."
AWE-F'N-SOME!!!!
I just hate it when they blame all young people or one of the lesser dangers to society. They always blame skaters, or people who play games, or even black youth.
IT WHITE AND BLACK CHAVY CUNTS! Their the problem, they are the reason things get worse. Life is better than say in the 1950s or the 1600s or even 0bc so what "good old days" i dont know what people are talking about. But the people are still Cunts.
Everyone needs to relax before all this "world going to shit" talk becomes self forfilling prophecy.