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cant remeber the exact wording but it was along the lines of: "local papers are citing whats known as "goth music" and video games as influencing factors" here we go again. where is brass eye when you need it most? |
shooting in US School - GMTV this morning
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deepmenace 421 posts
Seen 1 year ago
Registered 20 years ago -
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ssuellid 19,142 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 20 years agoTimes article
"The teenager was grinning and waving as he fired, witnesses said, and shot himself after exchanging gunfire with police. He was named today in media reports as Jeff Weise, aged between 15 and 17.
It was the worst school shooting in the United States since the Columbine massacre in which 13 people died five years ago.
Relatives told the St Paul Pioneer press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black, and was teased by other kids. They said his father committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother was in a Minneapolis nursing home with brain injuries sustained in a car accident." -
Salaman 24,162 posts
Seen 2 weeks ago
Registered 17 years agoOh ffs.
/puts on reporter voice
The boy, living in an impoverished Indian resort, had a bleak future ahead of him. With unemployment rates 8 fold the national figures and alcoholism and abuse at staggering levels, his only means of escaping his harsh daily reality were Goth music and video games which in turn twisted his young soul and caused him to proceed with this desperate act.*
*=all made up, dunno his background but "indian reservation" usually doesn not indicate a lush, luxurious suburban life.
Naaaah. They'll just go straight to the Music & games = killing spree. -
sam_spade 15,745 posts
Seen 2 hours ago
Registered 20 years agoI feel sorry for the familys and feel sorry, but sure, that the media is going to belittle their deaths by placing blame on superfluous things rather than actual causes. -
Relatives of 15 year-old Jeff Wiese, identified by tribal members as the shooter in Tuesday's deadly onslaught, said he was a towering loner who wore black all the time and was teased by other kids.
Yeah.
Wiese's father committed suicide four years ago, relatives said, and his mother lives in a nursing home in Minneapolis after suffering brain injuries in a car accident.
I'd say that it was obviously Goth music & probably Doom / GTA to blame, not any kind of personal problem...
Link-oh
edit: ssuellid basically said it, but I didn't see his post when I was copying'n'pastin'
Edited by Retroid at 10:43:13 22-03-2005 -
Ginger 7,256 posts
Seen 3 weeks ago
Registered 19 years agoOK, setting myself up a bit here, but I saw the report and it made me think. What if there is a small segment of society that *does* have some problem distinguishing reality from computer games. Much in the same way that evidence is suggesting that there is a small (or not so small) segmenet of society who can suffer from increased risk of schizophrenia due to excessive cannabis consumption.
I know that the *vast* majority of gamers are not going to go bonkers with a shotgun in their local school/office etc, but there may be a few at risk.
I dunno, I could be way off base here but there may be a small but vulnerable segment of people - vulnerability most likely caused by lack of a proper parental input - that are at risk of flipping out.
/shrugs
I'm not a psychologist, just some guy who thinks too much. -
Lutz 48,870 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years agoGinger: I think you've got a point. There *will* be people like that. However, there will also be people who suffer the same things due to films, or books even. The problem is is that the media just blanket blames all killings by console/PC game users as "He killed cos he played Doom!" and similar, meaning that the true cause is hidden, and the geniune cases can't be distinguished.
If the media didn't do this and someone DID kill due to playing Doom or similar then perhaps further steps could be taken, proper thought out researched steps too, to stop tragedies like this from ever happening. -
archonsod 208 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years agoEvidently he had compelling evidence that the school was involved in some kind of WMD project.
If only he could have waited for a presidential visit... -
pjmaybe 70,666 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 20 years agoHeard this on the radio this morning and was just waiting for the phrase "Video games cited as the root cause" and before 5 seconds of the report had elapsed the stupid bint reading the news said, in an all too smug voice "It is known that the teenager played video games on a regular basis"
So once again we'll get all this shit on the TV and in newspapers telling us that video games are inherently evil, and they cause people to shoot each other...
Yes, even Zoo Keeper. It's evil because sometimes the little animals frown, and that can upset sensitive types who then feel a need to stick a dung-fork in someone's head...s'got absolutely nothing to do with mental instability, nooosirrreee!
Peej -
ruttyboy 7,950 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years agoNo, you're absolutely right Ginger, but the thing is, if it wasn't games that set them off, it would be films, or books, or just real life itself... Games are not a cause of such behaviour, merely a trigger if you will. The only way to prevent such things happening would be to ban everything.
Besides we don't know if games triggered this case, or perhaps his milk went off and it annoyed him. -
ruttyboy 7,950 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years agoOh and just in time for the release of The Punisher on Friday, oh joy! -
"It is known that the teenager played video games on a regular basis"
It's also probably a given that he read books, listened to music, watched telly, ate hamburgers, drove around in cars, walked around a bit, scratched his arse and beat off regularly.
I haven't noticed anyone blaming wanking for such an incident. Perhaps it's time? -
Lutz 48,870 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 18 years agoBlerk wrote:
LOL!
"It is known that the teenager played video games on a regular basis"
It's also probably a given that he read books, listened to music, watched telly, ate hamburgers, drove around in cars, walked around a bit, scratched his arse and beat off regularly.
I haven't noticed anyone blaming wanking for such an incident. Perhaps it's time?
"boy kills 12 in a rage after failing to shoot his load in a "beating off" session"
Daily Mail, eat your heart out... -
I can't wait for tomorrows Daily Mail :s -
Whizzo 44,810 posts
Seen 4 days ago
Registered 20 years agoWhy do they even bother mentioning the fact a teenager plays video games? There can't be many teenagers that don't. -
Salaman 24,162 posts
Seen 2 weeks ago
Registered 17 years agoThe boy is described as "a loner" and got teased regularly.
Yip ... nothing to do with being outcast, mobbed and all that.
Must be his selection of games which took his mind off the shit life he was in that made him flip. -
sam_spade 15,745 posts
Seen 2 hours ago
Registered 20 years agoThey should pass a ruling in America that says that you can't make games that feature killing.
That would be interesting, see what would happen to the path of games development. -
pjmaybe 70,666 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 20 years agoWhizzo wrote:
Why do they even bother mentioning the fact a teenager plays video games? There can't be many teenagers that don't.
Just an easy link to make isn't it...easy scapegoat.
TBH I don't quite understand what the press think they're going to achieve by dragging up this old chestnut time after time.
IF...videogames were banned, IF by some strange quirk of fate the world's governments suddenly said "OK that's enough, no more video games ANYWHERE" - and all new projects ceased, all development houses and publishers folded overnight - christ, the world's stock exchanges would probably crash like a brick balloon!
Peej -
Spanky 15,037 posts
Seen 2 days ago
Registered 18 years agoI haven't played a game yet where you load and fire a gun as you would in real life. So they automagically blame the game and not the fact you can get all manner of guns anywhere in the US.
Maybe he was possessed by Chief Biscuit Junkie, maybe the school was built on a sacred indian burial ground? -
MikeD 10,063 posts
Seen 5 months ago
Registered 18 years agoIs anyone else wondering why they are mentioning his grandfather's nickname? It looks pretty stupid. Daryl 'dash' Lussier. Sounds more like he was the gamer. -
I always find it quite funny when people describe these guys who go off 'crazy-a-bonkers with guns' as 'weird, loner, got teased a lot'.
Right. You teased him. A lot. Picked on him. Made him feel like shit.
Now you're complaining 'cos he snapped and shot you all? You don't see the irony in that? -
pjmaybe wrote:
I can only assume that they are trying to sell papers and they appeal to whatever the public want to hear. In this regard it is confirming their fears of the videogame nasty that they must stop their kids from playing lest they become dissafected and violent and if they do it can't be bad parenting, it must be the games! It's fairly typical, they're transferring real problems into fantasy problems that can never actually be solved so that they don't have to face up and deal with actual issues that effect them and everyone else.
IF...videogames were banned, IF by some strange quirk of fate the world's governments suddenly said "OK that's enough, no more video games ANYWHERE" - and all new projects ceased, all development houses and publishers folded overnight - christ, the world's stock exchanges would probably crash like a brick balloon!
I assume at some point journolism was about writing up and reporting facts and having some integrity, it seems to me that news and media is all about the money that floats in.
Edited by Mr Sleep at 11:10:06 22-03-2005 -
Blerk wrote:
Remember: they don't have irony in the US
Now you're complaining 'cos he snapped and shot you all? You don't see the irony in that?
But yes, agree totally. Support a society which alienates anyone who doesn't join in with the mainstream and infact penalises them, then be surprised when the shit that's been thrown their way is all thrown back at once. -
Mr Sleep wrote:
That's tabloid (both print & TV) media for you. 'Opinion' and 'spin' on a story - to make it "more understandable" - is far more important than just dry reporting of the facts. Only report what's important, after all.
I assume at some point journolism was about writing up and reporting facts and having some integrity, it seems to me that news and media is all about the money that floats in.
Problem ios, who decides what's important in a story? Someone with an agenda, that's who. -
FooAtari 3,955 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years agoGinger wrote:
OK, setting myself up a bit here, but I saw the report and it made me think. What if there is a small segment of society that *does* have some problem distinguishing reality from computer games
I think that if someone cannot disguish between a game and reality then they have a mental problem in the first place, and if it is not a game that triggers something then at some point something else will. -
Ginger 7,256 posts
Seen 3 weeks ago
Registered 19 years agoOK, but how do you define mental problems? For instance is someone who has some signs of being on the autistic scale "mental"
It's not that cut and dried, and I agree that some people will go shooter-loopy from films etc, but you cannot deny that if someone is susceptible to this kind of influence, then an interactive mechanisms which lets them act out those fantasies - hitman, doom, the getaway, you name em, they're all pretty dark games - will offer a more powerful justification that the voices in their head are right.
As far as I know, there's no study which has taken a bunch of at risk people and measured the effects of Arnie films and GTA:VC on different groups - I guess that kind of study is illegal as well. -
Retroid wrote:
Sadly it isn't just tabloids that are willing to dum down to the basest level to sell a few more copies or get a few more people tuned in. Instead of trying to inspire society with intellectualism and rational thought they'd rather dum down to a level where people understand. It's completely the wrong way around, instead of trying to make people better it is saying that they are fine as they are and shouldn't try to evolve emotionally or intellectually.
That's tabloid (both print & TV) media for you. 'Opinion' and 'spin' on a story - to make it "more understandable" - is far more important than just dry reporting of the facts. Only report what's important, after all.
Problem ios, who decides what's important in a story? Someone with an agenda, that's who.
It's the structure though, instead of printing facts they print a fact and then twist it to their view of the situation, it's somewhat natural I suppose but still makes me mad when I read something like that in a newspaper. -
pjmaybe 70,666 posts
Seen 12 years ago
Registered 20 years agoFooAtari wrote:
Ginger wrote:
OK, setting myself up a bit here, but I saw the report and it made me think. What if there is a small segment of society that *does* have some problem distinguishing reality from computer games
I think that if someone cannot disguish between a game and reality then they have a mental problem in the first place, and if it is not a game that triggers something then at some point something else will.
/thinks back to that quote from "Se7en"
"My Dog made me do it, Jodie Foster made me do it, Martians made me do it"
Peej -
Ginger wrote:
In the seventies they probably would have done such a test without batting and eyelid, see any number of studies back then to see what I mean. These days you can't, although I'm ambivalent either way as to whether that's a good thing.
As far as I know, there's no study which has taken a bunch of at risk people and measured the effects of Arnie films and GTA:VC on different groups - I guess that kind of study is illegal as well.
The problem is that in trying to do a test like that you'd end up possibly causing people serious psychological harm or endangering other people. You could do a very lose study of the effects in an uncontrolled environment but that is unlikely to be very scientific.
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