Fox News Host Wants to Monitor Your Gaming Habits

[Drummodino]

Correlation does not equal causation. How many times do I need to say this? So this guy was addicted to violent video games huh? Putting aside the fact that the a large proportion of the young adult demographic also plays these, maybe his addiction stemmed from his mental health issues, not the other way around? Seems a more logical conclusion to me.

Also good luck tracking games sales or enforcing "lockouts" after playing for so long. We wouldn't put up with Microsoft's 24 hour check in, no way your getting support for that.

 

[Baresark]

I want to make some false connections to:

I have hard, rigorously tested data that says that all people who have ever committed murder have at least one parent. We should probably keep an eye on people who have one or more parents. I also understand that every person in the history of the world who has committed murder, mass murder, and even suicide has had to consume food to live.

So, you know, maybe an obsession with violence(C) could lead to an obsession with violent video games(A) and also lead to a desire to act out in violent ways in real life(B). Then for good measure you could add that what makes the simple desire for violence turn into real violence is opportunity. An opportunity to acquire lethal weapons and the opportunity to use them at real people which just about every (so far) law abiding citizen of the US has with those liberal gun laws.

Both arguments (for guns and videogames being the cause/problem) are results from another fallacy. The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy (no pun intended). People are naturally affected by Apophenia (seeking meaningful patterns in random events). There is a random violent event (random as in completely unpredictable) and as random things tend towards clustering, then the common things that show up are going to be appear to contributing factors. In this case both the common use as videogames as a passtime for a huge portion of the US, and the common instance of gun ownership in the US, both of these things look awful suspect in absence of rigorous testing.

Because I don't know where to put in the actual explanation of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy: The analogy is of an average Texan shooting randomly at the side of his barn. He then finds the biggest cluster of bullet holes and draws a bullseye around them, then claims to be a sharpshooter based on his clustering. In other words, only in hindsight do these things look like factors or even problems. Neither videogames nor guns are factors contributing to mental health. But, as I said in a previous post, no one can sit here and say him being armed wasn't a problem. The issue is that his mental condition was never taken into account or owned the gun before he had any signs of mental issues.

 

[Adultism]

New Law: If you buy too many violent video games we are just going to throw you in jail.

Honestly the way the people at Faux Nudes think if they were in charge we would all be oppressed and in chains "for our own good"

Living the American dream folks.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Yeah, because better mental healthcare in the US would use up all those taxpayer's dollars for nothing!

Honestly, I will never understand how people can so easily ignore root causes to society's problems in favour of making some extra cash.

Disgusting, Fox News. Disgusting.

 

[Deathfish15]

A black bird shits on my car at least 3 times weekly. But I'm going to associate that with a linked conspiracy of carwash owners in the area, who benefit off of the bird's conjoined plot to make my car always needing cleaned.

^That's not crazy. That's the exact same line of though these Fox News people use to link video games to mass slayings.





But what's worse about this is that Fox News is trying to use Videogames as a scapegoat to direct against Gun Control. See, they're some kind of wing that's bent back being the chicken's head, not left, not right...but just....bent, twisted if you will. Now, these are also Republicans [*spit*]. They love their guns and old fashioned interpretation of the Constitution, but hate things that change. This change is the evolutional push towards interactive media -video games/internet- and away from traditional media such as newspapers, news shows, television, and even overpriced movies.


Bottom line of the situation is not videogames, nor is it guns. It was the system. Every news report has dug up that this guy was reported for previous cases of "hearing voices" and discharging a firearm improperly. As a military member entrusted with national security and use of advanced weaponry, these reports should have been fully investigated and acted upon. Instead, his superiors ignored the issue and let it escalate.

 

[Godhead]

*raises hand* Why are you asking for government intervention when you say you like small government?

 

[thirion1850]

Fox News said something retarded.

WELL STOP THE BLEEDIN' PRESSES!

 

[Strazdas]

I would like to monitor Elizabeths sleeping habits since she could be sleeping with a serial killer.
yes, this makes as much sense as what she said, but more perverted.

The registration and tracking of firearms sales? Absurd.

The registration and tracking of video games sales? Totally legit.

Only in America.

Where's the reddit up arrow when I need it?

But his post is already on the top!

snip

bravo, very well made post.

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

Played my first violent game at the age of 10 or less and dreamed about GTA III before i knew that such thing could exist. Played whole lot of FPS and other violent games since then. My IRL bodycount so far 0. Although gun regulations are way stricter in my country than in USA so i guess by Fox News logic(TM) lack of guns prevented me from going on a killing. spree.

 

[Psychobabble]

The registration and tracking of firearms sales? Absurd.

The registration and tracking of video games sales? Totally legit.

Only in America.

Darn right. Time for these murder simulators to be put in their place. I mean after all if the government had known that guy had been playing CoD for 16 hours at a time they would have stepped in and done something because that would have raised a big red flag. There would have been none of this ambiguous shilly-shallying over long term unstable and violent behavior and more then one incident where he told police he was hearing voices through walls or someone was using a microwave device to keep him from sleeping.

 

[Caiphus]

I know this makes me a terrible person, but that woman is totally free to come around to my house and monitor me personally.

 

[Kennetic]

Time to get out the signs with "we want Gun Safety" written on them. US citizens, contact your congressmen about gun safety, and tell them that you want it.

Before someone ask:
1: Gun Safety is a rebranding of "Gun Control". It's the same, only much harder to attack.
2: This is relevant because it will make Fox News really, really mad if it passes.

Edit:
1: Fox, your source for them being "addicted" is Fox News.
2: I will blame the shooter for 10 bullets, and the rest on US' stupid gun laws.

Yea no. I like my guns thank you very much. Why does it have to be one or the other? I like guns AND video games. How bout that the shooter was a fucking psycho who heard voices and all sorts of crazy stuff and that's the issue?

 

[KB13]

I've been playing Doom and its sequel's since I was at the lease six years old. Since I've become older I've upgraded my collection to games such as Fallout, L.A. Noire, and The Last of Us, never once have I had the urge to move to the desert and shoot giant bugs and shoot up turbo, drive horribly through the streets of L.A.and accuse people of crimes, or go backpacking across america with a twelve year old after handing her a shot gun to kill zombies with. Although moving to Mars to escape the stupidity that's happening here is sounding better as the years progress.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Again, it's FOX, so duh.

Also - years and years ago it was "and they watched TV ALL the time - violent TV, horrible TV" and "and he liked that music, that horrible music" and... yes. This is going to happen with every new media ever and every new thing ever because the thing that doesn't change is that people look for anything and everything to blame that can be easily dressed-down and shunned rather than find a flaw in any system they cherish with the reverence of tradition.

 

[DrOswald]

I know that it is not perfect but I always get a great feeling of appreciation for the BBC when I read stuff like this. At least in england this carp is confined to newspapers so you know to avoid them, and nobody belives newspapers anyway. I would hate to live in a country where people have to listen to this crap.

My sympathy to all the American esacpists out their.

Its not actually that bad. You see, we also love BBC. I can't remember the last time anyone I know took an American news service seriously enough that they didn't check it against what the BBC was reporting.

 

[Something Amyss]

The registration and tracking of firearms sales? Absurd.

The registration and tracking of video games sales? Totally legit.

Only in America.

I was going to say that. It's amazing how we won't do anything about firearms because it will lead to tracking gun owners and that's bad, but tracking your email, social media, and video games?

Well, there's nothing wrong with that.

You are misreading it all. There is active tracking and registration of firearms in US.

And yet the pro-gun lobby is screaming about a dark dystopian future where this comes to pass.

You can see why they might be a touch confused.

Then again, our politicians are too stupid to know what's in the Constitution, so you can see why I'm not even a touch surprised.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Fox News, ever fan of big government.

Unless "big government" means income taxes, then big government is evil and Obama is a socialist.
Hey conservatives, stop trying to push big government down my throat.

 

[DrOswald]

Time to get out the signs with "we want Gun Safety" written on them. US citizens, contact your congressmen about gun safety, and tell them that you want it.

Before someone ask:
1: Gun Safety is a rebranding of "Gun Control". It's the same, only much harder to attack.
2: This is relevant because it will make Fox News really, really mad if it passes.

Edit:
1: Fox, your source for them being "addicted" is Fox News.
2: I will blame the shooter for 10 bullets, and the rest on US' stupid gun laws.

But... he was using a shotgun. I mean, I assume you were talking about large magazines in rifles and the movement to ban magazines with greater than 10 rounds. But he was using a shotgun. In fact, US gun laws prevented him from actually acquiring a rifle.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying we do not need better gun laws. In fact I would count myself among gun control advocates. But we should at least try to effectively fact check. If we don't then it is so much easier to ignore the gun control movement as the ramblings of ignorant reactionaries who don't actually understand what is going on.

I mean, a man shoots up a navy yard with a shotgun and our reaction is "we need to ban high capacity rifle magazines." I wouldn't take us seriously, why should anyone else?