Grand Theft Auto “Causes” Murder

Wow!  How much can one article get wrong?  A lot:

• “The youth showed no signs of mental problems…”
• “As a response to this news, Thai distributors are withdrawing GTA IV from their shelves.”
• “Thailand’s Culture Ministry…”
• “…authorities need to better deal with the issue of violent video games.”
• “…restricting the time minors can play the games in public arcades.”

I submit that either no one competent has ever examined this soulless killer, even now.  Because his very confession is a sign of schizophrenia!  He murdered in order to see if it was like a video game?!?  WTF?!?!?!?

It’s sad to see that the same kind of knee-jerk response based on superficial appearances rule in Thailand the same as here in America.  So there’s nothing wrong with violent video game–until some psychopath commits a brutal act.  Then in “response” to this, stores pull the product from the shelves.

Thailand has a Culture Ministry?  My god!  Is it 1984 yet?

What exactly do authorities need to do?  Regulate video game access time from 4.5 hours/week down to 3 hours/week?  Censor based on subjective standards

But the money quote is:

“Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner.”

How brainlessly pragmatic, how moronically short-sighted, how concrete-boundedly unprincipled would one have to be to think “it’s ok for him to murder cab drivers, I am a video game store owner”?  But then, how dumb would one have to be to think that video games cause vioelence or that violence is a disease, like a virus, that spreads in an epidemic?

No one here, or apparently in Thailand, questions the role of publik edukation kamps in creating these enraged, agnst-ridden, utterly selfless and soulless monsters.  Does anyone think that a happy and healthy child, who would otherwise grow up to be a happy, self-reliant, productive member of society can be “turned” to pure evil by a video game??  What are the roots of this evil?  Where does it come from?

Blank Out.

By the way, just to be clear, I am no fan of mindless violent video games.  I think they are a product of a nihilistic culture.  But I don’t think that censorship by thugs at the Culture Ministry is justifiable by this or any other problem.

They didn’t mention it, but I wonder if this murderer is a non-Buddhist from the “restive” south where non-Hindus are murdering the population in a jihadic frenzy?