FYI, I've never actually played WoW

[zevhonith]

Dear Early ShowWhile I fully understand the need of both the media and the public to identify the source of human evil, so that they may feel safely distanced from it, I am frankly disgusted by your attempt to pin the brutal torture and beating of a baby on World of Warcraft. In point of fact, I'm frankly disgusted by the overwhelming tendency of

Comments

[zevhonith]

This IS D&D paranoia, though.

Which reminds me, you should see Mazes & Monsters. So bad it's delicious. ;)

The most irritating thing about this, to me, is that it supports the notion that there are simple, predictable, controllable causes of this behavior.

Yes, yes, yes! That kind of thinking can only be detrimental to any hope of actually figuring out what went wrong here, same as always. :(

[potpietheater]

'Jay-Jay, what am I *doing here*????? Why can't I ***REMEMBER***?????!!!!!'

:P

[zevhonith]

[djsparkydog]

Thank you very much Z.

Every damn time something like this comes up I find myself thinking

"Wait I thought marijuana caused this, or was it terrorists, jews, communism, muslims, hackers, dungeons and dragons, heavy metal, rap, catcher in the rye, homosexuals, satanists, LSD, or the japanese?"

One thing I truly hate Freudian psychology for is this incessant need we have to typify people by causality. God help us if the person at fault were actually at fault.

[zevhonith]

Pfffft, whatevs, it's totally because of Exorcist III. :P

[wyrdling]

i think we have completely screwed up ideas of cause and effect.
it doesn't help that critical thinking is not a valued component of our educational system. makes it easier for newscasters to get away with things like this....

[zevhonith]

I agree on both counts.

[endon_neu]

Well said! This is a perfect articulation of the *real* cause of these tragedies, which is simply a cultural norm of scapegoating (and as you say witch-hunting), which makes it almost "acceptable" in Western society to explain or almost "excuse" any behaviour, as long as we don't have to actually lay the blame on *one* individual for their own actions

[zevhonith]

a) Well, I did send it to the Early Show, but you're right, it shouldn't be friends-locked. I shall remedy that, and perhaps send it elsewhere as well.

b) Bah, President. I'd rather be an advisor.

c) Damn kids. :P

In this situation especially, I'm appalled at the blame being laid. It's a horrible, horrible thing, but people have been killing their babies for a lot longer than computers have existed. It's easier for me to understand searching for the cause of something like school shootings, which is obviously a modern epidemic (though I believe fervently that they're looking at the *wrong* things - the Virginia Tech shooting actually prompted people to ask things like "why didn't anyone help him?" which I think is a lot closer to being useful).

Thanks. :)

[jarmon]

oops, that was me.

[zevhonith]

Aw, I love Prom Night Dumpster Baby. ;)

[phaedrine]

Did you send this to them? I think you should.

[zevhonith]

I did, in fact, though finding the right place to send it was less than simple.