April 17, 2007 -
In the wake of yesterday's horrific shootings at Virginia Tech, gadfly attorney Jack Thompson was not the only one who was quick to place blame on violent video games.Noted T.V. shrink Dr. Phil McGraw appeared on CNN's Larry King Live last night to discuss the rampage. During the course of the program, the following exchange took place:
LARRY KING: Why, though - OK, you want to kill someone, you're crazed, you're a little nuts, girlfriend drops you, why do you kill innocent people?... Dr. McGraw, are they treatable?
DR. PHIL: Well, Larry, every situation is different... The question really is can we spot them. And the problem is we are programming these people as a society. You cannot tell me - common sense tells you that if these kids are playing video games, where they're on a mass killing spree in a video game, it's glamorized on the big screen, it's become part of the fiber of our society. You take that and mix it with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high.
And we're going to have to start dealing with that. We're going to have to start addressing those issues and recognizing that the mass murders of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violence overdose.
Full transcript here.
Comments
Re: Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
Dr phil Hope you hear about this website you would love to do one of your episodes on you... but you wouldnt do it...
A) get a life/ you have a huge influence on most of society use it for good help the us pull their head out of their butts open the eyes of america wait im gettin ahead of myself
B) lets start with the first person you need to help yourself / seriously stop blaming things that have nothing to do with the incidents its not VIDEO GAMES that does the killing its not the video games that give these people the ideas its probably the fact they have to put up with society of the "PERFECT PEOPLE OF SOCIETY" that have no problems who's life is jus peachy and dont have to deal with money problems and other stuff like survival every day probably have body guards or somethin dude start with yourself pull your head out of your butt
C)and last if you think you already have it out... then Prove it show that you know these things have nothing to do with killing in fact you probably have had moments where you used your head instead of doing what "PERFECT PEOPLE OF SOCIETY" always do just go with the flow SERIOUSLY WAKE UP GET A LIFE OPEN YOUR EYES
You have no idea what was going through his mind which doctors always think they know Get a LIFE
Re: Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?
But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.
The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?
Re: Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?
But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.
The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?
Re: Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area. If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?
But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself. Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children. Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story. Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age. The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself. Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head. Not gonna happen. Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.
The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status). In a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent. The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me. Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time. It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?
Re: Dr. Phil Blames Video Games for Virginia Tech Massacre
The sad thing is video games had nothing to do with this. Dr.Phil just made some shit up. From what I think and I'm only 14 there were 3 big reasons that this happened1. Gun laws are so weak that anybody can get a gun. 2. I read that he was picked on because he couldnt speak that well English so almost everybody made fun of him. Thats fucked up as it is. 3. I also read that he was stalking a girl and after 3 rejections he snapped. But there was a small window of oppurtunity to have stopped this. During his English class he was supposed to write a short fiction. His paper was about repeating Columbine (not sure if spelled right). So the teachers had an idea that this was going to happen. I think that Dr.Phil is denying the fact that we had a chance of preventing this from happening and using video games as a scapegoat. BTW all the info I got was from Wikipedia. Point out any flaws because there might be some.
Violent Video Games for Relaxation
Like many others, I respectfully disagree with Dr. Phil's statements about video games, and have written a bit more in-depth response as to why I believe we are misplaced in going after the game manufacturers or villainizing those who do enjoy such games: http://inzania.com/2008/06/relaxation-and-release-with-violent.html
When dihydrogen monoxide is combined with ground refined wheat, "the grist" as I like to call it, and a dangerous moldy fungus, you produce the very vile substance that can be found paired with these depraved individuals: bread.
The facts speak for themselves: ban the hydride and demon-wheat-yeast loaf! Future generations will thank you.
the guy was Asian, that much we know.
so obviously he trained to murder all those people using Dance Dance Revolution...
DOJ study: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/165476.pdf
Section about self defense starts on page 8.
More from Kleck and a critic or two can be found here: http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html
It's ALL his fault.
Doctor Phil is a twit.
Are you just trying to get a rise out of the general populace with your incredibly ignorant remarks? Who the hell are "we" that you are talking about? Considering people from ALL nations (that includes the United States) undertake some of the most degrading violations of human rights and their worth, can you honestly judge who has more value on human life? When ignorant people like state your opinions as if fact, quote, "keep in mind that Asians, Koreans, etc. do not value human life like we do either." I have to wonder where you get your information that you can make such swarthing remarks about an entire race of people. You must have personally talked to EVERY asian person in the world and then compared them to EVERY other person in the world (and considering there are over 6 billion people... you must be incredibly fast about it as well) and then drawn accurate verifiable conclusions. I have met many asians, koreans, etc. (what the hell is etc? does that include white, black, hispanic, norewegian, spanish, portugeuse, brazilian, russian, czech, slavic, middle eastern, french, english... need I go on? does this etc. include moronic persons as yourself?) that have a great respect for human life and do what they can to preserve it.
Oh yes... Americans have a GREAT respect for life... that is why innocent middle easterners were beaten and killed post 9/11, that's why America is named as one of the worst violators of human rights by amnesty international. That's why an American soldier RAPED repeatedly a 67 year old woman in S. Korea. What great respect you all must have.
You can take any one instance and generalize it to the whole. There are people of all nations that respect life, and there are others who would decimate it. Part of valuing human life also is respecting others, your lack of sensitivity and general bigotry to those who you call immigrants (and they come to universities here to learn... do you honestly think that Americans are the best and the brightest... that's why america lags behind even third world countries in education levels of their children. Those that learn in the US general contribute to the world as a whole in a constructive way? What have you done recently that you can call worthwhile?
Also, read a little more will you? You will notice that he has been in the United States since he was eight years old (moved to the US in 1992 the current year is 2007, 2007-1992 = 15 years, he was 23 at the time of the shootings). If anything, he has been ingrained with American values... what does that say about what America teaches?
It is interesting that many of you brought up the issue of mandatory service in the Korean military. I doubt that he had done his military service yet unless he plowed through his work and became a senior in the span of two years as the service time in the military is 2 years 2 months. So if anything, he learned his shooting ability while in the states. Most of the time, the SKG gives extensions on service if you are going to school.
Don't be so ignorant to believe that America is the honest, shining example of a country that you believe it is, wake up and actually read news OUTSIDE of the US.
Another thing: They posted the search warrant on CNN... VIDEO GAMES WERE NOT FOUND. You can easily take video games out of the ideas of this guy doing what he did.
---
Now that THATS out of the way, some of the comments already made clear that he wasn't singling out video games, he was just using it as a example. He was stating that other types of media were to blame as well AS video games. I'd personally say that Video Games do make a decent example as they are a target of criticism most of the time.. so it doesn't surprise me that it was used as a example itself.
He's focus overall was violence in media with the example of video games in his speech.
Stamping mental illness warnings on IDs would do more harm than good. Firstly, not all mental illness cause anything near the scope of what happened at Virgina Tech. Secondly, even of the so called "dangerous" illnesses, it's a select few who react with violence. One of my friends- known him for ten years, at least, by now- has Schizophrenia, and is also Bipolar. Contrary to popular belief, people with these illnesses don't generally start being violent when they have an episode. My friend instead faces a wall, and cries.
As for me, I've played videogames since my hands were big enough to wrap around an NES controller. Hell, Final Fantasy taught me how to read. I played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom in kindergarten. I was a master of headshots in Perfect Dark. I study medieval longsword as a martial art.
I've not once so much as punched a person, in fact, I abhor violence.
And as for those of you expressing abject rage at Jack Thomsen and Dr. Phil- I even noticed a few wishes of death in this comment list- way to perpetuate the damned stereotype for all of us gamers.
-Etaos
Also, i think Violence in the media in this case, is a separate issue, because clearly, that's not the cause of some guy packing heat because he was pissed at someone. It goes much deeper than that, and to suggest that it's something as simple as 'he played violent games, and watched violent media' is ridiculous. I'm sure we all have a favorite movie with a great action scene where someone lost a limb or died in a gruesome way, only because we can take comfort in knowing that it's just Hollywood effects.
Expanding on that, it's too easy, especially in this day and age, where games have more focus on realism to just point a finger, and get a reaction from people who just don't bother to ask questions about something so trivial. If you have an opinion, express it, but at least have something more concrete than "cuz i said so" in a manner of speaking to back up what you say. Freedom of speech is a right, but not using your head before you exercise that right is just idiocy.
/me points at Dr. Phil
What if Dr Phil was president when the space shuttle columbia blew up? I bet he would have blamed russia because common sense says that russia had a a space race and arms race with us back in the 70s and they still hold a grudge.
AMIRIGHT?!?!
The police apparently know who the shooter is, but refuse to disclose his identity at this time. However, he is supposedly a 24-year-old Chinese male who came over to the United States on an education visa last year. He was living in the dorms.
First off, it's illegal to have a gun if you're on a visa in this country. Second, the serial numbers were filed off. Third, keeping guns in a dorm is against the policies of most universities. While I can't vouch for Virginia Tech, I'm betting it was true there.
He also had buckets of ammo, a bunch of extra clips, and he chained the doors of the building shut. This makes me believe it was premeditated.
Also, if he really was 23 when he came here from China, it's very likely that he's already put his time in with the Chinese military, so he's had military training.
That's about everything I've heard, and it's very possible that some of this information could be wrong. We won't know until more information comes out. But, from the look of it, he'd been planning this for a little while, and I certainly don't think video games were the reason why.
Yea I know, the only thing we know for certain about this guy are a few vague details. If the public doesn't know WHO did it, than how does Dr. Phil know WHY it happened? This pales in comparison to JT on the news yesterday blaming CounterStrike, before the bodies had even been counted.
@Zerodash
I think the shock of the community comes more from how quick the blame was placed, not so much that video games have been brought up.
I would like to see that research. Because I can see that making sense by counting crimes that were solved (criminals arrested) vs any time a gun is used.
You try to sneak into my house, I fire a warning shot, you flee. I call the police obviously, and the records show I fired a gun in self defense, no criminal.
That would make sense.
Et Tu Phil?
Are you really that stupid to say such an inane and mind-bogglingly stupid thing? Here are some things that, when mixed with a "psychopath, a sociopath..." can cause violence:
Coffee
PMS
Twinkies
Signals from the NSA on your teeth
Maybe the crucial factor is .... wait for it.... the fact that a person is either a (or prone to be) a psychopath.
Oh Dr. Phil, your years of reducing complex problems to simple solutions have taught you better than this... why do you betray me when i need you the most? *sniffle*
The only thing I find more sad than the incident itself is the sheer number of people getting into position to use this tragedy to further their various political goals.
I hate the way poeple use "common sense"
Common sense is not a good indicator of anything:
Common sense told us that the earth is flat.
Common sense told us that the sun must go round the earth, because it obviously looked that way.
The common sense argument is often used to stop a discussion in its tracks.
And common sense is used by creationists to cast doubt on real scientific fact.
Facts are not decided by a comittee, common sense is.
Thats why you should wait until you know the FACTS before you open your mouth Phil.
Because such a great deal of Americans are retarded and think they can protect themselves with weapons if necessary. Guns are only effective if you're the only one having them, everything else will just result in a shootout.
Compared to the rest of the industrial countries, America is the wild wild west, and that is nothing to be proud of.
Change your constitution!
What is it with people trying to sensationalize this? I mean really! The “Jack Thompsons” and now “Dr. Phils’ out there are already using this event to push their own agendas. Very limited information has been released and there’s no way they can draw conclusions on what’s happened. It’s sick!