The Big Picture: On The Subject Of Violence Pages PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | |
I hate it when people call these murderers subhuman, not because I have any empathy for them but because it's dishonest pandering bullshit. Those two people are human, and unless you're saying that they are literally of another species, any argument you have saying they're not human will be nothing but a no true scotsman fallacy. | |
Using Modern Warfare as a training simulator is not the same as "it inspired me to do it", so I think we can discard that altogether. Anyway yeah, it's possible but not likely. To add to Bob's point, a woman drowned her kids once because she saw a spider and took it as a sign from God. | |
Pretty rational and reasonable take. But man that is depressing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gppbrYIcR80 Nice momma cat there. | |
Sup, schizophrenic too over here. Two years in recovery from first psychotic break. I'm not sure how long you've been recovering or what stage you're at. But keep your faith in the medication and the doctors. Eventually the meds and the doctors' help will work. For me that took 3 months though. So just have some faith that once you start recovering, you're only going to get better. Also as to the way the media represents schizophrenics and that. Don't let it get to you, there are plenty of evil people out there who don't have psychosis; it's just that putting "Mentally Well Person Murders Person" doesn't quite make a good headline. So it can feel like mental illness gets beaten on a bit. So hoping your recovery goes well. | |
My break was years ago, back in my early college days. But I make a big deal about it with the media doing this because the misconceptions it perpetuates make people act irrationally towards people like us. Furthermore, because of the stigma against mental disorders and similar problems, a lot of people who should seek help never do because they don't want to be seen as crazy. And in a society that places so many stresses on people, we need to be willing to get help when we need it. | |
I'm gonna give it a try :)
When I'm talking about "gun->bigger gun" problem is that around here no one expects anyone except the police to be armed and therefore burglars etc extremely rarely carries any kind of gun occasional knives and of course tools but almost never guns. And for me having a gun I don't think I would spend enough time at a range to let it be worth it money wise since shooting ranges are scarce here. But I know from my time in the army shooting is really fun (a bit to much I think in hindsight...) and I've used assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, small guns and some other stuff in the weapon category. Shooting was fun but the "problem" is that it was so fun to learn how to kill witch disturbs me. And of course you should be allowed to defend yourself but the problem is that it's easy to step over the line that makes your defense illegal assault. And having a gun around makes it even easier to just throw a shot against the all of a sudden fleeing criminal and killing said person... and therefore a crime. But if you didn't have the fun but say a stick you would have to run after the person and then you have to think if it's needed and if you really want to waste energy plus that if you do you can even claim you did it whilst "in a fit of rage"(I think it is at least) and even if you accidentally kill the person you might get away with a lower punishment.... And I can not see why it should be a "right" to have guns (I really don't care what someone wrote on a piece of paper 200+years ago...) And I'm free to own a gun but it's really hard to get license and buying one is expensive... And sure as hell my arguments are more than just "a bit out there." :)
Rare occasions yea that's just what home invasions are... and you are definitely right about stupid decisions about choice of weapon but that also raises a problem someone don't need a .44 Magnum to defend themselves but it could come handy if the attacker are behind a wall/armored/etc ie even less likely situations but should they not be allowed then to have a 120mm tank gun with HEAT ammo etc just in case?... I agree in the part of self defense but I see that with guns it's way to easy to step over the defense/assault line... And I only use the following for the discussion I'm not convinced to any side here. I do personally not trust anyone when it comes to self defense because they would screw it up not matter how well armed they where... And whilst screwing up maybe kill me accidentally... Agree on most stuff after the "tea party note" but they already tell you what to do it is for example illegal to kill people... ;)...
The problem here is that it's hard to see for many people but everyone has some common interest for example both you and Islamic extremists wants to live in a place that you think is "perfect" (sort of...) what is not in common is what you view as "perfect".. I do personally not care the least if all people in Mauritania wants to run around on burning coals as long as I don't have to... So what I try to push on to people is accepting each other enough to stop bothering each other on what either side is doing/thinking/believing/trusting/fucking/etc as long as they don't try force it on to the other side... Yea I know a paradise where everyone live together in harmony hippie style! But wouldn't that be nice? And there is always (for sake of argument at least) a peaceful solution. For example your example: And you might be surprised how far some have gotten in their theology (I think it's theology anyway) that they actually manage to go over their basic animal instincts. A bad example is people that walks on burning coals even though their inner "animal" says red coal=fire=hot=ouchie... What if no one would had started killing each other because we could share, would we then not have "missed" things like say the crusades and dark ages... :) And since this is an argument I don't really find the following a good idea (in almost any sense) but it is one: And why use nukes when you could just shut down the 'net :D or if serious and they just want dead people you have two more really bad things biological and chemical.... And I'm not sure if I wouldn't prefer a nuke in my head than those two... Finally we do agree on one thing (I think) guns is not something everyone should have, especially in public. (I do not agree in everything I written, it's for the sake of arguing) | |
Well said. Those on the side of "violent media does not cause violence" often go as far as to deny that media has any effect on us at all. I think this is wishful thinking. I think it does affect us--but how it does, exactly, I'm not sure. I'd really enjoy a public dialogue on modern media, its role in our culture, its history and its impact on the average individual... | |
To be honest, the criminals in your country probably don't use guns because your country makes it difficult for them to get guns. If you're willing to have the necessary laws and enforcement gun control can be effective. My entire point, however, is that the gigantic criminal subculture of 1,000,000+ gang-bangers in America makes that virtually impossible without having the National Guard roll into all the bad neighborhoods. And no one is going to let that happen because that would actually start looking like Fascism. But I think you're projecting a bit too much on these criminals. Burglars almost always hit a home when no one is there, if they're good at their jobs they shouldn't even need guns. Home invasions are a different story. The home invasions that do happen in America don't happen with assault rifles just because the homeowners might have a handgun. Your arms race analogy is pretty much bunk... except when it comes to gang warfare. The gangs do have arms races... but they're all with illegal guns, and it doesn't have anything to do with the average citizens owning handguns. They're far more concerned with shooting each other. This all goes back to my main point, which you have as of yet failed to address: are you willing to have an overpowered police state in order to get guns off of the street? You seem pretty willing to give away your freedoms, I'm curious as to where you draw the line.
Meh. Like I said, it's a personal decision.
Which is why I'm all in favor of thorough background checks and monitoring systems. (Also, I'd say there's a big difference between learning to shoot and learning to kill. There's a pretty common and well documented psychological phenomenon of deliberate inaccuracy when soldiers actually start shooting at enemy combatants, which is why the military uses desensitization as part of their training in addition to marksmanship.)
Our laws are actually fairly well developed to deal with those sorts of things. We just had a guy be sentenced to prison for 7 years because he shot at someone while they were running away in his back yard. Sure, that might be a problem for an individual, but it isn't a problem for the law.
Well, as I said above, saying that someone has the right to defend themselves but that they can't own guns is like saying that a person has freedom of speech but isn't allowed to publish books, hand out pamphlets or post things online. At that point the 'freedom' has effectively ceased to exist.
That line of reasoning will allow your freedoms to completely erode over time. You have to draw the line somewhere. What you seem to be advocating is that freedoms should be given up if they have any negative side effects. Well, I hate to break it to you, but pretty much all freedoms have some sort of negative side effect. If the government needs to intervene to protect your own life because it's too dangerous to allow you to do so on your own, then why shouldn't the government intervene in everything else. You can't speak if you're dead, and thus life is a more basic right than freedom of speech. You can't practice a religion if you're dead, so life is a more basic right than freedom of religion. If we allow for limitations to be placed upon your right to live by not allowing you to defend yourself, then I see no reason why we cannot put limitations on anything you say or do. Sure, an armed populace will lead to more gun deaths than an unarmed populace. Guns are dangerous. But ideas are more dangerous. This is why countries like Germany are exceedingly keen on censorship; they've seen firsthand what dangerous ideas can do. Even the U.K. had banned Clockwork Orange for about 30 years. Supposedly because it would promote street violence, but if you've actually seen the movie it's pretty clear that they banned it because it hit a little too close to home with its social commentary. But what's next? Criticizing the government is without a doubt the most dangerous kind of speech. The Oklahoma City bomber killed 168 people in order to protest the government. He was heavily influenced by anti-government propaganda. Perhaps if we protected his fragile mind from such dangerous ideas 168 people would still be alive today. So why don't we outlaw anti-government speech? I generally hate the American jingoism about how we're the freest country on earth, but the fact of the matter is that it's true. Europe seems to be terrified of scary ideas. Sorry if that sounds condescending. Do I like Neo-Nazis? God no. But I'll defend their right to speak their hate-filled minds. And trust me, they are dangerous and so are their ideas. Just look at the a%$hole who shot up the Sihk temple yesterday.
What the law needs to do is make it a case of reckless endangerment if you fire a high caliber round through the wall. I'm too lazy to check, but I imagine there's already something like that on the books.
Well... I think the death penalty is actually an apt analogy for gun control. Does the death penalty prevent crime? Let's imagine that it does. The problem is that for every 1,000 people you put down who deserved it, there's inevitably going to be one or two people who are innocent who get strapped into that chair and killed, helplessly. And for every 1,000 or so violent gun deaths you prevent, there will always be one or two cases where a family is over-run by psychos and raped, tortured and killed without the ability to defend themselves, helplessly. Are these rare scenarios? Of course. But there's something so wrong about these scenarios that many people find the whole thing unacceptable because of it. Frankly, that's why I'm against the death penalty. Going back to Clockwork Orange... I'm just curious... if you have actually had the pleasure of seeing the movie, I was wondering, how you feel about the kind of preventative treatment that the main character underwent? Obviously it had a lot of negative side effects, but let's imagine society another 70 years from now. Neuroscience has been perfected to the point that we can completely rewire people's personalities. Not so that they feel compelled to do certain things... I'm talking COMPLETELY rewiring them so that they actually desire different things, are happy with the way they are after the change, and don't understand why they acted the way they did before the change. In effect, we can make them different people. Surely this would be a lot more humane than throwing criminals in prison? Suppose neuroscience actually disproves free will. Suppose it develops to the point that we can predict exactly what a person would do in any given situation by looking at their brains. Suppose we can spot people who are prone to violence before they've committed a single act of violence, and that we can say with close to 100% accuracy that they would act violently or criminally if confronted with certain scenarios. If you're concerned about preventing terrible shootings and the like, we could install a cortical mesh on people that would monitor their brains from birth and would be able to recognize violent thoughts and alert the government so the individuals can be 'cured'. This is the best way to reach your utopia where violence ceases to exist. Are you willing to make that sort of trade off? I'm asking you legitimately. I can't see any sane person agreeing to such a scenario, but I don't want to make assumptions.
Umm... no. Interests are not objective things that people have in spite of their desires. Interests are determined by the desires and psychological makeup of the individual. Saying the Islamic radicals have some hidden common interests that they aren't aware of is tantamount to saying that the radicals are just confused. Sure, if they thought like you then they would have the same interests as you. But they don't, and that is the whole point. The Islamic radicals interest is converting the world to Islam and destroying non-believers. Their definition of a 'perfect world' is not some slight thing that you can get around in negotiations: it's what drives their position. In order to convince them otherwise you'd have to change their beliefs. When you say that everyone has a common interest what you're really saying is that there is only one right way of looking at the world and one right interest to have. My entire point is that there is no such objective way of looking at the world.
To be honest... I'm more concerned with humanity accomplishing magnificent things than everyone living long peaceful lives. A Utopia where everyone sits around contented seems like a slow languishing death for human civilization. Like it or not, human beings become complacent in times of peace. War, as terrible as it might be, drives us to accomplish things we wouldn't have bothered trying to accomplish during times of peace. If my society is running low on food or resources, I see no reason not to take from other weaker societies. Why should I watch the people who are close to me die or suffer just to protect the rights of a society that is distant from me? I bear them no ill will, but I take care of my own first. That's just the way life works. If you have infinite resources then great, there's no need for such violence. There can be no good or evil without choice. You seem to be more than willing to restrict people's ability to act in order to prevent suffering because you hold the prevention of suffering to be of higher importance than human freedom. We're going to have to agree to disagree on that one. I want no part of your 'utopia' if it involves converting humanity to a bunch of powerless sheep. I guess there are some people whose sole meaning in life is to peacefully chew cud, but I don't understand them. As far as I'm concerned, a safe comfortable life where I have no power or freedom is just not worth living. If they want to enslave themselves and eliminate all of their freedoms so that they can be comfortable, they can go do it in their own society, but they better not try to inflict that nonsense on me.
Lol. You're right. If you're willing to die or be enslaved there is always a peaceful solution: allow yourself to die or be enslaved. If your value system requires that people be willing to die rather than be violent then all I can say is that the world itself is heavily weighed against your value system. You can create whatever values you want, but I'm going to stick to things that won't get me killed. Your peaceful solution is only a solution for someone who has already accepted your value system. But you frankly haven't provided me or anyone who is moderately concerned with their own survival a reason to accept your solution. Why in the hell would I accept my own death on the pure luck of drawing a straw when I can fight to live? So allow me to rephrase, sometimes there isn't a peaceful solution for people who are actually concerned with their own survival.
1) Sometimes there isn't enough to share. If your argument is actually that there is always enough to go around, then your argument is just factually incorrect. 2) The crusades and dark ages are bad examples because they were also partially driven by religious beliefs. 3) Societies only develop through the concentration of resources and specialization. That means that things have to be unequal to some extent. 4) As I said before, without organized warfare cities would have never formed, and without conquest and slavery there would have never been any great empires. Some people might prefer to live in primitive communal societies in order to avoid violence. Frankly, I'd rather live in the Roman empire where there's running water.
That still involves a country being willing to sacrifice its own citizens for the sake of other countries. If your point is that if everyone was altruistic then then everything would be hunky-dory, then so what? It's never going to happen unless you intrusively go in and change human nature itself with biotechnology. You seem to have missed my entire point: it's perfectly rational to be self-interested and hurt other people for your own gain.
I'll give you that much. Not only that, but as I've said before, I'm totally in favor of having extra background checks and monitoring systems. | |
I begin with saying sorry for my rambling non structured thoughts, but long at at work...
So thanks to laws and the like that makes it hard to get guns makes the criminals have less guns....... Good to know laws work. :) I do not live in a place that is considered to have a overpowered police state (yet..), they are even considered to be sort of weak and punishment a bit low. So why do we have a lower criminal statistic than USA? I have seen "A clockwork orange" a brilliant film very violent and rather unlikely to really happen sure it probably exists some examples but how big is the chances of anything like that happening?... And changing people's mind is sort of immoral in todays society but it's already done, it's called commercials..
So explain again why you think just "sane" people should be allowed to own guns but not the "crazy" ones, do they not have the same right... Or do you give your freedom up as fast as you are declared "crazy"? I can't defend myself against a gang wielding knives without a gun but I still will get shot if they are wielding guns so what the F* would make the difference worth it? And I believe you are missing the point in my "living in peace is a good thing" if you don't agree why don't you go out and start WW3 it will drive mankind forward and pave the road for "accomplishing magnificent things"... And I know that war has brought us some fantastic things and so on but I think that what mankind is striving for is not to "accomplish magnificent things". It is as far as I believe a sort of magnificent thing to do, understanding, understanding the world and humans place in it. There has been a few people that has thought that perhaps "I" am not the most important thing in the universe or been close to something like that, for example one or two Dalai Lama... After reading your comment here one thing is clear, you see egoism like something good that mankind should keep on striving for I do not. I could however agree on something in between since I like shooting, ONE gun/household(or perhaps person) but no fully automatic, assault rifles etc, more like handguns or hunting rifles etc. With rare exceptions to own more and of course real harsh background checks and close monitoring if any crime or the like remove permit at once..... So two thing I would like to read from you: the following quote is perhaps more on original topic :) | |
Dude, we have over a million gang-bangers. I've said this repeatedly. And no, I'm not overstating it. There are over a million gang-bangers in the U.S. If you had a million gang bangers then you'd have the same problems as us. As to why we have a million gang bangers, yes it's largely due to our shitty education system as well as the illegal drug trade (which gives them something to sell). Basically, these people grow up in bad neighborhoods with crappy education and they think the only way out is to sell drugs. Then they get guns and shoot each other over turf to sell drugs on. I'm more than willing to pay extra taxes, reform the education system, and to vote to legalize marijuana, but unfortunately none of my countrymen are so there isn't much I can do about it.
Whaaaa? How is that? Do you live in Iraq or Afghanistan? Because, while I agree that we don't have much business being there, those places are pretty much undeniably more free now than they were under Sadam or the Taliban. But even if we have affected your country's freedom negatively, that doesn't make our country less free. It would make us dicks, make no mistake, but it doesn't really affect our level of freedom.
Easy, we have way less censorship and more freedom of speech. Sure, our society might be crappy in many other respects, and frankly it is. I'm not saying we're the best country, but we do seem to have the most well protected civil liberties. In Germany you can be thrown in prison for questioning the number of people who died in the holocaust. France recently banned the Burka. Believe me, I'm totally unsatisfied with just about every other aspect of American society. I'm just talking about civil liberties.
Well, of course it sounds stupid to us now. But human flight sounded stupid to everyone before the Wright brothers came along. And honestly, what is the alternative? That free will is a real thing that we'll discover scientifically? I highly doubt it. As neuroscience progresses so will our ability to understand and control the human mind. It might not happen for a while yet, but it kinda seems inevitable. So what happens if we can actually prove that human actions are more or less completely determined by genes and upbringing? That the criminals were inevitably going to be criminals given their circumstances? Should we still throw them in prison for something over which they had no control? When the idea of free agency dissolves so will the idea of moral responsibility, punishment and good and evil. Crime will most likely be seen as a disorder to be cured. So if you're really concerned with stopping crazed lunatics, gun control is never going to be as successful as having people routinely come in for neural retuning. It'll be just like going to the dentist's office, except it prevents crime. Or hell, we can just give out contentment pills. If people can just take a pill to fill them with a sense of contentment about their current scenario, regardless of how crappy it might be, then they'd have no reason to commit crimes. Contentment in a pill would probably be the best selling thing of all time. You wouldn't even have to force most people to take it. (Personally I'm not a fan of the idea because it'll probably be the death of human civilization, but I can't prevent others from taking it.)
You're kind of all over the place here... Why can we limit insane people's rights? -- Easy. Because society is a social contract and an insane person isn't mentally fit enough to enter into the social contract. They're non compos mentis. As far as the gang scenario, that's easy too. If you had a gun you could fend off the knife wielding thugs, and the gun wielding thugs probably don't want to get into a shootout when there are more well defended victims they can target. The fact of the matter is that guns are used for defensive purposes all the time. http://www.pulpless.com/gunclock/stats.html
Oh, I certainly agree that war can be terrible and counterproductive. Generally one only fights a war if there is something to gain, and the existence of ICBMs makes WWIII utterly pointless because there is nothing to gain. But unfortunately, we owe half of our technology to war. In fact, you don't even have to fight the war to reap the benefits. You just have to have somebody you fear that drives you to prepare for war. As crazy as it might sound, the Cold War is probably the best thing to happen to humanity in the past century. It's what drove the space race and the development of computers. War is also what drove the development of medicine and penicillin. And as far as discovering the fundamental nature of the universe goes, if you took away the defense spending from Physics and the life sciences there would be little-to-no funding left. America is probably going to have to cut its defense spending at some point. When that happens you're going to see technological progress slow down considerably.
Well, first off, I don't think I am the most important thing in the universe. I would gladly lay down my life for my loved ones. I'm just not willing to extend the same to complete strangers. And virtually no one gives their lives for some abstract notion of the 'greater good'. When a soldier jumps on a grenade, he does it for his buddies in the trench with him. When a mother jumps in front of a moving vehicle she does it for the child she pushes out of the way. The people who give their lives for the 'greater good' are usually lunatics who are obsessed with some ideology. I'm well aware of Buddhist philosophy. Alas, they are not an ally to your cause. They don't believe in changing the world. The point of Buddhism is that it is an acetic religious practice in which individuals renounce the world and try to transcend it. I greatly admire Buddhist monks because they have no delusions about what the world is: it is cruel and impermanent. At the center of Buddhist practice is the renunciation of attachment... not only attachment to one's self, but attachment to one's family, society and the entire world. You can decry egoism, but what I admire most about these monks is their personal strength and resolve. Buddhism is an individualistic religion. Your salvation is up to you. When Buddhist monks are slaughtered, they sit peacefully and await their death without fear or attachment to their own existence. They don't believe that they are martyrs whose deaths will cause the world to change. They are not trying to build a utopia on earth. They believe that such a utopia would ultimately be as fleeting and meaningless as any other earthly form of happiness. If that really is your philosophy, then I suggest you reject the ties of family and friendship as forms of attachment that lead to suffering. If you're going to be a Buddhist, then you should go all the way and be a Buddhist.
I would even take it one step further and say that you have to keep the assault rifles at the shooting range, much like how the gun clubs in the U.K. work. That would probably be the most effective way. Hell, I see no reason why we can't have light machine guns and explosives as long as they require special permits and are kept at a secure facility.
Well, I think I already explained #2 above. The U.S. has a lot less censorship than Germany and many other countries in Europe. We haven't banned Burkas in public like France. I think you're confusing my point about greater civil liberties with a point about having less inequality or more equality of opportunity. I for one, would love to have the socialized health care or education systems of those countries. But I think I'll pass on their restricted civil liberties. As far as #1 goes: I don't really support egoism so much as individuality. You can be self-sacrificing and altruistic as an individual, as long as you came to that conclusion on your own through deep reflection. I strive to be independent both in thought and in action, to be my own person. If that's your definition of egoism, then sign me up. As far as egoism is concerned, my point is not that egoism is good or bad. My point is that egoism is how the world works. Ultimately there is no objective good or bad. My value system is personal to me. If you value a stranger's life as much as your own, then that's your business. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if somebody deserves to have friends and family if they aren't willing to put them above others. The problem is that you can't make people good by restricting what they do. You can't legislate morality. Restricting freedom doesn't make your society more civilized, it just makes it more well controlled. Like putting a choke-chain on a pit bull. The answer to preventing crime and violence is to stop it at its source: to provide everyone with a legitimate means to make a living by ensuring equality of opportunity through a good education. Legalize drugs. Prohibition doesn't stop drug use, it only creates organized crime. Reform the mental health care system so that we can spot lunatics before they do something terrible. Gun control can't solve any of these problems, it's like trying to put a band-aid on a hemorrhaging wound. I believe in the individual, not the group. Look throughout history and you'll see that the most groundbreaking ideas always come from great individuals. If you put a hundred average people in a room they aren't going to come up with something ingenious simply through sheer numbers. In fact, they will most likely fall into groupthink almost immediately. People are dumber in groups because we have an inherent social drive for conformity and consensus. They are far less likely to question or think for themselves. Psychological studies have provided plenty of strong evidence for this, time and again. Show me a society with a value system in which the individual exists solely for the group and I'll show you a society that almost completely lacks individuality, critical thinking, and, most of all, tolerance for anyone who does not conform. Should we have compassion? Of course. But human beings are complicated creatures with a multitude of different drives and desires. To say that violence is an intrinsic and ultimate evil that must be avoided and prevented, no matter what the cost, is just another form of fanaticism. I find pointless cruelty and sadism to be as disgusting as anyone else. But I don't have nearly as much of an adverse reaction to violence that is driven by need. I won't pretend that I can stand above someone who robs and steals to feed his family as though I would do differently in the same circumstances. To say that we must only consider the greater good of the group and that all individual rights and needs fall prey to this greater good is just not something I'm willing to sign up for. | |
Even if you could prove beyond reasonable doubt that all the past "big" shootings that have provoked media attention were all the result of violent media, and only violent media, that number would still be statistically irrelevant compared to literally any cause of death in america, and would by no means make it reasonable to ban or restrict any type of media in any way. | |
Allready can. Didn't change anything. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=102082 If you're to lazy to read it, basically you can test a toddler for effectivness of fear conditioning at the age of three and based on that information much more than half the time accurately predict whether or not the child will commit a crime later in his life. This mind blowing and incredibly useful discovery has so far been completely ignored and used to help no one in any significant way. | |
Thank you, I see your points about France and Germany and I agree. Legalize drugs might work but I would start with better school system instead since it's a lot about "well educated" (generalization) people tend to do less violent crimes. Plus they create less children do it would solve two "problems" ;) And now two quotes I picked up on my way towards whatever comes: Individual persons are clever. /thank you and good night, it has been interesting but I am now bored with this discussion. =) | |
I skimmed it, and while quite interesting, it clearly only points our one potential cause of criminality. While it would suggest that we treat anyone who had that particular trait, it wouldn't be enough to stop all criminality. They aren't even sure what the exact cause is. They postulate that it's some sort of malfunction in the amygdala, but I don't think they actually looked at all the subjects' amygdalas to test that. Frankly you'd probably need more evidence than a simple skin response in order to single someone out for treatment; i.e., you'd need to find a way to test for the exact neurological mechanism that has been proven to be the cause. You'll need overwhelming neuroscientific evidence before you convince society to start treating criminality as a disease. This study is just one small step in that direction. The next step would be a more thorough understanding of how the amygdala affects criminality. A posssible experiment would be to find some way to temporarily inhibit the normal function of the amygdala in a large group of individuals and see if they are more prone to steal a pen or something they've been told is valuable than the control group. It was interesting though, thanks for sharing! | |
"Kids liked those things because kid's already liked fighting" | |
Unless we see a dramatic increase in violence from the majority of those that have been exposed to said media then I don't think banning anything will solve any problems. To me it is no different than if some psycho went on a killing spree proclaiming himself to be Isaac Newton. I mean it's not like we would ban science all of a sudden. How about we ban Fox news to start with.... as a test if you will. If that doesn't fix the problem then I doubt any media can cause anyone to go kill another person. | |
Oh Bob. It's so cute listening to you apologise for making excellent material;D | |
wow, the first worthwhile video on this topic I've seen in quite a while. I'm impressed. Thanks for making this video, very, very good job. | |
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It's easy. Fiction is the perfect scapegoat for psychopaths. Blaming some realistic (A song, a person, etc.) for someone's actions has a probability of being proven wrong. For example, if someone claims he murdered 50 people because his friend told him "he was a wuss", then they can interview said friend and prove it wrong. Of course, it's the same idea as when someone blames it on fiction: You can't prove it without a shadow of a doubt, but people tend to be more biased like that towards fiction. So when someone says something like "videogames made me crazy", people just simply nod and agree. Does that make sense?
But yeah, I'm really tired of people using fiction/videogames/TV/movies/comics/whatever as a scapegoat. That's why all of that gets a bad rep. But like Bob said, there's no possible way to prevent tragedies from happening. If the guy wouldn't have blamed Batman, he would have blamed Law and Order. Or his dad. Or a song. If someone would have noticed he was a psychopath, he might have still would have found a way to kill someone eventually. Maybe he would have stole his neighbor's gun. Maybe he would have gone to the mall on Halloween and kill people dressed as Batman. I don't know! It sounds horrible, yes, but the truth is you can't prevent stuff like that. Even if you banned everything in the world, people will still act like that piece of scum did. Maybe they'll go crazy because of the extreme censorship.
But you know what's worse? People who believe all that crap. But I'm going in circles now...
I c wat u did dur. Made me giggle.