Throwback Thursday: Video Games Don't Make You Violent
I wrote this post back in August 2019, in response to then-President Trump blaming video games for the violence happening in the U.S.
I Played Grand Theft Auto V Nightly for 3 Years. Here’s a List of Things I Never Did as a Result
In trying to shift the blame of white domestic terrorism from the actual white people committing it and the “president” who champions and enables it, there has been a lot of talk about the dangers of video games.
Listen.
I played one of the most violent video games, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V online, nightly for three years. And when I tell you I played? I fucking played. I was a troll. I’d get on there and grief people regularly if I wasn’t doing missions, selling dope or playing survival with my girl Carter.
As violent as the activities that I virtually participated in were, I somehow managed to play the game and never do any of the following in real life:
I have never stood on top of the Beverly Center and used a rocket launcher to take out the police and their helicopters.
I have never stood on the pier at Santa Monica beach and sniped people with a long-range rifle.
I have never blown anyone’s car up.
I have never blown open an armored truck with a sticky bomb and then stolen all the money inside of it.
I have never randomly walked up to a stranger on the street and stabbed them multiple times for no reason.
I have never led the police on a chase that resulted in the armed forces getting involved with tanks and shit.
I have never escaped said car chase by pulling into a body shop and having the color of my car altered.
I have never robbed a bank.
I have never stolen a helicopter, flown it over the city and randomly blown people up for no reason other than my own petty amusement.
I have never even had the thought of committing a mass shooting in real life no matter how entertaining it is when I do it with video game characters.
I have played every iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise since the first one came out. I have never even been tempted to try and steal a car.
In other words, your “president” and everyone else using this as an excuse is full of shit.
1) The villain (especially THIS villain...you know what, I could care less about what this villain has to say. Screw that guy)
2) I've often thought there is something systemic to American culture that manifests itself in the media that we ingest. Its something deeper that I can't quite put my finger on, and it's something that I'd love to explore even further. But either way, it's not video games/movies/music's fault that our culture is the way that it is.