Lordy, this Thompson character is dangerous. He reminds me of Fredric Wertham, the author of "Seduction of the
Innocent" - a rallying cry for censors around the country to ban comic books. That man single-handedly set comics back
so far, and so hard that the industry still suffers today. Don't think gaming is immune. Nope, it's ripe even. When
you're up against a snake oil hawker who's willing to twist reality (like he does in the following quotes), you
know you're not dealing with:
1) wisdom
2) restraint
Remember, Thompson wants us dead to prove his point. Here
are some snippets from his interview on 60 Minutes. He's discussing a case where a boy (who played a lot of Grand Theft
Auto) killed some police officers. It's a tragedy that this buffoon is using to get famous. Simple as that.
"It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training that he
engaged in for hundreds of hours on a carjacking and police killing game, he would not have done what he
did."
We bet he can prove it in Alabama, too, Then there's this gem…
"The video game industry gave him a cranial menu that popped up in the blink of an eye, in that police station,"
says Thompson. "And that menu offered him the split-second decision to kill the officers, shoot them in the head, flee
in a police car, just as the game itself trained them to do."
That good ol' cranial menu.
God forbid, a kid buys "Gladiator" and ends up killing a bunch of Romans with a sword. Sounds silly? That's because it
is. Look, there's a serious discussion to be had here about minors getting their hands on mature titles. But with fake
arguments like this one stealing the headlines, how the hell are we supposed to have that serious discussion?
You know the phrase "Guns don't kill people, people kill people?" A lot of the folks on this jury will believe that
philosophy. Well if they do then let's hope they also believe that "entertainment doesn't kill people, people kill
people."
