Freedom Across the Internet!

If you're a Democrat (as you might have noticed I am), and you've been watching the news (as you might have noticed I do), you'll have heard about a Senate battle in Connecticut (as you might have noticed I have). This race is between somebody who, by his political history, should win no problem, and another dude. Messa Joe Lieberman is the one who, if you just look at what he's done, should win. Now, people are raising a stink about him being too 'Republican' or summat, but I have a reason aside from all that for disliking him. When I told my mom this reason the other night, she looked at me like I might have developed downs syndrome a bit late. The problem is this; he is against violent video games.

Now, me, I'm all for gun control. Make it so everyone has to register their weapons and such so that all gun crimes can be traced. If you know how I think, you'll see how I'm going to use this and can just skip this paragraph. So everyone has to have registrations on their weapons in my ideal law. This does NOT mean that people can't purchase whatever the hell guns they want. This does NOT mean that people are disarmed by their government. This means that people just are registered as owning a shotgun, an AK-47, and so on. Kind of like registering a car.

Lieberman has talked of a bill that would harm the industry greatly (back to games here). If we were talking about guns, he'd be saying that everything past a single shot derringer is bad. As it is, he's tried to suppress violent games as best he can. Which, as you'll notice, is not very well.

I don't have a problem with suppression of these games, in some forms. I don't think that an eight year old should be able to walk into Target and buy GTA. I think that we shouldn't bother with forming a government organization to rate games (as has been supported by Lieberman), I think that we should trust the independent board that already rates the games. Games should be restricted only when needed.

Games rated 'Mature' get treated, these days, as the plague on our youth. The real problem isn't that kids get these games; it's that parents won't take responsibility. I'm not saying anything bad about most parents. Most parents don't let their kids play violent, hateful games and then blame the industry when their kids are messed up. I'm not saying the games cause these problems. I'm doing the same thing done in the book Freakonomics. Great book, by the way. There is an association between intelligence of children in school and how many books are in the homes. There is NOTHING about having books that helps a child learn. It's that the house has parents who obviously care about learning and set an example. A parent buys Doom 3 for their ten year old is not likely to be a caring, nuturing sort of parent. They're more than likely just wanting to get the little brat to shut the hell up about the game. What would help children of our world grow up better is restrictions on parents, not on the games. If a person had to submit an application to be a parent, wait a month, and then have an interview, we'd have more interested parents and fewer fucked up situations like Columbine. Notice here: Columbine and video games are NOT connected. Bad parenting and Columbine ARE. Didn't one of the weapons come from one of the kids' dads or something? Having a weapon like that handy creates an immunity to hateful violence and such. Playing video games (modern ones, especially) show that senseless violence can have consequences (GTA, you get arrested and lose all your crap). Parents need to start owning up to the fact that they chose to raise this kid and they need to take responsibility.

If you've stuck around this long, nicely done. You get to see what this is all about; if you have the power to vote and live in Connecticut, write to Lieberman about this. If you're not of voting age, volunteer for a campaign that has no planks related to video games (don't go for one that supports them, as these create controversy. We want to keep this a private issue, not a government one). No matter who you are, write your elected officials and tell them what your stand is. If you're in another country, write to your officials and tell them your stand. If you don't care, then why did you read all the way down here?

You lose! Good day, sir!