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German Minister Seeks Jail Time For FPS Players
GamePolitics has the somewhat unbelievable news that German Minister of the Interior Gunther Beckstein is seeking jail time for violent game developers, publishers, and players. MSNBC has further coverage of the issue, which has pro gamers in Germany quite worried. From the article: "The draft law, a reaction to a school shooting that shook German public opinion last month, will come before the upper house of parliament next year. But it is already sending shockwaves through the 2m-strong German online gaming community. 'We have among the most drastic censorship rules for games,' said Frank Sliwka, head of the Deutsche E-Sport Bund, an umbrella federation for German online gaming teams. 'Now we are being labelled as a breeding ground for unstable, dysfunctional and violent youngsters.'"
After all, everyone knows Germany has had absolutely *no* history of violence before video games appeared on the scene.
Hehehe. Only country that started a world-war. Lost it, but needed a second failed attempt to learn that it was a really, really bad idea.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Those that think the problem was violent video games are looking down the wrong hole and denying their violent cultural heritage.
Since most FPS games involving Germany have our boys killing loads of Jerries, the dude could understandably be pissed. I'm surprised he didn't use the word "terrorist" to describe those dang gamers.
I hope the US never does anything stupid like, say - invade another nation, prompting hundreds of future games where Yanks get their asses kicked.
Oh wait.
At the risk of being modded "flamebait" I will answer the question. The school of thought where everything can be blamed on something external arose from modern social liberalism. The premise of it is that an individual is stupid and not capable of taking care of themselves and making their decisions, so the government must be everybody's nanny as it knows better. But since the individual is deemed not capable of taking care of themselves and making their own decisions, then anything that they do can't possibly have been from their own thinking...so it gets blamed on something else. The targets are often things that do not mesh well with the current social liberal view of what's good, namely non-social behavior like individual transportation (cars), things that can cause social disruption (weapons and views opposite to the entrenched government), and not sharing your resources with the rest of the people (wealth.)
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
In this world, my friend, you are much more likely to be thrown in a jail for *not* being an idiot.