Violent words can lead to violent deeds

It’s pathetically laughable that politicians have soiled themselves over banning violent video games, yet hate filled rhetoric against real people and groups is acceptable, and encouraged.

Over the last 30+ years, political figures have pointed to games like Doom, Grand Theft Auto, and Postal because they inevitably lead to violence.

Those games will take a perfectly normal person and turn them into an assassin. It gives them the tools, and training to be a mass shooter. It teaches kids to hate and lash out.

None of that is true, but that’s the stance.

Yet, those same people spend day after day, speech after speech, dehumanizing specific individuals and entire groups without concern.

We’re hip deep in xenophobia and homophobia. There is hate speech against People of Color, Jews, foreigners as a whole, other politicians, and anyone with a differing ideology. The list of people they hate seems endless.

There are rants that “we need to fight like hell”, “these people are animals”, “there will be blood in the streets”, over and over again. These are coming from “leaders” and the EX-President.

Point is, they believe violent video games lead to violent acts, yet they disregard that violent words and calls to action have led to real violence.

There have been threats of kidnappings, and taking steps to follow through. We saw real violence against Paul Pelosi. We’ve seen immigrants dehumanized and treated like livestock as they’re shipped around country. We just saw violence against an LGBTQ club in Colorado. We see repeated acts of violence by the police. And the biggest of them all, a full on attack against the Capital, because an ego-fragile punkass lost an election.

One politician after another is jumping on the hate bandwagon in order to gain votes and power. It’s shameful and vulgar. They are an embarrassment to themselves and their families.

This sort of rhetoric has no place in a decent society. These hatemongers need to be called out for their hate speech and voted out of office. Media outlets need to shut them down, not give them free airtime. Hate speech should not be confused with freedom of expression.

Since video games aren’t behind this, where should the blame be placed?