Ask people if the think Lawrence Welk music is bad. Compare their ratings of the music to how much of it they listen to. You’ll find out — surprise! — that the people who listen to Lawrence Welk music don’t think it’s bad!!! So that proves that it is!

Because, y’know, the irrefutable proof that someone’s opinion is wrong is they disagree with you

That study proves equally well that not playing video games is harmful, because some people who don’t play video games don’t agree with me that they’re not bad. They don’t agree with me, they’re therefore wrong, case closed.

In decades of watching this crap, going all the way back to the attacks on D&D starting in the 70′s, I have never seen a valid study on the topic. Every last one I’ve seen, or at least that has been widely publicized, has started with a conclusion and sought data to prove it. That’s how law works, not science.

I’ve seen studies “prove” that video games are bad because serious gamers don’t get as excited while playing a violent game as non-gamers do. Well, duh. We’re used to reacting to a fast-paced, confusing game; like driving down the San Diego Freeway, if you’re new to it you’ll get all stressed out about it, but if you’ve been driving it twice a day for years, you don’t even have to think about what you’re doing unless something goes wrong. That study used this to “prove” that gamers get desensitized to violence. Helloooo, we get desensitized to stuff moving around really fast on a computer screen that we have to choose the right control inputs to score points from. I suppose if the study had showed that gamers’ pulse rates, etc., did increase more than those of the non-gamer group, then it would “prove” that we get off on violence, too.

Sticking with the driving model, when I’m doing a long road trip on the interstate, I “get in the zone” and I would guess that my vital signs are at or below my normal resting levels. That doesn’t mean that I’m “desensitized” to driving. Rather, it’s that driving on interstates is something I’ve done so much that I don’t have to be all keyed up to think about what I’m doing; the reactions are pretty much hardwired by now. Likewise, if I’m driving through Boston, my heart rate is through the roof, etc., but that doesn’t mean I get off on driving in Boston, just that it stresses me out.

If anyone tried to “prove” anything about driving by using the same standards they use to “prove” things about the effects of playing video games, they’d be laughed out of the room. Why does logic, common sense, and science vanish when games get involved?

Both sides of the political divide have ‘em — what I call the Nanny Staters. They know what’s best for you. No, don’t try to argue. Just be quiet. We know better than you.

*sigh* *headdesk*

–TR

This is just the SOS with a twist of feminism. “Stereotypes” are now the issue. I’d love to see what harm the Italian plumber stereotype does to 14-year-old males and society at large.