The topic I've chosen to discuss is the idea that the President of the United States believes that violent movies or other forms of entertainment negatively impact people. For starters, I believe this idea is absolutely ridiculous. In an article posted by this site, Obama encourages film makers and others in entertainment to take responsibility for their products and announces the detrimental value of online violence to the lives of children. I find this to be a joke.
The president goes to stress that those in Hollywood don't "glorify violence", while implying his belief that tragedies such as the shooting at Sandy Hook were caused by on-screen violence. Plenty of my friends, as well as myself, have been exposed to numerous violent movies and video games..and yet, we all lead fairly normal, healthy lives. Why? Because the problem isn't with the content, it's with the PEOPLE who get access to it. The difference between reality and virtual reality is very clear to most of the general population. The large majority of us aren't going to watch Die Hard and suddenly have the urge to hunt cyber terrorists. Or finish playing Call of Duty and say "Hey, that looks like fun. Let's try it out on the street." If such were the case, tragedies such as Columbine, Sandy Hook, and others would happen on a more frequent basis as the entertainment our society enjoys becomes more violent.
You could argue that the majority of violent crimes happen for several reasons unrelated to video games. Most robbers are thinking of video games when they rob people. They're doing it for money. There are crimes of passion, which isn't exactly something movie producers are advertising people to do. Speaking of advertisement, a lot of violent games or movies come with a warning tell viewers not to reenact what they see. If Obama doesn't see that as taking responsibility for your product, I'm not surely exactly what he is looking for.
Violent entertainment isn't responsible for atrocities committed by those in the general public. It's just a convenient scapegoat.
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