Noel Gallagher blames violent games for London Riots

[Blackhand]

I blame stupid people who blame violence on video games for the London riots.

[shadowfox]

I blame a combination of the following things:

- Police killing some kid, who happened to be poor and black, and
- Bad parenting

[Dan]

What sensationalist nonsense: he didn't blame video games for the riots, he blamed the attitude of violence in society today which has come about, in part, from violent video games.

And is he wrong? Can anyone argue against the fact that society has become increasingly belligerent because of all the violence the mass media shows us every day?

Look, I agree the guy has turned into a bit of a douche, and goodness knows his last few albums have been incredibly shitty, but the crapload of nerd rage he's getting from the (now-stereotypically) whiny gaming community just makes us gamers look like we've got something to feel guilty about.

[sycogrim]

What sensationalist nonsense: he didn't blame video games for the riots, he blamed the attitude of violence in society today which has come about, in part, from violent video games.

And is he wrong? Can anyone argue against the fact that society has become increasingly belligerent because of all the violence the mass media shows us every day?

Look, I agree the guy has turned into a bit of a douche, and goodness knows his last few albums have been incredibly shitty, but the crapload of nerd rage he's getting from the (now-stereotypically) whiny gaming community just makes us gamers look like we've got something to feel guilty about.

Ok I must admit, I can see society picking up the bad influence of violence partially from gaming, however it's a mental thing really. I mean think about it, you tell a child not to do something, and what will they do?? They will disobey you just to push the limits.

Like Shadow says... BAD PARENTING... Most of those riots are actually kids, look carefully and tell me you see a full grown adult waving sticks and breaking windows or looting etc... That right there my friend is definitely a damaged system in the young adult scene. They should actually bring back corporal punishment and beat those kids senseless...

I was at boarding school and I got a jack almost every day ... But I can say I walked out alive and not so derranged haha...

[Alan]

the crazy things people say for attention.....

[shadowfox]

What sensationalist nonsense: he didn't blame video games for the riots, he blamed the attitude of violence in society today which has come about, in part, from violent video games.

And is he wrong? Can anyone argue against the fact that society has become increasingly belligerent because of all the violence the mass media shows us every day?

Look, I agree the guy has turned into a bit of a douche, and goodness knows his last few albums have been incredibly shitty, but the crapload of nerd rage he's getting from the (now-stereotypically) whiny gaming community just makes us gamers look like we've got something to feel guilty about.

I agree some argument can be made for the fact that media and games do desensitize us to violence to some degree - but there's no saying that games are the cause. Maybe look at what's going on in Cape Town at the moment with the strike ... and I'm talking first hand experience because I was standing and looking at it.

The strikers are hammering on cars, kicking over refuse bins, littering the street, attacking people, attacking the police - being generally violent, and I can promise you very few of them have ever played a game. It's probably a minority of them that even have a TV or watch movies.

But most of them DO, probably, come from broken families, were victims of violence themselves, had alcoholic parents, or a single parent trying to keep a family of five going. And didn't have time for punishment and discipline. And now, when you look at the situation in London - how many of those kids come from a whole, proper run family. Probably not a very large percentage. And most of them are dirt poor.

That is what is causing this - the general resentment fostered by the fact that people are feeling hard done by, that the world is unfair to them because there's a huge gap between rich and poor - they're angry and resentful and they need to take it out on someone. This police shooting was the final brick on the cart that broke the axle.

Games? Media? Useful scapegoats, because parents aren't going to admit that they suck at what they do.

[Voicy]

Fortunately people stopped paying any attention to the Gallagher brothers back in 1997.

[MOnk]

I agree some argument can be made for the fact that media and games do desensitize us to violence to some degree - but there's no saying that games are the cause. Maybe look at what's going on in Cape Town at the moment with the strike ... and I'm talking first hand experience because I was standing and looking at it.

The strikers are hammering on cars, kicking over refuse bins, littering the street, attacking people, attacking the police - being generally violent, and I can promise you very few of them have ever played a game. It's probably a minority of them that even have a TV or watch movies.

But most of them DO, probably, come from broken families, were victims of violence themselves, had alcoholic parents, or a single parent trying to keep a family of five going. And didn't have time for punishment and discipline. And now, when you look at the situation in London - how many of those kids come from a whole, proper run family. Probably not a very large percentage. And most of them are dirt poor.

That is what is causing this - the general resentment fostered by the fact that people are feeling hard done by, that the world is unfair to them because there's a huge gap between rich and poor - they're angry and resentful and they need to take it out on someone. This police shooting was the final brick on the cart that broke the axle.

Games? Media? Useful scapegoats, because parents aren't going to admit that they suck at what they do.

I agree with this BUT I don't think you can just blame parenting, it's the structures of society which have been formed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer that cause this kind of strife and resentment.

Just go look at who are the worst hit when the economic crisis hit or exactly what happens when massive corporations go under due to fraudulent or risky behaviour.

What I don't understand about the whole violence and games debate is where do people get this idea that we've become MORE violent? Do people not know about history at all, about the Dark Ages, medieval times, colonization, the holocaust, Stalin's USSR, and many more periods of time exactly like those where violence and death were a way of life. Were those also caused by games, drugs, movies, rock and roll...?

Also the way MyGaming cheery picks quotes and doesn't produce a link to the original source rather diminishes their credibility.

[shadowfox]

I agree with this BUT I don't think you can just blame parenting, it's the structures of society which have been formed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer that cause this kind of strife and resentment.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I'm not putting parenting out there as the sole cause of everything - there are hundreds if not thousands of factors at work. BUT, I do believe it is one of the primary issues. Everything in the way we view the world, our concept of right and wrong, our ideas about compassion, our view of the rest of humanity vs ourselves - all of these views are moulded and formed by your parents in your early years.

And then school's supposed to take things further and drum the necessary knowledge into the kid's heads. But you know what - the schools struggle because the students don't care, and have no respect for authority (and please don't punish the kids, that's nasty and inhuman) - and where does it begin? House and home.