a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
user-inactivated  ·  1308 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Kenosha Shooting Suspect Was In The Front Row Of A Trump Rally In January

Do you remember this conversation? I do. I think about it a lot, and it frustrates me, because I don't feel like I was listened to and given the chance to explain my thoughts. Instead I was ridiculed. What I was trying to express in that thread, poorly, because I don't often express myself well, is that even if there isn't a direct correlation between violence in the media and violent activities, it's still important to pay attention to the stories we tell, the messages we send.

Whether we're talking comics, or movies, or music, or video games, or whatever, we create powerful images. Powerful messages. They shape us, they influence us, and when we're not careful and self aware, we often don't realize it.

We are now witnessing a genaration of young adults, from teens to mid-30s, who have been exposed to games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, a sophisticated military recruitment campaign since 9/11, movies like "BlackHawk Down" and "The Hurt Locker" and "American Sniper," a complete glorification of the anti-hero "The Punisher" that has been completely transformed by Garth Ennis' Marvel Max Title to the point where his insanity and ultraviolence have been turned into virtues, and so much more.

I don't need you to agree with me, but I want to revisit this concept and hope you can see where I was coming from. I want to say, growing up and now more than ever, I see so many white good old boys just itching to play soldier and I think the stories we tell each other are very much to blame and I want you to understand why I feel this way. We live in a world of anger and frustration and violence and confusion and lack of self awareness and when we're not careful, video games and movies and comics all just add fuel to the fire, because people are impressionable, always have been, always will be, and when we don't have positive images to guide us, we become the garbage we consume.