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In other words, why is he being such an asshole?

For those of you who don’t know who Jack Thompson is, which I doubt is many of you as he’s become quite the enemy of gamers around the world, this is the guy who feels it is his right, nay duty, to condemn every video game which may have an ounce of violence, or immoral action in it, and link the use of these games to every shooting which happens in the US and beyond.

You only have to take a quick glance at the man’s Wikipedia entry to see the history of action against games developers, and gamers he has been inflicting on everyone for the last few years. Hell, he’s even blamed Bill Gates for the Virginia Tech massacre!

Jack Thompson is an attorney who seems to have got a bit of publicity for going after purveyors of some elements of pop culture which he thinks is ruining the world, and society within it, and so has carried on doing so in the hopes of becoming famous, or should that be infamous?

He’s achieved it, but he’s not loved as a moral crusader, except for television stations such as FOX news which know they can wheel him out after anything bad happens in the world, and get an explosive quote from this man who seems to hate anything which is fun. Rather he is hated by any and every gamer who just wants to have a bit of fun without some idiot sticking his nose in.

His latest rant of course has been about Steven Kazmierczak, the person who killed five innocent people in a Valentine’s Day massacre at NIU. Apparently, Kazmierczak played violent video games, including Counter Strike. Well, haven’t we all at some time or another?

The thing is, we haven’t all turned in to sadistic killers who shoot people we barely know for no apparent reason. So surely it can’t be the game that’s responsible, but the person doing the shooting?

Nope, or at least not as far as Thompson is concerned, as he claims Kazmierczak used the games to rehearse his shooting spree. And where’s your evidence?

Not only did Thompson appear on the news, blaming video games for the atrocity, even before the police had given a press conference, he is now trying to force the university’s public safety department to hand over documents which reveal the killer played games.

Jack Thompson, hear this: Violent video games do not cause people to go and kill other people, and neither do rap music, or Howard Stern swearing. What causes people to go on killing sprees are things like mental illness, severe depression, being ignored by politicians, and east access to weapons. Why don’t you try putting some of your obvious energy and time in to tackling one of those causes, and leave the rest of us in peace?

Oh but of course, I know why already… that wouldn’t bring you the fame you obviously desire.