 So predictably whenever there is a mass shooting in this country Republicans always twist themselves into pretzels trying to blame anything and everything but the actual cause guns and rather than talking about gun control rather than talking about What's fueling these domestic terror attacks white supremacy they talk about everything, but the actual causes of Violence and there's always one scapegoat in particular that emerges this time though It seems like the main scapegoat is video games. So here's Donald Trump Saying that video games are probably the cause because they glorify violence. We must recognize that the Internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturb minds and perform Demented acts We must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start The internet likewise is used for human trafficking illegal drug Distribution and so many other heinous crimes The perils of the internet and social media Cannot be ignored and they will not be ignored We must stop the glorification of violence in our society This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately So according to Professor Trump here It's not guns It's not white supremacy that's fueling these types of mass shootings and domestic terror attacks It's video games Because they glorify violence. I mean of all people to talk about the glorification of violence Donald Trump is probably the last person That I want to hear from on this issue the last person the man just had a Military parade he bragged about how the US military is so powerful That he could wipe Afghanistan off the face of the earth within 10 days He's locking human beings in cages in order to deter other immigrants from coming here He nearly bombed Iran just about a month ago, but now he's talking about the glorification of violence I mean Everything has been turned on its head up is down left is right He's talking about the glorification of violence really of all people Donald Trump is now supposedly concerned with the glorification of violence What a fucking moron If you are a Donald Trump supporter, how can you defend this? How do you not recognize the inherent hypocrisy in what he just said there? video games glorify violence Says the president who keeps wanting to increase our military budget Says the president who won't stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia Which they're using to bomb children in Yemen Unfucking believable Unbelievable now Trump is not alone because there are other Republicans who are also saying It's not the guns. It's not white supremacy It's the video games. What are your thoughts on that in terms of? understanding that words matter and that when we're talking to each other on social media or looking at video games where they're using, you know Videos of characters with these weapons Is there a conversation to be had about that about the tone that that this country is using it's become common place to see Whatever you want to anybody on social media I think we should and you want to see from these individuals what what they wrote and others but I mean This may be a place that we could find this ahead of time. There may be a place of what what's being written Can be changed could be an indication that an individual needs help and others that we can stop But the idea of these video games to dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others I've always felt that as a problem for Future generations and others We've watched from studies shown before of what it does to individuals Say how long are we going to let for example and ignore at the federal level particularly where they can do something about the video game industry You know in this manifesto that we believe is from the shooter this manifesto He talks about living out his super soldier fantasy on call of duty We know that the video game industry is bigger in the movie industry and the music industry combine And there have been studies that say it impacts people and studies It says it does not but I look at the common denominators as a 60-some-year-old father and grandfather myself What's changed in this country? We've always had guns. We've always had evil But what's changed where we see this rash of shooting and I and I see a Video game industry that that teaches young people to kill now that last guy who you heard from he's actually the lieutenant governor of Texas and Another reason he cited for these mass shootings and the frequency of them Perhaps it's due to a lack of prayer in schools These are not serious People but we bring them on television and Fox news and we treat them as if they're serious people These are not serious people. These are disingenuous individuals who are running interference for The gun lobby and white supremacy. That's what this is about and they talked about studies But notice how they didn't cite a specific study Okay, you say that there are studies that indicate that there's a link between violence and violent video games Name them cite these studies. They didn't cite these studies because this is an assumption that is absurd on its face It's moronic because out of all the countries that have video games where video games are incredibly popular Why isn't there more gun violence in South Korea and Japan? Why do video games only ostensibly promote violence or cause violence due to the glorification of violence supposedly in The United States, I mean the logic doesn't make sense there and understand how they never extend that logic to violent movies Why because they probably enjoy violent movies themselves So because they're ignorant about video games probably don't play video games never played video games It's easy for them to scapegoat video games because that's more easier than addressing the actual root causes of gun violence in This country they don't want to talk about guns because the NRA pays them not to they don't want to talk about white supremacy Because they know a large portion of their base They are white supremacists and they have to continue to stoke the fears about immigrants if they want to get elected But video games are not to blame here and I can say that with certainty because I am actually not pulling that out of my Ass a study conducted by the University of Oxford found no link between violent video games and aggression in teenagers furthermore a study by professors Cunningham Engel Slotter and Ward found that video games may actually Reduce crime and that wider availability of video games is actually correlated with less crime Because it's almost like having a hobby having something that makes you happy makes you less likely to commit crime Basic logic basic common sense, but because these people are disingenuous actors here. They're bad faith actors They don't want to address the root causes of the problem here They refuse to talk about guns. They refuse to talk about white supremacy. So let's talk about everything else Let's talk about how banning prayer in schools is You know part of the problem and that led to mass shootings. These are not serious people These are not the grown-ups in the room