The Fallacy about Gun Violence & Videogames

[Ghosty]

Get past the fact that this guy is on CNN and has an Arabic sounding name. He's actually ON THE MONEY when it comes to Foreign Policy discussion. His show "GPS" and articles are far in the way unbiased and very informed, using facts. This is a short article, worth the read:

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/12/dont-blame-the-video-games/

Ends with:


Yes, the relationship between popular culture and violence is complicated. And yes, we can quibble with the way different countries report crimes. But neither of these facts gets anywhere near explaining the differences between gun murder rates in the U.S. and those in its peers.As with almost everything relating to this conversation on gun violence, it is extremely helpful to start with facts.

I WISH THE ANTI-GUN LOBBY WOULD USE REAL FACTS TOO!

[spqrzilla]

You are serious about praising Fareed Zakaria? Uh, no. He's not "unbiased" at all. And his brazen plagiarism recently should have ended his career but he brushed it off by blaming others.

Zakaria's views on the TEA Party are enough to make me dislike him. (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fareed-zakaria-is-fed-up-with-anti-democratic-tea-party-they-were-not-elected-dictators/)

But his views on gun control (http://www.liberalroundup.com/politics/gop-tpd/242301-fareed-zakaria-begs-courage-from-lawmakers-to-enact-gun-control) only confirm that Zakaria isn't anyone I'm going to for opinion.

[Ghosty]

Thanks for the heads up. Worthy of further investigation, since my experience with him is almost exclusively with foreign policy. He is no fan of our enemies, like Iran, N Korea, etc. He is equally as critical of the more idiotic Dems as he is of Repubs and Liberts of the extreme variety, which I can jive with much of the time. As for that TeaParty thing I think he just has logical realization of the criticality of our (Moody's, etc ) credit rating in world markets, and the shitstorm for our economy, especially our manufacturing sector and exports if we got downgraded. In a time when it's all so fragile as it is. Why do something to make it even worse?

Didn't know about the plaguerism, I'll read more. As for gun-control, I'll try to find out how far from reasonable compromise he stands. I doubt it's along the lines of Fascistein & Biden.

[Ghosty]

Zakaria very CRITICAL of extremist Islam, Karzai scoring political points, and reactionary Muslim Imams/leaders across the world for being TOO LAX on the violent reaction to that Florida preacher who burnt the Koran:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/04/the-take-zakaria-on-the-quran-burning/

[spqrzilla]

And Zakaria thinks Hezbollah is a "moderate" movement. I'll keep ignoring him.

[Ghosty]

I don't agree on Hezbolla of course. They need to be continuously condemned. But in context, this is what Zakaria spoke of, and one of the only times I know of that has been close to "soft" on Islamic groups:



And now for the "Last Look." With all the talk about places of worship and where they do and don't belong, I wanted you to see this. This is the Magen Abraham synagogue. It’s not in Miami. It’s not in Tel Aviv. It’s in Beirut. That’s right, Beirut, Lebanon.

The synagogue is just now emerging from a painstaking restoration project. When the repairs began over a year ago, the temple was literally a shell of its former self. So why did this nation, often teetering on the brink of religious hostilities and hostilities with Israel, restore a Jewish house of worship? To show that Lebanon is an open and tolerant country.

And indeed, the project is said to have found support in many parts of the community, not just from the few remaining Jews there, but also Christians and Muslims and Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah, the one that the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

[Ronin13]

Noticed this in there- the "gun related death rate in the US is higher..." blah blah blah. That rate is usually not filtered so it would include justified use of a firearm for defense or LE purposes. Furthermore, if you look at our population vs places like, oh I dunno, the UK, you'll soon realize that we have a higher rate because we have more people! Oh my gosh, really? 315M vs 63M- our population is 5x that of the UK, but our gun-related murder rate is 1/3rd less than theirs.

[Ghosty]

Yep, I noticed that. And I've also seen that video about the (inflated American) stats included deaths by LEO's, etc. Not sure what the RAW stats are PER-CAPITA though, to make a good comparison. Would have to dig further.

But Zakaria is no idiot, if presented with the same figures, he wouldn't embellish them just for the sake of shock-value for his show, imo. I've seen him report foreign policy and world events for too long, and not witnessed that type of yellow journalism for the sake of hype.