Violence and evil are complicated and disturbing parts of life. Bad people want to hurt other people. Maybe they’re hurting themselves. Maybe they’re masochists. Maybe they’re nuts. Don’t know. Each situation is different.
Does watching the Lone Ranger drive someone to become a murderer? What about playing hours and hours of video games? Watching Rambo movies? Don’t know. Any of those things might act as a trigger for someone already unbalanced, but there I go, speculating on something that’s complex and difficult to explain. Plenty of disturbed people never harm anyone. They might creep others out who come into contact with them, or they may even harm themselves, but many–dare I say most?–never act out their aggression and frustration in the form of hurting others.
For what it’s worth, here’s Penn & Teller’s thoughts on the assertion that video game violence leads to real world violence and that those games teach children how to kill.
Warning: NSFW language.
