Rated 'S' for Spurious!

Hey, remember last week when the President said-huh? Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I'm super-sick of talking about him too, it's just that he's just constantly doing and saying ridiculous shit for the sole purpose of attracting attention. Well, not good attention, but like any reality TV show star, or toddler, I'm not sure he cares.

"Good attention, bad attention, what's the difference?
The important thing to keep in mind here is shut up."

-White House Press Secretary

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

The ESRB is also why I get carded by
clerks younger than my Dragon Warrior IV
save. But I guess that's just the price we pay.

Yeah, remember last week when the President, in a moment of pure inspiration, suggested that the film and video game industries should have some kind of rating system? Well he did and we all laughed because, you now, the MPAA's had one since 1968 and the ESRB was established back in 1994 to rate video game content. But Donald Trump, as everyone knows, is a man of action. The kind of man who would totally run into a building and single handedly subdue a gunman. So calling the gaming industry to task is like, no sweat.

According to Sarah Huckabee Sanders, he'll be meeting with 'members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front.' 

"What am I as a member of the video game industry going
to do about gun violence? I don't know, vote for Democrats?"

Gaming has been linked to cosplay that
crosses into furry fandom, but not violence.

Except no, that's not happening. Nobody in the video game industry seems to be aware that they're being called into a meeting with the President, at least according to the Entertainment Software Association. In a statement they gave to Ars Technica, the ESA points out that  "[t]he same video games played in the US are played worldwide; however, the level of gun violence is exponentially higher in the US than in other countries." And that the scientific consensus is that there is no link between gaming and violence. 

Above: Another child led astray by
agriculture...when will it end?

Which, I don't know, makes sense to me. I've played video games for as long as I can remember and I don't feel particularly violent. And besides, if video games influence behavior in the way the White House is suggesting, wouldn't that cut both ways? Like, one of the most popular games right now is Stardew Valley; a farming simulator. Is there some spike in Four H Club membership we should be worried about? So if video games aren't contributing to the epidemic of gun-violence in America, what is? 

Is there some other element of our political landscape that doggedly promotes guns as an essential part of American identity while at the same time recklessly lobbies against any form of reasonable restrictions on gun ownership? 

"No, no, it's video games, no need to look any further. And I for one think it's
 time the video game industry took responsibility for promoting gun violence-did I
say gun violence? I meant just violence. Guns don't kill people, video games do..."

-Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA and

someone who can sleep at night...somehow

You know, like that parade the Pentagon
is putting together because Trump
 thought it would be neat.

But whatever, as far as the White House is concerned, the take away here is that the solution to gun violence is rating systems. Oh, and meetings. Meetings with the people who make the games that are not linked to the epidemic of mass shootings. So why then is this meeting happening? That is, if it even is happening and it isn't just some extemporaneous comment the President thoughtlessly rattled off and now his staff is having to scramble to set it up so they don't look chaotic incompetent.

Maybe it's because blaming violent movies and video games is like, way easier than addressing our obsession with guns and our underlying culture of violence and less politically fraught than challenging the lobbying interests that make weapons so easily accessible? I don't know, that's just a guess.

Hey, speaking of our taking a long, hard look at our culture, what is a
 reasonable number of assault rifles to lug around in a crowded store? Five?