Video Game Violence, the Norwegian Tragedy, and Bullshit Journalism
Last week one of the worst domestic acts of terrorism this century was committed in Norway, with the coordinated bombing of a government building and the shooting of a labour party youth camp leading to the deaths of over 80 innocent people, many of which having not even been given the chance to reach adulthood. It wasn’t perpetrated by a terrorist cell of bearded, Islamic fundamentalists, as was initially predicted, either, but rather (allegedly, we are all innocent until proven guilty) from a sole Norwegian citizen, Anders Behring Breivik, who was motivated through his own twisted political ideology.
The world sits stunned, even a week later, that any one man could go through with such a crime against humanity, and as is common with the after-effects of such inconceivable tragedy, people are grasping for any sort of explanation as to why. And, sadly, there are those who seek a scapegoat.
As was previously (and honestly much more eloquently) reported over at gamefront by one Ross Lincoln, there are individuals within the media who’ve decided that the catalyst for Breivik’s act of monstrous inhumanity was due to his proclivity to playing fantasy and military video games, specifically Dragon Age 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
In his expansive journal/manifesto, Breivik discusses (quite briefly, actually) his love for the Dragon Age series. This, as well as the coincidence that Breivik shares a first name with a character within DA2 (a mage also called Anders) seems to be enough evidence for Post-Chronicle reporter Jim Brogan to headline and scream from the rafters video gaming’s supposed responsibility in Norway’s tragic loss.
In his articles, Brogan states that the storyline arc of DA2 shares some similarities with that of Breivik’s own crimes. Specifically, how the video game charater Anders blows up a church due to their persecution of magic. This coincidence, according to Brogan, is enough to believe that the story of DA2 was what pushed Breivik over the edge, and gave him his inspiration to commit one of the largest domestic terrorist attacks in human history.
Fuck you, Jim Brogan. Fuck your insensitivity to the loss and mourning of the dozens of families in Norway by stating their loss was due to something so trivial as interactive entertainment. Fuck your lack of willingness to try and come with up any sort of real insight into this tragedy, to be happy instead with providing an “easy answer”, and fuck your use of an international tragedy to push your own stupid, anti-video game agenda.
Now, it’s well beyond the scope of a recently graduated post-teen suffering from arrested development who spends his spare time writing jokes about video games to deconstruct the reasonings behind Breivik’s horrific actions, but anyone with enough sense to casually glance at the unfolding event and Breivik’s own writings can see the stark reality that there’s something much deeper going on here than how a disturbed man spent his leisure hours. He discusses in his manifesto in detail how the rise of multiculturalism and leftist politics will be the death of Europe, and how the solution to Norway’s problems can come from racism and violence, and you’re going to sit there and tell me a game where YOU FIGHT DRAGONS is fucking responsible?
That’s like saying John Wayne Gacy killed because he enjoyed painting. Ban water colours.
There are shades here of the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, where instead of people wanting to tackle the difficult and frightening issues of teenage depression and high school bullying people blamed Doom and tried to get Marilyn Manson off the air. There are rumblings of political and racial hatred in nations throughout Europe and the world at large, and instead of people willing to take a look within at the direction society is going, we look for easy answers. Blame music, blame film, blame the pixelization of fucking dwarves and dragons. Just don’t ask the difficult questions.
Jim Brogan says this may be “the saddest moment in video game history,” to which Ross Lincoln says, and I agree wholeheartedly, that while this may not be the saddest moment in gaming history, it definitely is one of the saddest in the history of journalism.
