"Moral Panics"

Over at Game Politics, a good point was brought up..at least a well argued one. That we shouldn't dismiss people's arguments due to their own unrelated actions, and so on. Although I think this is right on one hand...it's correct in theory just like communism...we live in the real world. In the real world, one thing actually DOES affect the other. A person may promote some sort of moral panic in order to prevent people from thinking bad things about that person. It's called the big lie, and it WORKS. It's surprising how often it works.

The question is WHY does it work? Moral panics tend to involve individuals, at the most intimate level you can imagine. Usually, it follows people thinking that THOSE people are attacking our faith..our family. And those people..well they suck. And I'm so much better than them. That's why these moral panic issues work. They become incredibly personal. So to even discuss it, to try and have a rational talk about it..becomes a lesson in being offended.

Playing to people's feelings of self-rightousness, is very powerful.

Here's a side-question. Is it self-rightous to point out the same trait in other people? Isn't that like unilaterally disarming?

Anyway. Such moral panics don't do anybody any good. No matter how sincere their beliefs are, they're spinning their wheels.

Here's a good example, on topic. In the current slide against video gaming..the question is WHY? Is it the graphic displays of violence? In that case, GTA is..well..kinda mild, let alone that Bully game, which from the look at it has no graphic violence at all. From what everybody is saying, it's the content. People don't like you playing a gangster. Fine. So it's all about the content.

If it's about the content, then GTA is mild. What's playing a gangster when you can do genocide? In most strategy games, some sort of genocide is possible. Right...or what about various RPGs? Now I'd say the storyline of most RPGs are very positive..but I'm a liberal. A religious conservative SHOULD be up in arms about say..Final Fantasy X, which is a rather negative game towards religion in general.

That's what I mean. It's not coherent. It's not well thought out. It's just a whispering campaign, where each person is saying something a bit different than the one before it, and that's how the issue is growing.

And yes, I dismiss the whole argument. Why? Because none of the people who are doing this ever mention that youth violence rates are dropping. They don't mention the evidence against what they are promoting. They're not making an argument in good faith. They're trying to win.