Anybody that knows me knows I love to bitch about some Jack Thompson, the disgruntled and disgraced lawyer that blames video games on everything from school shootings to global warming. Personally I haven’t seen too much of him as of late despite a few incidents of shootings at schools in the news which leads me to believe the major organizations finally realized he was a crackpot and decided to stop letting him on their shows. Course right after I read that I see he was on the Morning Show last week but hell, no one watches the Morning Show.
Unfortunately, according to Kotaku it looks like we have another one now. It’s a female this time so maybe it’s Thompson’s wife or perhaps an admirer. Dr. Susan Bartel appeared on the Morning Show and stated that children experience a notable difference in their brain activity when they play video games. Wow, she has evidence of violent, evil, satanic thoughts children experience during gameplay? Actually no, Bartel just said that there’s a difference in brain activity, that’s it. This must mean that the child will grow up to be a serial killer if exposed for a length of time. Susan Bartel even goes into the Jack Thompson playbook by blaming the Cleveland school shooting on video games despite there being absolutely zero evidence that the shooter ever played video games in his life. Thompson tried the same thing after the Virginia Tech massacre you may remember, going on MSNBC’s Hardball and telling Chris Matthews that the shooter played Counter Strike and without it he would’ve never been able to pull off the murders he committed. This claim was later shot down by the shooter’s roommates. You know, roommates, as in people that actually lived with the guy.
Oh by the way, Kotaku lets the cat out of the bag. Dr Susan Bartel’s area of expertise? Weight loss for girls.
Article: Kotaku - The Other Gaming Expert
