Your Ignorance is Not Blissful for the Rest of Us

As some of you more news savvy readers may know, the United States Supreme Court is currently hearing a case effectively deciding whether or not games are protected by the First Amendment and whether or not the government should be allowed to regulate what gets sold and what doesn't. Those of you who are even more familiar with this concept may realize that it pretty much is asking for a lead-in to more control via government over free speech if it gets passed. You probably also correctly surmise that the gaming industry is one industry that does not need government involvement. You probably already knew that of the entertainment mediums in existence, the gaming industry has the highest level of success in keeping inappropriate content out of the hands of children, succeeding more then any other industry by a large margin (see Ars Technica's story on this).



Unfortunately for both gamers and the gaming industry, there are still the uneducated fools out there who rally behind the flag of "protecting the children" (something they seem to want free claim from being involved in) and cite some of the most cherry picked examples of gaming possible to back themselves up. Today we've got a live one coming from one Cherilyn Eagar, who clearly does not let her complete lack of knowledge, expertise, experience or good research get in the way of writing an article talking about nothing other then the complete evil that is video games.

Eschewing actual sources, Eagar pulls her "facts" from headlines, accuses anyone with a differing opinion of hers of being  "...desensitized by the violence you have been viewing in your media choices over time...". If that sounds bad, check out this exert:

If parents believe it is beneficial for their children to learn eye-hand coordination by controlling the joy sticks that teach them how to viciously vivisect and decapitate prostitutes with chain saws or how to sodomize their victims with broom sticks; if they believe it’s good sport to allow their children to terrorize victims by pushing them toward large rotating saws, controlling the torture time and agonizing reactions before being sliced in half; and if they believe their children will sleep better at night by controlling large drills that bore holes through heads or meat hooks that rip through abdomens while delighting in the victims’ horrified reactions to their guts spilling out, I would question parental judgment, but that is their prerogative.

 Here's my question, has this woman every actually seen a real video game? Or did she simply type "Top ten most violent game deaths" into her browser and link what came up?I know I've never seen any of these featured to me...except in popular movie series like Saw, which I never watched anyway.

Now, I'd normally be all for a reasonable debate, but Eagar goes past reasonable and dives right into zealotry. Already I have seen several people commenting on how they posted in her comments with reasoned out responses (some have even posted them elsewhere) only to be held up in "moderation" for content. Meanwhile, the few posts that actively agree with Eager's inane babble are going right up.
Addendum Notice: As of last night, replies in opposition to her post have finally been allowed up on the site.

I wouldn't recommend spamming her page (after all, she's after attention here), but rather, I bring this up just to call to attention the ridiculousness of position against gamers. Clearly, someone here isn't doing the right amount of careful thought, and I don't think it's the party with the controller cables.