Recently, another lawsuit has been filed against the makers of Doom as well as several other makers of violent video games. It's resulting from the Columbine tragedy, while terrible, is resulting in an even greater tragedy: Rampant Stupidity.
I feel sorry for the people who were killed, the people who had to fear for their lives, the people who had to wait and hope their child made it out, and especially to the people who lost their children to the incident.
But blaming it on video games is going too far.
Money-hungry people and fame-whores...er, lawyers are taking the tragedy as a reason to sue. I have since distanced myself from the fact that there was a tragedy involved and am focusing on my anger on the lawsuit. Because the lawsuit isn't just seeking 60 BILLION dollars (not Lyra) in punitive damages, but they're also suing to have VIOLENCE REMOVED FROM VIDEO GAMES. The suit would result in the loss of Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament, Oni, CounterStrike, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Deus Ex, and thousands of other shooter games.
If you want to blame the idiots who went around Columbine with weapons, that's all well and good. If you think video games inspired them to do that, you're misguided. If you think that it's your god-given right to screw with the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, you are, in my expert opinion, are f*cking insane.
And the insanity refuses to stop. People are suing to change the TIME SLOT MTV'S JACKASS IS IN just because their stupid son saw it and got a video camera, then sprayed his hand with bugspray, lit it on fire and attempted to put it out on his chest (Editor's Note: Hey f*ckheads, watch Farscape and go through a wormhole. And don't lead Ming the Merciless back to us, you f*ckwads). Others are trying to make it illegal for children to know what GAYS AND LESBIANS are.
This goes beyond stupid. Some may say that seeing things prompt other people to do the same. If you believe it, you're an idiot and you're likely to do just that.
Everyone, it's time to start drawing a line in the sand. There's a level of idiocy and crybaby-ness that exists today that is driving people into violent rampages. And both the idiocy and the rampages are increasing.
We _MUST_ start defining what level of stupidity we're going to tolerate. If someone with Down's Syndrome tries to eat his hand, it's the Down's Syndrome. That unfortunate person has an excuse for trying to eat his hand. If someone who's considered a 'very intelligent boy' coats themselves in ham, gasoline, then lights themselves on fire, they have nothing to blame but their own stupidity.
The level of stupidity that we're hearing about on the news is exceeding our species' tolerance. We may be self-destructive beasts that are slowly killing ourselves, but I'd like to think that if someone jumps off a bridge with a bungee cord tied securely to a sturdy rail, the fanclub of that someone will have the rationale to put on a bungee cords tied securely to a sturdy rail before leaping off that bridge. If they forget to tie the cord securely or fail to choose a sturdy rail, that can be overlooked if they were excited to being an imitator. If they forget the bungee cord altogether, that can't be overlooked. Let them die, doctors, we aren't going to get anything useful from their genes. In fact, the professional doctors should be given an award if they send an automechanic into the ER to deal with it.
I'm serious, we need to start killing off the stupid. Insane is fine. Insane we've put up with. STUPID is another thing entirely. When I was little, I once accidentally spilled my father's coffee onto my face. I screamed, I cried, but I NEVER SUED McDONALD'S FOR MY STUPIDITY! I made the screw up, I got pain. When did it become: Child puts hand in meat blender, child screams, parents sue meat blender maker because parents were too stupid to tell their kid to keep their hand from the meat blender or to move the meat blender to where the kid couldn't reach? I certainly remember a lot of stories IN MY HIGH SCHOOL YEAR of kids slicing off thumbs and fingers with bandsaws. THEY DIDN'T SUE THE MAKERS OF BANDSAWS OR WOOD FOR THEIR STUPIDITY!
So, I think that we should become a society of evaluation. If someone accidentally shoots their arm off, they're victims of misfortune. If someone jumps in front of bus and yells out, "KA-CHING!", they should be left on the road with the other roadkill. I'm not being mean, I'm being patient.
If this begins to degrade, I'm going to start assembling a group of people who can pass this test: "Put your hand into this running blender, shoot your right foot, swallow this glass of acid and smack yourself with this brick." Anyone who complies will be denied the opportunity to get on my twenty spaceships.
Lawyers and Politicians will be given a different test: "Someone just had their legs crushed under a Zamboni, what do you do?" If they respond "Sue the driver of the Zamboni" or "pass a law to make Zambonis street safe", they will be shot instantly. The right answer is, "Find out how they got in front of a Zamboni to begin with and find out why they didn't get the hell out of the way of the machine" (Zamboni's, if memory serves, only go about 5 MPH max.). I write this only for those who have a loved one who is unfortunate enough have the title of "Lawyer" or "Politician". We will have to keep them from practicing law or attempting to 'lead', though, so you are warned now.
Once we have chosen enough 'reasonably intelligent' people, we'll exodus to Mars. We might take an idiot or two with us, but all idiots will have their genitalia will be removed so that they can never reproduce. After about ten years, our genetically advanced Super-Human children will return and conquer Earth. The critically stupid will be wiped from the genetic gene pool and we will be free at last to live in a technological and philosophical utopia, which will require martial arts training and every citizen will have one tazer, sword or BFG (which will be for professional soldiers) for self-defense. Money will be useless. Having your name accredited to something great will be good enough.