Dont Blame Mental Health Or Pharmaceuticals, Blame The Video GamesDigby Jones Yes, Eric Harris (Columbine massacre) was a Doom fanatic and immortalized himself on the Internet by creating in-game levels that closely resembled his high school. Yes, Anders Breivek (Norway massacre), Adam Lanza (Newtown massacre) and Aaron Alexis (Navy Yard massacre) were all big fans of Call of Duty. But are these bloody 1st-person shooters really the trigger that sends volatile young men over the edge? Why did they all share a common affinity for violent video games? The answer is really quite simple and understandable, and to this day I am amazed how I have not witnessed a single mainstream media figure who has presented a similar argument in detail. Here it is. A person who has an ongoing habit of feeling mentally disturbed, bitter, jealous, envious, or just outright angry with the world is going to channel those unpleasant emotions and attempt to self-medicate through one of the easiest and most gratifying sources which are available to them. For most young males in the developed world, this is violent movies or video games. It is just common sense to assume that potential spree killers are not going to have a large repertoire of G rated recreational pursuits and hobbies that coincide with their devolving moral character and judgment. If violent video games were truly the source which causes people to suddenly snap into committing unspeakable acts of violence, then why is South Korea among the safest societies on the planet? South Korea has among the highest per-capita spending on video games than anywhere else on Earth (far more than the USA), and a wide variety of violent titles are without doubt among the most popular. In fact, the violent computer game Starcraft is actually so popular in South Korea that competitions between the nations best players are televised events, where lucrative financial rewards, tabloid stardom, and graduation to being a sex symbol are on the line. (Hey, whats normal to them amazes us.) Yet with all these countless numbers of Koreans who regularly rip Terran marines apart with their armies of zerglings on their computers, the nation of 50 million people has somehow avoided a mass shooting. In fact, hardly anyone gets shot in Korea, period. Of course, Korea is by no means an anomaly. Around the world millions upon millions of people who enjoy violent video games do not wake up in the morning and exclaim Im all jacked up on Starcraft and Call of Duty, and Im gonna murder somebody today! It just doesnt happen that way. But the mainstream media in the United States literally wants to make such shallow arguments seem plausible. Here is a recent example. Fox News host Martha MacCallum and frequent contributor Dr. Keith Ablow recently said that video games, not guns, are to blame for the mass shootings in America. I kid you not. They actually believe that a conscious human being, 100% in control of his/her destiny in choosing between whats right and wrong, and wielding a tangible firearm accompanied by a very loose trigger finger, is somehow less responsible for mass shootings than these fantasy realms which inhabit a TV screen called video games. MacCallum even said that guns are irrelevant to mass shootings. Thats umm. interesting logic. So are cars now irrelevant to vehicular homicide? Why does the mainstream media constantly resort to these brain-dead arguments that violent video games are the root cause of mass shootings, while completely neglecting other key factors? When are they going to stop pretending that mental health issues and the potentially devastating side-effects of psychotropic drugs are not the real culprits? Just what is the mainstream media trying to hide? Here is the answer. In the United States, the mainstream media is doing their best to maintain access to the $2.4 billion dollars a year that pharmaceutical giants spend on television advertising. If CNN, FOX, or any of the other three-letter, alphabet-soup networks run stories that present prescription drugs in a negative light, they risk losing a vital source of revenue. For some news outlets, money speaks louder than morals, and unfortunately things are not going to change anytime soon. This article first appeared on Ingenious Press. Follow us on our Facebook and Twitter Pages for weekly updates on independent news and other alternative media. 