I’ve been feeling sick, so the only energy for posting I’ve had has been Jack Thompson-related stuff. I’ll do better next week. Promise.

Speaking of Jack Thompson, he’s now in a full blood frenzy: Brokentoys reports he’s now threatening to sue the Florida Bar Association (I hear that professional organizations like threats!) Game Politics reports that he has also forwarded his complaint against Penny Arcade to the feds. My favorite part (from the brokentoys article):

[T]he purpose of it, of course, was to generate the sort of Internet-based gamers harassment of me that has caused me to coin the useful phrase “pixelante.”

You can’t disbar me! I’m clever! I come up with new words! Oh, I’m sorry, phrases. One word phrases.

It’s around here that I realized what the real problem with Jack is – he’s excitable. He gets worked up about ANYTHING. Hell, he’s got the motivation and drive to kick up three frivolent lawsuits before breakfast if his croissant is insufficiently flaky.

Violence in gaming and media does not appear to have turned any normal kids into mass murderers. Hell, those that aren’t fans of violent media tend to walk away from it. At the worst, you can say that if an individual (grown-up or teen) is in a precarious place due to other factors (bad home life, bullying at school, poverty, drugs, etc), media might perhaps be the factor that pushes him over the edge. Columbine had a lot more to do with bullying and ostracism than it had to do with Doom and Marilyn Manson, and punishing those who aren’t on the edge for those who are is hardly the hallmark of a free and open democracy.

I think Jack Thompson shares this worldview, but the problem is that Jack Thompson is on the edge of sanity. He believes earnestly that other people are as wired, zongo and as on the edge as he is. If you approach life from Jack’s perspective, it’s pretty easy to believe that the sanity of the masses is a frail eggshell that needs protecting. The problem, of course, is that most people are normal, and most psyches are fairly resilient.