Personally, I'm not even going into the arguments about how video games or movies desensitize people to violence. I just want to talk about my experiences. Be warned that I'm going to be a little graphic here.

I play violent video games all the time, I like gory horror movies, I saw [I]Die Hard With A Vengeance[/I] when I was nine (ok, ok, so my dad covered my eyes at some parts :) )... by all rights, I should one extremely desensitized individual, right? So what would people like Mr. Thompson and Lt. Colonel Grossman say about my response to the real-life carnage of the CBS program 9/11 a few years back?

The screams of two people burning to death set my nerves completely on edge, despite the legions of people I've shot, crushed, blown up, burnt to a crisp or otherwise disposed of in all the murder-simulators I own, but what really got to me was later in the program when you could hear the sound of human bodies shattering after falling from the tower... it was the most disturbing thing I've heard in my life. I felt my heart rate shoot way up and I felt very nauseated. I mean, I don't think anything in a video game could possibly prepare anyone for that sound. You're telling me that the almost-comical squishy sound in games like Half-Life when people fall from high places can possibly compare to the real life cacophony of what sounded like every single bone in a body breaking? Please.

Another case...

Back in July, I had just seen Miami Vice a few a hours before (a fairly violent movie, I must say), and was riding in my dad's car to pick up my brother when sudddenly, out of the night - [I]Kamikaze Cat From Beyond[/I]! It did not end well for the KCFB. I got pretty queasy. Again, why didn't the violence from the movie desensitize me? There's a part in the movie where someone gets flattened by an 18-wheeler and you see a long smear of blood on the highway. We didn't even see any blood when the very depressed creature went under the wheels. Why was I bothered by seeing a little thing just vanish from view?

You know, maybe I should sue the makers of violent video games and movies. Their gory, ultra-violent products have failed to desenstive me and shield me to real world violence and have caused me emotional distress and pain and suffering when watching documenteries, suicidal cats, or the blood when I accidently cut my chin while shaving two weeks ago (I swear, there were like three drops of blood- I almost passed out).

So, am I just a person who's sensitive to real world violence, or is the "Violent video games desensitize people to real world violence" argument just pure bunk?

By the way, I hope this post doesn't make me come off as a Brendan Fraser In Bedazzled-sized sissy who cries at sunsets and plays odes to dolphins on guitar... my family is currently waging a war on mice, and I feel like bursting into evil laughter every time we nail one of the little suckers with a mousetrap.

Oh, and a note on KCFB...we barely missed another one this month. Geez, what do they do, plan out their attacks in advance? During the whole drive home I was paranoid that it was circling around to the roads near our house for another attempt :eek: .