Do Video Games Cause Real World Violence?

August 23, 2019

This week, Kelly returns to the show to challenge the integrity of an old, old, old talking point so often trotted out in the wake of mass shootings (in that impossible space between “let the families grieve” and “politicize the tragedy”). How to explain the epidemic of gun deaths and massacres in this country? I don’t know. Ms. Pac-Man? Even though war veterans will tell you first-person shooters don’t adequately capture the trauma of combat (despite developers’ best… efforts?) and the sleeve-worn biases of ’90s-born moral panic, we’re back with the soft reboot of “video games cause problems,” which fell upon perhaps a new generation of ears, this time uncaring, Fortniting. … More Do Video Games Cause Real World Violence?

How Can We Best Protect People from Trump?

August 1, 2019

Your Good Friends are back from their escapist apocalypse to the very real one to check in on the impact of the president and the administration. Who are those most vulnerable in 2019 and is there anything we can do about it? Well, I got an answer, and it rhymes with “boat,” like the boat I’m gonna take back to Korea in 2020. For fuck’s sake, what a cliche — “vote.” Yeah, we’re not feeling so hot this week, reeling at both the human rights abuses and the seeming impossibility of American democracy rejecting the parasite of tyranny, whose envoy is only one part of a greater reaction to globalism. So, what are we left with? Is impeachment the fastest, strongest route? Can the immigration infrastructure be fine-tuned to best help people who need asylum? What can we do from now until 2020? Except for buy a boat? … More How Can We Best Protect People from Trump?