Known for his hot takes Mat Walsh got his panties in a bunch when The Quartering post an innocuous tweet talking about Conservatives not understanding culture. He tried to weasel out of his prior stances, while simultaneously pulling the bigger platform card. Let’s see where this all starts.

What caused this all to flare up.

The right’s weird obsession with disavowing video games, anime, & social media is why they will never appeal to most of Gen Z. The base is literally dying off and most of the voices in the community are actively refusing recruits.

Matt’s not the only guy saying it, there was some other moron who tweeted “anime is for pedophiles” or something the other day

The Quartering's twiter

This tweet is what stirred the pot up. An nonchalant take on how Conservatives are out of touch. Mat defends his take by using common christian teachings. I don’t know about you but I don’t remember where video games or anime where mentioned in the bible. I understand he is extrapolating from things that where said. But for a more full look at mat’s take lets look over a article he wrote about the subject.

Mat’s Article

This article from three years ago refers to a speech held by trump while in office.

It’s been said that he “blames mass shooting on video games” but that’s not actually his position. That’s not anyone’s position. Nobody thinks that a child who plays a violent game will automatically go out and kill real people. Nobody thinks that video games are the only factor contributing to the problem. Mat’s Article.

I have a few problems with that take because I believe Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton said all violent video games make you violent. The only reason to say #NotAll is because the data does not support that. He then says we could go back and forth on the studies.

You can cite the studies “proving” that violent video games don’t contribute to violence in kids. I can cite the studies “proving” they do. And we can go round and round, throwing studies at each other until it finally dawns on us that maybe some things can’t really be proven or disproved with a study. Mat’s Article

He links This study implicitly clamming that this shows video games make you violent. The study actually says the opposite.

Violence is a form of aggression, but not all aggressive behaviors are violent. Very few studies have looked at whether playing violent video games increases the chances of later delinquency, criminal behavior, or lethal violence. Such studies are difficult to conduct, and require very large numbers of children. Violent Video Games and Aggression

The study expressly states that aggression and violence are different Mat conflates the to because it makes his point.

The next part is about how some mash shooters where fans of games and some where not and uses this ambiguity to say maybe violent video games are to blame. Mat! Do mass Shooters drink water? They do, until they get a mag of 45 acp dumped into their chests. That point is so absurd that no one should listen (and if you do there’s always 45 acp).

His next point is to apply “common sense”. His argument requires “Uncommon sense”. He says that a “moderate” video game habit. Without Violent games (What happened to #NotAll) is fine. And by “moderate” he means less than an hour. Just one hour of “eyes on screen” time per day and even less on games. My only hope is someone can inform mat of the game screeps. A game where you write JavaScript to play, a literal game where programming is how you play.

My favorite part is the last line.

That’s not good. Kids need to read books; they need to play outside; they need to have conversations with their parents, they need to develop interests and hobbies and skills that don’t involve staring into glowing boxes. Mat’s Article

How much do programmers get paid again? A lot. And one of the ways to get into the career is make hobby and open source projects. This guy must still use a fax machine.

Mat’s next point is the isolating effects of gaming. Laughable, does he know what a MMORPG is? Lots of games have multiplayer aspects. He also goes into the “link” between depression and video games. He doesn’t even try to link some in. Probably because the literature on the subject shows a small link if This study is to be believed. But even that one cites to others that show the opposite. And if this study only shows an association. Not a collation nor a causation.

The rest of the article is just more of the same, personal anecdotes and, confession through projection.