The Virginia Tech Blame Game Continues

It was really only a matter of time, but not only are Korean movies to blame for Cho’s actions but now video games are as well.

The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn’t even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.

Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history.

Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that followed, would continue to tell anyone who’d listen.

While people continue to debate what caused the shootings, more information about Cho is coming out from his relatives in South Korea as well.  They say he has always been a very quiet and withdrawn even when he was a young boy.  Over at Lost Nomad they have a good discussion going if Cho was autistic or not.  I have never heard of an autistic person committing mass murder before though.  It is pretty clear the guy had mental problems, but I don’t think that was the one thing that caused this tragedy to happen.  I don’t think there is one single thing that caused the Virginia Tech massacre like people are trying to find. 

It was probably a combination of a whole number of things that formed the mental state that caused Cho to commit his crime.  Just by watching and reading his manifesto it is clear he has mental issues.  I’m going to admittedly do a lot of speculating here, but you have a guy with a weak mental state who reportedly was bullied in high school, probably had what he felt was a lot of pressure on him to do well in school from his family especially with his sister graduating from Princeton, possibly was angered by girlfriend issues in college, and may have been jealous of others at college who had more money and friends then him. 

Movies and video games (if he even played games) may have been outlet for his anger for a while, but at some point the anger over all the false demons he created in his mind began to bubble over and began his outlet his anger by writing crazy plays, acting weird in class, starting fires on campus, and stalking women.  The mental issues went untreated and continue to manifest to the point he decided to buy a gun and commit his crime.  I really think that if people are looking for one thing to blame, don’t blame movies, video games, the Iraq War (yes I know it’s hard to believe but someone blamed Iraq for Cho’s killings), white supremacists, guns, autism, mental treatment, gun control, bullying, etc., blame Cho instead.  At the end of day everyone should be held responsible for their actions and Cho is no different.