Do racist/sexist/homophobic games have a negative impact on society

Yeah. Somewhat lame copycat thread of:

Are violent video games bad for society? (as opposed to the non-violent kind)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3660852

But it makes one wonder - if racism/sexism/homophobia are railed against in games why is violence any better?

Personally - I don't see violence in games as creating violent people (anymore than I think telling someone to have a Merry Christmas makes em a Christian or harms them).

I think there are too many factors to point to just one, and games I see as the least of them.

I DO see though some level of folks maybe being desensitized to certain issues, but overall I think most folks are smart enough to realize a game is a game and reality is different.

But hey, I have been wrong before. And your thoughts and input are always welcome.

Such games are a result of the society in which we live, not the other way around. Of course, it's a self-perpetuating phenomenon, so...

But to me it seems to be an oversimplification of things.

How we are raised seems to have more to do with it than many other issues IMHO, as I think those living around us have a greater influence than the things around us.

is that they 1) reprogram people's brains to be stimulated by certain actions, and 2) normalize sexism and racism.

The reprogramming has been studied quite a bit, and it's why people who play video games and then drive demonstrate higher levels of road rage. It's also, incidentally, in part why the military uses video games to train soldiers. LTC Grossman talks about this. In the old days (WWI, WWII), most riflemen shot above the heads of the enemy, because they saw the enemy as human. 16% shot to kill, the rest didn't shoot at all, or shot intending to miss. Our default as humans is to not kill each other.

So the military's challenge was to figure out how to reprogram people so they wouldn't see the other as human, and wouldn't stop to think about the consequences of their actions. So we went from bullseye targets to targets shaped like humans. We started training with popup targets, so we see, we shoot. see, shoot. seeshootseeshootseeshoot. They train people in a very deliberate way to get to the point where the consequence no longer is the death of a fellow human being. The new consequence is a feeling of accomplishment, of one's own skill, and that surge of good happy chemicals to the brain.

Part of their training also involves the dehumanization of The Other. Racism and sexism play into this - they aren't a separate thing. Dehumanizing the other is critical.

So I look at this from the army's point of view. These are the things that you do to bring a person to the point where they are callous about life and can dehumanize the enemy. It's effective. Without that training, we don't shoot people. With training, we do. That's an irrefutable fact within the military.

I don't have any reason to believe the effects on the brain are all that different if you haven't enlisted. Doesn't mean you will play a game and automatically go shoot someone. But that conditioning does change the way you react to things - like all conditioning.

I don't think they do any good and could easily be lived without. Why instill this sort of mindset rather than something productive. Same with violent video games. They don't add anything productive to society. They don't advance the mind. They have one purpose , to make money like these twisted reality shows people seem to enjoy so much.

Obstacles and force are essential components of certain game genres. Whether you are ridding the board of people, hamburgers, or nuclear devices are irrelevant in a non-material world where bodies can be destroyed and respawned. But in the world of animated images, bigotry becomes even clearer since what you're dealing with is pure symbols.

these people will be easily led anyway, if left on their own without guidance. even a candy wrapper blowing on the breeze can set some humans off. why bother scrying for fractures in the most delicate of human behavior.

most people can tell "right from wrong" according to their environment. most people also can tell imagination from reality, too. i try not to sell people short; so i will charitably assume most people can handle shocking thoughts. there will always be a few who cannot, but they were going to break anyway from any little thing.