Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ First of all, this is both correct morally & correct legally. I want to explore for moment why anyone would believe otherwise.

My theory is that it's connected to movies/TV. And that's why it's plausible to say that violent stories lead to violent behavior.

https://twitter.com/GoodPoliticGuy/status/1381674884925915137

2/ Most of the debate over this question rests on shallow #Literalist-thinking where causes need to be 100% demonstrable, and monocausal, of an effect before causality is established.

It's the wrong question to ask if seeing an action movie makes a person go out and kill.

3/ The question is whether movies (I'm including TV in that term) teach a society that certain behaviors are normal, expected, and/or valid.

If the only exposure people have to an issue is through warped, implausible, fiction, then they'll be incapable of evaluating reality.

4/ Note, this is part of my larger thesis that we abandon education to fictional movies. Movies clearly have power - which is why IMO they should be emphasized in schools b/c they obviously work - and why museums, travel, diversity exposure, higher ed. is needed to counteract.

5/ Movies teach people incorrect things about guns, police, and war. Which creates a culture that believes pervasive falsehoods, which in turn creates an expectation for, and acceptance of, violence.

A culture of enablers.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1381784988383870986?s=20

6/ This is why I emphasize enablers as much as perpetrators, because police violence persists in a world where the populace is conditioned to believe - as in the first post - that cops are allowed to gun down 'perps' as they try to escape.

7/ We know that implicit bias is a fact.
plato.stanford.edu/entries/implic…

In this case, as the image below claims, Black skin is implicitly seen as a weapon.

Source:

https://twitter.com/Fly_Sistah/status/1381756398065876992?s=20

8/ When societal reaction to police murder isn't horror at the lawlessness of an armed representative of the government, when people don't identify with the victim with a sense of "I'm next", then intangible culture has taught evil lessons.

Part of those lessons come from movies

9/ So, no, the movies don't make people go out and kill. And even studies that show it increases the chances for violence (see below) are asking a #Literalist style question.

Study instead how movies teach people to evaluate the world with myth not fact.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

10/ I call this the Amadeus Effect from the movie:

"From the beginning [the writer & director] both were open about their desire to create entertaining drama only loosely based on reality, calling the work 'fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri'"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus_(…

11/ I'm certain most people who know Mozart because of the movie (11 Oscar noms, 8 wins, including Best picture) think that Salieri killed Mozart. But it was a 'fantasia'!

No matter: b/c people (apparently) learn best from movies. Myths that enter culture as facts.

12/ Guns and war myths are where the big danger lies. See here for examples:

Mythbusters: mythresults.com/hollywood-guns…

Cracked (a surprisingly informative, yet unfortunately named, humor mag):
cracked.com/article_18576_…
&
cracked.com/article_19781_…

13/ TL;DR: movies teach myths that then enter society as background 'fact' which enables violence. That's why, outside of a #Literalist definition of simplistic cause & effect, movies can be seen to 'cause' violence, because they falsely teach that evil acts are normal & expected

14/ @threadreaderapp please unroll.

@threader_app please compile.