14 DAY TRIAL // Elliot Rodger’s violent outburst that left 7 people dead including himself has reopened the debate on whether media, cinema, games, and social media alter behaviors to the point where they encourage violence by glamorizing it and giving youngsters unrealistic expectations.
After Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday wrote an op-ed on the topic arguing that actors like Seth Rogen and filmmakers like Judd Apatow could be considered “responsible” for an act like Rodger’s, controversial US commentator Rush Limbaugh is also chiming in.
He too believes that movies are to blame for these random and apparently senseless acts of violence, and he believes he knows just the movie that did it for Rodger.
“Have you seen any of the Hunger Game movies?” Limbaugh said on his most recent radio show, The Guardian reports. “Do you know what they're about?… This is crucial! This is what this guy's dad did. It's teenagers killing other teenagers. It's a survivalist game… They're being forced to, but they're still doing it… This kid might say he was forced to [kill] by societal pressure.”
Rodger’s father was indeed a production assistant on “The Hunger Games,” the film franchise based on the young-adult series of novels telling the story of a post-apocalyptic society in which the elite keeps the masses “entertained” by organizing annual events in which representatives from all the districts fight each other to the death.
Limbaugh also thinks that social media played a part in Rodger’s frustration because people on these sites “exaggerate about the fun they’re having,” which would make an “outcast” develop an inferiority complex and thus make him or her more likely to act out violently.