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If someone is involved in radical or extremist politics online and is an extremely skilled war/shooter game player how would that not have a bearing on whether
by nefitty 11y ago
If someone is involved in radical or extremist politics online and is an extremely skilled war/shooter game player how would that not have a bearing on whether that person is a potential threat or not? It seems to me that there is a higher possibility that the gamer will have impetus to act using his skillset than a counterpart armchair anarchist or fascist who is only surveying and studying the literature.
- bazillion 11y agoPlaying a war/shooter simulation is a far cry from gaining skills useful in real-life combat, urban or otherwise. For one, using a controller or keyboard to aim makes you better at using a controller or keyboard to aim -- that has zero bearing on whether or not you can aim a firearm. Not to mention that using that as criteria for watchlisting someone would be grounds for reprimand and/or review of every watchlisting decision the analyst has made (which is looking for reasons to fire that analyst).
- nefitty 11y agoThose are fair points, but use of simulated training programs is on the rise. I sincerely doubt that there is absolutely no link between virtual skill and real world skill.
- krapp 11y agoI would argue that being extremely skilled at videogame warfare still makes someone an "armchair revolutionary." It's not sufficiently removed from 'studying the literature' to warrant concern, any more than being really good at horror games versus reading a lot of horror fiction makes someone more likely in the latter case to commit grisly murders than the former. It may serve as an outlet but I don't believe it necessarily serves as a catalyst. The more time extremists spend online killing virtual people, rather than offline killing actual people, the better.