Politicians can be depressing. Such demagoguery. Material forces, such as poverty, and availability of guns, play second fiddle to video games and even langua

Politicians can be depressing. Such demagoguery. Material forces, such as poverty, and availability of guns, play second fiddle to video games and even language in the 2020's. One can't not talk about connections between these material forces and crime. I know criminal justice reform is an extremely contentious topic, both from a data standpoint and from a moral standpoint, but one can't just not talk about connections between changes in the law and crime. I don't live in Chicago, but in my city the police are saying that due to the decriminalizations of 'quality of life' crimes, and the elimination of cash bail for almost anything that isn't extremely violent, they are demoralized as they arrest someone and they either don't get charged, get released immediately, or get a desk appearance ticket. When we ask them why violent crimes have skyrocketed, they tell us, our hands are tied. Maybe the cops are lying, maybe not, but it's at least on the table as discussion topic. ... or we can ban all violent video games. Hey, here's an idea, let's ban all porn, that should solve all the sexual assault issues too. Let's ban alcohol and that should reduce violence, and ban smoking and that'll reduce lung cancer. It's so simple when the demagogues propose a solution.