House Speaker Mike Johnson's remarks on Medicaid cuts reflect a familiar narrative of blaming video games for societal problems. This rhetoric has historical roots, tracing back to earlier moral panics over various cultural phenomena, including reading, music, and other media. Critics argue that this strategy merely distracts from addressing the real issues at hand. The tendency to scapegoat popular culture, like video games, serves political ends while ignoring the fact that many people on benefits are already working, thus revealing a disingenuous approach to poverty and economic disparity.
In the 18th century, reading was described as a "mania" and a "fever" as young people wasted their lives away in the pages of books, with spurious claims of copycat violence becoming increasingly common.
The concern that the new thing the kids are into is causing society's ills is as old as society itself, and it has long served a very specific purpose: to distract from the far more obvious causes.
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