Limbaugh: Why Not Blame ‘Hunger Games’ For UCSB Killer?

FILE - This May 14, 2012 file photo shows conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh speaking during a ceremony inducting him into the Hall of Famous Missourians in the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. On Wednesday,... FILE - This May 14, 2012 file photo shows conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh speaking during a ceremony inducting him into the Hall of Famous Missourians in the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Mo. On Wednesday, May 14, 2014, Limbaugh won the Children’s Choice Book Award for author of the year for his best-selling “Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims." (AP Photo/Julie Smith, File) MORE LESS
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Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday joined the ranks of those questioning whether Hollywood movies played a part in motivating Elliot Rodger, the son of a filmmaker, to go on a shooting rampage before taking his own life near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Limbaugh singled out “The Hunger Games” franchise because Rodger’s father, Peter Rodger, was an assistant director on the film.

“This is crucial! This is what this guy’s dad did. It’s teenagers killing other teenagers,” Limbaugh said on his radio show, according to a transcript. “It’s a survivalist game. It doesn’t matter why. They’re being forced to, but they’re still doing it.”

“This kid might say he was forced to by societal pressure. Right. Some of them are adults. But it still involved killing,” he added. “‘Why not blame Hollywood movies here?’ Oh, we can never, ever go there.”

Rodger also recorded a YouTube video before his deadly shooting spree in which he vowed to exact “revenge against humanity,” women who spurned his affections in particular. Limbaugh guessed that Rodger believed “everybody was just having a life of pure, total hedonism,” and suggested Rodger’s father contributed to that warped perception.

“What could go wrong here? You’ve got an estranged mother and dad,” he said. “The dad produces oddball moves like ‘The Hunger Games,’ and as a side hobby, he takes photos of nude women’s bare rear ends in exotic locales around the country… They’re in art galleries! This guy takes black and white — for the most part — artsy photos of nude women from the rear, focusing on their butts.”

Limbaugh wasn’t the first to examine Rodger’s connections to the entertainment industry. Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday provoked the wrath of actor Seth Rogen and director Judd Apatow when she suggested that “frat-boy fantasies” depicted in Hollywood movies, like the moviemaking duo’s new film “Neighbors,” could have informed Rodger’s twisted version of reality.

h/t Politico

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  1. Avatar for lew lew says:

    Why not blame the UCSB killings on a misogynist pedophile who spreads hate? Seems like a more logical connection.

  2. Avatar for theod theod says:

    Let’s blame everything but the crazy modern interpretation of the 2nd Amendment by the gun mfrs. and NRA. I, for one, am blaming sunspots today. Tomorrow, the gravitational effects of Uranus.

  3. Hunger Games or no Hunger Games, he still wouldn’t have been able to commit the crimes without access to a gun. Furthermore, I doubt that an inspiring story about the triumph of the human spirit in the face of oppression, featuring an empowered female protagonist, shaped the perversity on display in Elliot Rodgers’ creepy Youtube vids. The talk-radio rantings and ravings of a well-documented misogynist, however, might have had some effect.

  4. Wait, I’m confused. Isn’t The Hunger Games the right wing/NRA’s utopia?

  5. Rush obviously never saw the movie or he’d be cheering for the idea of such a world and competition. Republicans hate younger voters and have their own version of voter suppression/hunger games strategies. Who do these conservative doorknobs think they are fooling?

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