Quest for Social Justice Is No Video Game

Re “Anarcho-Terrorists Cut Their Teeth on Video Games,” Commentary, Jan. 31: When Norah Vincent compares World Economic Forum protesters to “locusts” and encourages martial law in New York, she couldn’t be more wrongheaded--or ignorant about the people she condemns. As a participant in the anti-globalization movement, I can say that most of the protesters I have met are motivated by a deep concern with social and environmental justice--not by some video-game-inspired call to anarchy. Vincent needs to listen to the message of the protesters instead of fogging the issue with her ignorance of economic reality.

Scott Svatos

Thousand Oaks

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The odious Norah Vincent continues to ply her illogic in the pages of The Times. This most recent bout has it that “anarcho-terrorists” have become blissful addicts of video game violence and thus deserve a whuppin’ by the New York police. Surely she is aware that the real needle alley exists in the Pentagon, where addiction to simulated killing is called “training” and where graduates go on to zap for real. But those victims are usually Third World riffraff, so I guess on her screen that must not count.

As one protester of the global power grab, I’ve never come close to a joystick. Like most demonstrators’, mine is a desire for justice, not violence. I wonder where that figures on her ugly menu.

Doug Doepke

La Verne