"I feel like there is just as much violent programming in other countries and there is not the same incidence of factors. I think there are other factors contributing to violence in this country and not the media"
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Gilbert’s line lands like a calm rebuttal in a debate that usually runs on panic. As an actress, she’s speaking from inside the machine people love to blame, and that gives the statement a particular authority: she isn’t denying that violent media exists; she’s denying its usefulness as a scapegoat. The key move is comparative. By pointing to “other countries” with similar “violent programming” but different outcomes, she’s smuggling in an argument about American exceptionalism the grim version: if the input (media) is roughly shared and the output (real-world violence) isn’t, then the story has to move upstream.
The subtext is a critique of how political culture metabolizes tragedy. “Other factors” is deliberately vague, almost strategically so. Naming gun policy, inequality, mental health care, masculinity, policing, or social alienation would turn a broad observation into a partisan fight. By keeping it unspecific, she shifts the burden back onto the listener: if it’s not the TV, what is it that Americans refuse to fix?
The phrasing “incidence of factors” is slightly awkward, but it reveals the intent: she’s trying to sound empirical, not emotional, in a conversation that often treats entertainment as a moral contaminant. That’s also why the line works culturally. It resists the comforting idea that violence can be solved by censoring art, because that solution asks nothing of voters, lawmakers, or institutions. Gilbert is arguing, in plain language, that America’s violence problem isn’t a content problem. It’s a systems problem.
The subtext is a critique of how political culture metabolizes tragedy. “Other factors” is deliberately vague, almost strategically so. Naming gun policy, inequality, mental health care, masculinity, policing, or social alienation would turn a broad observation into a partisan fight. By keeping it unspecific, she shifts the burden back onto the listener: if it’s not the TV, what is it that Americans refuse to fix?
The phrasing “incidence of factors” is slightly awkward, but it reveals the intent: she’s trying to sound empirical, not emotional, in a conversation that often treats entertainment as a moral contaminant. That’s also why the line works culturally. It resists the comforting idea that violence can be solved by censoring art, because that solution asks nothing of voters, lawmakers, or institutions. Gilbert is arguing, in plain language, that America’s violence problem isn’t a content problem. It’s a systems problem.
Quote Details
| Topic | Peace |
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