Hmmm, well the old nerds and their activities vs. sports and the activities of the mainstream is nearly as old as time. I agree with most of the points made, and it does come down to mainstream acceptance vs. fringe interests for the most part. The one I mostly disagree with is the part about health, while I disagree with video games being responsible for obesity, I do believe that people who actively participate in sports are going to be in better shape and healthier than those who don't, despite the injuries and such that can be endured. When it comes down to a simple interest in sports however, a guy sitting in front of a TV watching football and chugging beer and sugary beverages while chowing down on munchies is effectively no differant than anyone else looking at a display.
While somewhat unrelated due to my major point above, I will say that I think the obseity epidemic is one afflicting most advanced nations to one extent or another. America as the most advanced with the highest standard of living is of course hit hardest, and this follows on down the pipe where there is a direct correlation between the general access to technology and the fitness of people. Less need for manual labour and active travel means greater levels of obsesity and other related health problems. Simply put obsesity comes from people living sendimentary lifestyles, and driving cars everywhere and such. As nice as it sounds to say "find 30 minutes a day for exercise" that's not as easy as many people think, especially when you consider that one of the big problems with advanced societies is stress which can have a profound effect on people physically and their levels of fatigue. I think a lot of the perception of Americans as being fat and stupid has to do with us being drama queens and unlike most other nations that keep their problems relatively quiet and to themselves, America likes to yell it's issues from the rooftops in the most overblown and exagerrated way possible (since sadly we think we're that important) and it's not surprising that people think that since we're pretty much the ones screaming it on that level.
I'll also say that when it comes to kids and video games and such, I do not think that the problem with kids being less active as well has to do with them choosing to play video games or watch TV to the absolute exclusion of other things. I think a lot of the problem is that their options are limited. Unlike decades past situations like "Dennis The Menace" where kids roamed neighborhoods freely are gone. Not only are we concerned about predators who might be after the kids, but a lot of places don't want children wandering around unsupervised and getting into everything, adults basically having to be with their children even when it comes to parks, playgrounds, and other areas. If the adults are working or exhausted from working that means nobody is going to be taking Jr. to the playground or whatever with enough frequency for it to be a factor.
The truth be told video games are the latest in a long line of scapegoats for societal problems there are no easy solutions to. As Heinlan once put it "You can either have freedom or safety, never both", our reactive approach to law enforcement makes it so that actually stopping child predators and such is nearly impossible, typically action can only be taken once they have done something. To create an enviroment where pro-active approaches could be used would of course go against the grain of our central concepts of personal freedom. As odd as it sounds things like child molesttion, murder, etc... are deemed the lesser of evils compared to a goverment with the power to stop these things given all the other things it would allow it to do, and all the innocent people who would be oppressed in the crossfire. Another issue of course is child rearing, while "sexist" through most of human history it has been the job of women to stay at home and raise the children. You had mom around to take the kids to the playground or whatever else. Today you have a situation where both men and women work, and what's more the economy has changed where to get by most families require two incomes to make ends meet (meaning one parent, of either gender, can't practically not work in many cases), this leads to situations where not only are parents not around to take their children around to play, but in an increasing number of cases they aren't around at all. "Latchkey kids" are becoming increasingly common. Latchkey kids being kids, some surprisingly young, who are more or less left to fend for themselves due to both parents working. The term coming from the fact that the parents traditionally send them off to school, and when school is out the kids come home and lock themselves in their house where they are safe. Meals and such having been prepared and put away ahead of time. This technically counts as "child abuse" (via neglect) but it's a touchy issue because in many cases the parents have no real choice except to try and do this, if both parents have to work, and they can't afford daycare of some kind (which is VERY expensive).. well the results speak for themselves.
Blaming video games is much easier than addressing problems that are so heavily engrained into society. Nobody can magically fix the economy so families can be supported on one income (no matter which parent stays at home), nobody can address the safety issues without seriously hurting civil liberties, and so on. Basically in most cases when you look at the central issues we selected the least of potential evils in each case, nothing is without price. Evils are still evils however, and people don't like it, and given the whining there needs to be some boogeyman to blame for everything from problems with children, to obsesity (in general), to the perception that there is more violent crime (which is more an issue with easier communications, and news sensationalization, things were always this violent it's just the people of decades ago didn't hear about everything, and the news was less interested in exagerrating everything for ratings).
