Quote:
Originally Posted by gospodin
My mother used to tell me, "It's not what you say, so much as how you say it." Your comment sounded more like a rhetorical question than a legitimate one...sorry if i took it the wrong way. But so many Europeans turn their noses up on America, get a snotty, superior attitude ("Well, things like that certainly don't happen here"...sniff), and I just get tired of reading about more America-bashing. We're not perfect, and our country has done some pretty despicable things...but as Jesus said, "Whosoever is without sin, cast the first stone." The main thing I blame for the rise in suicide massacres is television, video games and movies. We live in a culture that seems to glorify these things, and there are so many tormented and confused individuals out there who can't separate reality from fiction. A normal, well-adjusted individual who, for whatever reason, falls into depression and is exposed to high stress, isn't going to go on a killing spree. But the sad fact is that the persons who aren't well-adjusted, who have a predisposition to violence and cruelty...or even a latent streak of it...tend to gravitate to violent, sadistic media for enjoyment. then when they finally lose it, they also have access to weapons. I support the NRA, and have quite a few guns myself, but our society has such unlimited access to guns, it's not surprising that we have these episodes. You live in a free society, and it's always tricky staying away from anarchy...where do you draw the line between personal freedom and restrictions of that freedom? In a smaller, older society like in France, there are thousands of years of trials establishing a decent, orderly and free society. The US is still very young, and very large, so we will continue having to deal with situations like this...our population is still relatively unstable in our dealings with race and illegal immigrants. Hopefully, one day people will change for the better. I'm not counting on it in my lifetime.  |
Actually, I notice that the arguments that Ambulance Chasers like Jack Thompson give (which are similar to yours, but a whole lot more rediculous, and horribly misinformed) are just highly invalid when looked further into detail. Most of the people I notice go onto this **** are people that are highly sheltered, never got chance at many friends whether it's because of society's general dislike for them or untreated psycological conditions. If left untreated, it lets the darkness inside them grow to the point where they would pull off this kind of stuff like this. The stuff that the shooters play and watch is what also what everyone else is watching and playing, they only represent a small percentage of the population who plays or watches these things.
Let me tell you, I bet you all of the shooters "friends" that are saying how normal minded he was and so on were probebly the same people that told him they didn't want to hear about his problems and that he should figure out how to deal with them himself.
The shooter that is the topic of this thread in the before the tragedy had:
-Been dumped by his girlfriend (very shortly before).
-Lost his job at McD's (very shortly before)
-Been kicked out of his first house by his stepmother and been to many foster homes and treatment centers (what type of treatment it was, it's beyond me, though it seems like it was ineffective) (5 years ago, still can have a large impact).
No matter what country you live in, you'll still have this kind of stuff happening, even if it is in the US, France, Russia, Germany, Poland, Antartica, or evenGeorge Orwell's Oceanaia (from Nineteen Eighty-Four). It won't matter if the media glorfies it or not. I personally blame Parents (of the shooter for not helping them find friends, and ones who don't teach their kids to repspect others, the school system (for doing ABSOLUTLY NOTHING helpful), and the media (mostly the news media and many TV shows, for saying there is only one type of acceptable person, and everyone else should be rediculed).