Oh God it's hard to resist.
Like stated, I'd really urge you to actually watch the video, if you haven't already. I fail to find anything in that clip that anybody here could even remotely disagree with, no matter their political leanings. I'm glad some people watched it-I thought it was a very moving speech, it deserves to be heard by everybody in this country.
I also have to say that given that I've had some really nice discussions with you in the past, some of your left-wing stereotyping is making me sad. Come on, you know better than that. I'm certainly not going to deny that there are plenty of examples of bias and nasty remarks/actions on the left, I've already acknowledged there are, and anyone on that side who engages in such things is just as annoying and less likely to be taken seriously as anyone else.
But try not to paint the entire side with the same brush, mmkay? Especially if you don't like it being done to you.
Oh, look, these lunatics are at it again. Kudos to the group that is trying to protect the victim's family.
Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Funeral of 9-Year-Old Arizona Shooting Victim
...these people will answer for this one day. Oh, yes. There's a special place in Hell for them.
Right now, in this thread, it would be nice if everyone would just shut up a bit. You're all saying you want this to stop, but you're in-fighting amongst yourselves at such a rate, it's honestly a bit hard to even keep up. The point here is that 6 people are dead, one of them a child, and the flat out main reason is because someone with an obviously noted by the people around him mental illness went unchecked and that person was given a gun. It's a tragedy, and the way you're acting isn't really being quite as respectful of those who have passed as you could be.
That's just how I feel at the moment, having followed this thread almost from the beginning. Everyone's allowed a rant now and again, right?
Yes, they are, and I THANK YOU for saying this
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Why I keep reading this, I don't know, 'cause I get a headache and get seriously discouraged by the end of it (that article about people buying up guns like crazy...WHYYYYYYYYYYY????).
I agree with the last point, and all of us can obviously acknowledge that politicians function in the real world while Hollywood functions mostly in the fictional realm.
I think that's the reason I'm less likely to blame the latter. Like you said, it's all fantasy, in general. Nobody is actually getting killed in the movies, or songs, or books. And the art is an imitation of the society that it's produced in. Violence was around long before movies, long before music, long before books, so what to blame for that then based on that fact?
Politicians have actual sway over people's lives. Everything they do has some immediate effect on our city, our state, our country. And violence has been tied with politics (and religion) far longer than it has with anything else. It's sadly nothing new, but just because it's happened for eons doesn't mean we can't start thinking about the potential connections that may exist.
I just think the culture of violence in America is enhanced, if by anything, more by absurdly violent songs, movies and games (none of which I even find remotely entertaining or enjoyable, but maybe that's just me) than by real people who, we hopefully all agree, truly don't mean for any actual harm.
Of course most of them don't, no. But I guarantee that if society became less violent, the entertainment would reflect that as well.
I recall an old quote from...Frank Zappa, I believe it was, on this topic once in which he said: "There are more love songs in the world than anything else. If music could make us do anything, we'd all love each other."
When one sad event crosses the line between the two, and other psychotic individuals witness the notoriety that comes with it, you can't unring the bell. The Virginia Tech shooter referenced Harris and Klebold as an influence. Harris and Klebold referenced McVeigh as an influence. McVeigh referenced Waco...
That brings me to my next point-if we're so genuinely bothered by such things, let's stop giving these killers so much attention, let's stop making the stories so sensationalistic. Violent media is popular because for all the public outcry, privately many people love it and watch it, for all sorts of reasons. We need to know all the gory, horrific details of the situations. I'm all for dissecting why these people acted the way they did and figuring out how to spot signs and that sort of thing, that information can be helpful. But that should be left up to the people who are experts in such things and that information should be discussed in a non-sensational way, in a way that shows these people as the disturbed psychopaths they are rather than almost romantic, martyr-type figures. By doing that, of course people who commit crimes in the wake of those who acted before them will reference those killers-they're still fresh in people's minds, everyone knows who they are, and it makes it easy for people to make crazy connections instead of take each incident as the stand-alone situation it is. Every killing is different and has its own reasons surrounding it-there may be themes that are similar, but there's also a lot of differences, too.
I hope that all made some sort of sense.
Of course, all this can be solved by responsible parents, peers, pastors, teachers, and others investing in the lives of these individuals and making sure they can't get a gun so easily, regardless of the motive.
Fully agreed on this, absolutely. I find you and I are agreeing quite a bit in this thread, you've had some very nice posts here. Just want to say that. It's always nice when people can find common ground
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Angela