In other news, our society is fucked

[Beldaran]

Ass hole kills six people at Northern Illinois University. (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html)

Kid shoots sister in the face with a shotgun over a bag of chips. (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2008/02/14/burkett.sc.child.shot.wbtw)

What the fuck is wrong with people?

Parents need to stop working 26 jobs at once to buy their new shitty SUV's and gigantic obscene televisions and think for two god damned seconds about raising the kids they fucking squirted out when they were drunk at a college party.

Jesus Christ, fuck all the idiots in this bull shit country. We need to have a new law that says if your IQ is below 120 you have to be tied up and used as a fucking battery like in the Matrix. Fuck.

Stop fucking shooting innocent people when you want to kill yourself. Just kill yourself you pathetic douche bag.

[Pineconn]

As much ranting there is in your "prose," you're 1000% right. Also, people wonder how they get $30,000 of credit card debt in five years, yet they have 3 cars, a swimming pool, a 70" HDTV, and more crap that they don't need. [/digress]

But yeah, I heard about both of these incidents just today. During senior year in high school, everyone needs to be forced to take a class called "Extreme Common Sense and How to Not End Up in Jail" or just "How to Not End Up Like Britney Spears".

[The Desperado]

I can't figure it if its our parents generation that fucked us up, or if we're just a fucked up generation. Either way, its sad that in just a few weeks, everyone will forget this ever happened and completely forget about the major problem our country has regarding violence. Virginia Tech as what, about a year ago. And all the uproar and demands for change so that it didn't happen again have faded away.

[Lilith]

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[rock_nog]

Rant powers ACTIVATE! I absolutely blame our parents. They were the ones who put Reagan in office, twice. Nobody who co-starred in a film with a monkey deserves to be president. They're the ones who got hooked on the self-help craze. They're the ones who abandoned real religion for those goddamn megachurches. Say what you will about religion, but my God, the crap that passes for religion these days - if you love God, he'll make you win the lottery. Most utterly infantile approach to religion you can possibly imagine.

And again, say what you will about religion in general, but those megachurches are the reason we're so damn worried about the gays and evolution in this country - they need those issues to distract people, to ensure that they don't figure out how badly they're getting screwed.

Ugh... What it all boils down to is, our parents' generation got suckered into this flawed notion that (a) personal happiness is the most important thing in life and (b) that material wealth is the way to personal happiness. So they don't give a rat's ass about anyone else, not even their own children... they certainly don't believe in being there for the children - spoiling them should make them happy, they don't need love or discipline or anything like that.

I mean, look at us - a nation that's still collectively pissing its pants about 9/11, where we actively teach our children to care about only themselves, everyone else be damned, where interpersonal interactions, any sense of community whatsoever, are all going down the drain (and we're being actively taught to embrace the coldness and the isolation)... Ugh...

Our society is diseased. Thanks to our parents, and their "I, me, mine" attitude, we've come to a point where nothing has any value unless it has a price tag. Frankly, I can't say I don't understand why someone might be driven to do something crazy.

[Brasel]

I have some friends from NIU, and they all seemed to be okay. Most of them have long since been gone from there though. People are fucking dumb. I agree.

http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/catalog/stpky.html

[Icey]

It's very dubious as to whether you have a right to kill yourself... I would say yes. Some disagree. However, it is very obvious that NO ONE has the right to kill 5 innocent people... despicable.

As for the kid thing, that seems mainly like bad parenting. Okay, obviously the kid bares a share of the blame. But several problems are obvious. Why were the kids alone with access to a shotgun? Why weren't the kids - ages 9 and 10 - taught how to resolve such a thing before... or about the value of sharing? They are old enough that they should be able to do that...

Seriously though, I do see how the kids can have picked up the idea that material things are so valuable. I mean, it appears the parents aren't very involved in their lives, so what else do they have?

[Pineconn]

Seriously though, I do see how the kids can have picked up the idea that material things are so valuable. I mean, it appears the parents aren't very involved in their lives, so what else do they have?

A bag of potato chips and a shotgun....seemingly nothing more. :unhappy:

With drugs, alcohol, and sex wrapped up in so many lives, there really aren't that many "few good men" anymore. Of course, societal flaws such as these have always existed in America, England, and even Babylon for all anyone cares. The media just sensationalizes stories in order to earn a quick hundred viewers.

Eh, I'm really not in a mood to post...

[Feasul]

I'd just like to take this post to focus on the fact that the girl is alive and apparently going to be ok, albeit severely scarred. I just hope that this incident will give her brother a severe wake-up call and he'll learn how to respect other people's stuff.
I dunno, I have trouble saying "OMG, society's failing." Maybe it is, but I just don't see it. I don't see that the problems now are that much more numerous than however many years ago. Maybe that's because I was raised properly, so I know how to share, how to value someone else just for him/herself.
On second thought, maybe society really is failing. I always wonder why, for example, my girlfriend thanks me for stuff that I just thought were common decency. You know, respect, not getting mad over stupid stuff (like a bag of chips). I just thought that to do any less would be douche-baggery. Maybe there are just more douche-bags than I thought.

[Lilith]

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[The_Amaster]

Yeah, the NIU shooting was like 45 min. drive south of where I live, and people are a bit freaked out.

The world's going to hell in a handbasket. I'd rant, but you guys have summed it up really well, and I don't feel like typing it out.

[Skulkraken]

The world's going to hell in a handbasket? You mean it hasn't already?

Around here, the concern isn't so much about guns as violence and bullying in general. We just had a riot a while back involving about a dozen or so middle school students beating each other up because they hated each other's race. They kept fighting even when the cops called in by the school were right in front of them, ordering them to stop. Gang violence and racial disputes seem to be on the upswing lately.

[The_Amaster]

Just re-reading the thread...


people wonder how they get $30,000 of credit card debt in five years, yet they have 3 cars, a swimming pool, a 70" HDTV, and more crap that they don't need.
QFT!!!

[Icey]

The best part is, we're doing awesome today compared to pretty much every other time period. I was reading about the 1890s (Devil in White City lol) and there were 800 murders in a 6 month span in Chicago. There were about 400 in the entire year of 2006, I think. And people still moved to the cities in droves because the opportunities were better there than in the countryside. Life has sucked forever.

Yeah, I have to agree. I don't think things are really getting worse - after all, the fact that this stuff is in the news and is so shocking shows its relative rarity. But it does still suck.

[Shyvus]

My first thought was "Why wasn't the gun locked up?"

I don't wonder why kid knew how to load the gun. Plenty of guns in my house, shotguns and some others. I knew when I was young how they worked and I knew where they were kept but I didn't know where the ammo was. Only the grown-ups knew that.

I don't think that story is a matter of hell in a handbasket. It's irresponsible parenting. If you have a gun, you lock it up and lock the ammo away separately, both out of reach. Or get a gun locker. No kiddie is going to pick that. If it's a pistol for protection, you keep it securely hidden with a safety.

The boy clearly has major issues. We don't know what they are. We don't know if the kid has mental issues or what the family dynamics are. Can't assume a thing except that the worst the girl probably would have gotten if the gun were locked up is a broken arm or a shiner.

As for the materialism argument- I don't see how that's new. People just have the means to get stuff even if they can't afford it now. It's always been believed even cross-culturally that if you get higher up and you have more money you'll have what what you want to be comfortable. We really didn't see this in exaggerated action (thank you, credit cards) until our parent's generation. That's probably why everyone thinks it started there.

As for the shooting... these things don't shock me. I'm in college and they really ought to rattle me, but they don't. There have been bomb threats, lockdowns, and people running around with guns and knives at every school I have been to since 5th grade. The only difference is that this time, someone was killed.

The media didn't desensitize me. I don't watch TV. Watched rated R movies when I was little but those things always make me jump still. I don't even think twice about some ass with a weapon anymore. Just lock the door and carry on. If I'm gonna die, then I'm gonna die but I'll put up as much of a fight as I can first. Funny, because I used to be terrified.

[Breaker]

The worst part about that is that on the news it said "now the parents have one kid in the hospital and another possible facing criminal charges". WRONG. The parents should be facing criminal charges. What the hell?!

[MasterSwordUltima]

Helter fucking Skelter. In a couple of years we're all dead anyway, so why not go out with a bang?

[Aegix Drakan]

Society is effed up? What else is new?

...Ok...I can't really say much without paraphrasing everything above me, but still, I agree that society is slowly rolling down a long slide into oblivion.

Overall though, I agree 100% with pineconn's first post. Since most kids aren't learning common sense from their parents, and the world's favourite Babysitter (TV) is giving them the wrong ideas, we need to have a MANDATORY common sense course that goes ALL THE WAY FROM GRADE 1 TO THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL. Do that, and I'm sure that things would improve somewhat.

And lousy parenting needs to stop. I was raised by a wonderful family, and I turned out pretty good, while I met so many spoiled brats who would get violent if they didn't get everything they wanted, unconditionally.

Yep, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. I dont' think we've hit bottom yet, though. Things can still get a lot worse. But unless the human race learns some common sense, we are gonna be too far gone to turn around...If we haven't reached that point already.



The worst part about that is that on the news it said "now the parents have one kid in the hospital and another possible facing criminal charges". WRONG. The parents should be facing criminal charges. What the hell?!

Agreed. The parents left a loaded gun rolling around with a spoiled brat who was willing to actually SHOOT his own sister over a bag of effing chips. Bad parenting and bad gun control right here.




...You know...this reminds me about that debate topic I wanted to set up...

[The_Amaster]

So here's the question:

What makes us different? I think most people posting in this thread agree that parenting is in the toilet and the youth are spoiled. Does that mean that none of us are the result of that? And if so, why not? Conversely, are some of us the result of that, but don't realize it and see it only in other people?

I personally think the former, but that's because I think that the people here are intelligent people, and I recognize the dumb people as the ones with four posts saying "Hellllp!!! Hwo do I ste links starting place!!!11 :D:D:D"

[Beldaran]

I don't think it had so much to do with intelligence as just general outlook. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm smarter than this or that person, but I can confidently say I am more rational than someone, or that I have a less destructive personal philosophy. I certainly credit my parents with some of that outlook, but I also credit myself since over 90% of my personal philosophy is different than my parents and I got it all on my own from books and not the influence of those around me.

[The_Amaster]

Sorry, I forgot, I define intelligence differently then most people. I say that being smart and being intelligent are two completely different things. A smart person may be good at geometry, or play great music, but an intelligent person is one who pays attention to the world around them, isn't completely self centered, and notices things below surface-value. Someone who's aware, pretty much.

[bigjoe]

There was just a school shooting (http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=7842633) over at a community college near where I live.

Man, the rate at which things are degenerating is unreal.

I think I'll just get an old mobile home and move out to some cheap lot in New Mexico. I'd load it up with a VCR and some old VHS tapes. A Nintendo Entertainment System as well. Maybe a Super Nintendo. A regular television. I could live in the past instead of this modern crap life where every time you turn on the news you hear about innocent lives lost for stupid reasons.

[MasterSwordUltima]

I find it interesting how the shoot-outs only take places in schools, or other places of education. I don't remember the last time I heard of a shoot-out in walmart, actually I don't think I ever did. It'd almost be better to have a shoot-out there, not that shoot-outs are good.

[deathbyhokie]

I find it interesting how the shoot-outs only take places in schools, or other places of education. I don't remember the last time I heard of a shoot-out in walmart, actually I don't think I ever did. It'd almost be better to have a shoot-out there, not that shoot-outs are good.

Probably something to do with the odds of your average Walmart patron being armed, versus the odds of your average college student being armed.

[Lilith]

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[Icey]

I seem to remember some recent shootouts in malls where 5-6 people were killed, but yeah, the school shooting thing does seem to be more prevalent.

[Feasul]

I think it has to do with sources of stress. You always see adults shooting up their workplaces and students shooting up their schools because those places are the shooters' main sources of stress, or at the very least their percieved sources of stress. Why would you go shoot up a Wal-Mart you have no problem with? You go to the place you hate.

[Aegix Drakan]

@ feasul: Unless they were WORKING for wal-mart...

[erm2003]

@ feasul: Unless they were WORKING for wal-mart...

Been there done that. I could see how that could rub someone the wrong way.

[Feasul]

Indeed. I assumed that whoever shot up the Wal-Mart were some punk kids, but I guess workers are possible too. Hell, if I worked at a Wal-Mart I'd probably want to shoot someone, too.
"I don't care if the coupon expired three weeks ago, it says I can get these toys half-off! Let me see your manager."
"Of course, ma'am, he'll be right out. Sorry for the inconvien-" BANG!
Bwahaha.

[Jigglysaint]

I blame the media. No games and music and such, but the news. If a person couldn't get attention by blowing up a school, would they be doing it at all? Stupid stuff happens all the time. The problem is that the media finds these people and reports them when otherwise it would have remained a shameful family secret. In turn, this causes people to be scared, and that creates stress that some people might end up acting out in the form of other stupid things. Then THAT gets reported, and the cycle is never ending. I think that's why they don't report suicides except in high profile or unusual circumstances, like somebody going spat on a subway track.

I am starting to think that people violent video games to give themselves a break from all the pointless killings and stuff, rather to engage in it.