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Who will they blame this time?

Atratus's picture
Submitted by Atratus on

Another school shooting. Bush is "appalled", after all near a third as many people died as the number of civilians killed in Iraq daily. I guess that is in keeping with his "better there than here" mantra. Bless the man for being consistent.

But now the press have a problem. The gunman is reported by witnesses to have been dressed "like a Boy Scout". Clearly that won't do. He was also reported to be "Asian looking". A reporter for the Chicago Sun Times has made an assertion that he was a Chinese national from Shanghai in the US on a student visa. Well, that's better - foreign and Communist, I'll bet that's something they'll chew on. I'm just glad there is no goth-card to play this time.

For the record

The US Secret Service has said "there is no accurate or useful 'profile' of students who engaged in targeted school violence."

It reached those conclusions after studying 37 incidents of targeted school violence involving 41 attackers in the United States between 1974 and June 2000.

Very few of the attackers were failing in school and some were even on the honor roll. Nearly two thirds had never been in trouble at school and most showed no marked change in academic performance, interest in school, friendship patterns or school disciplinary problems prior to the attack.

The largest group of shooters were considered to be "mainstream" students...

-- France 24

If you think I am being heartless for not chiming on the wails of "tragedy" and the "outpouring of sympathy", consider some context. On average as many (36) innocent children starve to death every two minutes of every day. What utter hypocracy would it be to be upset over these shootings, not upset about the onging starvation, and then having my biggest gripe in life being that I am getting old and fat? Over a hundred and fifty people die every minute of every day, many of them horribly. The world is full of horror. For the most part there is nothing that can be done about it. I'll worry about changing what I can change rather than what the media flavour of the day wants me to be upset about. I'm just glad I can really have nothing more to do with this and that no reporters will be bugging me for interviews on "goth culture" and I can get on with things that are in my sphere of influence.

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.a...

A 13-year-old Medicine Hat girl testified on Tuesday that she stabbed her younger brother, but only because her boyfriend told her to...The girl, who is accused of murdering her parents and eight-year-old brother in April 2006, took the stand in her own defence...Galashan reported that the girl looked much like a normal teen during her testimony, as opposed to the "goth" look she had at the time of the killings.

Here is another blow to the Goth scene.

Maybe if Goths didn't glorify blood and death so much, maybe these young kids wouldn't get the wrong messages. I mean, Goth is not just about morbidity, isn't it? Just my opinion

If we are dealt another Goth Card, do we get a Royal Flush? :D

I've become so jaded by these school shootings that I always expect the media to irresponsibly start pointing fingers and seeking scapegoats. But I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the responsibility of the media this time around. From what I've seen and heard, no unfair fingers have been pointed and no unfair conclusions have been drawn ( aside from anti-video-game activist jack Thompson, but he doesn't count because he's an idiot.) The coverage I've seen has basically made it pretty clear that this guy was a disturbed young man with some severe emotional and/or psychological problems. As far as I know they haven't blamed music, movies, games, goths, or the internet. I'm tempted to say that for once they're focusing on the important facts of this case.

(On a side note, the conservative press in the US has even managed to recognize that Mr. Jack Thompson's claims that video games were involved are complete and utter BS. One reporter even called him on it in an interview. A search of the shooter's room room has provided no support that games were a factor, making JT look even more the fool. )

I can't help but agree with you on your post, Atratus. However, don't exhale just yet. Just because there is no "goth card" to play at the present time, don't think the thought hasn't crossed the mind of the uninformed, conservative US media. I'm sure they are looking into the gunman's past and looking for any evidence of him listening to "questionable" metal music growing up. I obviously don't condone what he did, and it is obviously an unfortunate incident, however, I can't help but think that it wouldn't have happened had bullying not been so rampant in today's society. Speaking as someone who was bullied as a child, I know exactly what it feels like. But I'm not about to go and blow dozens of people away in some unholy bloodbath. A leftwing newspaper in Europe somewhere called the shootings, "as American as apple pie". If they wish to be freed of this label and stereotype, they should do something about it and not look to the world for sympathy when a preventable disaster like this happens. Gun control is touchy subject in the States. How dare they take their right to bear arms! As soon as this incident blows over, gun control will be a non-existant issue, until another shooting happens.