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No doubt, the intensity of the hatred and resentment people have toward others is strongly stepped up from what it was in the 1950s. Hate is more stronger than love than ever.
In many cases, it's the "perceived hate" not the hate.
In terms of black and white, I'll be the first to admit that hate is probably the right word - racism and bigotry are in American DNA - but, again, no school shootings and even lynchings never added up to these numbers of innocents.
Mass shootings in the USA are about equal now (sometimes more) than the WORST year of lynchings....late 1800's.
But much of the other hate - so-called Deplorables, etc. - are perceived hate IMHO. There is a clear line between the educated and uneducated in this country. Educated people (and I know a LOT of them - most everyone I know is educated)...don't spend much time hating on uneducated folks. Rather they try to fix things (teaching) or social work or just plain capitalism...whatever.
But it appears many people in rural and uneducated places - probably due to mass indoctrination (as you mention) seem to think everyone else is "down on them", when it's the exact opposite. In a real simple way, when we invented the internet it wasn't easy for the uneducated to get online...so they didn't and weren't. Now, everyone is on and I question the ability of many people to discern "where they are" when on the internet. So they get brainwashed, fed fake news, spread hate, etc.
We must remember that children love "bad" attention as much as good attention. If one is unhappy with their lot and has a giant chip on their shoulder, then their eyes see things as if everyone is plotting against that.
Now - that's simplistic - and only covers one small slice of the subject. Sadly, whatever the reasons are, these are indicative of a failed society...at least in many regions. One of my early predictions regarding the internet is whether the nation-state can withstand the power of it. In the case of a free internet (as we have), it appears that it cannot. You would think that the country would simply just split into regions and each just "do their own thing". That would work out fine as long as we agreed on the big things - like the Federal Government, basic Defense, basic Health and Science, etc.
But that isn't what is happening. What we have are tribes that are everything from fascist to fundamentalist...and everything in-between. It's not good enough for them to "live and let live" - as you see here on C-D, they have to constantly prove to themselves why they are better than the people who ARE better-off than they are.
Anyway, rant off. I don't know why people just don't do what we hippies suggested - live and let live. I've lived in luxury and I've lived with outhouses and a pump outside for water. People are somewhat the same everywhere. I think we each create our own world by the way we think and act.
As a teacher. Kids today are allowed to do whatever they want. There is no discipline, there are no rules. NO ONE is allowed to check their feelings. Thus when some poor unfortunate kid who has no idea how to control their feelings, combined with no rules and no consequences, along with the media saturating their impressionable minds with garbage, they act out.
Really, it's no stretch today from visualization to action. Thus school shooting.
I remember as an adolescent male getting angry. Maybe I wanted to hit something, maybe I wanted to hit someone. I'd feel it, I'd visualize it...but rarely act on it. You were held responsible for your actions, there were consequences, people had a certain moral and social pride. (remember this was high school in the 70's for me). The crowd mentality at the time was you just don't act that way and the people who did were looked down on. You checked yourself.
Yes, small town farm culture. We drove to school with guns in the vehicles with full intent on hunting after. Perhaps someone may have thought about "shooting" someone. But, there was no precedent for that kind of behavior. The thought never entered my mind, never even occurred to me, never even dreamed of it. Not saying someone else may have harbored the thought, but it would be sociopathic and rare.
Now, it's anything goes. We are not allowed to judge, whatever you feel you do.
I'm surprised it doesn't happen every day. Some day it will. There is nothing we can do. WAIT...yes there is plenty we can do but the American public doesn't have the balls to make it happen.
As usual, some people with no idea what to do, start ranting hysterically instead of contributing to the discussion.
I have no idea what is causing the plague of school shootings, but I can tell you when I was a child in the late '60s & '70s, most of my peers came from dual-income households. We were pretty much all latch-key kids. I now live in a part of the country where kids frequently have parents at home when they return from school, either because are single-income with a SAH-parent or have flexible work schedules that allow parents to work from a home office. Here's the thing, though: I live in Denver, which experienced one of the worst school shootings in history and a mass casualty shooting in a theater. In two other lesser known but no less traumatic incidents, the high school down the street from me had a school shooting that resulted in two deaths and our family doctor was murdered when his neighbor lost it and started shooting at his wife and all of the people who tried to come to her aid. Gun violence seems to be the answer today when people are struggling. I truly wish I understood why, but I don't think it's really about who has a stay-at-home mom.
Last edited by randomparent; 05-18-2018 at 02:38 PM..
Medication for ADD/ADHD and sometimes depression. These are brain altering drugs and children (boys especially) often begin them at age 5 or 6. ADD wasn't a "condition" 50 years ago.
Not all children on these medications will become violent of course. However, a majority of those perpetrating these crimes have taken these medications.
ADHD wasn't a thing fifty years ago? Really? My brother took Ritalin for years. My very elderly grandfather is the poster boy for ADHD. Was he medicated? No, he just dropped out of school in the sixth grade and went to work in a factory. My uncle likely has ADHD. Realistically, I should have been treated for ADHD, but it was thought at the time that girls could not have it. (I beg to differ.) My youngest son has ADHD and does beautifully in school with behavior management therapy and a little Concerta to help keep his mind from wandering. BTW, Methyphenidate has been used safely to treat a variety of conditions for 70 years!
I'd say probably the fact that guns aren't just for hunting anymore. Lots of men seem to equate a gun with power and masculinity. Gun culture with people toting guns on them.
More importantly, kids have grown up with NO DISCIPLINE!
Do you realize what would have happened to us back in the 1950s if we had pulled some of the stunts kids pull today? And they get away with it! The parents are afraid to punish them and they are afraid to say NO. NO, you are not going to get a free car just because you turned 16. And it starts younger than that with the word NO. NO--you cannot go to Disney. NO, you are not getting everything you ask for.
If you DARED to talk back to a parent you didn't get away with it. If you were disrespectful to a teacher, you suffered the consequences. You had RULES and you obeyed them. Why? "Because I said so, that's why! When you are old enough, you can make the rules but for now, you follow the rules."
That's how it used to be. Now the parents are so permissive. They let their kids walk all over them. Oh, there are still some good parents. They probably don't even dare send their well behaved, well mannered kids to public school though. They'll pay to send them to private school--and guess what? At the private school they'll get discipline.
As far as I can tell, most of these shooters have had both intact fathers and mothers. You seem to be confusing the inner-city crime phenomenon with the angry teenager phenomenon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboteer
These school shootings didn't used to happen fifty years ago (did it?). At least, FAR less than they do now. And I doubt it's simply because they are being "reported less".
Bullying took place in the 1960s as much as it does today.
What was going on in the 60s that is different (happening either more or less) than today?
I don't have a definitive answer that will answer all concerns. But one thing that's different (that affects schoolkids) is that in the 1960s, very few kids came home to an empty house. There was always a parent (usually a Mom) ready to give them a hug, ask them how their day was, give them a snack or whatever, etc. Almost always someone there to let them know the student was important to the parent, they cared about him etc.
Today, more and more families find that both parents must work and earn an income, to make ends meet. "Women's lib" has told women that they don't have to be "just a housewife" (even though that's a major job in is own right), but that it's right and proper that they should be an engineer, doctor, shoe clerk, assembly line worker or whatever. That is pretty much true, but is it a good idea to take both parents out of the house most of the day? If the Mom is working outside the house, should there then be a Dad at home? Or an aunt, uncle or etc.?
Plus, many more women are having babies with no father present, and raising them on their own without Daddy around. Some are because Daddy was a slime who ran off as soon as he found out about the pregnancy. In other cases, sometimes the women planned it that way, wanting her own child without the "inconvenience" of having to deal with a husband. There are also a few single fathers around with kids, but far fewer than single mothers. These single (for whatever reason) parents have to support themselves, obviously, and their child will likely come home to that empty house for a lot of their young lives.
I'm curious what percentage of homes with school-age kids, have both parents absent when the kid comes home... both now, and over the years for the last 50 or so. Or to make it simpler, what percentage of homes with school-age kids, have both parents working full-time outside the home?
As I said, that's likely not "the only cause" for the apparent increase in school shootings. But it could be a major contributor.
I think the Columbine tragedy started a meme. And it's has grown from that. Before Columbine, school shootings were rare to nonexistent. After, they became commonplace. The media's nonstop coverage and glorification of the Columbine shooters (for ratings and viewership) inspired a bunch of sick freaks to do the same. It helps of course that guns are readily available and it doesn't take much planning to get your hands on one of them.
So this is a toxic cocktail of gun culture, media sensationalism and mental illness.
We need to put a stop to this. If we don't have the courage to go after guns - at least let's institute a zero tolerance policy for our public schools. Any social media postings that are deemed threatening or signs of illness can immediately get the student booted from the school. This would have prevented tragedies in Parkland and here as both students left disturbing content on their social media accounts featuring guns and killing.
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