I don't. I think of America as the last great hope for freedom and liberty. A country that upholds western values, and a country that hasn't totally succumbed yet to protectionism. A country where freedom of speech is held in the highest regard.

Along with Canada and Australia, I consider the USA as one of the greatest countries in the world.

by protectionism I'm not talking about an economic context just to clarify,

 

And I feel for the UK an affection I have not felt for the US for many years.


[youtube]j7ujvOWWfpY[/youtube]

 

I agree, the UK rocks.

Except not at the moment because austerity is a bitch...

 

There are a few key words in this post that describe the problems in a nut shell.

"The United States is a violent, vulgar uncouth country..." "That is too stupid, too ignorant, and too bigoted..." "Is a graphic illustration of how much America needs to evolve."

The people I have met in other countries and visiting here from other countries are generaly not very American. They are not very American in their attitudes, beliefs or cultural habbits. They tend to have been raised to be polite rather than offensive. They have been raised to be respectful rather than selfish and snyde. They have been raised in countries where being vulgar, uncouth, sarcastic, rude, obnoxious, selfish, demanding, spoiled, ignorant, biggoted and a host of other negative attributes are generaly considered impolite and are frowned upon. Public behavior and public order trump peoples rights to behave like complete assholes towards other people. Teaching people to respect one another and having a social system that discourages disrespect and embraces decent behavior has an impact on general violence.In the U.S. on the other hand we have embraced bad behavior in the interest of free speach. After all, its my right to behave like a complete asshole in public and who the fuck do you think you are to tell me different?

Disrespect in this country has risen to the point that people have become frustrated and angry for having been slighted and insulted at every turn. Considering that many of the people around us are not wrapped all that tightly to begin with, in many cases its only a matter of time befor they take a swing at someone for cutting in line at the supermarket or take a shot at someone in traffic for cutting them off. Incidents of road rage for example have been on the increase for years, and while most dont involve a gun, its only a matter of time befor this rage turns deadly and more people start shooting at eachother to settle the score. Add in the occasional nut case with an agenda and a serious need for mental health care and you get...mass shootings. SUPPRISE!! People have breaking points. Stress compounded with social awkwardness and a few other painful issues as well as mental illness or just not being wrapped quite tightly enough breeds people who snap and run around shopping malls or theaters with guns shooting indescriminately into the crowd in their desperate effort to regain control of their patheticly distorted little lives.

I have asked myself the question more than once...what would the results have been if the Virginia Tech shooter had been getting laid on a regular baisis? What would he have done if he had aquired a few close friends and had a social life? It seems that the people most prone to these sorts of events are socialy disconnected and tend to be loners with no social skills and no girlfriends who got or are still getting pushed around by aggressive asholes with no manners.

 

In the theater shooting there may be a twist. According to witnesses they observed the shooter take a phone call, leave and then come back in dressed in combat gear and shooting. There are also questions of how a student with $650 in rent due every month plus expenses and collecting unemployment could afford several thousand dollars worth of weapons and ammunition plus what most experts agree had to have been at least seven to ten grand worth of tactical gear, all bought within the space of a couple of months. There may be other fish out there yet to fry.

 

How do you account for someone like Ted Bundy? He was good looking, and had a charming personality.

 

It was actually foreign exchange students that managed to point out to me just how engrained violence is in our culture when they refused to play American football due to the violent nature of the game.

And since one of them was really good soccer player I pointed out the rough and tumble nature of that game and they didn't even have pads or helmet.

But as he retorted in soccer the hits and rough play are for the most part accidental, while in our American football our couches were actually telling him to deliberately hit people hard enough to hopefully injure them.

I think the first question is what the lawsuits will be based on. Had there been an alarm on the door that went off when the emergency door was opened this tragedy might have been prevented.

But I have to wonder about the other question myself although I suspect his parents might have been supporting him financially not knowing what he was doing with the money.

And of course the first question for me is why?

 

He was a sexual predator and a serial killer. He killed women for sexual gratification. That is different to someone that snaps, enters a school or theatre and starts executing people. Most (but not all) serial killers tend to be white males, with above average IQ and good social skills. Usually with serial killers something happens to them during puberty where violence is involved, many times in a sexual context, and wires get crossed in their brains. They act on compulsion and sexual desires.

 

While I agree with your analysis of the difference between serial killers and killers like the one in Colorado I can't accepted the "snapped" scenario.

Someone who obviously spent months planning this and collecting the necessary guns and body armor didn't just suddenly snapped.

 

I agree. Snapped implies a reaction where you instantly have to respond to something distressing. Like losing your temper and getting in a fight.

What I meant was someone feeling the weight of the world piling up on them, to the point of losing the plot, then plotting and acting out revenge.

I'm not saying that these mass killings are people acting on an impulse. In fact I would suggest the opposite.

 

Get some national pride! Here, this might help.

[YOUTUBE]xwrX-LN9-L0[/YOUTUBE]

 

I agree there's a rather high level of contemplation, planning, and then trying to carry out the plan.

But that still leaves with a blank to understand let alone describe what is their thinking and what they are trying to accomplish and why they apparently have no feelings.

Its like they are acting out some video game as far as I can see except this one has real bullets and real deaths and injuries.

 

Bundy was Christian!

http://crime.about.com/od/murder/p/bundy.htm

 

It's hard to say. Some people literally don't feel emotion, at least to the same extent of "normal" people, it is the dictionary definition of a psychopath, not all psychopaths are evil though, in fact the majority of them live crime free normal lives. They tend to be thrill seekers that have to do extreme things to get the level of a buzz you or I may get from perhaps a tame roller coaster ride. Psychopaths lack empathy, they make good business people for obvious reasons.

I don't know if this guy is a psychopath, probably not, something about people that go on these killing sprees suggest they seek attention and that the sprees are highly emotionally fuelled events, not something that fits with a stereotypical psychopath.

However, a person such as Anders Breivik is a classic case of a psychopath, someone with no remorse for their actions, empathy for the victims, he killed not for personal attention but for the attention of extreme political views.

I'm guessing the theatre killer was someone that knows the difference from right and wrong, but has trouble distinguishing the difference between fantasy and reality, with regard to what it means to all the people involved and their families. I believe it is someone who has a grudge against the world, and believes anyone is fair game.

 

It doesn't surprise me at all that you feel no affection for the United States. It does surprise me that you admit it. I think all socialists who wish to "fundamentally transform" America and think that we're a bunch of violent, vulgar, uncouth, stupid people who "cling to their guns" have a deep seated disdain for U.S. It certainly seems to fit in your case.

 

Oh fuck.:excited::excited::excited::excited:

I did not see him walking right into that one.:excited::excited::excited:

 

I'm not sure I understand the point behind his comment. There are over a billion or so other Christians that aren't serial killers.

It is a bit like saying Stalin had millions killed because he was an atheist. Yet crime among atheists is much less than those that belong to a religion, disproportionately so.

 

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But that's not the usual case it seems to me. Not psychopaths and not insane. Seemingly just normal people until they begin firing.

And we are in agreement on this and I'm very much beginning to think that it actually is more associated with Andy Warhol's prediction in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

I am actually afraid (and I don't use that word often) that's its a combination of our glorification of violence and our obsession with celebrities.

Which leads me to believe even at this very moment we have people out there watching all this coverage and thinking; " I want to be famous too."

But you see I don't really believe that. I think he wanted to kill for personal attention and made up the reason for it later.

I agree with the last part of this but also have to think that the way we glorify violence, the way we accept violence as a solution to problems, and our society's embrace of the death penalty all add to the environment that spawns these mass killers.

And that's because when we break the death penalty down to its most basic level it says we as a society believe its OK to kill someone as long as you have a good enough reason.

And somebody has already said it on this thread but hat's what the killer was actually doing. He executed those people because he thought he had a good enough reason no matter what that reason was.

 

Yes, I believe that person was me