This country has lost its fucking mind

[MrScorpio]

Last edited Fri Jul 20, 2012, 07:24 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm sick and tired of this shit.

[dballance]

1. Not that I disagree w/ you I don't

But is there any specific last straw that caused you to post?

[MrScorpio]

3. This shooting in Colorado, to be specific

I'm pretty upset about this shit

[MADem]

2. Oh no, no, no--don't put the actions of one nut on all of us. I am sick and tired of this shit, too

but that's not me, not my kin, not my friends, not my acquaintances. Most people I know are decent folk. I'm sure that's your story, too.

Thing is, it only takes a very small turd to ruin the punch.

[MrScorpio]

4. I'm sorry, but that's the same crap that's said every time this shit happens

Last edited Fri Jul 20, 2012, 08:34 AM - Edit history (1)

There's something really sick in our society that promotes these things

Whatever it is, we ought to open our eyes and figure it out.

[barbtries]

11. we've been sick

for a long time. the gwbush admin pushed us over the line. too many rich and greedy people have too much power. i don't know what it will take to bring us around but i do know that the pendulum swings and one way or another it will have to get better.

as to what happened in CO this morning: maybe make it harder to have these weapons on hand. i don't know. i find it very discouraging.

[dotymed]

55. IMO, it"s a combination of of so many "accepted" things in our society.

The video games that desensitize our kids to murder. The "Fourth Estate" that glamorizes getting wealth at any cost, it makes most people feel "like a number" and they want to be famous for anything. Our economics that force most parents to spend much more time on their jobs (if they have one) than with their families, teaching values and being a positive role model.
Just like everything in America, it comes down to money. Seemingly unrelated events, IMO, can be traced to the love of money, including the militarization of our police. I could go on forever, but we are in a race to the bottom. USA, Inc.

[freshwest]

79. I agree with that. Scary stuff.

[FredStembottom]

86. Yes, dotymed, it is a mix of things that have brought us to this state.

And you have a good start there on what those things are.

[MADem]

31. I don't know if things are worse, or if Instant News enables us to hear about every horrible thing.

Instant news also gives dumb people ideas--maybe this guy saw that idiot shooting up that bar in Alabama, and was a copycat?

Everyone talks about drive by shootings like they are a phenomenon of recent generations, but drive-bys were happening during Prohibition. They just didn't call 'em that. Children were getting abducted and murdered since the dawn of time, but there was no Amber Alert or 24 hour news cycle covering the problem.

I don't want to get all "gunny" in a GD thread, but ready access to guns is probably not helpful--however, that's not going to be fixed in Colorado or Alabama.

I think we have to learn what the motivation of this shooter was, before we come to any conclusions.

[madokie]

38. Hate radio

would be a good place to start looking

[chervilant]

46. Indeed.

We humans are manifesting a level of mental disease that is both frightening and corrosive. Far too many of us are in react mode, driven by inchoate fears and resentments. Far too many of us are willing to pollute our spirits with negativity, eagerly engaging in name-calling and other forms of vilification. Far too many of us are willing to glorify violence or resort to violence, often just for entertainment or personal gratification.

We seldom acknowledge the import of overpopulation, but Calhoun's research with rats has proven that when a critical level of overpopulation occurs, the outcome isn't pretty. With rats, abnormal sexual behavior, hyperaggression, eating their young, and increased mortality are a few of the problems that occurred. With humans, well...isn't it past time we acknowledge that our species has passed a critical tipping point?

When I was younger (and naive) I thought our species was in its adolescence--obsessed with sex, drugs, and all other forms of self-gratification, especially as regards our economic behaviors. However, I've come to understand that overpopulation is a macro-level manifestation of our species' hedonism. Regardless of how much energy we devote to denying the ravages of overpopulation, they are writ large by our increasingly sophisticated, increasingly corrosive socio-cultural and technological constructs--the very same constructs we use to remain in denial, and to externalize responsibility for our collective hubris.

Bearing this in mind, I feel overwhelmed with disappointment about the choices we (as a collective) have been making, because we seem to be moving inexorably back into 'balance' on a planetary scale. When it's time for Gaia to roll over and scrape us off her backside, the inevitable consequences of our hedonistic overpopulation and denial of personal responsibility promise to be extreme.

[LiberalLoner]

62. +1

[cilla4progress]

83. I so agree

I think the dysfunction you are decrying is evident in our extremist religion, politics, entertainment (violent video games, movies, an outgrowth of our war-obsessed culture), and yes, sexual aberration (everything from Huffington Post's marginalia to side boob to slavery) to rampant substance abuse to pollution to over-infatuation with consumerism / materialism / technology. I am primarily referring to the U.S.

However, I look with some expectancy - very sad to say given our young people - to Gaia taking back what is hers and relegating us to...what? The back shelf, the footnote, of geological history?

[Mojorabbit]

60. The human race has a history of violence since the beginning

We only have a very thin veneer of civilization and things like this put a crack in our illusion of being a civilized society. That is how I see it anyway. Sending you a big hug.

[BanzaiBonnie]

61. Thom Hartmann spoke to this "something" yesterday

The price of having such inequality in wealth has been tied to many problems for the US, that will just get worse. Medical care and number of deaths, mental health, instability of families... a ton of issues are ied to having such a huge wealth divide.

We are deep into an oligachy and if we can't manage to turn it around, it's only going to get worse. We must move in a different direction.

And the conservatives on the Supreme Court can take a flying leap. I put a lot of thsi on them, although the Dems have responsibility for believing the lies that were told to get a couple of these creeps on the court.

[calimary]

82. I know how you feel, MrScorpio. I share that feeling.

I'm sick of this shit. And I'm equally sick of the platitudes and the fine print that always seems to go along with this shit. It's always either "guns don't kill people, PEOPLE kill people!" Or it's "well, it's not possible to have a perfect society, there's no way to be completely safe." Or it's "only a single nutcase, most people are nice people." And that doesn't make it better. Doesn't make it stop hurting. Doesn't stop making you want to bang your head against the wall. Doesn't make those newly dead come back to life. Doesn't dry their loved ones' tears. And saddest of all, it doesn't make guns in general harder to get - and it CERTAINLY doesn't make those abominable assault rifles and 100-bullet magazines less easy to get. It should be easier for a woman to get an abortion in Mississippi than it is for a civilian to get an assault rifle - in ANY state.

[Frank Cannon]

5. If this shooter was inspired by Rush's rant...

Then it's way past time that fathead fuck gets yanked off the airwaves once and for all.

Yeah, I'm all for freedom of speech, but this is TERRORISM, and that pedophile pillhead foments it.

I, too, am thoroughly sick of this shit.

[B Calm]

8. Rush and OReilly, both need to be held personal

responsible for their inciting violence!

[AnnieK401]

10. My thoughts exactly.

Couldn't agree more.

[reflection]

37. I thought I was keeping up

but I'm not familiar with the rant you're talking about. What did RL say this time?

Disregard: I see it's apparently the Bane/Bain thing. Sorry.

[bulloney]

54. Earlier this week, Limbaugh was having another one of his drug-addled tirades.

These shit fits from Limbaugh seem to be occurring more frequently in recent weeks.

Limbaugh noted that the villain in the new Batman movie is named Bane, which sounds like Mitt Romney's company Bain. Limbaugh implicated that Hollywood is trying to vilify Romney's business in the movie via the Batman villain. After Rachel Maddow and others this week called Limbaugh out on it and mocked him, he backpedaled and denied he was calling this a Hollywood conspiracy against Romney. But, the damage was done. Limbaugh's tirade was broadcast, and who's to say that some goof who listens to him didn't get pushed over the edge?

It should be noted that the Batman villain named Bane was in the comic books some 20 years ago. This mindset is similar to the goofy birther conspiracies that bogus information on President Obama's birth in Hawaii was put in the papers in the 1960s when he was actually born in Kenya (or something like that--it's hard to keep up with the irrationality of a birther or teabagger).

There's a video segment of Maddow's show floating around on DU where she replays the Limbaugh tirade. You be the judge as to whether he was implicating the Bane/Bain thing was a Hollywood conspiracy against Romney.

[4th law of robotics]

68. Seems you were stirred up

by the incoherent ramblings of others with an agenda and not much in the way of evidence.

[Frank Cannon]

69. That's why I said "if"

Neither you nor I know what motivated him.

[4th law of robotics]

70. Ah so you're "just asking questions".

[2ndAmForComputers]

78. The way you talk, it's like speaking badly of Rush is against forum rules.

You may be thinking of a different forum.

[4th law of robotics]

91. Absurd statement on your part

blaming someone for something they had no involvement with is silly.

Pointing out that it is silly doesn't = all criticism of that person is unacceptable.

Blame Rush for reporting false information, fine.

Blame Rush for the weather and I will point out the flaw in your assessment.

Stet?

[wake.up.america]

6. Sad - isn't it?

Sad - isn't it? But any discussion of the social economic system in America is considered to be un-American by many. Well, something is wrong.

[joshcryer]

7. That's what they want.

That's the point of this sort of domestic terrorism.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Viewed from abroad, it appears the inmates

have indeed taken over the asylum.

Mass gun-murder is now so casual and commonplace in American society that it has become the indelible international image of the country.

USA! USA! USA! N° 1 in senseless murder and mass mayhem.

[AsahinaKimi]

12. KCBS just reported

He was a white male, age 24, caught trying to escape via his car. Had on a bullet proof vest, had on him weapons, including a knife. He has been taken into custody..other than that.. that was all they said. OH, and he claimed to have explosives at his house.. the police have evacuated that block where he lives.

[Iggy]

29. FOUR Weapons were recovered in the theater

christ... a rifle, shotgun and two pistols.

[cali]

13. I feel heartsick. And I agree.

[Chef Eric]

14. If you learn the difference between "it's" and "its," maybe more of us will take you more seriously.

[MrScorpio]

15. .

[cali]

19. yeah, because a typo or error in grammar

completely invalidates whatever someone is saying.

what a pile of idiot dog shit, cheffypoo.

[lunatica]

23. Stupid, stupid statement

We longtimers here in DU consider ourselves lucky to have MrScorpio among us.

[TheCowsCameHome]

30. Whatever you say, Chief.

D'oh.

[handmade34]

32. uncalled for...

you don't belong here with that comment... don't mess with MrScorpio

[datasuspect]

47. are you the type who normally goes to cocktail parties and takes a big steaming shit in the middle

of the living room?

did your parents have manners or did you learn how to be a dick from watching bad tv?

[Chef Eric]

65. I may be a dick, but I've mastered third-grade English.

It's a shame that more people on DU haven't done the same.

[MADem]

88. Well, you'd best not make even one little mistake, ever, then.

You're holding yourself out as the expert, and all.

Here's my POV: I know and like MrScorpio. You? I don't know from a hole in the wall. I'm not liking you very much, either.

[barbtries]

49. wow.

a common error committed by literate people all the time.

[emilyg]

84. Hush.

[sendero]

16. Yes it has..

... and I am sad to report that it is going to get a lot worse. Desperate people with basically nothing to lose, the kind this economy is creating every single day, do desperate things. Rage is a very powerful emotion and one that folks who do almost nothing wrong and yet find themselves fucked have plenty of.

[quaker bill]

20. We fight hard

over the crumbs that accidently fall off the table. The stats have 50% of us arguing about how to split up the 1.1% of the economic wealth we have to share. This state of things is not accidental.

[lunatica]

24. People like this murderer aren't killing out of economic desperation

That would mean most Americans could suddenly go on murderous rampages.

[sendero]

35. I'm not saying he is...

... because we know nothing about his motivation and very well may never know.

What I DO KNOW is that random violent crime is up, and that people with nothing left to lose and abundant rage can do some pretty awful stuff.

I know that the hateful message of the right wing in this country has a READY MADE AUDIENCE of people who are fucked and want someone to blame. Since the real perpetrators are hiding behind a bought message of deflection, the blame is misplaced.

[lunatica]

50. You're right. The crazies are definitely egged on

[Telly Savalas]

71. Moreover, someone economically desparate isn't going to have the cash

for all the weapons, tear gas, and bulletproof vest, etc. that this asshole had.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. K&R

We really need to do some soul-searching as a nation and turn off "Snooki" and start looking out for each other.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Oh, god.

Just saw it.

Ugggggggggggh

[whathehell]

21. My immediate reaction as well, though not the first time...I woke up to this shit.

but "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"

[Dustlawyer]

22. Let's not project our issues onto this nut and wait for the facts!

[lunatica]

25. What are you defending?

WTF!

Do ya think he was standing his ground? Or that there were mitigating circumstances? Or some fucking facts that could justify this? Or do you think he's in any possible way innocent?

[handmade34]

33. ??

no matter how many facts you get... this country has "Lost its fucking mind"!! there are no additional facts to wait for

[TBF]

42. Which facts do you think will help?

Will it help to know exactly what mental illness the shooter had?
Will it help to know what set him off at this time?

Those things aren't going to changed how many people he hurt/killed.

[Iggy]

27. "America the Beautiful"? NO... It's Now

America the Chock Full O' NUTS country.

Not only is our nation chock full o' nuts of every stripe and color, but these nuts are heavily ARMED, thanks to
our "need" to be armed to the teeth.

Right, we've lost our mind, and we've lost our way. we are floundering like a fish out of water.

Clue: nations that are floundering and stupid don't survive long term.

I can more or less guarantee this perp is yet another loser with an ax to grind of some sort-- posting to extremist
websites. taking photos of his pathetic self with his weapons ala Ted Nugent, etc.

why is law enforcement NOT picking up on these guys sooner??

[IDemo]

28. They're not showing obvious signs of threatening behavior

such as wearing feeding tubes.

[Iggy]

36. Right.. the cretinuous TSA

this gets a bit off topic, but cleary our priorties are F***ed up and wrong.

we're paying people to harass little old ladies in wheelchairs at the airport, as if al Qaeda would use
them to bomb a plane.

weak, very weak

[RevStPatrick]

34. This country has always been fucked up.

From day one.

We've had a few brief golden ages, where we dragged along the rest of humanity, kicking and screaming, into something a little more modern. Most nations don't get to say that. But we were founded on a combination of religious insanity and brutal exploitation, and yet we've constructed these creation myths where the nation was born of pure, godly righteousness. If you've been paying attention (and I know you have), you know that something totally fucked up has happened on average of once per year since 1493.

I'm gonna paraphrase Winston Churchill here - The United States of America is the worst place in the history of the world... Except for all the others. Something like that.

Don't let it get you down. It's a tragic day. We'll have more of those. We also have really good days once in a while.

[coalition_unwilling]

58. +1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 - Well put and definitely

needed saying.

I always harken back to Lincoln's address to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862 (a month before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect):

"Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here--Congress and Executive--can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth . . . "

That address makes all the tragic days a bit more bearable, imo.

[RevStPatrick]

63. I was just reminded of a really good day we had...

...exactly 43 years ago today.
In fact, it may have been the best day ever.
It was certainly one of my favorite days, I was 6 years old at the time.
Here ya go:

[MADem]

89. We bought a color tv for that event.

I am afraid I was quite a bit older than six, though!

[GoCubsGo]

39. You and me both.

Around here, people have been shooting up each other left and right. A couple of weeks ago in downtown Disgusta...errr...Augusta, GA, there was a shooting at their downtown "First Friday" event, where several people were injured. And, then there are almost daily individual shootings in this area.

I am even more sick and tired of these assholes who think that more guns will solve the problem. Fucking morons, the lot of them.

[TomClash]

40. Everything has a price

Even the vast Empire spanning the globe. This is part of that price.

[ananda]

41. It is an endemic collective societal insanity.

It's that selfish white entitlement attitude.
If you don't agree with me, if things don't go my way,
I'll just fukkin go ballistic and kill kill kill.

The haters breed it in kids from birth; and the rightwing
media and tea party types incite it.

[TBF]

43. And it's not new - this country began with a land grab

White Europeans came over here and took over - beat back the indigenous folks and then found people in Africa, shipped them over and enslaved them.

The best we can do at this point is look at our history honestly, and try to make the future better. Unfortunately there seem to be some who have no interest in doing this.

[chervilant]

53. Given your post,

I think you might have read LaFeber's The American Age? I highly recommend this book to anyone who grew up with the vile propaganda promulgated by our corrupted system of public education.

[TBF]

57. I haven't but I'll have to look for it -

and I agree that everyone should be highly critical of what they have learned in this country as "history".

[slackmaster]

44. call congress right now

.

[sellitman]

45. When our children are more important to us than our guns then this will change.

Until then.......

[go west young man]

48. I see it as a combination of all the fucked up things that unfettered capitalism brings.

Guns easily for sale, half the population on psychoactive drugs, unregulated hate filled right wing radio, propaganda,no political accountability for insane statements and actions, economic hardship for 95% of the population, lack of proper education, desensitized children who embrace violence, Faux news with it's flag draped patriotic nefarious bullshit advocating nut jobs to "take action", unbridled war and the brainwashing of our youth to fight in those wars. Capitalism as a whole is obviously a failed experiment after the 2008 crash and bank bailouts but these are other symptoms of what unregulated capitalism brings and the US is the insane guinea pig the rest of the world is watching to see what not to do. The fact all the guns are out there just adds to the already volatile situation. Throw in all the religious zealotry and bigotry and deep seated racism and voila' you have the American cocktail. A potent mix of madness.

[go west young man]

52. Ah... and I forgot all the selfishness.

The me, me, me society we live in. That's probably the most important one. We have very little compassion for our fellow human beings. We profess to have compassion but at the end of the day we are just out for ourselves. Capitalism breeds selfishness. Socialism with well regulated capitalism would make us a better country in my opinion. Yet in the US "socialism" is a taboo word even though it is what is obviously needed. The U.S. ego would never allow for it however.

[99Forever]

51. I'm with you.

And not just this latest gun freak's murderous rampage. It's loss of compassion for our fellow human beings across board.



Something HAS to change and soon. The alternative is unthinkable.

[MoonRiver]

59. Don't know what your're talking about,

but have to agree in general. K&R

[Aristus]

64. What mind? This country hasn't had a mind since Reagan was elected.

Since 1981, we've kept going on emotion & cerebellar reflexes, and that's about it.

Haven't you heard? Reason and logic are un-American...

[4th law of robotics]

66. After Breivik no one said Norway had lost it's mind

these events are still exceedingly rare in the grande scheme of things.

[Mimosa]

77. True. Knowing it keeps ME sane. n/t

[treestar]

92. It doesn't happen over and over in Norway though

It's not only in the US but the US seems to be the place with repeated instances. Columbine, several other schools, VA Tech, Luby's, McDonald's, the guy in the Texas Tower, it just goes on and on.

[Odin2005]

67. The rate of violent crime is down sharply since 1990.

You are much less likely to get gunned down today then 20 years ago.

[Art_from_Ark]

85. That may or may not be the case

At any rate, in some places, at least, the violent crime rate is on the increase, depending on your frame of reference. The violent crime rate in Little Rock, Arkansas, for example, is much higher than it was in 1999, and while it seems to have peaked in 2006, it is projected to be much higher in 2012 than it was in 2009.

http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/arkansas/little-rock.html

[Iggo]

72. Lost.Its.Fucking.Mind.

[grantcart]

74. This November we will be able to quantify just exactly how many of our fellow citizens have checked

out of the thinking department.

[moondust]

75. In more ways than one.

[Tejas]

76. I agree, Steven Tyler should've quit Idol months ago!

[Lint Head]

80. Damn right!!!!

[Speck Tater]

81. What's even more remarkable...

...is that some people haven't even noticed that the country is rapidly descending into madness. And it's not just shooters. It's the political insanity, to economic insanity, rampant insane consumerism, the multiple forms of lifestyle insanity laughingly referred to as "reality" T.V. (and the people who watch it instead of actually living a life of their own.)

The human race is exhibiting signs of a global nervous breakdown.

[Turbineguy]

87. Well, in that case you'll be happy to know...

I went to the gym today and after my exercises decided on the sauna. There were 4 others there of varying ages and backgrounds but they are all Democrats. We had a nice conversation (allowing for cool downs and all).

I really walked away with a feeling that there was hope.

[MADem]

90. Thank you for that anecdote. It gives me hope, too! nt