Why politicizing everything is such.....

[Aviation Pro]

...a stupid, fucking exercise.

Yesterday, a madman went on a rampage killing 13 innocent people and then, like the coward he was, taking his own life. Today, all the usual forums are debating whether he was 1) a Democrat or a Republicant; 2) why we should arm the citizenry with M-4s or mill every privately owned weapon down to slag; or 3) chase every immigrant out of the country back to three generations.

What all the morans who argue these specious, fucking points fail to realize is that 13 people are dead and a community has been shattered.

Sometimes, make that most of the time, arguing politics is a waste of fucking oxygen.

[cali]

1. yep. largely, such murder sprees have little to do with politics

even when they appear to.

[NightWatcher]

2. oh come on, the only thing more fun than standing on a soapbox is standing on bodies

the "I'm right because ___ people are dead" argument is tacky

[rrneck]

3. Hindsight is the only exact science. nt

[TahitiNut]

7. I'm a big fan of hindsight.

Take Jessica Alba, for instance. Awesome.


:hide:

[rrneck]

12. LOL!

Amen!

:toast:

[monmouth]

4. Best post I've read on this very sad subject. Thank you...n/t

[Aviation Pro]

5. Thanks....

...it pained me to have to write it.

[patrice]

6. We NEED the kind of cultural change that results in this question:

"However directly or indirectly did I contribute, influence, or cause the factors at work in ___________________ and am I willing to do whatever it takes to end or re-direct the energy that I give to the _____________________ dynamic?"

[norepubsin08]

11. That's the first thing asked after 9-11

and no one would listen!

[patrice]

13. It all begins and ends with the condition of American families,

who, imo, are under the thrall of ChurchCo in one form or another.

The social average is the result of conditions in families, politics only comes out of that.

[patrice]

14. The Real Revolution ALWAYS begins with yourself.

Anyone who isn't interested in changing themselves isn't really interested in changing anything else.

[Missy Vixen]

8. Considering the fact there's been another mass shooting this morning

It's time to start discussing the reasons for these shootings, is it not?

[customerserviceguy]

10. It may also be time

to discuss the political fallout from them. Maybe some of you folks are too young to remember the 1960's as anything but a time of peace, love, and pot, but we had some pretty nasty riots in the big cities from about 1965-1968. They were labeled "race riots", and being as the occurred during a Democratic Administration, they were associated with the progressive policies of that time.

In 1968, there was an election, and the candidate who ran on the slogan of "Law and Order" won it. You may argue that times are different now, but haven't we just seen Michelle Obama being compared to Jackie Kennedy in the recent news? Women are still being judged on what they look like and what they wear, first and foremost.

We really haven't changed all that much in some ways.

[guy]

9. It is also strange to hear..

the media refer to the killing of 13 innocent people as a horror.

While the deaths of a million innocent Iraqis is never refered to as a horror.

Our country has a sickness.

[MedleyMisty]

15. Personally I think it's odd to think that such things happen in a vacuum

and that there is nothing in our society that contributes to it.

I imagine that most of us on here are not personally connected to any of the people who were affected by it. So we can feel a general sadness and empathy but I don't expect anything more than that - if we mourned every human who dies the same way we'd mourn a close loved one, we wouldn't be able to function or do anything but mourn - I mean, do you know how many humans die every day?

And actually, I think that if one of my close loved ones was killed in a mass shooting I would still be interested in knowing why the shooting happened and what contributed to it and what we could change as a society to prevent it from happening again. Like I think that if I had the resources and free time and mental health after losing a loved one in a mass shooting, I'd probably become an advocate for universal health care - mental health care in particular. Also probably an advocate for replacing capitalism in general with something else.