I completely agree. I get the sense that some people in this forum are almost lionizing those kids, giving excuses for the atrocities they committed, and implying that the poor dears were actually quite justified in attempting to slaughter hundreds of people. I think that viewpoint is lazy and immoral, not to mention insane. It IS sad that they were picked on and felt left-out, but really, so what?? I was picked on, too. So were lots of other people I know. Junior high and high school were among the most miserable and painful experiences of my entire life. But I didn't turn into a violent, hate-filled, racist, Nazi-obsessed killer. Violence and hate are CHOICES. It is sad that the kids were ostracized and picked on, but they could have dealt with that situation in another way, rather than giving themselves permission to commit murder.
However, I do think it is frightening and entirely misplaced how much focus the media is putting on the killers' supposedly Goth style of dress, or the fact that they were outsiders. Again, that seems pretty irrelevant to me. Lots of popular, good-looking jocks commit violent crimes, too. The only difference, I imagine, is that the peers of popular jocks are probably less likely to snitch on them.
I wish the media would focus more on the killers' racism, threatening statements, and fascination with Naziism and weapons. To me those elements are FAR more indicative of a potentially dangerous person than being an individualistic-looking outsider or wearing black is.
I do wish everybody had a bit more tolerance for people different from them. School is a gigantic crushing conformity-machine, and it truly is hell to go through if you just don't happen to fit into any of those little cookie-cutter slots. I don't know if geeks are necessarily automatically better and smarter and more brilliant and so on, as I have seen some of the messages in this forum claim, but so what -- it's unfair for anybody to be ostracised and picked-on just because they don't fit into any of the desirable cookie-cutter slots.
I do hope that these murders will not lead to even further targeting and ostracizing of kids who are unusual or don't fit in. We don't need the trait of individuality to be criminalized or pathologized. Kids who don't fit into the machine have it bad enough already.
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I completely agree. I get the sense that some people in this forum are almost lionizing those kids, giving excuses for the atrocities they committed, and implying that the poor dears were actually quite justified in attempting to slaughter hundreds of people. I think that viewpoint is lazy and immoral, not to mention insane. It IS sad that they were picked on and felt left-out, but really, so what?? I was picked on, too. So were lots of other people I know. Junior high and high school were among the most miserable and painful experiences of my entire life. But I didn't turn into a violent, hate-filled, racist, Nazi-obsessed killer. Violence and hate are CHOICES. It is sad that the kids were ostracized and picked on, but they could have dealt with that situation in another way, rather than giving themselves permission to commit murder.
However, I do think it is frightening and entirely misplaced how much focus the media is putting on the killers' supposedly Goth style of dress, or the fact that they were outsiders. Again, that seems pretty irrelevant to me. Lots of popular, good-looking jocks commit violent crimes, too. The only difference, I imagine, is that the peers of popular jocks are probably less likely to snitch on them.
I wish the media would focus more on the killers' racism, threatening statements, and fascination with Naziism and weapons. To me those elements are FAR more indicative of a potentially dangerous person than being an individualistic-looking outsider or wearing black is.
I do wish everybody had a bit more tolerance for people different from them. School is a gigantic crushing conformity-machine, and it truly is hell to go through if you just don't happen to fit into any of those little cookie-cutter slots. I don't know if geeks are necessarily automatically better and smarter and more brilliant and so on, as I have seen some of the messages in this forum claim, but so what -- it's unfair for anybody to be ostracised and picked-on just because they don't fit into any of the desirable cookie-cutter slots.
I do hope that these murders will not lead to even further targeting and ostracizing of kids who are unusual or don't fit in. We don't need the trait of individuality to be criminalized or pathologized. Kids who don't fit into the machine have it bad enough already.
--js