Jimmy Higgins
Contributor
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2001
- Messages
- 50,469
- Basic Beliefs
- Calvinistic Atheist
So, in our crazy American world we are witnessing a couple of things.
1) Historically low levels of murders
2) Historically high levels of mass murder
I know what you are thinking. It is too early to talk about the tragedy at Parkland. But maybe after over a year, we can finally come to grips of the oddity that is murder in the US and mass murder in the US.
Crime overall in the US is at low levels. Despite all the talk and fear mongering by the right-wing regarding MS-13 and dangerous illegals, Americans are suffering from lower levels of crime in generations. So why in the heck are we seeing an alarming increase of mass murders. Now, we do need to keep in mind that mass murders don't occur often. They typically account for 2% of gun related deaths each year. So if you died from a gun, you are about 30 times more likely pulling the trigger than dying beside a lot of strangers because some guy was pissed off for whatever stupid reason (typically either insanity or just hates a particular type of person, though religion does pop up here and there).
But despite the whole emotionless argument CATO makes that many people aren't dying in such attacks, I would think we'd be best off pondering how we can prevent these mass killings, because honestly, things are better without them. We are certainly well past the point of DC doing anything to help with guns. Sure registration and whatnot can be shown to help reduce trafficking, but ultimately, it can only go so far before 2nd Amendment proponents shit their pants because they think Clinton is still coming for their guns.
So then we move and ponder other areas, primarily social media. A solid argument can made that the Internet, Social Media, and the Media itself help propagate these senseless acts of violence. The Internet and Social Media allows racist fuckwads, religious zealots, and misogynistic maniacs to normalize their thinking in a tightly confined echo chamber, and provides them an easy way to propel their bullshit messages into the world prior to committing a wholly unnecessary act. All the while getting a thumbs up from their dumbass buddies online. But is there any way to monitor that stuff? All of it? Without sacrificing some Civil Rights? Of course, you can also monitor them, but then you'd need to track purchasing. And how many incels have guns, but won't kill someone? How many false positives? How can you tell who is going to snap?
The simple answer is, you can't.
The invention of the Internet and Social Media, in conjunction with America's wonderfully easy access to weapons that can provide lots of death even with only a minute or two to work with, has provided a few Americans with the tools that they need in order to cause so much harm and tasks law enforcement with too much to oversee with too little to do so with. So we seem to be at a point in American history where we suffer from the least amount of crime, but the highest possible amount of random carnage, with a record number of people who lack the empathy to do anything about it.
1) Historically low levels of murders
2) Historically high levels of mass murder
I know what you are thinking. It is too early to talk about the tragedy at Parkland. But maybe after over a year, we can finally come to grips of the oddity that is murder in the US and mass murder in the US.
Crime overall in the US is at low levels. Despite all the talk and fear mongering by the right-wing regarding MS-13 and dangerous illegals, Americans are suffering from lower levels of crime in generations. So why in the heck are we seeing an alarming increase of mass murders. Now, we do need to keep in mind that mass murders don't occur often. They typically account for 2% of gun related deaths each year. So if you died from a gun, you are about 30 times more likely pulling the trigger than dying beside a lot of strangers because some guy was pissed off for whatever stupid reason (typically either insanity or just hates a particular type of person, though religion does pop up here and there).
But despite the whole emotionless argument CATO makes that many people aren't dying in such attacks, I would think we'd be best off pondering how we can prevent these mass killings, because honestly, things are better without them. We are certainly well past the point of DC doing anything to help with guns. Sure registration and whatnot can be shown to help reduce trafficking, but ultimately, it can only go so far before 2nd Amendment proponents shit their pants because they think Clinton is still coming for their guns.
So then we move and ponder other areas, primarily social media. A solid argument can made that the Internet, Social Media, and the Media itself help propagate these senseless acts of violence. The Internet and Social Media allows racist fuckwads, religious zealots, and misogynistic maniacs to normalize their thinking in a tightly confined echo chamber, and provides them an easy way to propel their bullshit messages into the world prior to committing a wholly unnecessary act. All the while getting a thumbs up from their dumbass buddies online. But is there any way to monitor that stuff? All of it? Without sacrificing some Civil Rights? Of course, you can also monitor them, but then you'd need to track purchasing. And how many incels have guns, but won't kill someone? How many false positives? How can you tell who is going to snap?
The simple answer is, you can't.
The invention of the Internet and Social Media, in conjunction with America's wonderfully easy access to weapons that can provide lots of death even with only a minute or two to work with, has provided a few Americans with the tools that they need in order to cause so much harm and tasks law enforcement with too much to oversee with too little to do so with. So we seem to be at a point in American history where we suffer from the least amount of crime, but the highest possible amount of random carnage, with a record number of people who lack the empathy to do anything about it.
