Blame

It wasn't OWS.

It wasn't the Tea Party

It wasn't gun laws or lack there of.

It wasn't the guns themselves.

It wasn't a tortured existence by peers or too many or not enough spankings.

It wasn't religion, or politics, or Batman.

It wasn't Fox News, or MSNBC.

It wasn't video games, magazines, or cartoons on TV.

It wasn't debt, or the banks, or the global economy.

It wasn't Obama, or Pelosi, or Romney.

It wasn't society, you, me, or the neighbors down the street.

It was the product of thoughtful insanity. It was the wanton destruction of life for publicity.

So if we're going to place blame. We might want to think real hard where it belongs. We spend so much time debating everything here that we lose sight of what is obvious and important. I do this too, and am not above it. But sometimes all the arguing gets to me. When a tragedy happens it's important to think of the victims and their families, and to realize that despite our best efforts and all the debate and consternation surrounding these events that sometimes, we just can't do a damned thing about it, except pray it doesn't happen again.

Blame games HURT truth finding. I remember the Columbine massacre. Back then no one made a peep about guns because we had the AWB and this wasn't supposed to be possible anymore. So they then switched the blame over to Marilyn Manson and "scary music" because a boogey man was needed to scare children and parents into accepting less freedom. Then when Jared Loughner, a former member of ATS, shot Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords I remember the media and many of the members of ATS scrambling is a disgusting and desperate bid to blame the Tea Party for the violence, and the high capacity magazine he used in his pistol. Opportunism is the real end goal of the blame game. And I find it disgusting.

Here we are again. Another massacre, that even though it is still a statistical rarity for any society, today the blame lies on guns, gun owners, and movies.

WTF America? WTF ATS? This kind of thinking is not critical and it is not helpful. It plays into the hands of those who wish to capitalize on such divisions in order to further an agenda.

In the case of Eric Harris and David Klebold I blame their parents for not bothering to check on their kids, and a school system that never took them seriously enough to help them.

In the case of Jared Loughner I blame a history of mental illness that no one wanted to face. Had that boy gotten some help, and the NICS system were able to access mental health records, he would have never been able to commit his crime. We failed as a society to take mental health seriously and allowed another tragedy to happen because we were focused on all the wrong things.

In this case. I blame the shooter. The shooter who, despite being very intelligent and educated, decided that whatever his will was, it took precedence over the lives of the innocent. His meticulous planning, his conscience preparation, and his demeanor as reported are indicative of a man who KNOWS he did something wrong, and his lack of cooperation proves that he just doesn't care. I hope they fry the bastard.

Moral of the story? Place blame where it belongs. Oversimplifying problems, and reactionary thinking is not going to solve these problems. Taking the rights of law abiding citizens away, or chipping them down to a mere privilege is un-American, and quite frankly out of the question. There are solutions. But blaming all the wrong things in an effort to lash out at the periphery of these problems isn't going to solve anything.

I wish I had a good response, but you pretty much nailed it. Great thread, thank you for sharing this.

reply to post by projectvxn

Opportunism is the real end goal of the blame game.

But blaming all the wrong things in an effort to lash out at the periphery of these problems isn't going to solve anything.

Of course you're right, but I have a confused thought struggling to get out. I remember a recent thread calling the death penalty inhumane and for everyone to be rehabilitated.

I also remember threads saying it is justifiable for one group to bomb another in the Mid-East because they have been occupied.

And a few times people have claimed there isn't any absolute measure of right and wrong. "What's wrong for you might not be right for them."

Could it be that this is opportunism piled on top of barbaric moral thinking?

reply to post by charles1952


I don't disagree with that.

But again, reactionaries do what reactionaries do. The trick is to not be one. And that is harder than it sounds considering we all have kneejerk reactions to things we find unpalatable and incomprehensibly immoral.

Moral ambiguity, to me, is very dangerous. In many cases more dangerous than simply having no morals. At least with someone who has no morals you know what you can expect.

I blame what is rotten at the top of society which is trickling down from the top of the pyramid. Its like a fungus spreading through the police, military, TSA etc...

If you have rotten people leading the country then the country and those in it will turn rotten. Nothing like following in the footsteps of big brother.

reply to post by projectvxn


Dear projectvxn,

S&F because I wish I could have said it as well as you did. People are so busy trying to use this to push their agendas that they have lost sight of the truth and what is important. It is a time for patience and letting the facts be discovered. At this moment the best we can say is that an otherwise brilliant and quiet student snapped. He quit school and snapped. I remember a law case, a very promising law student in New York failed his first attempt at taking the bar, the pressure was too much for him and he decided to quit the world and become homeless. His parents tried to have him committed; but, he was not crazy, just tired of all the pressure and remained on the streets.

Mass murderers who have nothing to gain from their actions are usually just people who have lost their minds. One can look at the pictures from court and see that he doesn't know where he is or what is going on. The most we can do at present is send our sympathies to all involved (prayers from those so inclined), patiently wait as the facts come out and try and not get carried away with our favorite speculations. Peace.

reply to post by projectvxn


Thank you! It's about time someone admitted that he knew what he was doing, and had a twisted purpose to his actions. Everyone has been saying all sorts of crap. So annoying.

S+F

Very nice,

We barrel through this world with a petty indifference to one another so much so that we have lost sight of what it means to be human. instead we replace that with this superficial definition of what the world says we should be, what we should do, how we should act. it is the very definition of normalcy that creates this vast disdain for one another on a impersonal level.

And further drives us apart from who we truly are. We neander through life with our own selfish petty concerns paying no mind to the injustice served us as we ask for more complacency to numb our souls.

If this is progress I don't want it, it's a warped representation of life as we slowly kill ourselves without realizing our fullest of potential.

Just think of what we could have accomplished by now if not for the selfish drive of ego that holds the hand of arrogance as it show boats down the aisle of a phony existence.

I have sold my soul for the anger that drives me because of this....I fear we are all guilty of our own comfortable demise.

We live in a society where we like to pass the buck, blame our parents for not hugging us enough, and blame just about everything else EXCEPT our lack of personal responsibility.

We are seriously lacking in that department and are constantly looking to pass our ignorant decisions off as being caused by anything but our own selfishness, greed, lust, etc. etc. Personal responsibility seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs and if nobody ever has to accept that they screwed up...why not do whatever the hell you want to do?

S&F because you nailed it.

Originally posted by TheMindWar
I blame what is rotten at the top of society which is trickling down from the top of the pyramid. Its like a fungus spreading through the police, military, TSA etc...

If you have rotten people leading the country then the country and those in it will turn rotten. Nothing like following in the footsteps of big brother.

i agree, its ridiculous and needs to stop now!!

we cant let things get out of control

Star and Flag my friend