The latest social media outrage

reply to post by TheRedneck


She's not harming anybody in this picture.

I'd say a fair portion of the self righteous boors who condemned this photo have kids who own a toy gun, bought of course by their parents, would you agree? We live in a world where kids play with toy guns, my 3yr old nephew is always 'shooting' people with his toy shotgun when they visit his home, sometimes he asks me to take the toy gun and 'shoot' him. Now would it be 'outrage' if I took his gun an pointed it at him whilst he runs around laughing? Apparently only if somebody takes a picture of it and posts it up on that hellish realm of egotism that is Facebook.

There's a thing called class-respect and tact that people aren't using much these days. It seems popular when people scream, " haha i have no filter " haha you have no respect or class!!! Is playing cops and robbers, Indians cowboys, ok? Yes..... Is pointing a play gun at a babies head ok!?

Does no go w/ hell!!!???

Its not ok to not have a filter, and its not ok to NOT respect our fundamental principles.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

No, she's not harming anyone. And if you took the time to read my first post, you would notice that I actually said she did not deserve prosecution for this. It's a staged photo, not a crime.

However....

When a five-year-old plays with a toy gun, he does so because the toy gun is a prop to his imagination. He is playing like the people he sees on TV and in movies. He does not harbor ill will toward anyone by playing this way... if he understood the implications of actual guns, he certainly wouldn't ask an adult to shoot him!

In this photo, this is not a five-year-old. This girl is what? 14, 15, 16? How old is the baby? Less than a year I would presume. The girl has the understanding of the emotional response she is eliciting from viewers; the baby has no concept of why this thing is suddenly in its face. In addition, the girl is in total and complete physical custody of the baby. At this age, she should understand what a real gun is and have some working knowledge of how to use it. And a gun is not a toy!

If this is a prop for her imagination as a the gun in your example is for the five-year-old, I reserve the right to change my opinion and state that she is a danger to society and should be institutionalized immediately and permanently!

I don't think that is the case, however. This is not a kid playing "bang-bang"... this is a young girl who is evoking a response from others by staging what she understand would be a horrific scenario had the gun been real; I believe the point is to evoke that response in some sort of (misguided) attempt to gain popularity. I could perhaps understand the photo and the reasoning behind it had there been some sort of caption, but failing that it shows a girl who is extremely irresponsible and immature for her age, and who is in desperate need of some amount of education as to what is and is not appropriate. She is the person in charge in this situation; she is holding and therefore responsible for the baby. And please do not give me the "other society" excuse again... is it considered appropriate in Argentina to shoot babies? If not, this is inappropriate. Did she post it exclusively in Argentina? If not, then its appropriateness is determined by the society in which she posted it.

So no, she is not committing a crime, but neither is she acting appropriately based on the pictorial context, her age, and the age of the baby.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck


Well I guess this girl and her family should be glad they don't live in the good ol' US of A then, where not 'acting appropriately' will seemingly get you into a lot of trouble. (I would imagine that were they US residents they would have been on the receiving end of some serious abuse, threats, ostracization et al, but hey that's just my imagination).

I might add that the viewer of this picture has no idea of it's context, for example: the small child is the girl in the picture's niece, the child's mother gave the girl the toy gun and said "let me take a picture of you holding the baby hostage, I will email it to my husband and tell him that you demand he brings you and your neice some candy on his way home from work" etc. Plausible? About as plausible as your theory that this girl is deliberately attempting to elicit or evoke some kind of emotional response in the viewer, I have no idea and neither do you, nor does anyone else for that matter(which is precisely the point where my axe meets the grindstone).

The hype, nay hysteria that surrounds a picture such as this demonstrates one thing and one thing only to me: there is an overwhelming amount of people out there who own a computer, know how to create and maintain a public profile on a social network like Facebook and who are totally and utterly full of sh#t.

Regards.

in really poor taste....



but prosecutable? no way....

Toy guns are not what is frightening.

What is frightening is the constant onslaught of violence and killing that children are exposed to now.

The video games of war and killing. They are exposed to it and then by chance get their hands on a real gun.

They do not comprehend the reality of what will happen if they pull the trigger. To them it is nothing more than a game.

Young people who have been exposed to that stuff scare the hell out of me.

It seems like a joke to me, something you do with your kids, like smearing red paint on halloween to look wounded.
The girl/woman is playfully smiling to someone, I imagine another member of family who is taking the shot. I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

People got so touchy, so irrationally emotional over everything, especially kids. Most of them can hardly manage to finish the day without their already inflamed sensitivity being wounded; and sometimes they seem to purposely look for reasons to have their touchy ego offended. You are afraid to make a joke anymore cause someone will get traumatized for life. nobody is really playing or laughing anymore, they all keep tabs if it was "the right thing" to say.
Seems to me that those people live in a bubble of rainbows and pink unicorns, completely disconnected from real life. Lucky me, I mostly repel them, I only get resentful looks

reply to post by WhiteHat


Welcome to a world where propriety is a powerful motivational force in society, not decency, not sincerity, not compassion and lord forbid common sense.

reply to post by seabhac-rua

That's the whole problem; there is no context. If it carried a tagline of "Give me an Ipad or you'll never see the baby again" I would take it as a joke. If it said "This is what family court looks like to me" I would take it as a political statement. Without context of any kind, the viewer is free to put it in whatever context they see fit, and anyone who sees it is going to see that here is a young lady holding a gun on a baby.

Shooting a baby is wrong... period, end of paragraph, end of page, end of discussion. Nothing can make that not wrong..

This idea that anything is OK is frankly nauseating to me... I believe people are responsible for their actions and should take reasonable precautions to make sure that their public image is not seen as something improper. I also think that when context exists, others should take that context into account. That's not abusive; it's responsible and realistic.

I would actually be against her getting any sort of legal punishment over this, whether she is in the USA or not. I do think her parents should be extremely worried about the fact that their daughter is joking around about killing their baby. I am extremely worried about a generation that thinks this is funny regardless of context. Maybe you're OK with that, but I see it as possibly indicative of future issues.

TheRedneck

reply to post by TheRedneck

A point, that may be debatable, is that we denizens of planet earth do not have a universal code of what is appropriate and what is not(thank *insert deity*). I can state that whilst none of the people I have shown this picture to found it to be funny, not one of them found it to be offensive in any way. It would be interesting to me to view a demographic of the comments related to this picture on Facebook. For example, it might be expected that Americans, being citizens of a country where guns are a prominent feature on the social landscape, may react differently to this image.

I'd be more concerned over the man who beat his girlfriend and posted the video on facebook or the guy who murdered his wife and posted pictures.

reply to post by tracehd1


What do you mean by filter?

reply to post by SubSea


Well, I am 31 now, didn't have good video games back then, but slasher flicks, and horror, and action movies, I started watching when I was like 5. Although admittedly, it was sparingly, I spent 98% of my life outside, rather than my ass parked on the couch. Plenty of violence in them.Haven't gone psycho yet, well I guess that depends who you ask .

Originally posted by beezzer

Originally posted by Superhans
reply to post by beezzer

 

Or hell, should have put a caption at the bottom saying that the one with the fake gun is autistic. That is thing people are all hands across America these days for.

Or better yet, that the young lady is an illegal alien and this is a representation of what the deportation process is like.

Obama could then come on tv and say, "If I had a daughter (I know, he has two) then she'd look like that."

I seriously almost fell out of my chari after reading that

reply to post by TKDRL


Hell, now a days even 11-13 is well within the age limits to be the "mother". 6th grader (9-10 years?) down the street from my old home was pregnant. Every day saw her walking down the street to her home. It is sad really. But it is our society.

I think it is wrong to ever point a gun at someone for any reason, whether in anger or in jest. Whether toy or real. Makes no difference to me, I just don't think it sends a good message. But I am likely old fashioned and a prude.

I do like this image for some reason. Not the idea of pointing a gun at a child. But the girl is pretty and the baby is innocent and it has no malice to it. It doesn't feel violent, or abusive, or any number of negative things to me. The entirety of the picture really calls to me for some reason. I would seriously consider buying that painting if it were sold at a gallery. IDK why I just like it.

Originally posted by beezzer
P'raps the young lady should have captioned it as a performance art piece entitled, "Society is holding todays youth as hostage".

Agreed! I got that same surreal thought when I saw it. It really could be likened to our situation as a community / nation / world. Any number of things could be captioned to this with society, tptb, bankers, even our own older selves holding our "inner child" hostage and not allow us to really flourish as adults. That image could be taken anywhere. I said on another reply and I will say it again, I like it. IDK that I would consider it "art" as I have a very narrow definition of the word. But I do like this image quite a bit.

I can see whats happened here. This poor girl has been influenced by her elder brother, who clearly has a thing about sharp knives, and dad (in the background) has played his part too. Then there's that very sinister looking toy on the left!

I find this photo to be an indictment on the pathetic state of education in society, most probably the US.

When I was raised, I was taught to never point a weapon (fake or not) in the direction of another person, unless I intended to actually use that weapon. Period.

I find no humor in this photo. I see an imbecile who should never be allowed to procreate.

Is it wrong I want to punch that woman in the face? No like a real adult violent felony assault but like the kind you did when you were kids, just enough to draw a little blood and send them home crying to mommy. You know, the innocent kid type of face punch...

Originally posted by VoidHawk

I can see whats happened here. This poor girl has been influenced by her elder brother, who clearly has a thing about sharp knives, and dad (in the background) has played his part too. Then there's that very sinister looking toy on the left!

Thanks for the humour injection