Originally Posted By RoadTrip The Obama Presidency has resulted in horrible things never foreseen. Not because he has been a bad Presidents; he has been an excellent one. But having a Black man in the White House has stoked the fears of racists throughout the country. They fear they may be losing control and will stop at nothing to prevent it. What has it resulted in? Increased police brutality against Black people. More blatant racism than we have seen expressed since the 50's. Accumulation of guns by the racists resulting in actions like occurred in Charleston. The nation is at a tipping point. The reaction by conservative websites today absolutely disgust me. I hope the nation does not go in that direction. Somehow, someway, reason and common sense MUST prevail.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***More blatant racism than we have seen expressed since the 50's*** I'd say 60's more realistically (not that I was around for it, but I read the papers). And yes, I find it disappointing too. Not all the progress made over those decades was really genuine - a lot of it seemed to be nasty people laying low until something really upsetting brought them back out from under their rocks. At least they're more easily identified now. <---shrugs
Originally Posted By ecdc This shooting is like a microcosm of so many things about America, it's insane. White shooter blatantly says he's a racist and he's doing this for racist reasons. White Americans say, "Hey now, let's not jump to any conclusions, we don't know why he did this!" Violence against a black church, which has a loooooong history in this country, continuing to the present. And, as usual, the ever-present insanity of extreme gun owners. The United States has the highest per capita rate of gun violence of any industrialized/wealthy nation. The United States has what might be the highest rate of gun ownership per capita of industrialized nations in the world. Yet in Crazy Gun Owner Land, this is a coincidence. Why, the problem isn't too many guns, it's too few! That makes perfect sense!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Reading the comments sections of news articles can be a depressing experience, but this week it has been downright jaw-dropping. Immediately after the incident it was "How do you know this was racism? YOU'RE racist for assuming that!" After the shooter's stated motivation was revealed, it was "typical lib'rul media making stuff up." Then a little later it was "It's O'Bummer's fault. He has divided this nation. I'm not saying this was right, but if you push people too far they will snap." I had to stop when I got to "He killed the wrong black people." I try to console myself with the idea that this is a mentality lashing out because it knows it's in its own death throes. But sometimes I have to wonder.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Why, the problem isn't too many guns, it's too few! << If African Americans started loading up on guns and ammo and participating in open carry, I promise you that gun laws would be changed so fast it would make our heads spin. I thought after Sandy Hook that maybe the deaths of little children would finally be the moment when we as a nation got over our passionate love of guns. Boy, was I wrong. And this latest horrific act is just going to be the latest horrific act, and the band will play on. But if back people started to really stockpile weapons in the manner so many nutty gun enthusiasts do, wow would things change fast. I'd bet a million dollars on it. Sadly, that is the only thing that I can think of that would do it.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf There is a level of insanity in this country that is indescribable. It is pervasive, societal. And when you try to point out the craziness the crazies become crazier. It's nauseating. Most of my American "friends" have some craziness they openly embrace. Some think Obama is the anti-Christ and say stuff like what was referenced above. Most say our healthcare system is the best in the world. Most of them think gun ownership is sacred and is the answer to all the world's problems. And most think the bible is the literal word of god and that the earth is only a few thousand years old. These are "normal", upper-middle class, "Christian, "educated", white Americans. I try to talk some sense into them (must to the chagrin of my wife) and they go bananas. My European friends, their socio-economic equivalents, would never embrace any of this nonsense and wouldn't believe that anyone could think this way. I have lived in Europe and every day I long more and more to move back. They have their own issues but they aren't bat-shit crazy like most Americans are.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Wow. More craziness. <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/send-the-ns-back-to-youngstown-where-they-belong-ohio-man-terrorizes-children-with-gun/">http://www.rawstory.com/2015/0...ith-gun/</a> The conservative wack-jobs have been claiming for six years now that Obama will confiscate guns. Maybe it is time for him to start.
Originally Posted By FaMulan This one man in Charleston violated the sanctity of Holy Ground (and I'm not religious) and premeditatedly killed nine people in cold blood. He is a murderer plain and simple. He took innocent human life on purpose. I don't care about his motives. He needs to face the full penalties of the law even if that includes the death penalty. I too have shaken my head at some of the reactions and they sadden and anger me. People are the content of their character, not the color of their skin, hair, eyes, etc.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Would it be racist in wondering why mass murderers are overwhelmingly white males? I mean skin color should not matter, but in cases regarding random pointless slaughter it seems to matter significantly. Are white males naturally more prone to homicidal psychosis, or psychosis in general? Is it racism to think this?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox I believe what's truly at work here is schizophrenia. And young white males are disproportionately prone to schizophrenia, which would explain why so many mass murderers fall into this demographic. When the shooter claimed he almost didn't go through with it after spending an hour with these people in Bible study, because they were nice, I immediately thought of someone with severe mental illness and paranoid delusional thinking as seen in schizo disorders. Going back and forth between logical polar opposites is a hallmark trait of schizophrenics. That's why so many of them are institutionalized throughout their lifetimes, because those delusions can turn on a dime, causing them to become irrationally violent in the blink of an eye.
Originally Posted By ecdc I think a lot of conservatives have truly jumped the shark. I mean, they did a long time ago, but this shooting in Charleston has really brought it out. Jeb Bush says he can't know why the shooter killed those people (the shooter was quite clear on why he did it). Lindsey Graham says the Confederate flag is just part of their heritage There are more and more and more examples. It's insane. White conservatives really do think racism is completely over, even when someone says "Hey, I'm a racist, I'm killing black people because I'm a white supremacist." And I'm sure all these "heritage" people defending the flag would be super cool with German Americans hanging a Swastika from their house to honor their heritage.
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley Tikiduck, you must be talking about in America only because world wide those Arabic speakers bomb and kill hundreds routinely And in Africa . wow what about slaughter after slaughter.. Those are black people killing black people .
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley Tikiduck, you must be talking about in America only because world wide those Arabic speakers bomb and kill hundreds routinely And in Africa . wow what about slaughter after slaughter.. Those are black people killing black people .
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley Oh and roadtrip how do you figure there is more police violence against black people since Obama's time? That crap has been going on for years. A lot of it .....and I'msure it was even worse before since we didn't have video and phones everywhere and with everyone carrying them back in the1970s to catch a hole cops beating and shooting blacks.
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley I'm thinking as terrible as things now are for black victims of a hole cops it must have been far worse before. I bet a number of would be aholers refrained from beating or shooting because cel phone cameras are trained on them. But still there are the ones who do it anyway as proven by all these disgusting high profile killings unarmed blacks
Originally Posted By Tikiduck There is a huge difference between religious and political motivation and psychopathy. Even in this most recent case I would say that mental illness was the primary factor with racial hatred being a trigger. Either way a lethal combination. Perhaps they are both diseases of the mind.
Originally Posted By SallyOmalley +++There is a huge difference between religious and political motivation and psychopathy. Even in this most recent ++++ Maybe to the sociologist, criminologist, psychologist But the living victim doesn't care. He gets to walk around with a missing arm and peeing through a tube be from a shooting black hater, shooting country hater or shooting religious hater. Missing an arm and having to tube pee hurts hurts either way. This kid will be put to death in 12 years. Good riddance.
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf I am so sick of the mental illness argument. Everyone is capable of temporary insanity due to some event in one's life. There is no way to screen for that. We have 15,000 people that shoot themselves to death every year. It's not much of a leap to choose to go down in a blaze of glory rather die alone. The critical factor is that guns are so readily available here so that anyone can do unthinkable thinks precisely in the moment when thinking doesn't happen. And I am also so sick of the "heritage" argument for the dixie flag. If we disect history for a moment, the only reason we have a dixie flag is because there was a section of our country so hateful toward black people that they would rather secede from the USA rather than free their slaves. Anyone who flies the flag (or buys dixie flag merch) is essentially saying the south that embraced slavery is better than the nation that repudiated it.
Originally Posted By ecdc As the focus turns to the Confederate flag, I seriously keep seeing people in social media and op-ed pages talk about how the Civil War wasn't about slavery but was about states' rights. The luxury of ignorance is a hell of a thing. Have people ever bothered to read a book? Do they really just get all their information from Fox News or some other right wing nut? It is 2015, we've just finished the end of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and people are *still* saying this was about states' rights? Pop quiz, is this the dumbest country right now or the dumbest country of all time, because that is some powerful stupid. Funny, the South was very clear about why they were seceding, and none of them really mentioned states' rights, but a whole lot of them invoked slavery.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Reading the letters and declarations of secession from the southern States is pretty eye-opening as to the true causes of the war. The right that the South was trying to keep was the "right" to consider non-white people as inferior and subordinate.
