
Originally Posted by
Dennis
I think the blame game is kind of a slippery slope bro. Here is why I say that.
So lets say there is a kid who is bullied for his entire life. Lets say that kid is bullied by someone much larger than him, and the parents of both children do as much as a parent in that situation should do but the one child just picks on the smaller child. And now lets say the smaller child has something like selective mutism (which is the same disorder that the person who shot up VT had) so he already likely going to be ostracized, but this just puts more pressure on him, and further makes him an outsider. Lets say at the age of 16 (9 years before someone actually has a brain at full maturity) does a tragic event like a mass shooting... This is obviously tragic but lets see how we can place the blame.
1) You can blame the child who did it which is easy to do because obviously he did it.
2) Even though the parents still did every thing they could the child was able to get a gun, so it's partly their fault because he is under 18.
3) You can blame the bully for ostracizing said child.
4) You can blame society for not protecting this child from bullying.
5) You can blame the schools for a lack of safety.
6) You can blame a lack of a good mental health system.
I could keep going but you get the point. There just is too much blame to go around. Instead of worrying about what went wrong, worry about how to fix it.
I think the only real solution to the problem is to try to stop these things from happening as much as possible via better mental health check ups, and to make sure our children do not feel ostracized (which is the case in most mass shooting). Obviously you are never going to get rid of all the crazies though, these events will always happen. The only way to eliminate shootings is to get rid of guns, which isn't going to happen. Because even if you destroy the thought in one persons mind, you can't always stop it in others. Some people just want the fame that comes from events like this... While you might be able to reduce the chances of an event like this, pretending like you could eliminate them would be vastly naive.
Dennis – I never once blamed the game. The game is what the game was designed to be. It cannot change or alter itself based on how another person feels about its content. Only the designer and publisher of the game can change its content. Therefore, how could anyone blame a game for what it is; instead, just as the point I made was, the parents who would seclude their children for hours in front of a video game because they don’t want to talk to their children as it would be a hassle are given a load of the blame. Does this clarification help a bit?
Now onto your point – First off, I must say it was an elaborate reach for a contradiction so good job on trying to think outside the box. You give the example of a kid who has been bullied his whole life by someone who was in contact with him his whole life – A neighbor kid so to speak, which is totally logical. Now the kid who was picked on has “selective mutism” (which means only that they will refrain from speaking to selective people or in selective venues and borders with OCD type of “compulsive” behavior) which would do NOTHING to contribute to him being bullied further than his inabilities to stand up for himself. Unless you are saying that he was picked on by the people who HE himself was compelled to remain a mute to; basically, anyone outside of having direct knowledge of his disorder would not come to the conclusion of him having a disorder but would rather acknowledge him as either a “quite individual” or someone who ignored them. From this point, I am wondering if you are implying that he was selectively mute with his parents, which is why they wouldn’t know what was going on with their kids. Be this you’re stand, the parents are still at fault and my point still remains validated that the child was never given an detailed account as to how the real world works and was simply written off as another compulsive disorder that deserved to have medication tossed at.
Now you are also claiming that the brain is “fully mature” at the age of 25, correct? Denny, you are spreading lies (unless you have some information that needs to be passed to the medical and psychological community as a whole). Check out the following 2 websites
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...n-fully-mature
http://phys.org/news/2010-12-brain-f...e-30s-40s.html
and tell me that what you are saying is factual. By stating that full maturity hits at 25, you are stating that all humans should be full cognitive and aware of self and development isn’t needed further. The information you are using is when the risk taking behavior changes according to the National Institute of Health. But you did manage to spout off one good point in that the blame is spread over the mass of society; therefore our focus should be on “fixing” the problem… But from the selective mute you speak of, how did we even know there was a problem to begin with, since he never said anything?
And to be honest, the only thing “naive” that I took away was your point on getting rid of the guns. Seriously Denny, do you think that if Obama passed a law, EVERY person with a gun would turn theirs in? Now let’s just say that the upstanding citizens of the US followed suit, who then would be left with the firearms in America? Police, Military, and the bad guys would all have their selected killing machine at their disposal. So if I have a break in at my residence, I am now at the mercy of waiting for a police unit to be dispatched to protect me and my family from the guys who broke into my house wielding… Guns? Sure, if you think the police will value the life of you and your family higher than their own go ahead and vote to get rid of the guns. Me, I am keeping mine and protecting my family with them.
Bookmarks