Decius wrote:
flynn23 wrote:
It makes me sick.
Complete non sequitur, but this CNN story is like a poster child for news media hypocrisy. They talk and talk about all the myths that were born of news media sensationalism of the incident and then they engage in exactly the same sort of sensationalistic tone:
I referred to him — and I'm dating myself — as the Eddie Haskel of Columbine High School," says Principal Frank DeAngelis, referring to the deceptively polite teen on the 1950s and '60s sitcom Leave it to Beaver. "He was the type of kid who, when he was in front of adults, he'd tell you what you wanted to hear."
When he wasn't, he mixed napalm in the kitchen .
Was that comment about napalm really necessary? Does it help promote a better understanding of why this happened?
The bottom line is that Harris was a psychopath. He had mental illness that is most likely biological in origin that made it impossible for him to feel empathy. No external factor made him what he was. The story dances around this subject but does not hit it head on. This is a clinical disorder that effects a large number of people. It cannot be treated and it has terrible consequences.
If you want to reduce the risk of this kind of thing happening, the best way to do that is to advocate more funding for psychiatric research. I don't understand why all of the people who have been motivated to do something about Columbine never zeroed in on that simple answer. We are not spending enough money on understanding and treating these illnesses, and they are baddly misunderstood by the general public.
Donate to NARSAD, the International Mental Health Research Organization, or the American Mental Health Foundation.
That's precisely why I cited it. Things like this just fan the flame of fallacy and contribute to the mythos and errant memes about the event. Frankly, I think investigating the "cause" is stupid. They perpetrators are dead, and even though they left diaries and such, you cannot truly understand what the cause was. It's too simple to say it was mental illness or that it was Marilyn Manson. Nothing in life is that simple.
It won't surprise me when shooting up your school is cool.
