You can literally see in the multi-year chart that something happened in April 2020…. Frankly, I thought it would have taken until 2021, but there it is, clear as day.
But sure, guns guns guns. It is beyond individual mental health and a break-up of societal values. The chart proves it.
*** sidebar- why is this forum Sooooo bad at showing pictures. Every other board I belong to you can just post and link pics with out any issues, but not here? ***
I guess that is my point. They put us in lockdown- probably the biggest mental assault on a population ever. George Floyd and the repercussions happened. So now we have a bunch of people that have been mentally stressed and we don’t arrest and prosecute violent people like we used to. And shootings/violence go up.
But, it’s the guns.
2008, GFC, maybe a bit. But the whole late 2000s into the 2010s I think is more the rise of social media. That the first rise came around 1990 when the 24 hour news cycle came into full swing is also interesting.
People tout this graph and the ones of shootings going back to 1980 and say GUNS. When the very same guns were available then- it’s people and society that have changed.
Social media really took off in the mid teens. The fringe voices found a platform and through careful algorithm manipulation, those voices were amplified. Then money was tossed at them and presto, a sociopolitical revolution is born.
The funny thing is, Machiavellian plots hashed out in basements and back rooms are no longer required. No one has to write anything down anymore for investigators to find. All it takes are a few casual conversations, followed by chats on the internet and things grow legs all on their own. For all we know, the next big upheaval of our society will be generated from an AI.
We live in interesting times. Very interesting times indeed.
I’ve said a couple of times that people went crazy, I couldn’t put my finger on the exact date, but I think you’re on to something here.
I think for someone to blame guns is kind of a cheap way out of the discussion. If you’ve decided to pick up a gun and go hurt someone, you were broken inside before you ever picked up a gun.
The decison to choose violence is a big step in our society. The rules used to be, don’t harm me and I wont harm you. That’s been kind of a Gentlemens agreement since the dawn of organized society.
When I say “Don’t Harm Me.” I mean physically put hands on me, that’s exactly where we drew the line.
Suddenly though, I became responcable for your “Feelings”. Suddenly hurting your “Feelings” was of equal value as harm to your physical body.
See a statue that somehow (and you dont have to explain why) offends you? Tear it down, paint it, deface it destroy it. Somehow that was supposed to make you feel better.
That’s just one example, but it crosses society and intersects with other issues and become convoluted by race, sex and nationality.
So if your “feelings” are hurt and you’re feeling all pissy about something so you go online and find like minded crazy folks and discuss it.
So suddenly a vulnerable feelings hurt person walks in to the “Wild West” of other vulnerable half crazy people and they can feed on each others paranoias.
We are deep in the new era of our version of our own “Weimar Republic”.
We are so corrupt and bloated and full of ourselves that we cant get out of our own way. We are the fat petulant child sitting in the corner with a chocolate covered face crying for more.
Probably a whole different thread, but on the issue of what to do to fix it. the left, like any problem, looks to a new law to fix the problem- being absolutely blind to that fact that every law before didn’t solve the problem, or for that matter even make it better.
I think that not naming the assailant is a a good start.
I think we need to take the next step and start to ignore the reason that these people did the attack. Outside of some organized as part of a campaign that could strike again. (The left won’t like this.)
But what we do need to do is focus on the victims and the loss of their lives and the effects on their loved ones. I main issue is that we are incredibly narcissistic and these shooters don’t see the people they shoot as people. We reinforce this by mentioning the body count but rarely talk about the victims. And we need to personalize the victims as individuals.
If the shooter isn’t going to get any notoriety, if their cause isn’t going to get any mention, and the only thing that comes out is a celebration of someone else’s life and the hole that they left- that takes out all the narcissistic drivers.
Those are the changes beyond ‘thoughts and prayers’ that will actually change behaviors. Really, they are common sense things to do, as people like to say.
I think we really need to fix our mental health programs.
Although thats probobly fraught with a million ways and reasons to be abused, we need to throw a net over the heads of a lot of people currently walking around free as a bird.
I’m not talking about the guy who walks out to get his paper in his housecoat, I’m talking about the “Silence of the Lambs” kind of weirdo’s. Everyone waits until the Guy who dresses up like the Joker everyday unloads on a crowded theatre before saying “Wow I always knew he was crazy.”
Thoughts and Prayers are great, but a bit of preventive action is needed.
And No I have no idea how to do this Constitutionally.
Also, people need to toughen up and it needs to start with kids. We need to push for recess and Phys Ed in every grade K-12. You need to go outside and play a game. You need to learn to both Win and Lose you need a skinned knee and a broken heart.
Making “Safe Spaces” and false “Pronouns” for the weak and weird isn’t helping anyone.
We’ve lost all concepts of Liberty and Freedom are lost when someone tries to tell you cutting a boys penis or a girls breasts off is a legitamate treatment for a mental health issue,.
I see the ‘mental health’ as focusing on the ‘player’, I think we have to change the ‘game’. The left has broken our society, numerous times, especially over the last 30 years.
The individual aspect is definately the issue when it comes to the homeless problem.
But we need to change the playing field of the game, and stop them from blaming our guns and start blaming their culture. Take the narcissistic feeding frenzy of the shootings and focus on the victims. Take the oxygen out of the room for these low life’s. And if you go by the ‘mass shooting’ events, you are going to get a vastly different view of the issue versus what CNN feeds us.
I saw two Cops on 6th Street in Austin confront an obviously highly intoxicated homeless Man. While they were questioning him and as I stood and watched the Dude pissed himself.
People like that don’t need to be on our streets.
I guess I made my point in a round about way. The obviously highly intoxicated homeless guy isn’t even noticed anymore. We accept that as part of city living now. It’s acceptable that a grown Man act like that and your kids very well might see something just like that.
Crazy is now acceptable.
At the same time, I’m tracking a pedophille right now from Oklahoma that killed seven people in his home, two or more being local teenage girls
Was he a registered sex offender? Should have been…
The house on first glance seems normal, but along the baseboards were retraints bolted in to the baseboards. This guy had raped and physically assaulted young children, women and as a prisoner, other Male Prisoners. And we decided to let him out early.
No we as a Nation lost our Morale Compass and our relationship with God, we are now we are so deviant that anything goes.