Thinking the unthinkable

Post by MaysonL » Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 12:21 AM UTC

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #244

Joeri wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, i'm sure any minute now you'll post the statistics on how countries with tighter gun laws have huge numbers of stadium fires... We don't need to talk hypotheticals here. There are many countries with tighter gun laws. Any "but regulation will make it worse" argument can be vetted based on real world observations.

It is not a matter of statistics. You can smugly measure water for 10 years and learn nothing about ice. No amount of data on Swiss shootings has any bearing on whether Joe Gun-Controlled will back a gasoline tanker up to a high school basketball stadium. To predict unknown unknowns, you have to do RAND Corporation-style operations research and hypothetical projections. This has been done, and it turns out that mass…

Oklahoma City bombings: how many copycats?

Post by omGac0W » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 4:39 AM UTC

dinkumthinkum wrote: post #283

omGac0W wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "wanting to kill people" really so far from the norm as to have a gene associated with it? What would the gene be responsible for, "Propensity to give a fuck about other living beings"? Because in my mind, the line between being "sane" and killing everyone in sight is pretty fine. One's logic could go like this, "Man, everything sucks, and those kids down at the preschool are always so damn happy. Fuck Them. If I'…

I don't think it's so simple as to written off as some genetic issue certainly and, to be honest with no malice intended, the idea there will be no mental illness at some point in this center is the dumbest thing I've heard in awhile, but I also don't think the "line" between being "sane" and "killing everyone in sight" is fine; why would that be the case? It seems if it really were as precarious as you say, we would…

Hmmm maybe fine isn't the right word.

Wasn't there a time not too long ago when tribes of people would go around raping, pillaging, and slaughtering others just for the hell of it? Because it was fun for them? If our world had respawn, I think life would turn into a sort of valhalla-ish existence for a not small percentage of people, and I bet many would learn about a part of themselves they did not know existed, or had supressed.

Maybe rampage shooters are just people born in to the wrong time period, where in another they would fit in perfectly. The line isn't fine, but they aren't as different as we make them out to be.

Re: Thinking the unthinkable

Re: Thinking the unthinkable