bradley Wrote: --------------------------- > Back in the day, we would > physically bash the sh*t > out of each other. That > was considered either > violence or entertainment > depending on who you asked.
Smart phones. Everybody has a video recorder in their hands. Every news outlet is fighting to get that footage, the more violent, the better! If it bleeds, it leads. But I also think there was a lot more violence in the past. If you had a real problem with some other guy in HS the wrestling coach would put gloves on both of you and put you in a ring and referee a bout. 10 fights per quarter. Charge admission and the whole damn school would show up, with their parents and watch you take the ass whooping of your life. Think anything like that would happen these days? No. The losers parents would file a lawsuit against everybody involved. Instead of just taking his public ass whooping like a man.
The proliferation of guns in America is why very, very few American males wear clunky Florsheim shoes anymore. Give me a pair of very nimble Hoka running shoes, or I'm not going to the mall.
I wish I knew. I live in a suburban area of central Maryland, which is normally peaceful. I've lived here for more than 20 years, but it's just in the last couple of years that we've had an uptick in nonviolent crime -- people rifling through cars, break-ins, theft, etc. We didn't use to have those kinds of problems. Formerly, violent crime was mainly confined to the public housing complexes and nearby areas. Everyone always assumed that it is/was drug related. It's still there, but it's gotten worse. You may have heard of the recent mass shooting in South Baltimore. There was a large block party of about 800-900 people in a public housing complex. Thirty people got shot, with two young people dying. The police later determined that at least a dozen guns were used in the shooting. A dozen!
Crime, both nonviolent and violent, is creeping into areas that were formerly rock-solid. People are angry at the police and the courts for not doing enough. Personally, I think there are too many guns in the hands of people who should not have them. I don't know what you do about that. There is one mall at a distance that I used to enjoy visiting. I won't go there on nights or weekends anymore. Too many incidents, too many troublemakers.
Rage bating is strong right now on much of social media.
The people in charge of the information the public receives want it that way. Creating chaos, anger, scapegoat groups, and discontent is an age old tactic.
Add glorification and easy access to weapons to avenge even the smallest perceived slight to the mix. Revenge, insults and overall bad behavior have been encouraged and exemplified from certain leaders, normalizing cruelty.
Yeah, I for one do not think the level of violence is constant.
Quite the contrary, the US Civil War set some sort of record in its national context; so too the First World War and the Second World War in continental and even global terms. I daresay the violence in those periods was greater than five years before or three years after. Rwanda provides another of the multitudinous examples of violent paroxysms.
Nor do I think the increase in violence today is the result of shifting standards--or at least of the expansion of the definition of that word to include insults and name-calling. What surprises me, in fact, is the ease with which Americans have learned to take 1.5 instances of mass shootings per day in their ever-lengthening stride. Does the US aspire to be the occupied Palestinian territories or eastern Ukraine? Uyghur Xinjiang?
To go even farther out on my limb, I think it is idiotic to reminisce over the good old days, when kicking the shit out of some kid at school was considered masculine. To my arguably addled mind, the era of lynchings and boys-will-be-boys sexual abuse and unreported child molestation were not "the good old days."
Might there not be is a connection between those "take it like a man years" when people turned the other way upon seeing African-Americans on bridges beaten by cops and averted their eyes from the rape of little boys in Mormon scouting units on the one hand and, on the other, today's brutalized politics. For isn't the return to those halcyon days of yore exactly what TFG represented and still represents?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2023 04:47PM by Lot's Wife.
elderolddog Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Dave the Atheist Wrote: > > > who is committing the violence? > > > The violent minority?
Me thinks there are multiple factors, including the de- industrialization of the u.s. & other countries, sending manufacring employment to 'developing' (we used to call them Third World) countries. Stepping up-out of (sorry) ghettos makes news & betters individuals who have ambition, but what are the total numbers?
Hopelessness of youngers
Weapon availability
poor parenting
I also believe that racial & ethnic minority people are fed up & acting out now as never before.
I suggest everyone read David Brooks' books, especially 'The Road To Character'
I think the reason(s) for why things to be more violent upsetting is due to the manner we get our news.
Something happens and the news editors take a figment of fact and blow up the situations without verification. Lot's of time you see the same words coming from different sources.
Later when more information becomes available rarely do the news editors go back and correct themselves, they just add the new info and one has a hard determining what is real.
Sometimes it's better to wait a week after an incident to finally get a clear view of the situation.
Why, when we were growing up (and even now!) did we believe, and enjoy, the movies where all the bad guys were killed? How many men did I watch die by the hand of John Wayne?
I was thinking that nowadays, kids aren't playing war, like my friends and I did before puberty set us on a different track, but it occurred to me that today's typical teen has 'killed' more enemies than I ever did because we couldn't play after dark, which is no hindrance to the slaughter that goes on in computer games.
Is there a society in which random violence at the hand of 'bad' people doesn't cause despair, and don't all societies have guardians of justice meting out revenge and offering solace and repair?
What if computer games have more to do with GNPE's perceived increase in violence?
Please note that even though you're just a girl, I certainly agree with your assessment that there is no such thing as the 'good ol' days.' ("just a girl" hahahahahahahahahaha! I hate complimenting you, but you're a lot more than 'just a girl,')
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2023 10:34PM by Maude.
summer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nah. I don't remember mass shootings in my youth. > Plus, when crime encroaches on formerly > crime-free, peaceful neighborhoods, it gets > noticed.
I was just saying to my Mom yesterday that it never occurred to anyone to worry about a school shooting when I was in school. It didn't happen. People didn't worry about being shot just doing their shopping either.
GNPE Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'm not going to accept 'better reporting'.
Somehow you missed Billy the Kid, Ike Clanton & family, Crusades, Al Capone & Murder,inc...?
We grew up watching a coyote try over and over and over again to kill a roadrunner. A funny chubby guy with a speech impediment try to kill a duck, Popeye beat up people...
Try Africa and other countries - violence is the way of life even as many try to tell you it is not happening.
Boyd KKK wrote, "Try Africa and other countries - violence is the way of life even as many try to tell you it is not happening."
There are multiple problems with that statement.
1) Africa is not a country.
2) Anyone who knows anything about the continent of Africa knows that it is dozens of countries and cultures.
3) People who say "violence is a way of life" ignore the fact that the degree of violence varies radically between countries from better than the US to worse. Generalizations are impossible.
4) It is equally impossible to say whether data on violence in any country is credible if you do not have extensive experience analyzing that country.
What this adds up to is the conclusion that Boyd does not know Africa or its crime data and therefore cannot say anything meaningful about it let alone use it to "normalize" the level of violence in the United States.
And if he could, what would the point be? Is it meaningful to say Nigeria or Venezuela has more violent crime than the United States? Is that the right comparison as opposed to Germany, Denmark, or Canada?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2023 11:02PM by Lot's Wife.
Boyd KKK Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Belgian Congo a few decades ago. Friends there now > in various hotspots.
Thank you, Boyd. Those are indeed hot spots.
They are also exceptions. Most of Africa is less violent that the US is. You can see that if you look at lists of countries by homicide rates, rates of violent crime, etc.
What I object to is the insinuation that 54 countries and dozens of cultures across a large continent share a single violent "way of life." That is factually incorrect.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2023 05:25PM by Lot's Wife.
I remember years ago when I used to watch a TV show called "In Search of..." hosted by Leonard Nimoy. I've never forgotten an episode where he talked about the Mayan culture. He asked why they were so obsessed with bloodshed and violence.
I thought, "Are you kidding? Movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, riots and bloodshed. It sounds like our own culture." I guess that has never changed.
But I do think that our health systems are not well-equipped to deal with mental health issues. A high percentage of homeless people are dealing with such issues. And the pandemic seems to have pushed a lot of people over the edge and exacerbated the situation.
I agree with what u posted, & agree that lack of mental health treatments & resolutions are serious problems - challenges, but U seem to be suggesting a link or relationship between homelessness/ mental health in terms of the topic of increasing violence.
I'm definitely not saying that all homeless people have mental health issues, and not all people with mental health issues are violent.
But one thing that I've noticed in the headlines lately about violent incidents, is that it is very often noted that the perpetrator was of "no fixed address."
It makes me wonder if some people who do have mental health issues are falling through the cracks of the health system and are out on the streets.
There's no question that people with mental and emotional problems are on the streets. But that has been true since the US shut down most mental health facilities in the 1970s, so that by itself doesn't explain what is happening now.
Moreover when was the last time a mass murderer got off because s/he was insane? Can you name one? Two? I can't. Put simply, the vast majority of them are both legally sane and have fixed abodes.
I don't think it's a full explanation at all, but I think that it's a part of the problem. It contributes. It's more complex than just coming up with one answer.
Nations are quite good at counting births and deaths. They give you fancy certificates and everything. First world nations have been good at it for well over a century now.
The US dwarfs comparable countries (Australia, Canada, western Europe, Japan) in gun deaths per capita. It also has surpassed its own recent past in gun deaths. The US life expectancy has taken a pretty sizable hit in the last 4 years, partly because of covid (it is one of the few industrialized countries to have its covid death toll higher in 2021 than in 2020 primarily because of anti vaxxers), and partly because of youth gun deaths. Dead teenagers really put a dent in the average life expectancy of a nation.
For what it's worth, there's something happening here, even if what it is ain't exactly clear.
IMHO, a lot of the killings by young minorities are gang/drug related, which I just consider business litigation by other means. They can't go to court to settle disputes, so they use the tools they've got. Plus they are young and stupid.
There have been complaints that the justice system is biased because a disproportionate percentage of inmates are people of color. But when it comes to randos shooting up malls or grocery stores or theaters or schools or churches or clubs, gay or otherwise, where there is almost always either an arrest or a dead perp at the scene, it is surprising how well-represented white males are. I find that very interesting.
(One is) Too Many drive-by random shootings here in Western WA, the tacoma area seems especially violent the past few YEARS...
I told a g. friend of mine who lives there that I'm deeply concerned for her safety & well-being, IDK if she's still employed there are not.
Second to grieving about a murder or shooting or assault victim is being concerned about people one knows who are tied to a dangerous place thru employment or other links.
Violence does not have to be an AK47, a 45 pistol etc.
A friend of mine ran the knife shop at Fiesta Mall in Mesa, AZ. A guy bought a knife from him and entered the rest room at the food court and stabbed everybody in the rest room.
In California a guy ran his car into a group of people on the Venice boardwalk.
I saw video where someone drove a large truck into a crowd during Bastille day in Nice France. News reports were that at least 84 people were killed.
Society is sick. I don't how to fix it.
Just my opinion and a first step.
Violent first shooter video games and violent films are contributing to the problem. Ban them?