I am watching both FOX and CNN as they cover the two latest attacks on believers this past weekend, one at the home of Orthodox Jews and the other in a Christian Church in Texas.
Of course each network has political commentators giving their politicized view on why white people are being radicalized and then turning to violence. For CNN it all leads back to President Trump for FOX it all leads back to liberal democrats and their policies.
Let's face it, mentally ill men and women as well as sociopaths are being radicalized by the media. In almost every case of a Mass shooting be it a house of religion, a Mall or a concert venue, it is a mentally or socially compromised person doing the killing.
Where are we to assign blame? I would place it on social media and websites that mentally and socially compromised people are fed a steady diet of hate and uncritical thinking.
But most of all I blame 24 hour a day news networks who cover these horrible stories where the mentally ill and other sociopaths are giving their two minutes of fame by news coverage ad nauseum.
It doesn't take much to give mentally and socially compromised people a reason to act and feel in control. The media, especially the main line medias need to do some soul searching in their role in radicalized the mentally ill.
And while we are at it, let's talk about violent laden video games, movies and television shows. What about the "Walking Dead", the CSI shows, and others that show violent content to entertain people, not to mention the actual violence seen on shows like Live PD!
It dulls the senses of even normal people and gives license to the compromised.
2 comments:
Blame media? Too easy.
No. Blame parents who have control. If they cede that control, they are failing in their jobs as parents.
No, parents are not responsible for mental illness in the vast majority of cases. But they are responsible - or should be - for the "input" their children receive.
Blame a culture that teaches boys that physical aggression (violence) is an acceptable, even preferable, means to get what they want. "Hit 'e, again, hit 'em again...Harder! Harder!"
Blame a culture that continues to inspire radical individualism and to encourage "Me First" thinking.
Violence in the media is not new, so I doubt that that is to blame. I grew up watching westerns where Native Americans were slaughtered by pioneers and cowboys. I watched Heckle and Jeckle, "...a pair of look alike tricksters created by Paul Terry. They're pals who routinely outwit and play pranks on folks, mischievous and often on the move these two birds are always getting into trouble and messing with anyone that they can."
I watched the Three Stooges, notable for their violence. I watched Wile E. Coyote get smushed, blown up, fall from cliffs, drop from parachutes and balloons, etc.
Other countries with social media, with 24/7 news networks, and with "violent laden video games, movies and television shows do not have the same problems with mass killings. Yes, they have them, but not to the degree we do.
The difference is easy access to guns.
The news programs have become so biased that I have stopped watching TV-news. The last time I followed world news on TV was when Peter Jennings as anchor. I question calling every shooter "mentally ill." I think I prefer the term criminal. It is too easy to label someone who does something you don't like as mentally ill and ship them of to a behavioral center for readjustment. "Something you don't like" might be criminal, or it might be going to Church and living life according to the Christian evangelical counsels. None of those three counsels are popular in capitalistic, individualistic, liberty worshiping America. To many they are the result of mental illness.
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