30+ people dead, 30+ people injured.

The gunman was looking for his girlfriend at Virginia Tech, and proceeded to kill anyone he wanted to, apparently.

She broke up with him, he took it hard, he shot up the school.

wow... last i heard *looks at watch* four hours ago.. was that it was 20 and 20 >_<
crazy kids these days, i swear.
pretty sad though - really gotta wonder what was in his head eh? feel bad for the guy. well and the people that got shooted too.

::EDIT::
AMG watching the news right now on the tv thing at work - death tolls is "at least 33" now. there is police people and stuff.

maybe the gas price will go down now. or maybe it will go up ><

Well, despite how sad this is, it's still a fact of life that there is evil in this world and this will happen as we rotate through the years. People will have these psychotic breakouts and will do something like this. Instead of grieving over the losses, we should use this information and try to be stronger and more aware. This sh*t could've happened any damn day of the week to anyone of us. We're lucky it wasn't. So, this is one of those moments where you stop and think about what you really value because one day, it may be stripped from you.

One useful way to become more aware is to focus on the mental behavior (psychotic) rather than the moral behavior (evil).

I think a psychological understanding has a better chance of exorcising demons than a theological understanding.

I wasn't even f*cking talking about theology. I meant evil as a whole, as it has come to be understood.

Naturally, Jack Thompson has already started blaming this on videogames.

I don't think anyone cares about what Jack Thompson says, his accusation will just end like they always do.

@KA

That's my point. The word 'evil' is useless when you have the word 'psychotic' or 'unfortunate' unless you think there are more to actions than mental motivation or physical response to the environment.

Using the word 'evil' reinforces the idea that something motivates actions other than the laws of physics or mental behaviors.

This is a good time for people to try to understand that to become 'stronger and more aware.'

There are things that cannot be explained by science though.

... Who is Jack Thompson, may I ask?

So, these have started happening even at college universities, now (far as I know, what happened today is the first instance). Makes me really confident about getting up tomorrow morning to go to school.

Jack Thompson is an asshole who blames violence on videogames.

By the way, drudge report found this out:



Asian male. Foreign national (so by law, he can't have a gun, so "gun control" tightening is a moot point).

Wow, this is like a super-tragic soap.

Why is sh*t always happening in Virginia, man? Seriously.

I read about that in the paper the other day.
Very sad, really. But there's nothing much we can do about it.

Just one things that always amazes me is the habit USA has to blame everything on terrorists. You realized? "Investigator hasn't linked him to any terrorist groups", the bomb attempt thing... Man. You people can't get enough of terrorists, apparently.
And if the man was 'testing the campus' security responses', it means that he knew he was gonna kill someone right away... so there should have been no quarreling with the girlfriend at all, just shots.
Meh. Dunno if that source is trustworthy, anyway.

Shiz. Human society is a very, very strange thing.
Edit: Just to illustrate my point. Today, in a common confrontation between frug dealign gangs, died 13. No 'innocents', all criminals. More 6 in another place. And 2 more because of a simple street mugging. That's 21 deads, in one day, in one city.

Edit 2: So, the boy was south korean and even left a note before suiciding, huh?

There is a difference between asking the question was it terrorist related (and informing those who want to know of the answer to said question) and actually blaming terrorists. I don't recall anyone in the Virginia Tech incident actually blaming terrorists.

The difference between the Virginia Tech deaths and the gang deaths is not necessarily about the desingations of 'innocent' or 'criminal'. It is about the expectation of the the domain boundaries for said designations. The reason that the story is surprising so many people regarding Virginia Tech is because the killer crossed a boundary that almost eveyone EXPECTED wouldn't be crossed.

There would be less shock if rather than maintaing expectations, people FUNCTIONED with the idea that there is a lower likelihood for 'innocents' to be killed than 'criminals' which inherently means there exists a likelihood 'innocents' will be killed.

i think that all he was saying was that he was interested in the fact that it had to be stated that the man wasn't involved with any terrorist organisation. as if there operates an assumption that any act of violence might well be.

like he quoted, investigators haven't linked the guy to any terrorist groups.

it's reasonable to assume that in none of the 21 deaths he described, investigators bothered to look for terrorist links.

he's got a point, which i think you might possibly have misinterpreted. ^^ iunno, it could be me.

and stuff like this is always going to be a shock. even if you function with the assumption that innocent people might die, it won't really work to think that will somehow prevent the reactions we've seen occurring when stuff like this happens.

i really don't think that anyone was looking to discuss the finer points of the morality and psychology of it in this thread, anyway. it's actually been causing arguments all over the place, last time i looked. ^^;;;

@regal

If a few people, let alone a lot of people wonder whether or not terroism was involved, what's wrong with the reporter answering that question. It is not necessarily an assumption that any act of violence might be, it might simply be a question. If 32 'innocent' lives is reasonable to cause shock (when say a single murder goes unnoticed) then 32 'innocent' lives is certainly reasonable for the public to at least wonder "is terrorism involved" with the reporters simply doing their job to report the answer as best they can.

You don't think The Gnasher was biased when he said "You people can't get enough of terrorists, apparently?"

But thank you for clarifying someone else's position and for clarifying what I should be writing about in this thread.

Well I think the problem is the word terrorism. We seem to use it to refer to a specific group of people, and a general idea of directed disregard for social order, with the plan to disrupt the surrounding society. So is he a member of a terrorist organization, not likely given the info we have. Could his act be considered terrorism, sure. Really given what I've heard I think it was more of a I know my life is over, so why not take some people with me. Or something to the tune of since I know my life will be over soon, I no longer have consequences. A fight club quote comes to mind, "Once you've lost everything you're free to do anything". This guy likely felt like he had lost everything, and so brashly picked anything he wanted.

Certainly not a justification, as I personally am not convinced there is ever a truly justifiable reason for killing, though I wouldn't feel as bad if a repeat murder were killed by a justice institution.

Hopefully someone won't claim I'm just trying to sound intelligent here, like some decided to do at another forum, on this topic. Not a smart move for him though, considering I'm an admin there, and breaking a rule is one thing, breaking a rule against an admin is another.

lol, no, actually. i think he wasn't strictly being serious.

^^

but of course, i could easily be wrong myself.

That's sad =/
One puertorrican was among them. That doesn't make it any badder or sadder, although in the news they focus in that particular piece of info... I hate that. But it's (almost) always the same here.
"Oh there was a tragedy where? Oh, that's terrible...
How many of them were puertorrican among them? Oh THAT's terrible!"

hmm... same here, actually. though since there wasn't a brit amongst the victims, it didn't recieve a whole lot of news coverage. the papers decided that people would rather hear about Prince William breaking up with his gf.

><

the f*ck?