Guns don't kill people ....

[henry quirk]

I addressed Ibby's hyperbole (and the skewed thinking it stems from), not "systemic cultural issues", but, since you bring it up...


No, I don't think -- in a country of 350 million individuals (and counting), situated on a planet with 7 billion individuals (and counting) -- it's possible to "indentify the correct variables ".

Every single person is a "variable".

[Flint]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

...
No, I don't think -- ... -- it's possible to "indentify the correct variables ".

So we can 1) act blindly, or 2) do nothing. Or, 3) "stop and think" --BUT WAIT, if we to refuse to consider any systemic flaws in society, then what the hell is there to stop and think about??? Sorry, not trying to mince words, I just don't understand. It sounds like you're objecting to people doing what you prescribe them to do. You want people to stop and think, but you don't them to think "wrong" ideas...? As every person is a variable, you also can't just sweep alternate viewpoints under the rug.

Originally Posted by Ibby

I think the problem here isn't gun laws or mental health support - it's the death-fetishizing, sensationalist, and destructive CULTURE in this country.

This is the most astute observation I've heard in relation to this whole event, and one that cuts closest to the real truth in this, as I see it. This is a super subjective statement and could mean 1,000 different things to 1,000 different people. It meant something to me, and it meant exactly what I've been thinking. In fact, every time the talking heads are talking this issue to death, I think to myslef, THIS, what Ibby has said here, THIS is the problem nobody is talking about. I think this is because it is prohibitively complex, as you've said, as I've said. But as far as identifying the root cause, I can't disagree that the products of a culture are produced by the culture that produced them, therefore therein lies the problem. It's blatantly obvious, isn't it? I don't understand what the disagreement could be. Here, let me rephrase this, the way I read it:

we must not neglect to consider "...the death-fetishizing, sensationalist, and destructive--" (and other, implied) aspects of the "--CULTURE in this country..." when observing events which occur within the aforementioned culture, AS THEY ARE INEXORABLY LINKED