Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2018 22:44:02 GMT -5
I've become sort of fascinated with pro-gun kid. He started off pretty polite and (though his take isn't mine) rational.
But now, well, he's citing Breitbart to attack his classmates.
|
|
|
Post by Optimus on Mar 26, 2018 23:41:23 GMT -5
I don't care if he's "just a kid" or not. He's being a douchey piece of shit and he seems to be doing it mainly to try to squeeze some sort of 15 minutes of alt-right fame out of this tragedy. And they're lapping up that kool-aid like a rabid pack of trash pandas.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 7:33:54 GMT -5
I have to note that unlike the other kids, I haven't yet seen him post anything honoring a dead classmate or teacher, about how much he misses a particular classmate or teacher, about having panic attacks or nightmares, etc.
The rest of them I'm following regularly do. They celebrated the birthday of one of the ones who died. They post artwork and photos of them. They talk about how hard it was to go back to school and know they wouldn't see them.
I get the feeling Kyle didn't care much about those that died, and doesn't like (and never did like) his living classmates.
Whatever the case, he's doing a lot of shit posting these days. If I were an adult in his life, I'd take him aside and tell him he might regret that some day.
|
|
|
Post by Amadan on Mar 27, 2018 8:39:46 GMT -5
I think he started out with sincerely held beliefs, but as he became the darling of the GOP and the Alt-Right, it went to his head. It was probably inevitable - how could a teenager resist that kind of validation? He's got a lucrative future as Trump's pet and NRA poster boy and young host of some conservative talk show before him, and he's at the age to become quickly radicalized. So no surprise he's drinking the Kool-aid.
|
|
|
Post by Amadan on Mar 27, 2018 8:42:04 GMT -5
Also, before rob starts equivocating, I think the same is true of the anti-gun kids. I expect to see David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez in politics in the future. But they at least are generally making an effort not to attack and trying to stay on point.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 8:53:02 GMT -5
I think the other kids are turning to one another for support, and see themselves as part of a larger cause that might have helped protect their dead friends. While I do think they're a little "wow, I'm famous now", I think those two things are keeping them relatively grounded. It's also, I think, keeping them from retorting in kind to Kyle. There are several "Kyle, we're all just trying to do what's right for our classmates" responses from them. But probably it helps that they are part of a large group that clearly believes it is part of a good cause that will save lives.
Kyle, on the other hand, seems very isolated peer-wise. In addition to seeing no grieving, I don't see any normal interactions with other kids on his timeline -- no goofing, no fun pictures. It's all stuff about him schmoozing with the President or Rubio, alt-right creeps cheering him on, and angry taunts of his classmates. That kind of thing has escalated. He no longer seems to even give his classmates credit for good intentions. (Which one can do even if you disagree with their stance.)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 8:59:10 GMT -5
This twitter thread (a discussion between Cameron Kasky and Kyle) is really something. Click through to Twitter for full context.
Another thing? The alt-right yahoos are still screaming about Hogg, Emma, et al. being "crisis actors rather than real students. You know who could shut that down? Kyle, with a "I disagree with them, but they are real students, not actors." But he hasn't done that. Nor has he condemned those sending them death threats. And yeah, I am certain I would if I were in his position (and that I would have done so at 16).
ETA:
Ah. It appears Kyle has deleted some of his posts in that exchange. Wise, but it will prevent you from getting the full flavor.
ETA:
I don't think the kids (any of them, Kyle included) should be restrained from activism and speaking out on a cause. I actually would bet that 20 years from now, they'll still have similar views on the gun debate. And hell, I don't think the activism hurts them -- they can write their college essays about it.
But loving adults in their lives should keep an eye on their social media for shitposting. Millions are watching these kids, and to the extent they descend to ugly stuff as opposed to activism, it could come back to bite them. They are all still teens, it isn't surprising if sometimes they are not totally mature, but better if they keep that stuff in the school hallways.
ETA:
To be fair to Kyle, he may be getting all the White house and GOP and alt-right praise, but peer-wise, his is definitely the lonelier road, and I think it possibly might be getting to him.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 9:36:09 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Optimus on Mar 27, 2018 9:45:12 GMT -5
I agree with him but, unfortunately, it ain't gonna happen.
|
|
|
Post by Vince524 on Mar 27, 2018 11:50:06 GMT -5
It's something about the Times Cass. And yeah, ain't gonna happen.
Also, any attempt helps the pro gun crown because it's a lot easier to argue that the other side wants to get rid of the 2nd amendment while they're cheering on a cause to actually abolish the 2nd amendment.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 12:28:58 GMT -5
Oh, I don't think the Second Amendment will be abolished, either.
Nor, for that matter, is that what I'd advocate -- nor is it what the Parkland kids are advocating. I think most of us on the gun-control side would wholeheartedly back the right of a citizen to own e.g., a hunting rifle. Certainly, I would. I have no interest at all in preventing Amadan or Prozyan from keeping their guns. Most of us just want hard-core weapons that allow easy killing of dozens of humans in seconds to be, at a minimum, harder to get, and to have at least the same level of hoops in place to get a gun as you would need to, e.g., adopt a shelter puppy or get a driver's license.
But it says something that an "abolish the Second Amendment" argument is being seriously advocated by a former Supreme Court Justice. BTW, though Stevens is regarded as one of the more liberal justices, it's worth noting that he's a Republican who was nominated by Gerald Ford. (Of course, he's not of the NRA or Trump breed of Republicans.) While I don't think that's where the argument will end up, I think it says much about how much the landscape has shifted since Parkland.
|
|
|
Post by Rolling Thunder on Mar 27, 2018 17:13:44 GMT -5
Best advertisement to join the NRA one could utter. Open mouth insert foot.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 17:22:18 GMT -5
No doubt for a certain percentage of people, that will be the reaction. But I think percentage-wise, you are dwarfed by the number of people who'd say that if it came down to a choice between no additional gun control laws and abolishing the second amendment, fine...abolish it.
I don't want to abolish it, to be clear. But if that were my choice, and it were up to me? It's all or nothing? I'd abolish it in a heartbeat.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2018 17:36:53 GMT -5
It might edify prozyan and Amadan to know that every time I get all riled up after seeing an ugly NRA thing (which is now daily), I stop and think of them -- it tempers me to recall that there are reasonable gun owners out there who don't want anything to do with the modern NRA. I seriously despise the NRA and its spokespeople with every fiber of my being. Here's another dee-lightful recent thing from one of them, btw: www.businessinsider.com/nratv-host-colion-noir-said-parkland-kids-wouldnt-matter-if-classmates-were-still-alive-2018-3Well, yeah, Colion. That's just the point. Their classmates are NOT alive. And I'm pretty sure, given the choice, that they'd be glad to go back and not lost their friends and lived through that terror. So shut the fuck up -- you're doing yourself and your cause no favors.
|
|
|
Post by nighttimer on Mar 27, 2018 18:52:06 GMT -5
Best advertisement to join the NRA one could utter. Open mouth insert foot. If all someone was waiting for a reason to join the NRA was a former Supreme Court Justice saying the Second Amendment has been perverted by a group that argues for the right of spree killers to blow away kids and teens, then they were already brain dead above the neck and heartless below it. Back to the school shooting that followed Marjory Stoneman Douglas at a Maryland high school, the one we're not talking about because the body count wasn't big enough to gain more than our passing notice, I noted earlier than the shooter was taken down by an on-duty cop. Upon further investigation, that turns out NOT to be the case. So much for the NRA's (and mine) narrative of a cop doing his job by taking down an active shooter. Ain't necessarily so.
|
|