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Debate ForumThis is the place to go if you want to discuss topics of a "tender" nature. Religion, politics, all's fair. Keep in mind, flame wars and harassment will NOT be tolerated.
Unless you’ve been away from a TV or computer screen for the past two days, then you’ve probably heard about what happened on Saturday, January 8 in Tucson, AZ. In an assassination attempt on Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (who is still in critical condition), 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner killed six individuals, including U.S. District Judge John Roll and a 9 year old girl, while 12 others were shot. Many in the press have pointed blame to the gun-themed rhetoric causally held by ultra conservatives and tea party members. However, conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh recently gave his reasoning on why the press shouldn’t blame tea partiers for Loughner’s actions.
What does this have to do with anything regarding metal? Well, among Limbaugh’s many points or arguments is that Loughner was a fan of heavy metal. “The guy listened to heavy metal, and some of that anarchist stuff. We’re dealing with an insane individual,” Limbaugh claimed. Apparently, it was discovered that Loughner is a hard rock/metal fan through his MySpace page, where he posted a comment about attending a concert of Fear Before (formerly known as Fear Before The March Of Flames).
I won’t go into further detail about his other points, because a majority of them only add into the political feud that some would argue has led us to such disturbing altercations. However, I will take issue with the one point I mentioned above by saying this: really? So being a metal fan automatically implies that one has psychotic tendencies? This is the same absurdness that made metal fans scapegoats following the Columbine shootings. It is unfair to blame a whole audience of a genre for the hate-filled and horrific actions of one sick individual. Our love and appreciation for a style of music has been far too often used as a scapegoat for whenever a young individual does an unthinkable act. So no disrespect, Mr. Limbaugh, but not all metal fans are depraved individuals who only care about bringing pain onto others. The typical long-haired metalhead isn’t any more inclined to violence than you are.
The events that transpired Saturday had nothing to do with metal, however within a few days, the metal community will most likely become a scapegoat for this one mans psychotic actions. Hopefully the news media won't jump to conclusions like they did with Columbine, Richard Ramirez (aka The Nightstalker) and others. As a long time fan of metal myself along with the thousand of metal fans I come in contact with each year are among the nicest and most intelligent people. Let's see if for once the media who looks to jump to conclusions rather than seek out the truth will spend the extra couple minutes to look at countless studies that show no correlation between metal and violence.
On a side note, our best wishes go out to the families and friends of those who lost loved ones during this horrific event.
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Quick! Get to the computer...Friday Night Flight Is On!
Don't even get me started. Whenever one of these whackjobs go off, there's always something else to blame. Something caused it. Like the losers at Columbine, how they were so mistreated, etc. My HS life was hell, I guarantee it was worse than theirs, but I never decided to just go blowing people away. They decided to do it, they were fucking stupid, they did it. No one and nothing is to blame except them.
Same here. The guy was fucking stupid. He did what he did because he WANTED to. End of story. People need to stop looking for something to lay blame and blame it on the guy who fucking chose to open fire. Period.
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"I’m not fat. I’m larger than life."
That's such a bullshit statement. It's the same as blaming gangsta rap for violence. Or video games. How about blaming the person for their CHOICE and ACTIONS? He CHOSE to purchase a gun in November. He CHOSE to purchase ammo hours before he CHOSE to ACT in a violent manner on Saturday.
The rest of the media isn't much better. Their job is to sensationalize tragedy and come at it from any angle possible. It almost got to the point of fiction on Saturday after this happened to see how many media outlets declared Congresswoman Giffords deceased. I was at work and saw it on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Fox News...then conflicting reports as one news outlet tries to one-up the other. Talk about in-fucking-sane.
So yeah...Loughner's CHOICE and ACTIONS on Saturday morning are not because he listened to heavy metal. Give me a break.
Add insult to injury. I'm a metalhead AND a conservative! I don't generally bring up politics here because, as chooch would attest, I'm very bullheaded on current events and respect my friends here too much to potentially insult them, but even if I was a liberal, I wouldn't go out and pop someones head just because of the music I listen to. It's all bullshit!
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Quick! Get to the computer...Friday Night Flight Is On!
That's the fucking society we live in now. Pass the buck, blame can always be put elsewhere, ESPECIALLY when someone kills. It's NEVER their fault. It was bad upbringing. It was bad family life. It was their music, or their video games, or their daddy never hugged them, etc etc etc.
NO ONE wants to lay blame where blame belongs. And our courts and government feeds it constantly. And this is what we end up with, a country where you can KILL SOMEONE and have loads of people and the media explain how it wasn't your fault.
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"I’m not fat. I’m larger than life."
That's the fucking society we live in now. Pass the buck, blame can always be put elsewhere, ESPECIALLY when someone kills. It's NEVER their fault. It was bad upbringing. It was bad family life. It was their music, or their video games, or their daddy never hugged them, etc etc etc.
NO ONE wants to lay blame where blame belongs. And our courts and government feeds it constantly. And this is what we end up with, a country where you can KILL SOMEONE and have loads of people and the media explain how it wasn't your fault.
Makes you miss the good ol days of the 80s even more...if you fuck up, it's YOUR fault! Not someone else.
But the metal communities headaches began with the PMRC and it just keeps on going.
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Quick! Get to the computer...Friday Night Flight Is On!
How about blaming the person for their CHOICE and ACTIONS? He CHOSE to purchase a gun in November. He CHOSE to purchase ammo hours before he CHOSE to ACT in a violent manner on Saturday.
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