Today's mass shooting in the US

My dates were from when the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade which started in 1444... so that would actually make going on over 400 years. So, I see a bit of projection on your part with you calling me a clown! :D


Slavery has been conducted for thousands of years all across the globe....

But this is a thread about the US specifically and Columbus didn't even reach the 'New world' until 1492 and the settlements that would go on to become the US weren't established until many years later and initially tended to get their hard labourers as indentured servants from Europe.

And if you're determined to act the clown why stop going back at the year 1444 for the start of the 'Atlantic slave trade'?

After all the Romans had boats, sailed them on the Atlantic ocean, controlled North Africa for centuries and were rather reliant on slavery and so they would have been transporting African slaves over the Atlantic over a thousand years before 1444!

So yes there have been black slaves for millennia (almost exclusively enslaved and sold by other blacks) but we are talking about a particular group of them in a particular context... being taken to a particular continent as slaves.

Pehaps in your clownery you might also want to reflect on the fact that far more European slaves were taken by African slavers to Africa, from Europe and the high seas, than the number of African slaves that were taken from Africa to what went on to become the USA.

The majority of the African slaves taken in the trans Atlantic slave trade ended up in the Portuguese colony that is now Brazil by the way.
 
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“The weekend attack took the US to a grim milestone of more than 160 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines such events as ones in which four or more people are shot.”

Good grief. 160 shootings of four or more people this year!
 
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It's a very big country tbh, i can kind of understand why some people are able to turn a blind eye to it as if the shootings are a nothing burger. 1 mass shooting a day in a country of 330 million whilst obviously terrible and still stupidly high relative to other developed countries (even when factoring the different population sizes) is still low enough for the overwhelming majority of citizens to think 'never gonna happen to me', just like most Londoners don't really worry about getting shanked despite the cities problems with knife crime.
 
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It's a very big country tbh, i can kind of understand why some people are able to turn a blind eye to it as if the shootings are a nothing burger. 1 mass shooting a day in a country of 330 million whilst obviously terrible and still stupidly high relative to other developed countries (even when factoring the different population sizes) is still low enough for the overwhelming majority of citizens to think 'never gonna happen to me', just like most Londoners don't really worry about getting shanked despite the cities problems with knife crime.

I'd argue it's not quite the same, as we don't have drills in our schools telling what to do if a maniac with a knife starts stabbing everyone, nor do we have politicians suggesting that a solution to knife crime would be for teachers to carry knives to defend themselves with.

Or that "good guys" should carry knives to stop the bad guys.
 
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I'd argue it's not quite the same, as we don't have drills in our schools telling what to do if a maniac with a knife starts stabbing everyone, nor do we have politicians suggesting that a solution to knife crime would be for teachers to carry knives to defend themselves with.

Or that "good guys" should carry knives to stop the bad guys.

Fair points, the school drill thing is reasonably recent isn't it (as in the past 20 years) so perhaps the mindset is different with younger generations.
 
Fair points, the school drill thing is reasonably recent isn't it (as in the past 20 years) so perhaps the mindset is different with younger generations.
Up until quite recently kids used to take rifles to school as a lot of American high schools had gun clubs, school shootings are quite the modern phenomenon by in large.
 


Just like this we talk about mass shootings but how many of these happen its tragic.
 
One of the big problems Americans and particularly young Americans have, is that it's very difficult for them to compromise.

If I was to sit in the pub with any one of you from this forum over a pint and discuss issues with the world, politics, life or whatever - I can do so in a calm, reasonable way, even when I really strongly disagree with something, or I end up being wrong and have to eat humble pie - I can do quite happily in a chilled out way.

With the younger generation of Americans, it feels as though when they have a viewpoint they entrench themselves so deeply, whether they're right or wrong they're totally unable to reason or discuss things.

They're right, if you don't agree "**** you".

They have these extreme ends of the mainstream media and social media which push all of these arguments through an amplification feedback loop to gain views, where the shouting just gets louder and louder from both sides, without the ability to reason or compromise.

In the end, they just go off the edge on a rampage, it's like there's nowhere left - they can't argue or reason, can't stop and calm down - it just escalates out of control.

I strongly believe if America turned off the news and uninstalled social media, the number of mass shootings would fall through the floor, because they'd be turning off the feedback loop of rage which is getting everybody so wound up.
 
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I strongly believe if America turned off the news and uninstalled social media, the number of mass shootings would fall through the floor, because they'd be turning off the feedback loop of rage which is getting everybody so wound up.

People are competitive, yet we place them in social situations that include billions of people. How on earth can they compete? The answer is they can't, and they get rude and angry when they can't. Social media is something very new for mankind, and has both positive and negative effects. That can be expanded to the entire internet, really. I can remember when there was no internet, and people seemed a lot happier - uniformed and just part of a smaller social group. Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Maybe we would be better if we switched the internet off. Who knows?
 
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One of the big problems Americans and particularly young Americans have, is that it's very difficult for them to compromise.

If I was to sit in the pub with any one of you from this forum over a pint and discuss issues with the world, politics, life or whatever - I can do so in a calm, reasonable way, even when I really strongly disagree with something, or I end up being wrong and have to eat humble pie - I can do quite happily in a chilled out way.

With the younger generation of Americans, it feels as though when they have a viewpoint they entrench themselves so deeply, whether they're right or wrong they're totally unable to reason or discuss things.

They're right, if you don't agree "**** you".
I don't think that's just applicable to the younger generation of Americans, I think it's just the younger generation full stop. They're completely unable to have an exchange of viewpoints with letting their emotions getting the better of them.

They have these extreme ends of the mainstream media and social media which push all of these arguments through an amplification feedback loop to gain views, where the shouting just gets louder and louder from both sides, without the ability to reason or compromise.

In the end, they just go off the edge on a rampage, it's like there's nowhere left - they can't argue or reason, can't stop and calm down - it just escalates out of control.

I strongly believe if America turned off the news and uninstalled social media, the number of mass shootings would fall through the floor, because they'd be turning off the feedback loop of rage which is getting everybody so wound up.
I don't think you'd see a massive drop in shootings but I do think the world would be a better place without social media, for all its benefits it does allow any old gimp with a voice to connect to someone half a world away that shares similar views whereas pre internet they would most likely be sat in isolation as it were.
 
One of the big problems Americans and particularly young Americans have, is that it's very difficult for them to compromise.

I don't think that's just Americans tbh, a few people on here have shown similar behaviour.

The way I see it, you can disagree, but still be polite about it, as you say, there are extremes, thing is, there always has been, but the internet has allowed these extremes to contact each other from all over the world and share their ideas, not always the best ideas..
 
I don't think you'd see a massive drop in shootings but I do think the world would be a better place without social media, for all its benefits it does allow any old gimp with a voice to connect to someone half a world away that shares similar views whereas pre internet they would most likely be sat in isolation as it were.

I disagree about the removal of social media, its a platform, that is all, people are the ones that have ruined it.
That's where the problem lies, the internet and the human races ability to ruin anything even if its a good idea...

Remember yeeeears ago when the internet was new, they were saying it would be an amazing thing as it allowed people to access knowledge and better themselves, the issue is it also allows people who arent interested in knowledge to talk to others of the same mindset, where you always used to have that crazy weird dude that lived down the road that used to shout and swear at kids and wave a stick, and you told the kids to avoid him, now he has the internet, and can talk to other random old dudes that wave sticks at kids, and then his cousin in the USA who has a gun rather than a stick....
 
I don't think that's just Americans tbh, a few people on here have shown similar behaviour.

The way I see it, you can disagree, but still be polite about it, as you say, there are extremes, thing is, there always has been, but the internet has allowed these extremes to contact each other from all over the world and share their ideas, not always the best ideas..

It's different in the US and it's hard to explain, I've lived and worked there.

I find that Americans have become much more intense and I think the media and social media is a significant contributing factor to it. Overall I could say that the whole world has become more intense and aggrevated because of social media, but when you combine it with the American way of life - greed, money, consumerism and the "winner takes all" mentality, I think it's extra dangerous.
 
..I think the media and social media is a significant contributing factor to it. Overall I could say that the whole world has become more intense and aggrevated because of social media, but when you combine it with the American way of life - greed, money, consumerism and the "winner takes all" mentality, I think it's extra dangerous.

I think the media have a lot to blame for this too. They really need to shut down "opinion" channels that pretend to be news. I'm sick of other peoples opinions, when all I want is news. Sky can be like that as well. You switch on for the news, and instead you get an hour of opinion.
 
I don't think that's just Americans tbh, a few people on here have shown similar behaviour.

Agreed. Normally emotional intelligence comes with age but that doesn't seem to be the case for some in life and on this very forum.
 
Opinion based news is where the money is at though, normal news is boring and doesn’t tell the audience what they want to here.
I think the media have a lot to blame for this too. They really need to shut down "opinion" channels that pretend to be news. I'm sick of other peoples opinions, when all I want is news. Sky can be like that as well. You switch on for the news, and instead you get an hour of opinion.

And yet normally, if you tell someone what their opinion is, well, we all know how that goes down..
I understand that there are 3 sides to a story, but you can't pedal an opinion as fact, this whole 'your truth' thing is BS, there are facts, and anything that comes from either side has bias, and when bias is involved you have to look at why the person that is telling you the 'story' what their bias is, and what they stand to gain or lose based on that story.
If just the facts are reported, then perhaps things would be a bit better...
 
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