Another fucking spree shooting. Great.

a friend of mine shared an Instagram post where this guy commented on Emma Gonzalez's page or something with "I can't wait until I'm reading your names in the obituary section". his username is "the last c0nserv@t!ve" (googleproofed) and at the top of the page, he has a blurb stating he's a proud Christian, made perfect through the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

I guess the main reason this is so jarring to me is that I went to church in the South in the 80s and 90s - one a Fundamentalist, the other a Protestant (Methodist). And yes, most of those people had horrible opinions about homosexuality, abortion, patriarchal values, etc. But they were a compassionate group of people. Someone posting something like that would likely get them they weren't welcome at the church anymore. And not just the officials who have to be professional, even the congregation of my Fundie church would have said that was gross.

Like there were still decency lines that wouldn't be crossed. I feel like the main difference is that those churches I went to, they found their political views through the lens of their religion. As American Christianity has been increasingly politicized, though, there are many who found their religion through the lens of their politics. They view American conservatism and its gun fetishism an extension of the religion, like somehow the two have always been intertwined. A lot of these people don't go to church often or even know much about the teachings but just affix the label to themselves because they're a conservative, ergo they must also be Christian. So then they view attacks on the 2nd Amendment as an attack on religion and deem these kinds of inflammatory reactions as ok. Which is scary af, being that the recent mailbox bomber was basically a radicalized Christian.

I'm seriously afraid of Christian terrorism increasing - not to levels of what other countries have, but enough to where people are on edge. it doesn't help that sometimes church officials are part of the abhorrent behavior, or if they aren't, do little to curtail it. It's funny how Muslims are expected to acknowledge and condemn their mujahideen problem on what feels like a daily basis, but Christians won't acknowledge their own growing problem and hide behind shitty "No True Scotsman" defenses. and when they do, it's unheeded - Evangelicals turned on the Pope ffs since he dared to buck conservative politics.

I know none of this is booming but it just weighs me down every day. this cult-like behavior....so gross.

I'm seriously afraid of Christian terrorism increasing - not to levels of what other countries have

What countries?

oh

WOW: Father of Pulse shooter Omar Mateen was longtime FBI informant; that's why prosecutors didn't lock up Mateen after 2013 threats, which might have prevented massacre, lawyers say. https://t.co/xNMnJnsYFp

— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) March 26, 2018

xp - it's not really that jarring. it stops being jarring when one realizes that they have a broad and deep well of human compassion and respect, extended only to the people they think deserve to be alive. if you are not part of the middle-to-upper-class WASP cohort or if you deviate it from any way (sexuality, disability, politics) then these people do not really consider you human, and consider you as making it actively worse for humans just by dint of existing. (and yet generally speaking, the fundamentalist conservative platform does not support voluntary euthanasia.)

(by that last, I often am deeply resentful because the general thrust of GOP policy, via medical insurance, foreign policy, job acquisition and longevity, and the like is that they would prefer it if many people were just dead, and if someone does in fact die, then they view that as justice being served, as God's plan or whatnot. (the latter is more common the more Calvinist a church is, though asking your church leaders how Calvinist they are is a quick way to get kicked out of the church.) but they never actually admit this, despite clearly thinking it.)

What I’ve been saying.

Rod Dreher is mad:

To clarify (because this isn’t clear to many commenters): I support tightening gun laws. I supported this before Parkland. I support it in spite of this media-glorified movement. I do not support this movement. I was indifferent to mildly positive about the movement, but I now believe that its intentions are to smear anybody who disagrees as an accessory to mass murder. Same as the LGBT movement smeared those who disagreed, especially when it comes to LGBT programs in schools, as causing suicides.

David Hogg is emerging as a skinny young Robespierre, so filled with righteousness and certainty, and stone-cold purity. I have no problem at all with him criticizing Marco Rubio or any other lawmaker, and criticizing them strongly. But what that kid said goes way beyond that. And he’s being cheered on by adults who know better, but who find him useful. What a disgusting little creep David Hogg is — but not as disgusting as the grown-ups who are using him for their own cause.

He should be careful about invoking Robespierre or he’ll end up on a list

These people are sad

starting to realize theyve lost the room?

they haven't, though, is the problem. they have complete and total control of the room. no real change has come out of all of this and most likely won't.

(this whole thing is more depressing to me than anything -- to the extent that I dreaded shootings in school it's because I knew that if I were to be shot then no one would give a shit about it. most people probably would secretly have been relieved. still is the case, really.)

it's also why I really... actually kind of hated the big speech at the rally. this is the list of people who died: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/15/586095587/17-people-died-in-the-parkland-shooting-here-are-their-names

and here is the speech:

https://www.npr.org/2018/03/25/596805330/emma-gonzalez-fight-for-your-lives-before-it-s-someone-else-s-job

A couple of people are memorialized with little anecdotes like "would never call Kira Miss Sunshine"). A couple of people are mentioned just offhand. One boy isn't mentioned at all. (Almost every news outlet covering the rally said all 17 victims were mentioned, but you can clearly count 16.) And it's just, like, why? Was there not space to mention everyone else's friends? Is the symbolic value of getting your speech to exactly six minutes really worth someone's mom wondering why their son wasn't mentioned?

Basically, I can't shake the suspicion that there was some kind of decision about whose lives made for sufficiently good content. Children's lives. It goes without saying that kids should not have to worry about being shot in school, but kids also should not have to worry about whether anyone would eulogize them if they were. Because that sure as hell is a worry I had throughout high school, frequently (more so in college, since there actually was a murder).

one of the victims was a non-student, no?

oh, more than one. nvm

is it....is it possible she just missed a name or two in the speech and it wasn't a calculated decision

that's even worse!

like, I know these are high schoolers, but I feel like if you're delivering a quasi-eulogy, the bare minimum is to include every name. people's parents get distraught if their kids' names are left off graduation rolls, for fuck's sake

and this is just regarding the students at this particular school; I was -- "pleasantly surprised" is not the right phrase at all, but I did appreciate that several of the speeches were by and about black students, who tend even more to get left out of these national eulogies.

meanwhile, former Justice Stevens: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html

the timing includes the long period of silence, so no cutting would have been necessary to achieve it.

lol @ the NRA = Planned Parenthood comparisons, how are these people so bad at this

Imagine if someone who escaped the Twin Towers on 9/11 stood before a pro-war rally in 2002 and accused a US Senator who had, I dunno, received campaign contributions from Islamic interests, of taking money for every person killed by the terrorists on that day. Would that not have shocked and appalled you? It ought to have done.

wtf

I dunno

like I understand how "Marco Rubio murdered your child for $20,000" is unproductive but the right wing don't exactly have the moral high ground there

"Marco Rubio murdered your child for $20,000" sounds like a Jeopardy! category tbh

"Here's Marco Rubio with the clue"

If, as an elected official, you accept funds from an extremist gun lobby and inevitably allow that to inform your policy positions and voting record, you are absolutely complicit in gun-related violence and death. NRA campaign contributions are essentially a payoff to induce politicians to look the other way and let the US devolve into the Wild West because capitalism. Anyone who's butthurt about it being laid out that explicitly can, frankly, suck a fuck.

lol @ jmm
old lunch otm

many xposts

I have no idea why that speaker left Nicholas Dworet out of her list of victims, but one of the other speakers had the crowd sing Happy Birthday as he would have turned 18 on Saturday.

yeah, that's the weird part! I have no idea, and obviously I don't know the kid or his family, but it just seems very... weird, not in a good way

One of my colleagues had a daughter on stage & otherwise involved in planning the program--she insisted that the Parkland kids were the strongest drivers of the inclusion of young people from DC's most gun violence-afflicted areas. Our local BLM contingent (who tend to be extraordinarily cagey, frustrated & unengaged whenever folks from outside DC plan big protests in their city) actually had a large & enthusiastic group at the march & the organizers I know there heavily credited the kids with involving them early on. All that to say that I've been really impressed by what appears to be the kids' own self-possession & awareness around their own position & they're instinctively getting these kinds of things right (on the first try!) that I've seen big orgs fail at over and over again.

So I'm just struck by the same thing as you here--why no Dworet? Maybe Gonzales missed a line in delivery--but having seen how much they've gotten right I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. idk.

like I said, I have no idea -- it's weird that every news outlet's like "yep, all students accounted for." but I'm more bothered, to be honest, about the difference between people who got stories and people who didn't. there's always a weird popularity undercurrent with this kind of thing -- think the conservative counter-narrative of "don't take away guns! just talk to those kids that you bullied so they don't shoot you!" -- and who gets eulogized the most.

and yeah, again, there's a racial component to it. (when I was in undergrad, the Eve Carson murder was a huge deal. like, an unimaginably huge deal. a couple of years later, a couple of Muslim students got murdered. I wasn't on campus in 2015, but I doubt it was as massively huge a deal, at least not on campus; it did make national news, but like, are people talking about Deah Barakat as an exemplar of the Carolina Way?)

So, yesterday I wrote that Parkland's teens, in going out of their way to center voices from minority communities and reference privilege, have seriously challenged arguments that identity politics is inherently noxious, divisive, and counterproductive. https://t.co/agdYkdH2WQ

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 27, 2018

Now we're treated to a David Brooks column about the march titled In Praise of Privilege that makes no specific reference -- none, zero -- to anything that was actually said on Saturday and quotes Samuel Huntington. https://t.co/9HmzZXbeVM … pic.twitter.com/tii5KDmjhm

— Osita Nwanevu (@OsitaNwanevu) March 27, 2018

I think one of the more important things to keep in mind throughout all of this is that the people commenting on these words and actions have decades of life experience on these kids. I'm twice their age and I don't possess anything near their level of poise and maturity and focus, nor have I been through anything like what they've been through, so I'm willing to cut them a huge amount of slack. That they aren't curled up in the fetal position with the blinds drawn is amazing all on its own.

Also, they would probably love to just be kids and not feel the weight of responsibility that's been thrust upon them because so many adults are total shits. They're fucking heroes imo.

Also also, the extent to which they're willing to engage with any advice or criticism from adults is admirable inasmuch as they'd be completely forgiven for just asking 'say, adults, how have your approaches to the scourge of gun violence been working out for you thus far?' and walking away.

yeah, like, all of this is not to be mean to those kids, when I was that age I was devastated about not getting a role in the school musical

LOL?

The company said that it had ramped up production and borrowing in 2016 based on expectations that a Democratic administration in the White House hostile to gun rights would drive sales through the roof in 2017 and beyond. Instead, Donald Trump won the presidency, and expectations of higher sales evaporated.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-remington-bk-20180327-story.html

Active shooter at YouTube HQ. Heard shots and saw people running while at my desk. Now barricaded inside a room with coworkers.

— Vadim Lavrusik (@Lavrusik) April 3, 2018

whoa wtf

Confirmed? Seeing it reported in random places. BBC, Hollywood Reporter ...

Police still not saying anything other than 'activity'

Police activity at 901 Cherry Ave, please stay out of the area. pic.twitter.com/H6iAj0g7ra

— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 3, 2018

Also, that poster above has added:

Safe. Got evacuated it. Outside now.

— Vadim Lavrusik (@Lavrusik) April 3, 2018

Police confirming the nature of the response:

We are responding to an active shooter. Please stay away from Cherry Ave & Bay Hill Drive.

— San Bruno Police (@SanBrunoPolice) April 3, 2018

KPIX 5 reporter Andria Borba said at least two Homeland Security units were responding. Police radio transmissions describe casualties being taken to local hospitals.

San Francisco General Hospital spokesman Brent Andrew said the hospital received patients from the incident but could not confirm a number.

God, this is eerie coming after their gun channel bans a week or so ago.

seeing sf general referred to as "zuckerberg general hospital" is a whole layer of weird alongside the horror here

It is the name.

yeah it was just news to me i guess and gives it a surreal sheen

Terrible.

In descending order of my expectation: an alt-righter angered by YT setting Alex Jones one strike away from being banned over conspiracy nonsense > an alt-righter angered by YT banning some white supremacist or gun nut video > other species of basement dweller angered by changes to YT's monetization formula > any other disgruntled YT denizen > disgruntled employee, foreign terrorism.