McCarthyism: Alive and Well

[Nephlite]

Surprised the FBI got involved in this. Wonder if the kid had been flagged before for this type of behavior or had a record. They usually stay out of stuff like this unless there's some real credible information that could lead them to believe there was a threat.

It's funny when I speak to some of the old timers in my department, I always like to hear their opinions on how society is fucked up and you'd be surprised at their comments. Almost none of them blame music or video games on spreading negative messages and almost all of them blame the media for painting terrible images. Most of us had our dealings with some type of media splattering and we all agree that if it wasn't for people only printing partial stories or hyping stuff up to be worse than what it is, the world would be a better place. It's all about entertainment.

It's the main reason why I would never FaceSpace and yell at my wife for spending too much time on it. She's constantly "Hey babe did you know suchandsuch is bad for you and it's terrible?!" and I have to point her to the link to snoops.com that's permanently fixed to her desktop and toolbars so that she can look it up herself to see if it's BS. When my kids get older, I will ensure they check all available sources before passing judgement on things they might hear or see in passing or what they might see in the media.

[Draginhikari]

Surprised the FBI got involved in this. Wonder if the kid had been flagged before for this type of behavior or had a record. They usually stay out of stuff like this unless there's some real credible information that could lead them to believe there was a threat.

It's funny when I speak to some of the old timers in my department, I always like to hear their opinions on how society is fucked up and you'd be surprised at their comments. Almost none of them blame music or video games on spreading negative messages and almost all of them blame the media for painting terrible images. Most of us had our dealings with some type of media splattering and we all agree that if it wasn't for people only printing partial stories or hyping stuff up to be worse than what it is, the world would be a better place. It's all about entertainment.

It's the main reason why I would never FaceSpace and yell at my wife for spending too much time on it. She's constantly "Hey babe did you know suchandsuch is bad for you and it's terrible?!" and I have to point her to the link to snoops.com that's permanently fixed to her desktop and toolbars so that she can look it up herself to see if it's BS. When my kids get older, I will ensure they check all available sources before passing judgement on things they might hear or see in passing or what they might see in the media.

Ths does raise a number of important points in our society, on how easily are scared and easily terrified and how media can over empthizes these fears to the point where we are liternally scared of our own shadows.

It's kind of strange how the chances of dying in a terrorist attack are many, many times over lower then say car accidents, choking, food poisoning etc. We have some odd perspective at times.

[AoE]

Thought this was an interesting book. Pretty much documents the effect the media has always had on the populace. What I love about history, is that typically, the more you learn about it, the more you realize that human behavior doesn't really change very much.

http://www.democracynow.org/images/p...the_People.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/184...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Kohan]

What I love about history, is that typically, the more you learn about it, the more you realize that human behavior doesn't really change very much.

It doesn't. The majority has always been convinced by those who speak confidently and loudly. Preachers, politicians, and so on. People saying what they know people want to hear. It sounds trite, but it is the truth.

[Howie Roary]

leave the WBC alone but this dude gets hassled, oh ok

[ronin sparthos]

leave the WBC alone but this dude gets hassled, oh ok

Pretty sure the WBC does their homework to avoid getting into legal trouble.

Plus, they've got God on their side. And he hates fags, soldiers and America.

[notorious bum]

Glad to see the FBI still living up to expectations. History repeating itself, etc. But, atleast we didn't get to witness another Troy Davis tonight, avoided some good ol' modern-day lynching by mere hours.

[Churchill]

I would rather people die in a home grown terrorist attack than have some kid (and anyone else) be hassled by the FBI for being an idiot.

[Nephlite]

I would rather people die in a home grown terrorist attack than have some kid (and anyone else) be hassled by the FBI for being an idiot.

It's the bubble. The bubble has been broken and now people are panicking over every little thing. People laughed at the picture of the gun shaped cloud and the headline was "Gun shaped cloud spotted over school. Entire school suspended." but that's becoming our reality.

It's bad but I kind of laughed at the "nation-wide lockdown following the Boston Marathon bombing" when there's other countries that have bombings either weekly or bi-weekly and don't freak out as much as we did. USA the untouchable, USA the superpower, USA the land of the free, it'll never happen here. It's what we do in response to these things that will define who we are. It was tragic and I agree the people who did these things should be brought to justice but by no means should we let it completely fuck our way of living to the point where people (innocent people) are getting slammed for the actions of a few.

Also completely and utterly destroying any semblance of traffic patterns to lock down a 6x6 city area just because POTUS is on edge because of the Boston Marathon Bombings is a pain in the ass.

[Ragnus]

Pretty sure the WBC does their homework to avoid getting into legal trouble.

Plus, they've got God on their side. And he hates fags, soldiers and America.

To be fair, actual Jesus probably wouldn't be too tickled with America and what some people do in his name.

[Acevalefor]

It was tragic and I agree the people who did these things should be brought to justice but by no means should we let it completely fuck our way of living to the point where people (innocent people) are getting slammed for the actions of a few.

This has been happening since...I don't even know...maybe since people were capable of living in societies with rules and order. Something bad happens and suddenly rules and laws are made to restrict innocent people in the false belief that new restrictions will stop the terrible things from happening again.

It doesn't even have to be terrible tragic events. Car accident rates go up along a stretch of highway, so that area is designated a "safety corridor" and traffic fines are doubled. It does nothing to address the problem of weather related crashes, poor road design or animals on the road. It just creates punitive fines to try to force people to be "safer" on that road.

When we talk about huge incidents like 9/11, The Patriot Act comes to mind. New laws may deter a repeat or at least reduce the likelihood, but people intent on harming others will just find another way to do it. Thus the cycle repeats itself.

[Waraji]

This has been happening since...I don't even know...

All in all, the old adage "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it" still applies.