Virginia Tech Shootings

[jonc2006]

Originally Posted by Master Chief

Nobody could ever predict such a massacre. However, this kid was showing signs beforehand, but they did nothing about it. I don't believe in totally eliminating guns (how many freedoms can they take away for crying out loud?), I'm just asking for a bit of common sense. Clearly if the kid was writing stories like he was he has a problem. They should have sent him to get help or something. His parents must have been pretty stupid as well for not knowing what the heck was going on.

they TRIED to do something about it, but he refused treatment. to my knowledge, they cannot force him to go into a mental hospital. but neverthe less, i still dont understand VT would allow someone with a history like that in.

i heard todaythat he had autism, which would explain the shyness, inablility to look at people in the eye, particpate in conversations/discussions, etc.. of course that isnt an excuse forwhat he did but it explains the mannerisums and his attitude or reponse to other people. parents dont really get involved on a college level like they do in grade-school.

college kids are supposed to be indepenent and dont really need to have everything they do there explained to their parents, as its not their problem. if he was under 18 or whatever, they legally have the right to make him do whatever they feel is better for their child. but the guy was an adult, and the minute he became one, his parents lost that power and therefore it was his job to take care of himself an it was his responsibility to act like an adult.

Originally Posted by Tojira

It's not surprising to me the number of people that immediately make assumptions about the killer when they know little to nothing about him. The more I read about it all the more I sympathize with him. I'm not defending what he did in any way. What he did was of course sick and I really feel for everyone involved. But there's so much people don't understand about the killer himself (I don't claim to know for sure either, but I think I have a pretty good idea). I don't believe he was "evil" or a terrible person. By the time he decided to do what he did he would have been beyond reason. I can't explain how he would have been feeling. You'd have to know for yourself. But teasing and bullying can lead you to lose your sense of reality. He'd developed a hatred for the world and he needed help to bring him back to reality.

I read in the paper today (among other such things) that once when Cho was asked to read aloud to the class he initially said nothing. The teacher threatened to give him a failing grade for participation. So eventually Cho starts to speak in an odd deep voice. His classmates start to laugh and point and say "Go back to China"! That totally disgusts me. It's sick. People can be horrible. That's life you say? You need to understand that some people take such things harder than others. He must have been in an absolutely terrible mental and emotional state for a big part of his life if this sort of treatment continued. You'd be surprised at how large an effect such small things (in this case though I don't believe it was small), can have on a persons mental state. People don't just decide one day "oh I think I'll go and shoot all my classmates and commit suicide!". Whoever it was that said he did it all simply because of his girlfriend - you're an idiot. I seriously, seriously doubt that. I find that utterly ridiculous.

It's hard to put this into words so I guess I'll just stop. I just think some people are being very narrow minded and biased. It's easy to point at the killer in hatred, but I believe it's only fair as none of us knew him in person, to hate what he did, rather than to hate who he was.

Are gun laws to blame? is the mental health system to blame? You can't just lay all the blame on one thing. However I believe each of these things played a part. I think the whole guns for security thing in America is a big joke. Totally stupid... What does that say for America? If your average everyday American needs a gun to defend his family? And I've always thought that way. And of course people will bring it up now, why shouldn't they?

There are, as someone said, many things that should be learnt from this. But they never are. In time this will be all but forgotten by most of the population. I like what an Italian Newspaper apparently said - "School shootings are as American as apple pie", sadly it is so true...

And yes the images of Cho did chill me. The look of hatred in his eyes. It just sickens me to think how he got to such a terrible state. My heart goes out to him, those he killed, and their families.

But god Jack Thompson is an idiot... How can people be so thick?? All he's doing is destroying what little credibility he had left. If he had any to lose... Seriously... training on Doom for a school shooting? Get a life Jack, I'm sure there's at least a million better ways to "rehearse" for such a thing.

i find it funny he says that 80% of the students there play counter strike. well if his "theory" has any truth to it whatsoever then we would probably be seeing 80% of the students at that school gunning down 30 something people in cold blood. and its absolutly hilarious how he tried to tell chris matthews he knew for a fact what that guy was doing in his spare time even though he has never seen,met, or will meet him and then have the nerve to say that his own roomates are wrong.

this guy is so full of **** i dont even really care what he trys to do to the game industy anymore, and i dont think any of you guys should either. when was the last time one of his plans actually worked? if he wants to make a complete ass of himself (not that he already hasnt), i say let him. when the truth finally comes out its going to hit him like a ton of bricks and i will have no sympathy for him. he had his chance years ago to cut this bull**** but now i feel this man will stoop to any level, no matter how dirty it is, just to either get attention, force his morals or just mind control people.

if i was the flordia bar i would disbar right here him and now and put his lying ass in place. people like jack are on of the main reason why these things continue. these shooters have no fear of consiquences because these ****ing morons are devoting all their attention to getting irrelivent ideas and proposals out to the public as a factor like its some kind of "corrupt your children" conspiracy theory, and then claime this kind violence is just magically going to up and fade from existance.

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Last edited by jonc2006; April 21st, 2007 at 07:18..

[Tojira]

Originally Posted by chipsugar

Tojira, I can understand your point of view with regards the effect that the small things people did had on his mind but you forget that that is what he pushed them to. There is only so much rejection a group can take from an individual before they lose interest. After that the group has a right to feel hurt and then they won't have any patience with him. He said "there were a thousand ways you could have avoided this" when in reality there were a thousand ways in which he refused to deal with those around him. The reading incident is no different. He wanted to reject the class and not the other way round. When he was finally forced to take part his discomfort was his own fault as he was doing the one thing he didn't want to which was working with others. They weren't going to empathise though because he was rejecting them.

It's not that I'm saying he wasn't teased or bullied but in the bits of footage I've seen he blames coniac & hedonism and suchlike. These are hardly things that he would know much about and I doubt he'd blame such things if he had any "reasonable" gripe. At no time does he say "I wanted to get along with you but you wouldn't let me". Most of those thousand problems would have gone away if he had just opened his mouth and said hello.

I appreciate what you're saying but I definitely see it differently. The main reason for that is that I can see many similarities between Cho's apparent behaviour and my brother's. My brother of course wouldn't go to such an extreme, but he is very antisocial and really doesn't know how to act around people. To us and most people, socializing is just second nature, not for him however. Because of this if anyone reacts negatively towards something my brother does he takes it veeery seriously. He'll really dwell on it. I used to be similar a few years ago when I was at school. Not quite as bad as he is but it's enough that I can understand how he feels. He's a very odd person to be honest. Like I said my brother certainly wouldn't go to the extreme of murdering people, but I think that's mostly because he has a good family that gives him guidance and helps him to understand things better.

I think in Cho's case, he was a very similar person to my brother, quite strange, somewhat shy, overly sensitive, lacking in self-confidence and really let things get to him (most people like that given the right guidance grow out of such things eventually when they're older, but Cho never got to that stage). However unlike my brother I think he must have been very lonely. And I think by the time he was given counseling he was simply too far gone. It is the psychologists job though to persist with their patient. I don't think they should simply give up if the patient is unwilling to cooperate. Any good psychiatrist would have realised what kind of state Cho was in and the reason he was being so difficult. I think the psychologist he visited probably did understand this but not enough was done about it in my opinion. Of course it's not really up to me, and I'm not an expert on such things so I can't be too sure.

However with my experience with my own brother and my own experience in heading toward depression, I can sympathize with Cho as I believe I understand what brought him to do what he did. He was definitely completely messed up. No doubt about that. But only because people made him that way. It's a shame he wouldn't let people help him, but I know from experience that that is simply what some people are like. That's why I hate what he did over Cho himself. I don't think he was ever a bad person. He'd simply lost his sense of reality. Everything he says on the video footage is a result of this, and I wouldn't judge him by what he says. I just think it's very sad he got this way.

About the class thing, I've been in the same situation when I was very shy. While no one laughed at me I felt terrible. It was completely unfounded but I always worried after doing such a thing, what people must have though of me (of course no one really cared, and I only remember one kid that actually had something against me, but I couldn't reason well enough to let myself see it this way). The way he was treated would really hurt his confidence in himself. He obviously didn't have much to begin with. I think it's disgusting.

Anyway I respect what everyone else thinks. We all have a different idea based on our own experiences so I don't think it's possible for many people to relate to my own. It's hard to get a point across in such a case, but I respect that I could be completely wrong about all this, I still strongly believe what I've said.

Not everyone is the same and for some it is by no means easy to open your mouth and say hello, let alone get along well with others. It's certainly not easy for my brother but he is a good person nonetheless.

EDIT: Just guesswork, but I also think the parents could have played a part in helping to prevent this. If there was anyone close enough to Cho to get through to him in this time it probably would have been them. Regardless I won't hold it against them. It must have been absolutely shocking for them to hear about what he did. I can't even begin to imagine. The same goes for the families and friends of the victims. How they will get through this, if they ever do I cannot and probably will not ever understand.

EDIT2: jonc2006: He was autistic you say? That definitely explains a LOT about his behaviour. I did wonder if he was, but thought it would have been known earlier so kind of forgot about that idea after awhile. My brother is not autistic although shows many of the symptoms of it. There was one other social disorder or something that my mum said he may have, although if he does it would be a minor form of it. He's just a wierd, kind of eccentric kid. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned into some kind of genius someday . Anyway yes that's pretty big news. Definitely should help people understand it all better. And it certainly links in with what I said above about him not knowing how to deal socialize with his peers.

Originally Posted by jonc2006

this guy is so full of **** i dont even really care what he trys to do to the game industy anymore, and i dont think any of you guys should either. when was the last time one of his plans actually worked? if he wants to make a complete ass of himself (not that he already hasnt), i say let him. when the truth finally comes out its going to hit him like a ton of bricks and i will have no sympathy for him. he had his chance years ago to cut this bull**** but now i feel this man will stoop to any level, no matter how dirty it is, just to either get attention, force his morals or just mind control people.

Yeah I for one don't take him seriously at all anymore. It's all a big joke now, his comments are actually rather funny, if a little ridiculous and offensive at the same time.

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Last edited by Tojira; April 21st, 2007 at 11:19..

[Player-X]

Dinesh D'Souza, Atheism, Virginia Tech [Second Update]


I am an atheist and a professor at Virginia Tech. Dinesh D’Souza says that I don’t exist, that I have nothing to say, that I am nowhere to be found.
But I am here.

• mapantsula's diary :: ::

Dinesh D'Souza writes:

Notice something interesting about the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings? Atheists are nowhere to be found. Every time there is a public gathering there is talk of God and divine mercy and spiritual healing. Even secular people like the poet Nikki Giovanni use language that is heavily drenched with religious symbolism and meaning.
The atheist writer Richard Dawkins has observed that according to the findings of modern science, the universe has all the properties of a system that is utterly devoid of meaning. The main characteristic of the universe is pitiless indifference. Dawkins further argues that we human beings are simply agglomerations of molecules, assembled into functional units over millennia of natural selection, and as for the soul--well, that's an illusion!
To no one's surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community. What this tells me is that if it's difficult to know where God is when bad things happen, it is even more difficult for atheism to deal with the problem of evil. The reason is that in a purely materialist universe, immaterial things like good and evil and souls simply do not exist. For scientific atheists like Dawkins, Cho's shooting of all those people can be understood in this way--molecules acting upon molecules.
If this is the best that modern science has to offer us, I think we need something more than modern science.

It is hardly surprising that Dinesh D’Souza is once again not only profoundly mistaken but also deeply offensive. But I thought it worthwhile to say something in response, not because most people would put the point in the same morally reptilian manner as D’Souza, but because there is at least some vague sense amongst people that we atheists don’t quite grasp the enormity of Monday’s events, that we tend towards a cold-hearted manner of thinking, that we condescend to expressions of community, meaning, or bereavement.
So I will tell you, Mr D’Souza, what I grasp and where I am to be found.
I understand why my wife was frantic on Monday morning, trying to contact me through jammed phone lines. I can still feel the tenor of her voice resonating in my veins when she got through to me, how she shook with relief and tears. I remember how my mother looked the last time she thought she might have lost a son, so I have a vivid image of her and a thousand other mothers that hasn’t quite left my mind yet.
I am to be found in Lane Stadium, looking out over a sea of maroon and orange, trying not to break down when someone mentions the inviolability of the classroom and the bond between a teacher and his students. That is my classroom, Mr D’Souza, my students, my chosen responsibility in this godless life, my small office in the care of humanity and its youth.
I know that brutal death can come unannounced into any life, but that we should aspire to look at our approaching death with equanimity, with a sense that it completes a well-walked trail, that it is a privilege to have our stories run through to their proper end. I don’t need to live forever to live once and to live completely. It is precisely because I don’t believe there is an afterlife that I am so horrified by the stabbing and slashing and tattering of so many lives around me this week, the despoliation and ruination of the only thing each of us will ever have.
We atheists do not believe in gods, or angels, or demons, or souls that endure, or a meeting place after all is said and done where more can be said and done and the point of it all revealed. We don’t believe in the possibility of redemption after our lives, but the necessity of compassion in our lives. We believe in people, in their joys and pains, in their good ideas and their wit and wisdom. We believe in human rights and dignity, and we know what it is for those to be trampled on by brutes and vandals. We may believe that the universe is pitilessly indifferent but we know that friends and strangers alike most certainly are not. We despise atrocity, not because a god tells us that it is wrong, but because if not massacre then nothing could be wrong.
I am to be found on the drillfield with a candle in my hand. “Amazing Grace” is a beautiful song, and I can sing it for its beauty and its peacefulness. I don’t believe in any god, but I do believe in those people who have struggled through pain and found beauty and peace in their religion. I am not at odds with them any more than I am at odds with Americans when we sing the “Star-Spangled Banner” just because I am not American. I can sing “Lean on Me” and chant for the Hokies in just the same way and for just the same reason.
I know that the theory of natural selection is the best explanation for the emergence and development of human beings and other species. I know that our bodies are composed of flesh, bone, and blood, and cells, and molecules. I also know that this does not account for all aspects of our lives, but I know no-one who ever thought it did. That is why we have science, and novels, and friendships, and poetry, and practical jokes, and photography, and a sense of awe at the immensity of time and the planet’s natural history, and walks with loved ones along the Huckleberry Trail, and atheist friends who keep kosher because, well just because, and passionate reverence for both those heroes who believed and those who did not, and have all this without needing a god to stitch together the tapestry of life.
I believe this young man was both sick and vicious, that his actions were both heinous and the result of a phenomenon that we must try to understand precisely so that we can prevent it in future. I have no sympathy for him. Given what he has done, I am not particularly sorry he has spared the world his continued existence; there was no possibility of redemption for him. You think we atheists have difficulty with the concept of evil. Quite the contrary. We can accept a description of this man as evil. We just don’t think that is an explanation. That is why we are exasperated at your mindless demonology.
I feel humbled by the sense of composure of a family who lost someone on Monday. I will not insult that dignity by pretending there is sense to be made of this senselessness, or that there is some greater consolation to be found in the loss of a husband and son.
I know my students are now more than students.
You can find us next week in the bloodied classrooms of a violated campus, trying to piece our thoughts and lives and studies back together.
With or without a belief in a god, with or without your asinine bigotry, we will make progress, we will breathe life back into our university, I will succeed in explaining this or that point, slowly, eventually, in a ham-handed way, at risk of tears half-way through, my students will come to feel comfortable again in a classroom with no windows or escape route, and hell yes we will prevail.
You see Mr D’Souza, I am an atheist professor at Virginia Tech and a man of great faith. Not faith in your god. Faith in my people.
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Update
Mr D'Souza has more to say:

And boy the atheists are up in arms! They're mad as hell about my post "Where is Atheism When Bad Things Happen." Many responders informed me that tragedies are normally considered a problem for religion, not atheism. Where is God when bad things happen? Yes, people, I know this. My point was that if evil and suffering are a problem for religion--and they are--they are an even bigger problem for atheism.
The reason is suggested from the quotation given above. When there is a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech, the ones who are suffering cannot help asking questions, "Why did this have to happen?" "Why is there so much evil in the world?" "How can I possibly go on after losing my child?" And so on.
In my post I noted that Richard Dawkins had not been invited to address the mourners at Virginia Tech. Several atheists--who haven't yet lost their fundamentalist habit of reading--took this sarcastic statement literally. "So what? The Pope hasn't been invited either!" My point was that atheism has nothing to offer in the face of tragedy except C'est la vie. Deal with it. Get over it. This is why the ceremonies were suffused with religious rhetoric. Only the language of religion seems appropriate to the magnitude of tragedy. Only God seems to have the power to heal hearts in such circumstances. If someone started to read from Dawkins on why there is no good and no evil in the universe, people would start vomiting or leaving.
One clever writer informs me that atheists don't deny meaning, they simply insist that meaning is not inherent in the universe, it is created by us. Okay, pal, here's the Virginia Tech situation. Go create some meaning and share it with the rest of us Give us that atheist sermon with you in the pulpit of the campus chapel. I'm not being facetious here. I really want to hear what the atheist would tell the grieving mothers.

We think the pain is complete and absolute. We know it is.
We think that nothing can heal these hearts, that time can only take the sharpness off the agony, that only in time can beauty be wholeheartedly seen again or laughter felt deep inside.
We insist there is no sense or meaning to be made of this massacre. There was only sense and meaning to be created within the lives of each person gunned down. That is why we are horrified by it. That is precisely why it is so horrific.
We don't believe these people have died for anything: God's plan, as a beacon to the rest of us, to be a vivid memento mori for all. We just believe they have died, brutally and without mercy. We refuse to lie to grieving mothers out of some patronising sense that a pleasant myth is more respectful than a terrible truth.
Those of us with the slightest shred of deceny do not tell widows to deal with it, to get over it. That the world can be callous is no reason to be so myself. I know that no family could ever get over this loss, that no family should ever be expected to get over this loss -- either by themselves, by religious rhetoricians bearing false platitudes, or by inane political pundits -- but that not getting over the loss does not preclude some other kind of happiness, some other source of joy, at some other time. Not now, not in this moment, not when they have moved on, but only when it comes to them one day, like light dawning slowly.
We know the world is cold, and that only people can make it warmer. We believe we can live in this imperfection, like a child can live without fulfilling her desperate wish for wings. We rail against injustice and tragedy, not the absence of deeper guarantees.
Some of us are those grieving mothers and wives and friends and colleagues. Some of us are inconsolable, but dignified for all that.
There is no language appropriate to the magnitude of the tragedy. Not stories about a poor man nailed to a cross, not fine words about a time for healing and a time for dying, not even the lines of the poet who, in the midst of his own horror, struggles to ask:

How can I embellish this carnival of slaughter,
How decorate the massacre?

But it is that same poet who also writes of death:

I have certainly
no faith in miracles, yet I long
that when death come to take me
from this great song
of a world, it permits me to return
to your door and knock
and knock
and call out: "If you need someone
to share your anguish, your simplest pain,
then let me be the one.
If not, let me again
embark, this time never
to return, in that final direction,
forever.

Spring has come to Virginia. Monday morning was the last snow we will have this season. All those who have come to Blacksburg this week have told us how beautiful our countryside is. They're right, of course, there is all this terrible, unforgiving beauty here.
----
Second Update
I would leave this alone, but Mr D'Souza is once again demonstrating his truly remarkable vapidity:

Actually my point was a simple one, and it seems to be unrefuted. Atheism seems to have nothing to say to people when there is serious bereavement or tragedy. Of course atheists have feelings and there were undoubtedly atheists among the mourners at Virginia Tech. But the Richard Dawkins philosophy--that we live in a meaningless world where there is no good and no evil--whatever its intellectual merit, seems arid and unconsoling when human beings are really hurting.

Atheists are hurting here themselves, and we don't see much to console ourselves or our colleagues and students and their families. But there is nothing arid in what we believe. Our lives are replete with colour, and friendships, and loving relationships, and curious books to read, and papers to write, and difficult points to figure out. There may be no deity, but there is a world of wonder to take its place.
And this week, our lives have also been trashed by this brutal man, So part of that world is heartache and horror, and in the middle of that heartache and horror we will spurn your trite consolations, your happily-ever-after fairy tales, as a denial of our grief, as a repudiation of the reality of this pain.

Atheists like to portray themselves as devotees of reason, but read the responses and see how much reason you discover there. Rather, it looks like these fellows hate God, and this hate spills over to anyone who brings up God's name. Call it the atheism of revenge. They blame God for screwing them over in some way, and unbelief is their form of payback.

How can I hate an entity that I don't believe exists? If I did actually blame a god for something, then I could hardly be an atheist. Atheism is not high school silent treatment, Mr D'Souza. It is not the rejection, forsaking, or loathing of a god, but the belief that there is no god there to reject, forsake, or loathe.
We atheists are liberated from the belief that these events must make sense, that there must be something else to it other than the eruption of a psychopathic impulse. We are horrified, not puzzled, by its absurdity.
I don't blame a god for screwing over my campus, for murdering my colleagues, for terrorising my students, Mr D'Souza, I blame the man who thought he was your new christ.

Right now the religious right is also jumping on the "blame your enemies" bandwagon.

[The Captain]

Take that Jack Thompson!
DailyTech - No Video Games Found in Cho Seung-hui Dorm Room; Games Not to Blame for Tragedy

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[Player-X]

I would love to see him lie about that.

[aolforbroadband]

lolz.

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[Proto]

Ever heard of jokes with bad taste?

[spartan117]

nope but thats a first.

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[shafeen]

Originally Posted by aolforbroadband

lolz.

cold eyes......see those cold eyes.i have been thinking what this guy have went thru to become like that.................

__________________

and if I don't care , do I still get to suck your scrotum? please say yes xp

^^posted by sonic

[Player-X]

Virginia Tech Killer's Bizarre eBay Buys


Gunman bought 37 rubber duckies in 2006 online auctions

APRIL 22--In addition to purchasing ammunition clips on eBay, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui last year bought an assortment of rubber duckies via the online auction giant. That's right, the mass murderer paid a total of $21.50 in two February 2006 auctions that netted him three dozen small squeaking toy ducks and one giant rubber duck. Cho, using his eBay handle "blazers5505," purchased the items on successive days from an Illinois dealer who appears to specialize in the yellow bathtub items. On the following pages are screen captures of the eBay duck auctions won by Cho. Both pages remain archived on the auction site, though most of the killer's eBay activity--which apparently began in 2004--has, over time, been deleted from the site. It is unclear, of course, why the sullen lunatic needed the novelty items. (2 pages)

I wonder when will they do a anti-rubber duck campaign.

[chipsugar]

Tojira - like I say I can see your point. I also have a slight touch of the loner about me and used to be very uncomfortable in social situations (esp during school and college). During school (and to a extent college) I thought I was being ostricised as the "strange kid" but, while there were some exceptions, I now see that those that took a dislike to me had made attempts to get on with me before. I've also seen countless times since that those that think they're being shunned are most often the ones doing the shunning. This was especially obvious at drama school where one man refused to mix at all with anyone in his year to the point of refusing to eat with them around, always being at the opposite end of the room and barely acknowledging them to the point that one of the girls said "Why does he hate us?". He said he did this because "they" shut "him" out.

Also a psychologist can't force a client that doesn't want to open up to do so. If a patient is unwilling to co-operate then that no therapist will be able to overcome. As an example there was a documentary on TV about bogus 999 calls (that's our UK emergency services number). One part was about this reclusive elderly lady who had been making bogus calls for the fire brigade to the extent that most of the call centre staff knew her by the sound of her voice. She'd been arrested for this constantly for decades and had decades of counselling with no effect until the past couple of years when she was actually able to stop. The reason for this? She was raped as a child and wasn't believed by her family. However it wasn't until very late in her life, after *decades* of counselling that was forced on her by the courts, that she was willing to deal with what was probably the one thing in her life she needed most to deal with. Cho's troubles were obviously very different but unless he was willing to let people help him there was little that could be psychologically done for him.

To jonc2006

You said earlier that if he had made a bomb instead of going shooting things would have been worse. That may be right but I'm skeptical. It may be just my lack of googling skill but I can only find three bombings that exceed the death count of VT. One is the Oklahoma City bomb of 2005. The others were suicide bombings in Iraq outside a mosque and just inside a college foyer killing 40 and 39 respectively. Most others that I found online had a death toll of 5-13 each while injuring 10-30 more. The 7th July London bombs "only" killed ~13 each. Add to that the practice that would be needed to put together the bomb and the short timeframe in which to detonate (between classes for maximum effect), the fact that he wouldn't live to see the damage and the loss of the opportunity to pose&spout that anger between after killing and we have something that has needs more effort with seemingly less emotional payoff. Also if you are practicing assembling a bomb you'd probably need somewhere safe to do it without getting caught.

Oh and as for Jack Thompson. You're right. Someone should slap some sense into him. Unfortunately any such attempt would just be blamed on video games.

[Toshiro]

Look like Thompson is still at it, this time trying to send the FBI to take down Kotaku. Oh well, I guess we can say he is persistent lol

Thompson Calls for FBI Investigation of Kotaku - Kotaku

[Master Chief]

Originally Posted by Toshiro

Look like Thompson is still at it, this time trying to send the FBI to take down Kotaku. Oh well, I guess we can say he is persistent lol

Thompson Calls for FBI Investigation of Kotaku - Kotaku

This guy is just a nut. He lingers around, waiting for somebody to say something like that about him, and then he tries to use it as an excuse for that "See I told you so!" mentality. It's a game ladies and gentlemen, and so many gamers are playing into it.

I like how he talked about software rating boards like the one in Germany, where they refuse to even rate certain games if they deem it inappropriate. This is the USA, not Europe. This guy needs to stop trying to force his beliefs on people and trying to have his way. I have a feeling this guy is a communist.

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[Player-X]

I don't think he is a communist, communist share stuff.
I am looking forward to him calling the CIA and the NSA on the case.

[guest.r]

Mass media can influence receptive, but bit introverted individuals in two common ways:

- one loses touch with reality
- one loses touch with normality

The second psychic state is worse.

[Tojira]

Originally Posted by chipsugar

Tojira - like I say I can see your point. I also have a slight touch of the loner about me and used to be very uncomfortable in social situations (esp during school and college). During school (and to a extent college) I thought I was being ostricised as the "strange kid" but, while there were some exceptions, I now see that those that took a dislike to me had made attempts to get on with me before. I've also seen countless times since that those that think they're being shunned are most often the ones doing the shunning. This was especially obvious at drama school where one man refused to mix at all with anyone in his year to the point of refusing to eat with them around, always being at the opposite end of the room and barely acknowledging them to the point that one of the girls said "Why does he hate us?". He said he did this because "they" shut "him" out.

Also a psychologist can't force a client that doesn't want to open up to do so. If a patient is unwilling to co-operate then that no therapist will be able to overcome. As an example there was a documentary on TV about bogus 999 calls (that's our UK emergency services number). One part was about this reclusive elderly lady who had been making bogus calls for the fire brigade to the extent that most of the call centre staff knew her by the sound of her voice. She'd been arrested for this constantly for decades and had decades of counselling with no effect until the past couple of years when she was actually able to stop. The reason for this? She was raped as a child and wasn't believed by her family. However it wasn't until very late in her life, after *decades* of counselling that was forced on her by the courts, that she was willing to deal with what was probably the one thing in her life she needed most to deal with. Cho's troubles were obviously very different but unless he was willing to let people help him there was little that could be psychologically done for him.

I'm sure you're right about all the Psychologist stuff. I'm not an expert on that, that's for sure . I was just trying to say why I personally feel sorry for him. I'm definitely not saying I like him or defend what he did. I don't know him after all. I'm just giving my reasons for why I sympathize with him.

Also I think by the time he did attend counseling it was probably too late. It seems quite obvious he had been like that for quite a long time (from what I've read). Not that I'm pointing the blame at anyone for that. I don't know enough about it. Though I do agree that there is only so much a psychologist can do without a patients cooperation.

[darth sephiroth]

I think Cho Seung-hui did what he did instead of taking his own life, because he hates this world and its inhabitants. He hates rich people, and probably look at americans that can afford university education as rich, so when his ex-girlfriend apparantly screwed him over (or something of the likes, i haven't read the full details) and he decided to kill himself; he wanted to, as the professor said, run his life through a proper end, to do something "for" this world... So he goes and shoots as many of those he sees as "evil" and "in the way" of this worlds progress.
That is what i think is why he'd do what he did...

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[shafeen]

Originally Posted by darth sephiroth

I think Cho Seung-hui did what he did instead of taking his own life, because he hates this world and its inhabitants. He hates rich people, and probably look at americans that can afford university education as rich, so when his ex-girlfriend apparantly screwed him over (or something of the likes, i haven't read the full details) and he decided to kill himself; he wanted to, as the professor said, run his life through a proper end, to do something "for" this world... So he goes and shoots as many of those he sees as "evil" and "in the way" of this worlds progress.
That is what i think is why he'd do what he did...

correct


on topic:: classes resumed today at VT.A brief ceremony was held in the morning....

source:: any channel

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^^posted by sonic

[aolforbroadband]

Nicole White was one of the victims...she was in my best friends Psychology class. He said her friend who sat next to her began to describe her and broke down crying and so did a few others. Sad.

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[Player-X]

I've found this newspaper clipping on the Internet and I think some of you might want to have a look at this.
This website uses a 24 hour clock so this posting was made long before the first shots were fired.
I am pretty sure most of you would know what website is this posting from.
If anyone has any contacts in the media please share it with them.

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