Fifth graders brings knife & gun to school, planned to kill ex-gf and more

[alzan]

Those industries don't spend hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars each year on marketing if it didn't influence people.

Our media is one of our biggest cultural influences on this planet. It peddles nothing but violence and carnage. That is our culture. That's how people are taught to deal with problems.

Yes, media teaches. It teaches the population that violence is an acceptable and first choice in dealing with problems, it teaches killing someone is ok. If you don't believe our media teaches kids than why the fuck are we funding PBS and Sesame Street?

Regardless of how much is spent on marketing, the influence it has on people is up to them. Me personally, I don't buy laundry detergent because of an ad that shows how it violently and with great carnage removed the stains from a shirt.

If all you see or wish to see out of media is violence and carnage then you have other issues going on. And media is not the only influence on our lives; education, career, peers and family, religious beliefs or spiritualality, etc. all influence our lives.

As far as children, parents can control what kind of and how much exposure children have to media. Parents and family are influences as well. Some need to do a better job as far as letting the tv be the babysitter. Although I don't watch on a regular basis, I'm having trouble remembering the last time an episode of Sesame Street espoused violence.

Also the media companies for the most part put out shows that the public wants to see; we have control over what we choose to see and how much of it. And with just the tiniest of efforts we can choose to respond to a given situation without violence.

 

[MtnMan]

Our society is totally FUBAR'ed, I'm just at a loss to comprehend.

Probably from the 5th or 6th grade on, every boy in school probably had a pocket knife in his pocket. I never went to school without mine.

Yea, there were fights, disagreements, and of course the mental midget school yard bully. Saw many fights, involved in some, even got in a few lucky punches and won a few, but in all I saw or participated in, a knife was never used, or even threatened.

How the hell can a kid grow up to be a responsible adult if they can't or won't even attempt to stand toe to toe on a equal basis with their peers?

 

[DominionSeraph]

So only have those willing to do harm at that particular point have the guns?

If no one has guns, they wouldn't.

 

[NoStateofMind]

If no one has guns, they wouldn't.

Except that this is a fantasy. You cannot remove all weapons (guns) from existence no matter how much you close your eyes and click your heals to make your utopia a reality.

 

[momeNt]

If no one has guns, they wouldn't.

Aww, how cute. Run along now and tell the rest of your bronies how you'll save the world, and let the grown-ups finish talking.