Chicken Soup with the Trench Reynolds defense...

A few posts back in my "banned from Psychology Today" post I mentioned being banned several years ago from Trench Reynolds' site as well, largely for the same reasons. Apparently I just wouldn't come around to their way of thinking.

One of the points that Trench Reynolds and many of his toadying sycophants repeatedly emphasized is that he was bullied and never even considered killing anyone.

Yeah...right.

In fact, you can find this same basic claim repeated ad nauseum in the comments section of articles about school shooters.

These claims are nonsense of course. What they really mean is that they would never give up their lives or their freedom for the opportunity to kill people they hate. Given the subject of Trench Reynolds' website, I'm betting that if he had the power of invisibility and the power of teleportation, he'd grow very comfortable with killing very quickly.

At about a minute and 20 seconds into the video you can witness Trench Reynolds complaining about Craigslist as if criminals responding to personal advertisements hadn't been going on for decades. I'm thinking Santa Cruz, California around 1968 or so.

Chicken Soup with assholes who reproduce...

Even when the source of the problem is obvious, the forces of denial demand that the public blame almost anything except the father's violent, criminal behavior.

Let's blame the NRA...or maybe the Jews...or perhaps Jews in the NRA.

Take a deep breath everyone and say, "Bad parents are a serious, nationwide problem."

There...your tongue didn't turn to fire did it?

Chicken Soup with the community of Laramie, Wyoming...

What do you think of when you read or hear "Laramie, Wyoming?"

I think of Matthew Shepard, Columbine, and The Simpsons.

Chicken Soup with the Kyle Maynard Defense...

Kyle Maynard is a man who was born with no arms or legs. His website promotes his accomplishments as a motivational speaker, athlete, and author of the New York Times bestseller, "No Excuses." At the bottom of his "bio" is the following statement:

HBO Real Sports corespondent, Bernie Goldberg, summed it up best when he said, “Kyle’s taken away the right to complain from the rest of us.”

The misspelling of the word "correspondent" is theirs, not mine.

Bernie Goldberg's observation is one of the social forces that allow serious societal problems to persist and fester. It's called the Kyle Maynard Defense and it's a familiar experience for many Americans.

If you're a relatively low status individual in your community and you complain about a problem that's being caused by the behavior of a relatively high status individual (bullying for example...or being raped by gridiron heroes), a relatively common method of brushing you off is to site an individual who suffers from a problem that is much worse. The logic behind this sort of brush off is simple. As long as someone in the world suffers from a problem that's worse than your problem, then you don't have a problem and you're just being a crybaby.

The basic flaw in the Kyle Maynard Defense is obvious. Medical Science isn't even close to developing a method of growing human limbs. Kyle Maynard has every right to complain, but complaining serves no purpose because no power on Earth can solve Mr. Maynard's problem. In contrast, communities could easily address behavioral problems like bullying and rape. They just don't want to because it would require them to place the safety of low status individuals ahead of the petty desires of high status individuals. And they're not above employing the Kyle Maynard Defense (and other, similar put downs) in a futile effort to hide their depraved indifference.

Tomorrow's terrorists learn a lot about right and wrong from the communities they grow up in.

Perhaps your community is nursing a viper in its belly right now.

Chicken Soup with the victim blamers of Torrington, Connecticut...

Here we go again...

Another community has chosen to provide every serial killer, mass murderer, and domestic terrorist wannabe with the ability to rationalize their behavior by deifying a couple of criminals and blaming their victim. Good job folks.

The answer to the question asked by this news headline is yes, Torrington is another Steubenville. Not that the behavior of its rapist enabling, victim blaming dregs of humanity is unique. Just about anywhere in America, the ability of high status individuals to abuse relatively low status individuals and get away with it is considered a privilege of rank. In Torrington, Steubenville, Columbine, and a thousand other less well reported communities, the abusers were football players. But football isn't the problem. The willingness of the local population to elevate football players to high status and then grant them immunity from personal accountability is the problem.

And that's what the next Timothy McVeigh, Eric Harris, or Adam Lanza is going to be focusing on when targeting a crowd of allegedly innocent people. The next homicidal maniac to grace America's headlines will need to be able to rationalize that the public is evil and deserving of his wrath so he can feel justified in his actions. And those who express their outrage at the 13 year old victim of a couple of 18 year old rapists blithely provide killers with everything they need. Consider the following examples of Torrington ethics:

"Even if it was all his fault," Mary J. Ramirez, whose Twitter handle is @LoryyRamirez, wrote, "what was a 13 year old girl doing hanging around 18 year old guys[?]"

And another gem of wisdom...

“I wanna know why there’s no punishment for young hoes,” Twitter user @asmedick wrote.

America's next mass murderer thanks both of you.

And the victims of the next mass murderer can thank the community of Torrington, Connecticut...and a lot of other communities for making it so easy to rationalize that even the most heinous crimes really are the victim's fault.

Go Team!!

Chicken Soup with South Hadley's leading citizens...

As the television commercial says, "You can learn a lot from a dummy."

Well...terrorists can learn a lot about right and wrong just by observing how families and communities teach young people right from wrong. Or whether they even bother.

Regular readers know that this weblog is only partly about bullies and bullying. The real problem is the behavior of bully enablers, especially the mature, responsible, child loving adults inhabiting the community in question. Segway to the small town of South Hadley, Massachusetts. (Close your eyes and spell that state three times fast in your head.)

Read this and ponder the quality of character of South Hadley's leading families.

Darby O'Brien is not the local child molester who got off on a legal technicality. He's not some criminal who deserves to be harassed. Darby O'Brien did what any adult who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would and should do. Darby O'Brien is the guy who committed the unfathomable, inexplicable, and unforgivable act of placing more value on the life of a 15 year old girl than he placed on the bloated egos and the public reputations of a local football player and his coterie of hair pulling Jerry Springer rejects.

My god!! What was he thinking?!! Doesn't he know that football is second only to God? How dare he sully the reputation of His Majesty?!! He should be dragged before the House Un-American Activities Committee for such heresies.

As readers can see, the moral values modeled during His Majesty's upbringing are still a source of family and community pride. Between shoplifting, bullying a little girl to death, and petty burglary, I think it's safe to assume that we'll be reading more about His Majesty over the next few years.

There's one characteristic of the American Family that the world can always count on:

Those who are raised to believe they can do no wrong rarely surprise us by doing no wrong.