The link will bring you to the front page of the site where anyone who understands why individuals choose to build bombs or pick up a gun will find two points of interest. If you scroll down just a bit you'll find the official trailer that features cheesy, early 1980's Atari style images of the videogame in question. These images are combined with an audio track where journalists reveal their ignorance about human behavior, or perhaps just their herd mentality by blaming mass murder on videogames. If you scroll down a bit further you'll come to a montage of windows. The lower right hand window includes a statement from one of the parents of the deceased.
"My son was killed in this senseless tragedy. He is dead now because two angry boys had very easy access to guns."
Being a parent, I can certainly feel sympathy for the individual being quoted. But, from the standpoint of someone who understands why it happened, his/her statement only reveals the usual mindless herd mentality of those who want to blame the Columbine Massacre on anything but a toxic environment where large, physically powerful sociopaths were deified, lavishly rewarded, and allowed to victimize anyone they looked upon as different and therefore unworthy. Consider the oxymoron "wrestling scholarship" while pondering the consequences of maintaining such an environment.
Several years ago I encountered an internet character known as "Trench Reynolds." During one of our online debate/arguments where he was displaying his usual hatred for individuals whom he labeled as "mutants," I asked if he'd ever bothered to talk to them and take the time to listen and understand their position. His response was to provide me with a couple of web addresses where "mutants" congregate and to wish me luck. SCMRPG was one of them.
I posted regularly at the site from about June, 2009 until January, 2013. I encountered a wide variety of characters ranging from articulate and cool headed to borderline explosive. I stopped going there largely because I'd learned about as much as I expected to and became bored with it. The name I was using, "Columbine101" linked to my Chicken Soup weblog which allowed anyone who was interested the opportunity for further reading.
A few days ago I learned that Adam Lanza also posted there under the name "smiggles." I don't remember him but given the fact that there are hundreds of individuals posting there and the possibility that we may never have posted under the same subject headings that's not surprising.
Feel free to visit the site and if you have any questions or comments particularly regarding anything I may have written, please address them here as I no longer post there.
Trench is kind of an asshole. For some reason he's still fixated on the west memphis three and thinks they are guilty, ignoring evidence that implicates the stepfather of one of the victims. I think he wants to distance himself from when he was an emo kid.
ReplyDeleteThe one video clip of him complaining about the Craigslist Killer gave me the impression of an aging hippie from 1969. I'm not sure why he hates the same people that bullies and their enablers hate, but I suspect he's following the philosophy of if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them.
DeleteOh, so you remember his pre-Columbine site when he posted dark gothic poetry and was all like an aspiring Edgar Allen Poe?
DeleteHe scrubbed all that once Columbine "forced him into the spotlight," when some media outlets/people attacked him cause they thought he ran the home website for the Trench Coat Mafia.
For him to have had such a dark website at that age suggests he has a dark past- he has stated that yes, he's been bullied and because he's never killed anyone for it that nobody who's been bullied ever would.
Obviously, because humans are all genetically identical and respond identically to the same stimuli.
Obviously.
There are individuals who hate bullies but choose to deflect their cruelty onto others by toadying up to them and drawing their attention onto more satisfying victims. Trench may be one of those.
DeleteYou can probably find him in my Bully Enablers post.
Thanks for the entry!
ReplyDeleteThe board closed down cause, well, the operator (no longer Danny) kinda went nuts, started banning people left and right, and people turned on her.
Thankfully, she did open it up again as an archive.
It was a really good community for research, (there were some pretty smart and interesting researchers there) so it's sad to see it gone. :(
So what happened with your "attempts to communicate and reason with the mutants?"
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how Trench employs propagandistic terminology to mindlessly demonize a whole group. Rather than considering what drove them to sympathize with school shooters (heavily bullying, oppressive atmosphere, suicidal impulses brought on by extreme misery) he villifies them while absolving the bullies, schools and parents of bullies of any sins.
That almost sounds like two mutually exclusive opinions.
Delete"If you scroll down just a bit you'll find the official trailer that features cheesy, early 1980's Atari style images of the videogame in question."
ReplyDeleteNot to be overly-pedantic, but the graphics in question most resemble Final Fantasy 6 on the Super Nintendo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ49qOPag54
A game of the Atari genre can best be exemplified by the graphics below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DTjLG3usQo
Perhaps I should have described it as technologically primitive.
Delete