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Apr. 14th, 2009
Much of the mythology is just that.
Some highlights:
* The record now shows [Loser No. 1] and [Loser No. 2] hadn't been bullied — in fact, they had bragged in diaries about picking on freshmen and "fags."..."These are not ordinary kids who were bullied into retaliation," psychologist Peter Langman writes in his new book, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. "These are not ordinary kids who played too many video games. These are not ordinary kids who just wanted to be famous. These are simply not ordinary kids. These are kids with serious psychological problems."
* ...The enemies on their list had graduated from Columbine a year earlier.
* [They] didn't target jocks, blacks or Christians.
And this one I think has been known for awhile:
* That story about a student being shot in the head after she said she believed in God? Never happened, the FBI says now.
There's such a need to believe these two savages were retaliating for being bullied--I think it's a kind of rationalization, a need for an clear-cut cause and therefore a way to avert future incidents. I guess it's human nature to want to construct a narrative after such an immense tragedy. I also find it terribly sad that the Cassie Bernall story ("Do you believe in God?") isn't true--her parents probably got some small comfort from what they were told about her daughter's death, that she was essentially martyred, and then it turned out not to be true. On the other hand, I've heard that conservative Christians were using the story to illustrate their belief that America is persecuting Christians--yeah, right. I can see why you'd feel that way, having never been elected President or anything.
The article came out partly because the 10th anniversary is coming up, and partly because a Salon reporter, Dave Cullen, has written a book about it.
I really wish that there were a law, that in order to comment on news articles, you had to pass a basic spelling and punctuation test. It's exhausting, sifting through the comments sections to find the wheat among the chaff.
Some highlights:
* The record now shows [Loser No. 1] and [Loser No. 2] hadn't been bullied — in fact, they had bragged in diaries about picking on freshmen and "fags."..."These are not ordinary kids who were bullied into retaliation," psychologist Peter Langman writes in his new book, Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. "These are not ordinary kids who played too many video games. These are not ordinary kids who just wanted to be famous. These are simply not ordinary kids. These are kids with serious psychological problems."
* ...The enemies on their list had graduated from Columbine a year earlier.
* [They] didn't target jocks, blacks or Christians.
And this one I think has been known for awhile:
* That story about a student being shot in the head after she said she believed in God? Never happened, the FBI says now.
There's such a need to believe these two savages were retaliating for being bullied--I think it's a kind of rationalization, a need for an clear-cut cause and therefore a way to avert future incidents. I guess it's human nature to want to construct a narrative after such an immense tragedy. I also find it terribly sad that the Cassie Bernall story ("Do you believe in God?") isn't true--her parents probably got some small comfort from what they were told about her daughter's death, that she was essentially martyred, and then it turned out not to be true. On the other hand, I've heard that conservative Christians were using the story to illustrate their belief that America is persecuting Christians--yeah, right. I can see why you'd feel that way, having never been elected President or anything.
The article came out partly because the 10th anniversary is coming up, and partly because a Salon reporter, Dave Cullen, has written a book about it.
I really wish that there were a law, that in order to comment on news articles, you had to pass a basic spelling and punctuation test. It's exhausting, sifting through the comments sections to find the wheat among the chaff.