Finnish School Shooting

[Altmer]

Finnish School Shooting, Eight Dead

http://education.guardian.co.uk/sch...,,2206652,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

discuss this latest tragedy

I know it's in Finland, don't chastise me for that. IMO these shootings deserve attention wherever they are.

 

[Endeby]

Wow and i live like 50kilometre from Finland That was really a shock.
Prove that this shit happens in small countries to:/ the gunman is still alive btw. Asshole:(

 

[DM]

I know it's in Finland, don't chastise me for that. IMO these shootings deserve attention wherever they are.

Giving these attention is why they continually happen. Every time it happens, everyone retroactively points out the warning signs that EVERYONE FAILED DO ADDRESS BEFOREHAND. By giving these events all this coverage, we propel the shooters into martyrdom for the next generation of Klebolds and Harris's.

 

[Expert Evan]

I read where the shooter survived a wound to his head. I hope he goes to hell with an everyday reminder of what he did for the rest of his life, and rot slow slow slowly in jail.

 

[Altmer]

Giving these attention is why they continually happen. Every time it happens, everyone retroactively points out the warning signs that EVERYONE FAILED DO ADDRESS BEFOREHAND. By giving these events all this coverage, we propel the shooters into martyrdom for the next generation of Klebolds and Harris's.

Do you think we should keep tragedies like this under a mat and never think of it again? Could you do that? Could you consciously let go and think nothing of this? I know I can't. It's murder. It's the unjust taking of lives that bothers me to no end. People should be made aware of what is wrong with the world and be given examples of roads not to go and take in life.

I know mass media like to blow things up like a spectacle, but I think we really should give these things attention to prevent it from happening again. I cannot keep a school shooting a secret. Can you?

 

[Echo]

A Finnish guy talking.

The incident is horrendous and I'm pretty much out of words to see such a thing happen in my country. When it happens in the US, it's not a big deal for me (though they should be a big deal as well), but now that I see the impact of the US school shooting events here, I'm pretty much devastated.

The killer was apparently a nazi-obsessed guy, so I kind of understand why he blatantly shot those eight people. I seriously despise these kind of extreme-political young people and I hate to see that they are putting into action as brutally as this. I can't even imagine what must've been running through that guy's mind while preparing to shoot the people. And for fuck's sake, he's the same age as I am.

To my knowledge, tomorrow will be held as a national grief day. We will have a silent moment for those eight people in our school as well. And this brings me to the oddest post in this thread so far.

Giving these attention is why they continually happen.

Imagine it were your friends who were shot? Would you like their spirits to be publicly respected or that the whole thing were to be dug six feet under by the media? Your post is correct in terms of these incidents causing other similar incidents. I doubt the guy would've shot anyone if he hadn't seen/read the news of the large school shootings in the US, for example in the Virginia Tech.

But when talking ethically, your post is most definitely false, because I see no reasoning why I wouldn't make it public that some maniac has just shot my best friend, or anything remotely close.

Nonetheless, I know for whom I'll pray tonight.

 

[PassiveObserver]

IMO these shootings deserve attention wherever they are.

I disagree. Giving media attention to these things not only panders to the lowest of viewer/reader's desires, but it also gives cultural significance to these actions thereby encouraging others.

Nihilism is a fact of life, publicizing it however is a bad move.

Also, this sickens me the most about the media coverage of these shootings --
People are so quick to tell the reporter how they knew a friend of a friend of a victim or how they feel so heartbroken and so devastated, but usually if you watch, it's just a competition of sick people taking advantage of the situation to "get on the news."

It allows people to play a pariah, and that's just not acceptable.

To the poster above me, it's not as if The United States exported the phenomena to you, and it's not as if The United States is by essence as you see it. The person who carried out the action was of your own origin, and although I know we give the world parts of our shit culture like McDonalds, he acted on Aryan Nationalist and immature ideals.

 

[DM]

I know mass media like to blow things up like a spectacle, but I think we really should give these things attention to prevent it from happening again. I cannot keep a school shooting a secret. Can you?

Imagine it were your friends who were shot? Would you like their spirits to be publicly respected or that the whole thing were to be dug six feet under by the media? Your post is correct in terms of these incidents causing other similar incidents. I doubt the guy would've shot anyone if he hadn't seen/read the news of the large school shootings in the US, for example in the Virginia Tech.

But when talking ethically, your post is most definitely false, because I see no reasoning why I wouldn't make it public that some maniac has just shot my best friend, or anything remotely close.

My apologies, I should've elucidated a bit. What I meant to say is what PassiveObserver said, which is the basic fact that American media glamourizes these events and turns them into national news frenzies, whereby every person who had even a passing relation with the shooters or victims is dragged into the spotlight to ask the same ridiculous "did you see it coming?" questions over and over. When it comes to American media and culture, it truly is garbage in/garbage out. It's a self-perpetuating societal problem.

As for you two that I've quoted, you're both in European countries who don't have the firsthand experiences of America that I do, so I feel that your responses are true for your own countries.

 

[Altmer]

Yeah, but I've seen what American television for example is like. I've lived in Canada and been to US many times, the amount of stuff they cram through your throat is craptastic. It's slightly less here, Europe being somewhat more moderate about these things (though not objective), and I completely get your point.

But I'd rather have the mass media blow it up to create awareness of the tragedy than muffle it in the back. It just reads a bit silly when you're flicking through a newspaper and then some small column in page seven says "oh there was this finnish dude he killed eight people at this school including himself. he held bla bla bla beliefs there isn't enough space for the rest."

Same with TV. You can barely expect a school shooting to be a short message by the reporter like at the end "oh by the way someone at a school shot eight people." That's just lame.

I'd much rather have proper coverage of the event including background details to prevent an occurrence in the future. Not because I want media to pounce on it like hyenas on a corpse.

 

[Ancien Régime]

The problem is that nobody really gives a shit about young people.

Yeah, when it's election time the politicians will say "THINK OF THE CHILDRENS" and when it's time to sell products the corporations will act like they care.

But 99.4% of the time, the feelings, thoughts, ideas, and problems of young people (and when I say "young" I mean 0-21 in general, and in particular, 12-18) are basically ignored, or at the very least, not taken as seriously.

Why is this person developing National Socialist/Aryan/etc ideas? Why do young white people in fairly diverse schools hang nooses on trees? Why did Klebold and Harris act in the first place? (okay, those in particular were probably born sociopaths) Why have these young people decided that nothing matters any more? Because we have created an environment that is seperate from any sort of shared culture, that of the public high school, which is a "culture" in another sense - a bacterial culture in which the conditions are ripe for such destructive ideologies to take hold in those who are alienated.

But nobody wants to change the culture of the schools, so that people are *less* alienated because people are too lazy and they don't give a shit about the people in the schools, other than to the extent that they grow to be productive workers/buy corporate products/vote to keep the political system going.

So until people actually start thinking about the kind of environments that young people are spending 6+ hours a day in, these school shootings are going to keep happening.

 

[KidFlash]

wow, so many shootings lately. i'm scared to ever go to college. x_x

 

[Echo]

To the poster above me, it's not as if The United States exported the phenomena to you, and it's not as if The United States is by essence as you see it. The person who carried out the action was of your own origin, and although I know we give the world parts of our shit culture like McDonalds, he acted on Aryan Nationalist and immature ideals.

Oh, I disagree with this. Compare:

Pekka-Eric Auvinen; the shooter in the Jokela High School massacre

Cho Seung-Hui; the shooter in the Virginia Tech massacre

See the resemblance? Auvinen even admitted that he admired the American high schools massacres and mentioned them as one of the supporting reasons in his manifest, which he wrote before the incident. He acted on socialist Darwinism and his own idealism of humanity not worthy of living, but the American killers were a role model for him (along with Hitler and Stalin). He followed almost the exact same method of proceeding with his plan, the invasion of the school and killing people as Seung-Hui did at Virginia Tech.

My apologies, I should've elucidated a bit. What I meant to say is what PassiveObserver said, which is the basic fact that American media glamourizes these events and turns them into national news frenzies, whereby every person who had even a passing relation with the shooters or victims is dragged into the spotlight to ask the same ridiculous "did you see it coming?" questions over and over. When it comes to American media and culture, it truly is garbage in/garbage out. It's a self-perpetuating societal problem.

As for you two that I've quoted, you're both in European countries who don't have the firsthand experiences of America that I do, so I feel that your responses are true for your own countries.

Our prime minister publicly asked the media to do a proper representation for this incident and so far it has been going fine to my understanding. Even the crappy newspapers that are usually full of gossip and other shit are doing a proper job with this.

Though, I fear that with this thing going global (in the news of the US, the UK, European countries (Scandinavia has it as the top news), and even some Arab countries), it will have exactly the negative effect of spreading the word, as you have said.

Also, the killer died yesterday evening around 10PM (GMT+2) due to him shooting himself through the head. He was in a critical state for some hours, but died of his own damage. I seriously wish he would've survived and would have had to live either as brain dead or then just live with the fact that he killed eight innocent people, for the rest of his life.

 

[Expert Evan]

I wished he'd at least survive so he could live the rest of his rotten live dealing with the fact he killed 8 others, much like Kip Kinkel killing 1 and wounding 25 back at an Oregon school in 1998.