My fifth-grade teacher is to blame for Seung-Hui Cho

I lost my linguistic tempter last week over the politicization of the VA Tech massacre for which I later apologized.  But rhetorical regrets aside, I remain ever-annoyed over these incessant and meaningless post-traumatic debates.  The latest spate comes in the argument over whether Cho was a liberal [1] or a conservative [2].  Granted, the point on the latter was that his actions have done so much to fan the flames of right-wing fear-mongering while the former was merely to further demonstrate Limbaugh-lunacy.  Regardless, between Newt [3] and Rush, there are at least two prominent wingnuts who are pushing the “liberalism is to blame” meme.  

So I’ll say this once for the record: The kid was freakin’ mentally ill, people!  He was saturated with self-loathing, paranoia, and rage and, unable to cope with the crushing pain, he decided to externalize it by brutally murdering anyone he set his rabid eyes upon.  If he voted for Ralph Nader, are there seriously people insane enough to extrapolate this to liberals as a whole?  If he was a card-carrying member of the NRA, does this mean that all Republicans are unhinged, violent thugs?  No and no, with a bit of ‘are you nuts?!’ thrown in for good measure.

Comments

Michael (not verified)Tue, 2007-04-24 15:58

Re: My fifth-grade teacher is to blame for Seung-Hui Cho

In the movie Bowling for Columbine Michael Moore suggests that, because Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris attended a bowling class to fulfill their P.E. elective credits, perhaps bowling causes violence. The other connection Moore tosses out is that just hours before the Columbine shootings, President Clinton dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other day. Maybe dropping bombs half-way across the world causes violence at home. All this to show that the search for over-simplified answers probably will not be fruitful.


For those who want to look for broad meaning in the shootings I again refer them to this article at this website, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html. Its point is that violence in on a steep decline overall these days.

Ken (not verified)Tue, 2007-04-24 13:33

Re: My fifth-grade teacher is to blame for Seung-Hui Cho

"he decided to externalize it by brutally murdering anyone he set his rabid eyes upon"

 Just one point Jay.  Psy-Cho was described as deliberately picking certain victims that day, not killing "anyone" he saw.  I don't doubt his psychological problems either, but there is something strange about the way witnesses say he killed some, but not others.

Jay Daverth [5]Tue, 2007-04-24 14:23

Re: My fifth-grade teacher is to blame for Seung-Hui Cho

Good point, I didn't catch that one.  Love the "psy-Cho" wordplay too!  I wonder if the people he killed had anything in common?  Maybe they all reminded him of someone he hated, or maybe they just happened to look at him funny one day.