The Foreign Affairs Office of the People’s Government of China reminds you that there have been a number of shootings in public places in the United States in recent years, causing a large number of casualties. In the light of the recent similar incidents in the United States, we would like to remind the citizens of our province to be more vigilant in travelling to the United States and to pay special attention to their personal safety when entering and leaving public places. In case of danger or emergency, please calm response, listen to the scene police command or call 911 timely alarm (Chinese service can be requested).
I want to talk about this.
Because, as a Canadian who lives in a country where this is extremely rare, and yet we should have the same ratio of people with “mental problems” per capita - you’d think there would be an equivalent amount of other violent attacks, knives, hammers, sticks, fists, what have you, if indeed, this was a “mental problem” issue. But we don’t. Not even close. So that leads me to conclude that this isn’t a “mental problem” its something else. And that the majority of perpetrators are white males with a history of domestic violence… well that leads me to wonder about straight white american men, and why are they so much different than straight white men of any other nation?
I don’t know either.
But it has to be tied up in American Exceptionalism, right? I mean, what do we expect is going to happen when you tell a people over and over that they’re best at everything. Propaganda works. Honestly, I wonder how much of this is the sort of whiplash that occurs when someone experiences something that propaganda lied to them about. Like North Korean defectors talking about the culture shock of realizing how deep the propaganda went. Or the average american male realizing that no, he’s not special, he’s not free, he’s not going to marry a super model, and no one else agrees that America is the best country in the world. Psychic whiplash?
Shooters like Kelley are among the tens of thousands of men who are bludgeoning women and children in their homes with virtual impunity. Every day, three women are killed by male intimate partners in the United States. If these women were killed at once, instead of in a steady drip, drip, drip, the result would be a weekly mass killing of twenty or more women. In fact, the United States averages 47 murder-suicides a month, almost always involving male perpetrators who attack and kill their spouses and children, and then go on to kill themselves. Half of all women murdered in the U.S. are killed by men they know intimately.
We can’t talk about this without talking about domestic violence against women. We need to start there.
We can’t talk about this without talking about domestic violence period. Granted, the majority of victims of domestic abuse are women, but a nontrivial number are men.
This is true. I’ve known XX domestic abusers too, but to the person they were always victims first. Violence begets violence. Hurt people hurt people.
I learned it as rights and responsibilities in a relationship:
Each Partner has the Right…
To express their own feelings and opinions, whether or not their partner agrees.
To be themselves.
To make decisions about themselves for themselves and to have equal decision-making power in the relationship.
To say ‘no’ to any physical act that makes them uncomfortable at any time.
To refuse a date at any time.
To make and maintain friendships with whomever they choose.
To participate in activities without their partner.
To control their own money and possessions.
To live free from fear and abuse.
To end the relationship when they desire.
Each Partner has the Responsibility…
To treat their partner with respect, equality, and honesty.
To encourage their partner’s dreams and individuality.
To never humiliate or put down their partner.
To respect their partner’s decisions- even if you don’t agree.
To respect and understand that their partner has the right to say ‘no’ at any point and any time regardless of previous consent.
To solve problems calmly and equally.
To accept responsibility for their own actions.
To be willing to apologize as well as accept apologies.
To never pressure, control, or manipulate their partner.
To never emotionally, sexually, or physically hurt their partner.
To never threaten or harm their partner or themselves in a way to hurt or control their partner.
That responsibility side of things is a description of the slippery slope. You never ever have someone physically hurting a partner who didn’t start by being dishonest, disrespectful, and violating the list of rights (which also get violated usually in the order presented)
How can we teach this!? I know how I learned it. This all was drilled into my head since I was maybe 10.
So Canadians also get almost zero institutional support for dealing with mental health issues? I was under the impression that people could get treatment as part of that whole “socialized medicine” thing. In 'merica, if you’ve got mental health problems, you’re pretty much on your own even if you have health insurance. There is almost zero coverage except for maybe getting pills. If you don’t have insurance, ha ha ha, forget about it.
Consider the phrase and how it’s used. “That kid who dresses in black and doesn’t go to church must have a mental problem.” “Homeless people must have mental problems, otherwise they’d have middle class jobs and own one or more houses and several cars like the rest of us.” “That guy who joined the nazi party must have a mental problem because we all know it’s wrong.” “That guy who shot a bunch of people in a crowd must have a mental problem.”
Meanwhile, someone you know who’s suffering from a real mental problem is forcing themselves to go to work every day, go to their therapist once a week if they can afford it, and do the best that they can to take care of their family despite depression, anxiety, or whatever it may be.
But in common speech “a mental problem” just means anyone who doesn’t dress, speak, and behave the way that someone thinks that they should. Or the way that said someone thinks that they would have acted if in the same circumstances. Someone other and different.
This quote by Pence really bothered me this morning;
“If the attacker’s desire was to silence their testimony of faith, he failed.”
It seems like Pence is trying to make this in to an attack on Christianity. Already the alt-right has been trying to cast the shooter as an atheist, antifa, and Bernie Sanders supporter, and Pence seems to be driving that wedge deeper.
Assuming this was an attack on Christianity, and I don’t believe that it was, then that would be one of the rare instances that Christianity is on the receiving end of bloodshed instead of the giving end.
Pence was one of those people who promoted the death penalty for gay people in Uganda because Jayyyyyzus, so he can fuck the hell right off with that nonsense about violence against Christians…
How many women have been mass shooters?
I get what you’re saying, but its a bit of a derail no?
Whereas most mass shooters are male and have a history of violence against women. So not to discount the seriousness of domestic abuse of any gender, it does seem that male violence against women has something to do with mass shootings.
This is pretty much the same here.
Mental health care is sort of covered… in that if you’re committed or you go to the ER or the doctor, you can get a prescription or emergency care, but thats pretty much only if you’re in crisis. If you want long term preventative care and you don’t have coverage, you’ll be on a waiting list for a least a year, longer depending on what you need. If you have coverage through your employer, like I do, you’ll get an annual amount of say $600 to use towards a psychiatrist, psychologist or counsellor. So maybe 3 or 4 visits, if you’re lucky?
We have socialized medicine, but not all areas of health are covered.
Eyes, teeth, prescriptions and mental health all can be out of pocket.
We have “good” health care compared to the US, and terrible health care compared to Europe.
I don’t think so - I wasn’t making a connection to mass shootings and domestic violence because I didn’t think you were; I was just pointing out that there is a connection between domestic violence and homicides, and that the number of women who kill their male spouses is a nontrivial number. Not many of those females go on to kill anyone outside their family though, which means they are not counted as mass murders.
I’m specifically stating that there is a link between male domestic violence against women and mass shooters.
I mean, I even quote an article that is making that connection?
So yes, men get abused too, I would never say they don’t, but thats not what I was talking about, because, as you say, the women that murder their husbands don’t typically go on mass shooting sprees, and thats what this thread is about no?
