JuliusGoat

JuliusGoat , 10 days ago to random

The kid was returning a BB gun to a mall, which is not something that carries the death penalty last I checked.

The man—who was a danger—decided the child—who was in danger—was a danger.

He was encouraged to do this by our dominant cultural narrative.

https://www.the-reframe.com/cruel-luxuries/

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

But I have children around that age, and if some maniac who fashioned himself a community protector decided to murder them for some self-created reason, I would mourn a child, because of course I would, and so would you, I would presume, if you are still capable of empathy.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

Empathy is a challenge in a culture that scorns empathy, in a culture that so often looks at killing and explains to you why your distress is dangerously wrong-minded, and why you ought to take the more realistic view, which is to numb yourself to increasingly murderous cruelty.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

What was he doing? I will be asked. Why was he there? I will be asked. What did that BB gun look like, though? I will be asked. How was he holding it? You're making my point, I will answer, feeling far more tired than I did before.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

The story reported that the murderer was an off-duty security guard, a job which bestows the same authority to issue orders to citizens or kill them for noncompliance as does that of an off-duty pizza delivery guy.

The story also reports that it is unclear where he is employed as a guard. That's fair enough, since whether he is a guard or not doesn't matter. It does put him in a uniform, which I suppose means something to people who believe uniforms automatically grant killing authority.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

Whatever the case, it was deemed important enough to hit the headline, the "security guard" of it all conveying something or other to someone or other about something or other that I've been pondering ever since.

To me, it conveys two disturbing truths.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

First, every bad guy with a gun thinks they are a good guy with a gun.

Second, our dominant cultural narrative will often keep the "good guy with a gun" story going for you even after you've proved yourself to be the exact sort of menace to society you presumed you were protecting everyone from.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

There's something about a local gun-toting maniac deciding random teens are a danger and executing them that is treated by our dominant cultural narrative as a thing that self-evidently creates community safety.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

Certain people get to be presumed community protectors, even though they are self-deluded menaces. They get to decide who is a danger, even though they are the danger. They get to decide they have defended themselves, even though they are the ones who attacked.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

The people they killed do not get to have defended themselves, even though they were actually in danger, and anything they did to defend themselves from their attacker will justify their killing.

And this sort of thing happens all the time.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

The killer often gets no charges, or gets acquitted, and all the usual people celebrate the impunity of gun-havers to kill non-gun-havers. In any altercation, especially if your demographic is right, being a shooter conveys a sort of automatic innocence.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

Sometimes the famously acquitted killer even becomes a sought-after right wing celebrity, not (as one might expect) for being a hamburger mascot impersonator, but rather as a handy way to celebrate supremacist impunity in matters of summary execution.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

It occurs to me that this sort of thing might be one of the reasons off-duty security guards of uncertain employment get the idea that they have the right to execute teens at their own discretion.

And this is why I think it's important to call the child "a child," and the murderer "a murderer." It's no longer as early in this young century as it once was, and we should become rugged with reality.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

Turns out the off-duty security guard messed up, though; instead of being celebrated as a hero, he's being arraigned for second-degree murder, and who knows? the charge might even stick.

Apparently the off-duty security guard got the idea that summarily executing teens was legal for men such as himself, and for whatever reason, in his case, it's maybe not.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

He seemed not only to have assured himself that he probably would have to kill somebody someday, but prepared for it, almost hoped for it.

I imagine he's surprised to discover that what he was actually preparing to become was a murderer of a harmless kid in a suburban mall.

JuliusGoat OP , 10 days ago

One might wonder: Where would he get such an idea? What led an off-duty security guard to deputize himself to murder a random teenager?

Good rhetorical questions! Let's talk about the so-called "supreme" court, bump stocks, and other cruel luxuries.

Full Essay: https://www.the-reframe.com/cruel-luxuries/