(no subject)

[vicarz]

Kangal explains how to stop trolls: get goth girls to fuck geeks!
http://www.livejournal.com/users/djkangal/266058.html
Criticism of the critic - trolling the trolls? As of when I looked, people that despite the link saying SATIRE didn't get the joke. I don't mean didn't think it was funny, I mean just didn't get it.

So a guy was shot in Ballou HS in SE DC. So friggin what. Why so callous over the loss of human life? Why am I not sympathetic for this youth who they repeatedly note was successful on the football team?
"The incident apparently stemmed from a feud between two groups of students who are based in different neighborhoods
Translation - he was in a gang and got shot. So he played football, did he carry a gun? How was he doing in real school when he wasn't playing games or involved in gang wars? Is this a loss? It sucks for the kids who aren't there involved in gang wars, but this guy doesn't seem like a loss at a quick glance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5463-2004Feb2.html (turn on pop-up blocker for the Wash Post)

Comments

[transentient.livejournal.com]

It looks like this was a pretty positive thing for various DC politicians who made sure they were on the scene grabbing air-time.

[gentlemoose.livejournal.com]

Nice apathy. Way to glean an opinion from a soundbyte. Fuck his family. Fuck his friends. Fuck his teachers. Fuck every one of them.

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[djpsyche.livejournal.com]

I think Jose's point is, if the kid wasn't on the football team would anyone care?

Kangal's "get a goth chick to fuck a geek" just wasn't funny.

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[gentlemoose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they would. *I* do, and I don't give a fuck about athletes. His teacher sure cared. The parents and community members who showed up the next day for a community meeting cared. The disaffected suburbanites who live in their blindered world? They don't care so much.

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[vicar.livejournal.com]

But what do they care about? Do they lament over a gang-banger who got what he either has given someone else or planned to? Was this a thug or a student? Or do they care about these criminals tearing apart their community, making it so being poor is an 'offense' punished by living in constant fear?

I don't mind living in a shitty neighborhood so much as I mind not knowing if my safety and property are in jeapordy, and it seems they feel the same way. Thugs like these are why it sucks to be poor! There is no good reason that choosing to live inexpensively, through choice or just not having other options, should mean that you life is in constant jeapardy.

I'm not saying we should turn away from the problem, but what is the problem? Which people? What do you do? They already have the highly invasive searches, scanners, metal detectors, and full-time police pressence in place.

The new Bush budget is cutting funding to both recreational and education programs aimed at troubled inner-city areas (and the disabled).

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[gentlemoose.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for them, but I would suspect that they care about a number of things, including the fact that a child was killed, deliberately, by another child. They *do* care about the factors that drive this kind of thing to happen.
Many feel let down by the government - large parts of SE are ignored by the government, or policed like a warzone when agencies do take an interest in them.

They absolutely do care about the violence in their own neighbourhoods. The solution to that problem isn't to slowly patrol the streets arbitrarily questioning young men. I've faced that kind of behaviour *once*, when I was skulking through my relatively affluent violent crime-free suburban neighbourhood late at night. I've witnessed that behaviour directed toward a good friend on several occasions, including at 5:30 PM outside my former office building on K St.

The solution involves a whole hell of a lot of work from many sides, but something that seems to be lacking horribly is parenting. Too many of these kids' parents, as you yourself stated, are forced to work multiple minimum-wage jobs just to make ends meet. That leaves the kids to fend for and learn for themselves. That's generally not a good situation. I've been watching that same sort of issue develop in a very affluent suburban family, as well - the parents aren't around in useful ways, and the kids are beginning to act out in pretty damaging ways.

Cutting funding for social programs... That probably won't help this situation too much.

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[gentlemoose.livejournal.com]

I guess what I want to express is that the I can't stomach the apathy of people who aren't nearly directly involved in situations like this. It's easy to play armchair social worker and simply say "oh. gangs. Yep, they had it coming." These were real people; obviously people you've never met, people I've never met, and people none of us are likely ever to have met. I can't cope with the "tut-tutting" of people peering down the ends of their noses at situations like this. People hearing about them in a 30-second newsclip on TV. People who won't give it a second thought.
Vicar, quit being a trolling putz. You have insightful thoughts on the matter - I've seen 'em. I'll post 'em if I have to ;)

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[vicar.livejournal.com]

Heh! Apathy is a way of dealing with things sometimes. I really don't mind punishing 'bad people.' I've known thugs at that age, and I really don't mind them being killed - suburban, urban, or redneck. The problem to me is that this is allowed to develop in the first place.

I have some thoughts on the matter, but don't have any answers. The problems are large and systemic. It's sad that we have the funds to send machines oversease to ensure we get more fuel for machines, but don't allocate funding for schools in these areas. I don't think we can ever waste money in schools, recreational programs, outreach, etc.

At the same time, how do you remove the crime while preserving people's rights?

Next week - addressing why you can't raise a family on one income anymore: too much SUV/HDTV drive or inability to afford basic necessities?

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[gentlemoose.livejournal.com]

At the same time, how do you remove the crime while preserving people's rights?

That's a big part of it. Unfortunately, I don't know that you do. Money, time, and effort have to be injected into the situation all over the country, with no hope for an immediate "fix" - the systemic problem's been developing (or been around, depending on your perspective) for years/decades/far longer than can be repaired overnight. Unfortunately, if the larger society doesn't see an immediate turn-around in the situation, funding and support goes away and things continue as more and more people's lives are destroyed.

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[vicar.livejournal.com]

Well in a word, yeah. Based on what I've heard there is no loss involved here except to the innocent bystanders. The only bits I've heard are about how he was a football player, these ephamisms for gang member, the subsequent 14 year old nailed with a pistol and machine gun while driving a car in his area...

It's horrible for the people that are there that are not fight-starting rival-shooting gang members. For the gang members, the more we don't have to live with the better. Perhaps he was a wonderful person, but I haven't heard anything to lead me to believe that.

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[cobwellac.livejournal.com]

I recall reading that he's actually been in and out of different gangs and that his school counselors had recommended sending him to a different school to keep him out of trouble. It's sad that this kid's behaviour would lead to a shooting in the school, but, fortunately, the innocent kids who have to deal with crap like this every day, weren't hurt.

[oontzgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hrm, Kangel's fuck a geek thing was kinda not funny. Furthermore I wouldn't take "one" for any team. If a person can't get their social skills together enough to be fuckable then they shouldn't be rewarded by being fucked. MY booty is too good to fuck anything but the worthy, however if Kangel would like to step up to the plate and sleep with a few geeks he is more then welcome. :)

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[vicar.livejournal.com]

Well I found it funny, but I'm odd. It wasn't so much meant as something to actually do, more as a criticism of the trolls themselves. I gathered the intent was to mock trolls by drawing attention to the fact they were rejected by the people they now mock.

What should really happen is that I fuck them! That way, they're just plain confused!

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[oontzgrrl.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Well humor is one of those things that is subject to opinion after all. Mine is completly strange so I would never judge another person for finding things amusing that I don't. :)

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[mpeace.livejournal.com]

Heh, I must be odd too then. You nailed it when you said most people missed the satire cut.

Now pardon me, I must go troll so I can get some hot goth chics...

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[ashbet]

I thought it was funny as hell, *especially* the comments, and I'm bummed that they're now hidden :P

-- A

Apathy

[cweaselle.livejournal.com]

It's pretty fucking hard not to feel apathy when you have worked in SE and you have to make sure you leave work before it gets dark so that you don't get shot. Or when you to Tracks and you hope you don't get attacked on the 15 steps it takes to get there. I'm not apathetic. I'm angry. I have worked low paying jobs that make it so that I can just get by 3 years ago I made 16,000. The difference is that I didn't try to shoot someone to make my life better.

m