this has been making the rounds, and like Epic Beard Man, presents an interesting grey area. from what i can gather, this girl sent some disparaging txts to a boy, about his brother who had committed suicide. the boy then, in retaliation, showed up at her school and kicked the shit out of her, leaving her in a coma and needing several surgeries to relieve pressure on her brain.
people on 4chan have posted both, in support of the girl who got beat down and in support of the boy who did the beating.
did she deserve to get her head kicked in? no. do I feel bad for her? not really. if you go around talking shit about someone's sibling who committed suicide, not only is that incredibly mean but also incredibly stupid. as was pointed out on the thread, people today forget that we live in a society where the person you insult may be a seriously disturbed individual. i'm not saying the kids of Columbine were justified, but maybe if their peers had simply left them alone, they wouldn't have shot up their school.
i think this points to a bigger problem too. and (at this point i'm just generalizing) i think in our current american society, violence and fist fights are really looked down upon. i can remember as a kid being told not to insult kids back and not to fight, but what is the alternative? stand there and let someone beat you up? this simply builds anger and resentment, and it will continue to fester and if left unchecked, can turn into a suicide, self-mutilation, or in the case of Columbine, a massacre. would it not be better for our society to teach kids, that if someone is bullying them, they ought to stand up and tell the bully to fuck off and maybe punch them? the net gain then becomes that the little bully learns early, that it's not a good idea to go around picking on people, the bullied child learns some self-respect and vents the pressure of being bullied. and cost is perhaps a black eye or a swollen face.
a lot of our societies woes come down to parents not instilling values in their children. when an adult throws a tantrum, customer service rewards him with a free meal. now he knows that every time he throws a tantrum, he can expect something for nothing. where did he learn this? probably from his parents who gave him something every time he threw a tantrum, or at the very least, didn't smack him when he threw a tantrum to teach him that was not acceptable behavior. and now? if i were to smack an adult who threw a tantrum i'd probably be arrested.
people are tired of being put-upon, and more and more are deciding they don't give a fuck about anything, not the law, not their own life, and especially not your life.
we as a society need to be more considerate of one another, if not for moral reasons, than for the simple reason that the person you insult today might put on a pair of steel-toed boots and kick your head in tomorrow.
also, here is the story:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35981338/ns/local_news-miami_fl/
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