School shooters have a preoccupation with Columbine

Firstly - much love to the victims of the Parkland, Florida shooting.

I found this on Youtube and thought it relevant to this forum
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Does it all go back to Columbine? Why do you think that is?

Well, need to admit it: Eric and Dylan inspired many of those shooters, just because they were first one so well prepared, with high amount of deaths, they were edgy and so angry.
They just left their legacy.

Say what you want about them, they were right about the chain reaction and how they would be different. Even though their bombs failed (thank goodness) and they may have started feeling remorse or just tired, they surely changed the world.

They are not even edgy anymore. Feeling empathy for them as well as the victims and their families isn't , at least from what I gather, met with any shock.

I also feeling empathy for both of them. Actually that is what brought me here.

I think that, taxonomically speaking, there are three types of mass murder. There are terrorist attacks that follow from clear political or religious motives, isolated incidents such as the actions of Rodger and Paddock that seem to follow more from individual circumstances and mental illnesses, and then there are school shootings, whose perpetrators frequently seem to identify with a broader culture that begins and ends with Columbine. I say begins and ends because so many try to imitate what happened there, but none of managed to surpass it. Not simply to kill more people or to create a more significant cultural touchstone, but to escape from the shadow of what happened in Colorado. Lanza is the only one who came close.

It's almost a cargo cult. The image of "school shooter" is so tied up with Columbine that they've lost all capacity for originality, with each incident being like a bad photocopy of the last. I think there are a couple of factors that make Columbine resonate so much stronger than all its imitators. The first is that it was committed by not one but two people. All subsequent massacres that fall under the school shooting taxonomy have been the work of individuals. This is, frankly, not nearly as glamorous. It's a lot easier to glorify the antisocial actions of a pair than it is someone who suffered alone. In fact, it's a common device in American popular culture. The pair of outlaws (usually lovers) who are enemies of society but undyingly loyal to one another, facing off against the world together. My guess is that this American romanticism of the outlaw hearkens back to the Old West.

The second reason why Columbine continues to eclipse later shootings is that it not only took place at a high school, but was perpetrated by students currently attending it. Attacks on college campuses and even elementary schools fail to elicit the same reaction because of another factor that is seldom discussed, the Great American High School myth. There is a massive cultural preoccupation with high school, sustained by the media, telling us that these places are sacred ground. Recently there have been a spate of attacks on high schools by self-identified members of the "school shooter community". The reaction to these incidents has been roughly in proportion to the number of casualties, still nowhere near the level of hysteria that Columbine elicited. However, all of these perpetrators had already graduated. I'll wager that if they'd carried out their massacres while still enrolled, the cultural impact would have been greater.

Finally, I'd like to touch on the aesthetic angle. There is by this point a finely honed "school shooter aesthetic" that borrows heavily from Columbine. This happened because Columbine was, in some sense, a very aesthetically powerful event. Subsequent media portrayals of Eric and Dylan (trench coat mafia) even identified them by the clothes they wore. Not just that, but the music they listened to and the games they played. Everything became wrapped up with these powerful cultural associations. Watching those videos, recorded on VHS, it's easy to feel a powerful sense of nostalgia. This was at a time when home video was something new and magical. It hearkens back to those moments in high school that many experienced. You'll see these late nineties elements replicated in so much of the fan media that's produced. A lot of the preoccupation with Columbine is simply nostalgia. Not simply for the aesthetics of the era, but also for a time when violence was a manifestation of rage and not inherently political. In a time of terrorism, there's something darkly innocent about school shootings.

Consider that a large portion of pedophiles were themselves molested as children. Future school shooters didn't see bullets flying through their classrooms, but they experienced it through the media. It left a lasting impression that metamorphosed into a morbid fascination. And years later they feel compelled to re-enact that trauma, perhaps to regain a lost sense of power, perhaps because it's the only way they want to relate, or perhaps because, existing in a state of arrested development for so long, they never grew up and had the life experiences that are supposed to prevent people from doing things like this.

It's scary how they predicted in the Basement Tapes that they were going to have followers. The Sheriff tried avoiding copycats by keeping the Basement Tapes classified and sadly it wasn't enough.

What scares me is even on this site I'm seeing kids almost idolizing these two killers. It scares and saddens me. The devil is real, folks. He is real and his goal is to kill, steal and destroy. There was alot of that in Columbine. He pushed these two kids to murder, stole the lives from their victims and destroyed a lot of families and started a string of similar crimes in our schools and universities throughout this land. These two are NOT heroes or to be looked at in any positive light whatsoever. They are murderers. They both now reside in hell, forever under torment, in the land of darkness and hate and torment and nothing good, basically. Weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. This is not something to emulate or follow, AT all. It's disgusting, vile, evil and wicked and you will be under the judgement of Almighty God if even you even think to do such a vile thing. Do not emulate the wicked, but follow the good!

Sporttster wrote:

The devil is real, folks. He is real and his goal is to kill, steal and destroy.

I'm not trying to shit on your beliefs but if you're trying to spread the gospel or whatever, I don't think this is the right place to do it.

QuestionMark wrote:

Sporttster wrote:

The devil is real, folks. He is real and his goal is to kill, steal and destroy.

I'm not trying to shit on your beliefs but if you're trying to spread the gospel or whatever, I don't think this is the right place to do it.

I agree. We're pretty secular I would say here. Also I'd say on a whole nice and tolerant about the victims (obviously) and also the perpetrators. Off colored jokes about the shooters aside, I don't know anyone who condones and no one here idolizes them either. I am surprised that you are seeing this.. I don't at all. A great community has been built here.

Empathy doesn't mean support or condoning. My empathy ends when E and D planted the bombs that morning and decided to do what they were doing. I feel bad for their families and friends who have suffered so much over the past 19 years.

You haven't been paying attention then concerning the people who idolize them here. One of many posts I've seen..

Quote :

Nah, I think they'd rather have all the fans with their tattoos, necklaces, pillow cases and Wrath t-shirts over the higher body count.

Sporttster wrote:

What scares me is even on this site I'm seeing kids almost idolizing these two killers. It scares and saddens me. The devil is real, folks. He is real and his goal is to kill, steal and destroy. There was alot of that in Columbine. He pushed these two kids to murder, stole the lives from their victims and destroyed a lot of families and started a string of similar crimes in our schools and universities throughout this land.  These two are NOT heroes or to be looked at in any positive light whatsoever. They are murderers. They both now reside in hell, forever under torment, in the land of darkness and hate and torment and nothing good, basically. Weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. This is not something to emulate or follow, AT all. It's disgusting, vile, evil and wicked and you will be under the judgement of Almighty God if even you even think to do such a vile thing. Do not emulate the wicked, but follow the good!

they chose to kill. the devil didnt make them or whatever. also many people here think that eric and dylan needed help and semi-relate to them. that doesnt mean anyone here wants to kill.

Sporttster wrote:

You haven't been paying attention then concerning the people who idolize them here. One of many posts I've seen..

Quote :

Nah, I think they'd rather have all the fans with their tattoos, necklaces, pillow cases and Wrath t-shirts over the higher body count.  

that person is making fun of the columbine fangirls. many of us just like to laugh about how edgy or crazy they are.

Sporttster wrote:

What scares me is even on this site I'm seeing kids almost idolizing these two killers. It scares and saddens me. The devil is real, folks. He is real and his goal is to kill, steal and destroy. There was alot of that in Columbine. He pushed these two kids to murder, stole the lives from their victims and destroyed a lot of families and started a string of similar crimes in our schools and universities throughout this land.  These two are NOT heroes or to be looked at in any positive light whatsoever. They are murderers. They both now reside in hell, forever under torment, in the land of darkness and hate and torment and nothing good, basically. Weeping and gnashing of teeth forever. This is not something to emulate or follow, AT all. It's disgusting, vile, evil and wicked and you will be under the judgement of Almighty God if even you even think to do such a vile thing. Do not emulate the wicked, but follow the good!

As far as I know, we as mere humans and sinners ourselves cannot say for certain whether they're in hell or not. Yes, such actions can and will lead you there, but only God knows their souls. For all we know, they might've asked God to forgive them after they did it. I'm not saying they did, but we weren't there, and we aren't God, so we don't know. Otherwise, Amen, and God bless you.


And a side note to the entire forum: Being a moderator here, it is my duty to attempt to keep the peace and keep things as neutral as possible, but unless it's stated or enforced by the forum owner, people can discuss their faith whether the majority agree with it or not. And I do personally believe in Christ and in God, but even if I didn't, just because it isn't "popular", people are still certainly allowed to discuss it.

It's not always Columbine.