"Why do you do this crap? What did I do to you?"

Consider this anecdote, related by Columbine student Zach Johnston a few days after the massacre:

Quote :

About a month ago my friends and I went out to lunch. After lunch we had the same World History class so we would talk together. We would often pass these 2 kids who wore trench coats. Everyone referred to them as the "Trench Coat Mafia". My friend Cale referred to them as the "RammStein Boyz". Whatever you wanted to call them, you could tell they were different.

Well, one day, Cale snarled a remark about Rammstein under his breath as we passed these 2 guys. The short one who was named Eric Harris confronted my friend about it. He said "Everyday you pass me and make fun of me saying Rammstien sucks. Why do you do this crap asshole? What did I do to you?" My friend replied "Oh man your so cool, you’re my idol!" Then Eric’s friend Dylan approached us seeming to back up his friend. I really didn’t want to get involved in a fight even though I knew these guys wouldn’t stand a chance. I was afraid of things they might do afterwards. Eric was a short clean cut looking kid and Dylan was a very tall skinny guy with messed up hair. He always wore the trench coat, a hat and dark sunglasses. The bell rang and they left and we went into class. That was the end of the confrontation.

Is this Eric a cocky, swaggering, pussy-pounding psychopath, or is he a skinny, runty, hyper-sensitive nerd who freaks out because someone criticized his favorite band?

Well, Dave - I'm sorry, lasttrain, I await your expert explanation.

I wonder if this is the same Cale who doesn't mention this exchange to IO's and whose interview is about 50% redacted pg(5474). Just to be clear i'm not saying this event did not occur because it wasn't mentioned (and this could be the wrong Cale). I wouldn't be all that surprised to hear that some students "forgot" to mention any run-in's they'd had with Eric or Dylan prior to 4/20.

I have heard of this exchange mentioned before, it must have been from Johnston's interview.

He was just defending himself, he just asked him that and thats it. If he was a hiper-sensitive nerd who freaked out or a swaggering, pussy- pounding psychopath. Well maybe he was both, probably the first one. But whatever it was, he just responded like many people do in that situation.

Mj2beat wrote:

He was just defending himself, he just asked him  that and thats it. If he was a hiper-sensitive nerd who freaked out or a swaggering, pussy- pounding psychopath. Well maybe he was both, probably the first one. But whatever it was, he just responded like many people do in that situation.

Yes, but he's defensive about it. He's wounded by it.

I like ABBA. () If someone said to me, "ABBA sucks," I'd respond, "Yeah, but you swallow." Or I'd shrug my shoulders and say, "There's no accounting for taste."

queenfarooq wrote:

I wonder if this is the same Cale who doesn't mention this exchange to IO's and whose interview is about 50% redacted pg(5474). Just to be clear i'm not saying this event did not occur because it wasn't mentioned (and this could be the wrong Cale). I wouldn't be all that surprised to hear that some students "forgot" to mention any run-in's they'd had with Eric or Dylan prior to 4/20.

I have heard of this exchange mentioned before, it must have been from Johnston's interview.

I can't vouch for its accuracy and/or authenticity. If it's true, though, it gives us an interesting insight into Eric's character.

I think that Eric felt personally attacked here. It may seem to be a petty thing to many but I think he was made fun of so often he always had his guard up.
And the guy was doing it to insult Eric. If that wasn't his purpose ,he wouldn't have said anything in the first place.

LPorter101 wrote:

Mj2beat wrote:

He was just defending himself, he just asked him  that and thats it. If he was a hiper-sensitive nerd who freaked out or a swaggering, pussy- pounding psychopath. Well maybe he was both, probably the first one. But whatever it was, he just responded like many people do in that situation.

Yes, but he's defensive about it. He's wounded by it.

I like ABBA. () If someone said to me, "ABBA sucks," I'd respond, "Yeah, but you swallow." Or I'd shrug my shoulders and say, "There's no accounting for taste."

Yeah but it depends of the personality and character of the person. I almost said the same that Eric once and I could said something else but for my personality and character I get upset very easily with those things or at least when I was younger because now I can control it better.

Mj2beat wrote:

LPorter101 wrote:

Mj2beat wrote:

He was just defending himself, he just asked him  that and thats it. If he was a hiper-sensitive nerd who freaked out or a swaggering, pussy- pounding psychopath. Well maybe he was both, probably the first one. But whatever it was, he just responded like many people do in that situation.

Yes, but he's defensive about it. He's wounded by it.

I like ABBA. () If someone said to me, "ABBA sucks," I'd respond, "Yeah, but you swallow." Or I'd shrug my shoulders and say, "There's no accounting for taste."

Yeah but it depends of the personality and character of the person. I almost said the same that Eric once and I could said something else but for my personality and character I get upset very easily with those things or at least when I was younger because now I can control it better.

That was my point. He wasn't this cocky, swaggering, too-cool-for-school pussy-pounding ladies' man that Cullen makes him out to be.

I don't give a shit whether other people agree with my likes and dislikes. I never have and I never will. When I was in high school, I flaunted my weird tastes in music and movies - the more esoteric and the less popular, the better. It was my way of signaling that I didn't care whether I was "cool" or not. I wanted to show that I was above such trivial concerns.

But Eric craved social approval. He wanted to be a rebel, but he yearned for external validation of his self-worth.

Defensiveness stems from insecurity. Insecurity stems from low self-esteem.

If Eric was a psychopath , he would show them what really means "lack of empathy".. Even if he was smaller , psychopaths are not afraid of anything.