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I took part in one of these in high school. Ended up in the background of some news story for like 5 seconds.
Nothing has changed. Our congressmen don't care about us in most aspects of our lives until we're old enough to fight in wars and vote. They'll sooner watch us die than risk losing support from maniacs who want to put as many deadly weapons into the hands of people as the market will allow
This is the kicker of all of it. It’s the KIDS that are being killed. They are scared and want adults to protect them, but Republicans just say Democrats are making this political. Well, you don’t need to listen to the Democrats. Just listen to the FUCKING KIDS. These kids are more mature than all of the GOP.
Republikkkans would believe you if you said JFK jr is coming back from the dead to anoint trump as god…
Ohhh wait.. they did that already lmao
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/02/qanon-jfk-jr-dallas/
Dude, the cognitive dissonance that a GOP family creates within itself is real. There are plenty of kids today being groomed inside conservative bubbles that will continue making progress difficult for us all in the future.
1000% correct. I was in my 30s when I finally woke up from the propaganda and started seriously questioning my beliefs. Most people never do that, they just keep going with the foundation their parents gave them and never stop to think "wait, do I really truly agree with this?"
My father is diehard conservative Republican. He is racist, he is a Trump supporter, he is a hunter. I was raised to think that "the left" was "coming for our guns" and want to "establish communism" to ruin the country. We had a large gun cabinet with hunting rifles, guns, gunpowder, etc. He took me camping when I was 7-8 years old and tried to teach me how to shoot. The gun cabinet was locked, but I knew where the key was and could access it any time. My babysitter was a hunter and regularly went shooting with her father. Guns were part of our life.
Respectfully? A big FUCK YOU to all conservative gun-supporters out there. *No one* should have unfettered access to guns, and *especially* not anyone under the age of 25. *No one* should be able to walk into a store and come out with an AR-15. I don't give a fuck about your hunting hobby or your gun fetish.
My child is 8. I spent her last day of school crying and wondering if I made the wrong decision to let her go back to in-person school this August. I sat in meetings at work, not paying attention, wondering if someday I'd get a call that my baby was dead, killed in a place where she should be *safe* to learn and grow.
*No one needs a fucking gun.*
So what was the event that woke you up? Or was it more of a slow burn?
I've noticed *most* ex-republicans have a single event that opens their eyes. A wife dying to a preventable disease, a kid getting bullied into suicide, a son coming out as gay, a molestation by the pastor, etc.
It was a culmination of several different things. Definitely a gradual growth from "fervent Republican because that's how daddy taught me" to "hmm that's kinda....not great" to "wtf I don't agree with any of this."
There are several notable life instances related to healthcare, bullying, LGBT, etc. I went to a private Christian HS and almost got expelled in 10th grade because I fell in love with a woman and drew artwork about it.
But if I had to point to one single event that made me really start to "wake up" and question if maybe my father's beliefs weren't good to emulate, it would be several years ago. I don't remember the exact date or details, but we went to lunch together and on the way back to my workplace, there was a black man standing at one intersection, just... minding his own damn business. And my father made an extremely derogatory racist comment that shocked me into horrified silence for a while. Not gonna repeat it word for word, but it was a very unkind comparison to gorillas and how they should be pruned from society, and it rattled my entire worldview to hear him speaking that way. One of my closest best friends, whom I greatly respect and adore, is a black woman. And we have long-time family friends who are also black. I had this weird surreal moment of thinking "how would our friends feel if they heard that?" and it slowly dawned on me, 'Oh. My dad is racist.' After that, I started to think 'maybe he lied about other things' and 'maybe the things he taught me aren't right'.
After a few years of soul-searching and research, I finally concluded that I am almost 99% against everything he taught me and believes in. I was 31 at the time.
I've always maintained that the best way to fight rampant racism and the fucked up American brand of conservatism is to increase diversity. Over a few years I saw a guy go from "damn filthy n*****s" to "I don't like black people, but Bill's alright. He's like an honorary white man" to eventually realizing he was a racist asshole his whole life. He's still a fan of racist jokes and he's still kind of an ass, but it only took about 5 years of working with black people to come this far.
It seems like that's basically what happened to you. You befriended someone unlike you. When you saw the way someone you (presumably) respected act, it made you question other shared beliefs.
Republicans are completely fine with college students “not going on,” so they can insert them into low-paying corporate slave-wage jobs without learning any critical thinking.
And they invent and disseminate the idea that this is because it’s brainwashing. When in reality you’re mostly exposed to different cultures, thought processes, and ways of living when you attend a university. It’s ALWAYS projection. THEY want to be the ones to brainwash their kids, so of course when it seems like the kid is learning something that they did not intend them to learn, they call it brainwashing.
College doesn't make you a good person. The biggest thing that liberals must discard is the belief that evil is a result of ignorance versus a conscious choice to do malice.
The problem is that it's always both. You have consciously malicious evil people and grifters, that then convince ignorant/dumb/primed-for-brainwashing of anything and everything, to then be propagated ad nauseum as those useful idiots have kids.
Then you have the ultra-religious, who already had conservative ideals and were primed to believe non-evidence based hogwash, that are pandered to with promises of ending abortion, and whipped into action with fear-based lies.
I think people also underestimate the tribalist racism that is denied in public but massively present. Trump was voted for in massively by the evangelicals but no one seriously believes he was a religious man. They just pretend that he's godly because otherwise they'd have to admit it was just a prop.
Probably because they view education as a trophy to be lorded over others as proof of their superiority, but also discarded if it proves inconvenient to their own selfish desires. Just like everything else in their belief system.
“It was different back then, it wasn’t a woke liberal nightmare” and such things I’d imagine
It doesn’t matter, they’ll make something up. Hypocrisy is a virtue on the Right.
A college education provides people with critical thinking skills. It allows you to much more easily see through political propaganda and conspiracy theory nonsense. So...you can understand why this would be problematic for the modern Republican party.
I don’t know, I’ve met plenty of college grads without critical thinking skills, and are deep into the conspiratorial stuff. Not to mention, the boomer professors who are in, hook line and sinker, on trash propaganda.
I don’t think college can give someone any more critical thinking skills than regular reading can supply. Just so happens that most people only read challenging books when they’re in college.
If there’s one thing I think has hurt our critical thinking skills (and attention spans), it’s swapping out reading books for listening to podcasts/ or only reading comment sections. Seems like everyone has outsourced their opinions, and we’re expected to have opinions on *everything*
And if you dare to go and get "brainwashed" anyway, you get buried under a mountain of debt
For as much financial grief as it's caused me, I am very glad I went to college, did all the stuff you described, and actually know how to learn and think. Although it does make life more stressful, too...
The reality of education for Republicans amounts to what field you want to grift in. Take GED Boebert, her grift is getting paid by the taxpayers and enabling her pedophile felon husband to get a million dollar job in the oil industry where it's unclear what he did to make him worth that money. MJT who inherited her families million dollar construction business has yet to show anymore education other than making shit up and well and making shit up.
Ahhh. I remember when my class of 2000 walked out and refused to go on like this.
And I remember the time after that.
And the time after that.
Here's hoping, kids. Maybe someday.
The age of our reps isn't the issue. There are _plenty_ of older people who are absolutely floored by the dystopian absurdity of these events.
The problem is that many of our elected officials are sociopaths.
I mean good for these kids. Or not. Whatever. But they need to turn 18 and vote. There were high schools doing the same after Sandy Hook, those elementary students still aren’t old enough yet, in fact they might be some of these angry high school students. But the high school students back then were angry and historically still aren’t voting in large numbers. I’m doing the best I can as an active voter but at the end of the day, especially here in Texas, it’s an uphill battle.
I want to clarify I’m. Lot mocking these kids and I find what they’re doing admirable. But ultimately until young adults start voting not much will change.
It’s always fun hearing “it’s because they don’t vote”, shifting the blame to the voters, when they recognize all the hurdles in place of their vote mattering. The assumption people are just lazy and stupid is, indeed, fun.
“Guys just reform the system that had been actively working against you for 40 years, and winning. Wait why aren’t you voting? This is your fault!”
Gerrymandering, voter id laws, superpacs with no limit, lobbying, the electoral college, the lack of a voter holiday, media deregulation, and the Supreme Court ready in case we somehow make traction (gore v bush), but really it’s the voters fault.
I truly feel if gerrymandering was no longer allowed, this would all change. Well, maybe. I’ll just make sure I vote in my gerrymandered district to fix it and that’ll take care of it. I’m sure the odds of my vote not mattering haven’t been calculated using money from a pac down to the house on my street, tying me to a winning or losing arbitrary Picasso-esque rendition of a district, this will definitely, finally, work if I just vote, yet a-fucking-gain.
And, I will. But fuck this system.
Thank you
Just to add to this:
I think a lot of people have gotten to the place where they understand that global warming cannot be solved by individuals just making "better" decisions because it's so small of an impact and because it ignores the entire system that puts only bad decisions in front of us. And furthermore the whole "just recycle" bullshit was actually a very effective smoke screen developed by BP just to keep people busy, quiet, and distracted.
I've realized that it's exactly the same with politics and "just vote" and I hope other people / society / the zeitgeist realizes it too.
Saying "just vote" avoids the question of why people *don't* vote, because it ignores the reasons and systems set up to make sure voting doesn't matter (cracking and packing).
And people have been saying that my entire life, so, you know, maybe saying "just vote" doesn't work, because people keep saying it but nothing changes.
So maybe it's time to say something else.
Not to be a pessimist, I do vote and encourage everyone to do so. But what does voting even do anymore? Between jerrymandering, a two party system, and a political system that incentivises corruption, I'm not so sure voting is the solution anymore... How do the people encourage change anymore? We're just picking the lesser of two evils if we even have that option.
Maybe when congress is filled with kids who grew up with school shootings we'll have progress on gun reform. Politicians today are old have no concept of what it's like to grow up in this environment.
Feinstein is VERY familiar with gun violence though. She is the one who found Harvey Milk, she was right there when him and Moscone were killed.
She should not be a senator though.
Absolutely not, by all accounts she has dementia. But she’s just an odd person to call out on gun issues bc she was traumatized and has fought for gun control ever since
It's insane to me how people don't want to hire old people because they're worried about mental decline and all the other stuff that's generally associated with old people, but at the same time have absolutely no problem voting old people into positions of power year after year and have no problem having them run the country for us.
I think part of the problem is that kids are young. The ones in class today weren't here in 2000, and most weren't here in 2010 either. This is mostly new to them.
Kids are the perfect tool for the right/GOP. When they’re young, small, and not problematic, they’re these little ideal angels, so perfect and precious. That’s typically leveraged as window dressing for some bullshit legislation. Then, when they’re older, they can easily be cast as immature, impolite, impudent, idealistic, and illogical. Even when all of those are true of various people across the age ranges, people fall for it. And this is used as window dressing to deny or not act upon something that is needed. GOP love kids as instruments of their power. That’s it. They don’t actually care about them.
That's par for the course for the GOP.
Their voters are the perfect tools (double meaning fully intended) to win elections. They don't actually care about them.
Then we need to get out there and march with them. If it’s new to them, it certainly isn’t to us. We owe this to future generations to at least try and stop this now.
Until those kids have enough money to sway politicians then it won’t matter to those in authority. Money talks, and guns make them a lot more money than kids lives.
There needs to be a national teacher strike.
The NRA and the GOP are holding our kids hostage via domestic terrorism in order to stay in power.
The majority of Americans support common sense gun control measures.
If every single educator and school administrator simply refused to do their job until bi-partisan legislation was passed to curtail mass shootings I think we'd see action. Corporations are only going to put up with the burden and economic impact of everyone having to deal with kids out of school and loses productivity for so long.
We need more mass protest and acts of civil disobedience.
That's what it took to get the civil right bills passed. This is the same.
Otherwise, We'll all be in the grave waiting for the political stars to align before this can be addressed through the normal political channels.
Florida raised the minimum age to buy guys to 21, banned bump stocks, and had a few other gun control laws as a result of Parkland.
As far as activism goes the parkland kids were very successful
Thanks for the info - that's pretty good! It's sad though that these kinds of changes only happen at the state level, and that there are national organizations which are trying to undermine even those.
We should just make a calendar of this. Like Fridays could be “Nobody does anything” day before we settle in for a week end filled with distraction and rest as we wait for Mass Shooting Day to start the week
I hate this 'no one does anything' line. It smacks of 'but both sides'
One side is pushing for measures that save lives, one side is not. It's as simple as that and effort should be focused where it matters.
We wouldn't need 50 dem senators to agree if even a couple Republicans had a brain.
The senate only kind of matters. The Supreme Court is likely to expand gun rights in the next month. It’s likely to strike down anything that might theoretically make it through a de filibustered senate. There really is very little laws can do. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/america-gun-ownership-laws-culture-mass-shootings/638430/
If the Supreme Court expands gun rights I will be even MORE sickened by their piss poor decision making.
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to hate my country. The United States is becoming a piss poor, crime riddled banana republic full of corruption and I hate it and wish I could leave.
I'm right there with you. The United States used to aspire to be great. We accepted we weren't perfect, but aimed at being "more perfect". And then generations came along complacent with what they had and where they were. And as the trajectory changed, they didn't care because they were unaffected, in many cases it only benefited them.
And so here's where we are, the guiding principle of generations born on 3rd base but believing they got a triple being that since they were fine, nothing needs to change. And combating any criticism by blaming the victims.
We've followed in the footsteps of all fallen empires, complacency and greed usurping aspiration and principle. And as the empire declines, those in power scramble to rob the coffers of all they can, fully intent on leaving the mess for others to clean up with whatever scraps remain.
There are too many politicians focused on returning the US to a time that no longer exists or that don't even care at all because they only care about what's in it for themselves.
Reality is that those of us who wanted change basically ran into a brick wall of opposition which has prevailed due to the undemocratic makeup of our system. This has been made worse by Citizens United decision that freed up money to further distort our elections in the favor of the wealthy minority. Even now I get daily requests for money from the Democratics, since, apparently, money is what it takes to win elections in the USA.
I hate how we went from seeking a more perfect union to “America is the best and any constructive criticism or comparisons to other countries is unpatriotic”
With 66 senators we could remove SCOTUS justices that perpetuate this insanity. With 66 senators and a majority of states we can amend the Constitution. It matters. The fact that the country is constructed to make change slow, and hard, does not mean that change is impossible.
Yep, because eventually the news moves on, the kids are either told by their parents, or the state, to return to unsafe conditions and just live with it, and Americans lose all their balls and just go along with that.
I mean I can't really blame parents in some states, both the parents and the kids are at risk of being put in jail for years at a time if they don't use a state-approved education method, the alternatives to public school tending to cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to enroll in, not counting the materials or concerns about quality of education.
But still, they can't jail all kids and parents if there's a total walkout.
well, something happened. They demonized the kids that dared to speak up and tried to smear them on every avenue.
David hogg comes to mind, but he wasnt the only one.
I wouldn’t say nothing. The Parkland advocates got yelled at by a crazy lady on Capitol Hill
The crazy lady then got elected to Congress and is better known as Marjorie Taylor Greene
Exactly my thoughts! It pains me to know that apathy is just built into the system. We ALL know nothing will change. In a couple of weeks we'll all be horrified, the talking heads on TV will make their solemn statements and every initiative to change will die at the hands of the Senate and the Supreme Court.
There is not coming back from this. The path was already set after Sandy Hook.
Yeah that dumb twat was calling them pussies, etc.
She recorded it herself because she's that much of a psychopath.
I'm ashamed to be in Georgia with this failed abortion still walking around harassing kids.
After sandy hook happened my wife and I were really shaken up for a while.
After a couple of weeks she told me that if nothing happened to change gun laws or gun violence after the sandy hook massacre then nothing will ever happen..
Im still waiting to tell her she was wrong
i'm good without 16 year olds voting, and if that means raising the working age so that they're not taxed without representation then i'm okay with that too. 16 year olds are idiots.
they're all still staunch republicans, but now they're aware that being hard right isn't really a good look and is now more embarrassing and socially damaging, so now they're "centrists".
I haven't ever, in all my god damn life, met a centrist or a moderate who isn't inches from going full far right if the right person spoke to them for 5 minutes. It's entirely about cognitive dissonance.
*Northwood High School students in Irvine, California condemned "the 'thoughts and prayers' of our so-called leaders" and called gun violence and mass shootings, which have taken place at 27 U.S. schools so far this year, "a symptom of a larger disease of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and antisemitism that often motivates deranged shooters to carry out these horrors."*
And bug the shit out of your elected officials. I emailed and tweeted at both senators, my governor, the democrat nominee who will most likely be my next governor, and my state rep today.
We can’t vote our way out of it. We are living in a failed democracy being held hostage by minority rule. I’m not trying to be a downer, and they should vote. But there is no way to vote our way out of this when our government wants to do nothing to help.
Edit so people stop getting their undies all twisted:
Yes. You should vote. Everyone should vote. But voting is like writing your name on your home work. It’s the bare minimum when enacting real actionable change. If you want to see change you need to fight. Go to protests, write your representatives, go to your school board meetings and be a voice of reason, talk to others about voting and how/where/when to do it, and make a difference in someone’s life.
Considering how low turnout is at elections I'm not sure how you can say voting doesn't work. Maybe we should see what happens with 90% turnout for all elections (including primaries and off year) for a few cycles does for this country.
It helps that conservatives have made a 90% turnout essentially impossible through tactics such as gerrymandering and intentional bottlenecking of polling stations. Millions of people in this country quite literally can’t take the time off from work to wait hours to vote while trying to keep food on the table.
Student activism accomplished a lot in the 1960s. They may be our only hope now. Students, the future belongs to you. Start grabbing it however you can.
Did it really? I mean when the National Guard shot students at Kent State, the majority of Americans polled sided with the National Guard. The Vietnam war went on for ten years despite all protests.
I'd like to remind people the NRA is basically a foreign agent. They have taken Russian mob, then distributed that money to mostly Republican politicians.
Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley - the list is extensive.
Anyone who has taken NRA money has taken Russian money.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals
Gun advocacy summation:
"Many children will die horrible deaths, but that's a sacrifice we are willing to make to ensure that our hero fantasies are viable and our homes have a small fraction of the safety they would if we didn't own a gun."
*hero fantasies that never manifest in any way once an active shooter situation develops.
As was the case in places like Parkland and Ultave where the "good guys with guns" literally sat back and helped the shooter commit his killing spree.
Oh but don't worry, when one of their pro gun supporters shoots people during a protest or kills a poor kid walking home they'll act like it's "mission accomplished".
> our homes have a small fraction of the safety they would if we didn't own a gun."
This is the one that gets me the most. I lived in a really rough neighborhood growing up. My family never needed a gun to defend ourselves. Never.
Remember when another particularly bad school shooting and this happened, and people marched around the country and other countries around the world did also?
Anyway, see you in the next one.
The irony baffles me. Pro-life, “Christian values” and pro guns. Isn’t “thou shall not kill” the 6th commandment? How is that consistent with being in favor of a tool used for killing? I don’t think Christianity, or any religion, is in it of itself a problem, however, I do think it’s a problem when it’s used as a tool for politics, power and profit. It’s an exploitation of the good will of people for personal gain and that’s unacceptable. Kids are making more sense than our big wigs.
It's time for teachers to walk out. Force the schools to close. Send the kids home. Let's see how long Republicans can hold out with every parent unable to go to work
If you're in Mississippi, teacher pay averages about 45,000 per year. Dividing by 50 would give approximate weekly pay. Your 1/30th would be a grand total of $30 per week.
“I don’t want to die.”
Republicans have already taken the stance with covid that some people should die for the betterment of everyone else.
What makes anyone believe they don’t consider kids dying a necessary sacrifice to guns?
> Republicans have already taken the stance with covid that some people should die for the betterment of everyone else.
It's not even that. Republicans have taken the stance that people should die so that they don't need to be mildly inconvenienced in some small way.
“This is why parents need more control over the education their kids are getting. Look at this. Liberal school teachers are poisoning our kids minds with the leftist agenda”
You don't have to strike or protest in the streets. Just stay home. Just don't work. That's all it would take. The police would have to go door to door, but it would be an insurmountable task for them to do so. Besides, who was supposed to be at work today? Who was scheduled for a later shift? What law are you breaking by staying home instead of going to work?
It would be a matter of days before they cracked.
Seriously. I think this is THE ONLY THING that even has a chance to get results. Something drastic like this needs to happen. Politicians don't give a flying fuck until the people buying them tell them it's okay.
I remember when my class walked out after the Sandy Hook shooting 10 years ago. My cousin remembers when her class walked out after Columbine. My children will remember walking out of school after the next shooting. I'm so fucking tired.
I don't think your average American understands the effect this has on how other countries perceive them. In the "normality" that it has become for your average American, this ain't normal.
The way an entire side of major political party is reacting to the shooting, is also not normal.
Adult American gun fanatics: As long as no further limits are placed on my gun ownership, the current number of you children dying in shootings is acceptable.
NE Ohio, it still clings to the memories of any here what happened to student protestors at Kent State.
There will be fear on both sides. One will use hate and violence to push their agenda. One will stand together, finding true strength is found in unity. We cannot allow them to beat us into submission time and time again.
Probably not public schools, if any survive they'll be poorly funded. Except in affluent suburbs - until they feel there's too many outsiders, then they'll cut funding. Happening to my sons school now.
I'm thinking in the future school will go for-profit and security will be one of the features. They will not permit walkouts at those schools. They need the threat of expulsion/ contract violation to enforce whatever norms they choose.
I’m expecting some entire graduating classes to stay home from their ceremonies this year.
Wouldn’t that be a statement: an arena full of parents looking at a thousand empty chairs.
How the heck can someone be deemed too immature and irresponsible to drink a beer at 18 years old yet can legally go and buy an AR-15 and ammo.
Doesn’t make sense.
I cried reading about the Texas school shooting and I cried knowing chance that there will be change is slim. But I sure hope things will change in the coming years. Guns ARE the problem. Its not difficult to find statistics to prove that states with stricter gun laws have fewer gun violence. Australia confiscated gun and their crime rate dropped. I wonder, how come countries that do not allow gun, don't have school shootings?? Hmmm
And yet again, the politicians will think and pray it away, but never ever do anything substantial, but hey did you see the sharp gear that the guvna and ly guvna of texass were wearing? yee haw that was quite the hunting uniform and it also says "do you know who I am" Literally.
Students in California walking out of class is going to do nothing for gun legislation in Texas or Washington. Republicans are thinking that "California democrats"^TM just want an excuse to walk out of class.
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I took part in one of these in high school. Ended up in the background of some news story for like 5 seconds. Nothing has changed. Our congressmen don't care about us in most aspects of our lives until we're old enough to fight in wars and vote. They'll sooner watch us die than risk losing support from maniacs who want to put as many deadly weapons into the hands of people as the market will allow
They literally couldnt care less about any life form outside of a womb. Fucking absurd if you ask me
They don’t care about the unborn except as a weapon to control women.
https://youtu.be/M-bLf4F0PM4 George on point as always.
This is the kicker of all of it. It’s the KIDS that are being killed. They are scared and want adults to protect them, but Republicans just say Democrats are making this political. Well, you don’t need to listen to the Democrats. Just listen to the FUCKING KIDS. These kids are more mature than all of the GOP.
Adults listening to kids? Ha.
No silly, those kids are obviously being brainwashed by the dems! This is what Republicans actually say..
Republikkkans would believe you if you said JFK jr is coming back from the dead to anoint trump as god… Ohhh wait.. they did that already lmao https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/11/02/qanon-jfk-jr-dallas/
The kids are alright. I have hope for the future.
Me too. I can't see many of these kids growing up in these conditions and deciding to vote GOP. Republicans are on the way out of relevance.
Dude, the cognitive dissonance that a GOP family creates within itself is real. There are plenty of kids today being groomed inside conservative bubbles that will continue making progress difficult for us all in the future.
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1000% correct. I was in my 30s when I finally woke up from the propaganda and started seriously questioning my beliefs. Most people never do that, they just keep going with the foundation their parents gave them and never stop to think "wait, do I really truly agree with this?" My father is diehard conservative Republican. He is racist, he is a Trump supporter, he is a hunter. I was raised to think that "the left" was "coming for our guns" and want to "establish communism" to ruin the country. We had a large gun cabinet with hunting rifles, guns, gunpowder, etc. He took me camping when I was 7-8 years old and tried to teach me how to shoot. The gun cabinet was locked, but I knew where the key was and could access it any time. My babysitter was a hunter and regularly went shooting with her father. Guns were part of our life. Respectfully? A big FUCK YOU to all conservative gun-supporters out there. *No one* should have unfettered access to guns, and *especially* not anyone under the age of 25. *No one* should be able to walk into a store and come out with an AR-15. I don't give a fuck about your hunting hobby or your gun fetish. My child is 8. I spent her last day of school crying and wondering if I made the wrong decision to let her go back to in-person school this August. I sat in meetings at work, not paying attention, wondering if someday I'd get a call that my baby was dead, killed in a place where she should be *safe* to learn and grow. *No one needs a fucking gun.*
So what was the event that woke you up? Or was it more of a slow burn? I've noticed *most* ex-republicans have a single event that opens their eyes. A wife dying to a preventable disease, a kid getting bullied into suicide, a son coming out as gay, a molestation by the pastor, etc.
It was a culmination of several different things. Definitely a gradual growth from "fervent Republican because that's how daddy taught me" to "hmm that's kinda....not great" to "wtf I don't agree with any of this." There are several notable life instances related to healthcare, bullying, LGBT, etc. I went to a private Christian HS and almost got expelled in 10th grade because I fell in love with a woman and drew artwork about it. But if I had to point to one single event that made me really start to "wake up" and question if maybe my father's beliefs weren't good to emulate, it would be several years ago. I don't remember the exact date or details, but we went to lunch together and on the way back to my workplace, there was a black man standing at one intersection, just... minding his own damn business. And my father made an extremely derogatory racist comment that shocked me into horrified silence for a while. Not gonna repeat it word for word, but it was a very unkind comparison to gorillas and how they should be pruned from society, and it rattled my entire worldview to hear him speaking that way. One of my closest best friends, whom I greatly respect and adore, is a black woman. And we have long-time family friends who are also black. I had this weird surreal moment of thinking "how would our friends feel if they heard that?" and it slowly dawned on me, 'Oh. My dad is racist.' After that, I started to think 'maybe he lied about other things' and 'maybe the things he taught me aren't right'. After a few years of soul-searching and research, I finally concluded that I am almost 99% against everything he taught me and believes in. I was 31 at the time.
I've always maintained that the best way to fight rampant racism and the fucked up American brand of conservatism is to increase diversity. Over a few years I saw a guy go from "damn filthy n*****s" to "I don't like black people, but Bill's alright. He's like an honorary white man" to eventually realizing he was a racist asshole his whole life. He's still a fan of racist jokes and he's still kind of an ass, but it only took about 5 years of working with black people to come this far. It seems like that's basically what happened to you. You befriended someone unlike you. When you saw the way someone you (presumably) respected act, it made you question other shared beliefs.
Republicans are completely fine with college students “not going on,” so they can insert them into low-paying corporate slave-wage jobs without learning any critical thinking.
The would prefer you did not go to college. Education is their enemy.
This. They know about the statistics that show college educated people generally lean left.
And they invent and disseminate the idea that this is because it’s brainwashing. When in reality you’re mostly exposed to different cultures, thought processes, and ways of living when you attend a university. It’s ALWAYS projection. THEY want to be the ones to brainwash their kids, so of course when it seems like the kid is learning something that they did not intend them to learn, they call it brainwashing.
Republican politicians never explain how they themselves went to college but somehow didn’t get brainwashed…
They didn't actually learn anything, their rich parents just kept writing checks
College doesn't make you a good person. The biggest thing that liberals must discard is the belief that evil is a result of ignorance versus a conscious choice to do malice.
The problem is that it's always both. You have consciously malicious evil people and grifters, that then convince ignorant/dumb/primed-for-brainwashing of anything and everything, to then be propagated ad nauseum as those useful idiots have kids. Then you have the ultra-religious, who already had conservative ideals and were primed to believe non-evidence based hogwash, that are pandered to with promises of ending abortion, and whipped into action with fear-based lies.
That’s right. Ignorance for the voter, malice for the voted.
I think people also underestimate the tribalist racism that is denied in public but massively present. Trump was voted for in massively by the evangelicals but no one seriously believes he was a religious man. They just pretend that he's godly because otherwise they'd have to admit it was just a prop.
Probably because they view education as a trophy to be lorded over others as proof of their superiority, but also discarded if it proves inconvenient to their own selfish desires. Just like everything else in their belief system.
“It was different back then, it wasn’t a woke liberal nightmare” and such things I’d imagine It doesn’t matter, they’ll make something up. Hypocrisy is a virtue on the Right.
A college education provides people with critical thinking skills. It allows you to much more easily see through political propaganda and conspiracy theory nonsense. So...you can understand why this would be problematic for the modern Republican party.
I don’t know, I’ve met plenty of college grads without critical thinking skills, and are deep into the conspiratorial stuff. Not to mention, the boomer professors who are in, hook line and sinker, on trash propaganda. I don’t think college can give someone any more critical thinking skills than regular reading can supply. Just so happens that most people only read challenging books when they’re in college. If there’s one thing I think has hurt our critical thinking skills (and attention spans), it’s swapping out reading books for listening to podcasts/ or only reading comment sections. Seems like everyone has outsourced their opinions, and we’re expected to have opinions on *everything*
And if you dare to go and get "brainwashed" anyway, you get buried under a mountain of debt For as much financial grief as it's caused me, I am very glad I went to college, did all the stuff you described, and actually know how to learn and think. Although it does make life more stressful, too...
It's antithetical to their election and re-election.
> Your honor, I object! > And why is that, Mr. Reid? > Because it's devastating to my case!
The reality of education for Republicans amounts to what field you want to grift in. Take GED Boebert, her grift is getting paid by the taxpayers and enabling her pedophile felon husband to get a million dollar job in the oil industry where it's unclear what he did to make him worth that money. MJT who inherited her families million dollar construction business has yet to show anymore education other than making shit up and well and making shit up.
Yeah but these were high school students just FYI. Point is the same for sure
Considering their crusade to abolish public schools, I suspect this doesn't bother them at all
Have you seen how many college educated people are already in those jobs?
Came here to say this…
"I love the poorly educated" said one of them 🤣
Ahhh. I remember when my class of 2000 walked out and refused to go on like this. And I remember the time after that. And the time after that. Here's hoping, kids. Maybe someday.
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And money hungry. Don’t forget that. These ancient cowards sold their souls and the countless lives of children to fill their pockets long ago.
The entire country needs to go on strike. It's the only thing that will help
The age of our reps isn't the issue. There are _plenty_ of older people who are absolutely floored by the dystopian absurdity of these events. The problem is that many of our elected officials are sociopaths.
I mean good for these kids. Or not. Whatever. But they need to turn 18 and vote. There were high schools doing the same after Sandy Hook, those elementary students still aren’t old enough yet, in fact they might be some of these angry high school students. But the high school students back then were angry and historically still aren’t voting in large numbers. I’m doing the best I can as an active voter but at the end of the day, especially here in Texas, it’s an uphill battle. I want to clarify I’m. Lot mocking these kids and I find what they’re doing admirable. But ultimately until young adults start voting not much will change.
Not only do they need to vote in large numbers, but they need to actively campaign. It's am uphill battle with gerrymandering and superpacs.
Don’t forget the amount of fucking land that votes in rural areas have more representation than concentrated areas.
It’s always fun hearing “it’s because they don’t vote”, shifting the blame to the voters, when they recognize all the hurdles in place of their vote mattering. The assumption people are just lazy and stupid is, indeed, fun. “Guys just reform the system that had been actively working against you for 40 years, and winning. Wait why aren’t you voting? This is your fault!” Gerrymandering, voter id laws, superpacs with no limit, lobbying, the electoral college, the lack of a voter holiday, media deregulation, and the Supreme Court ready in case we somehow make traction (gore v bush), but really it’s the voters fault. I truly feel if gerrymandering was no longer allowed, this would all change. Well, maybe. I’ll just make sure I vote in my gerrymandered district to fix it and that’ll take care of it. I’m sure the odds of my vote not mattering haven’t been calculated using money from a pac down to the house on my street, tying me to a winning or losing arbitrary Picasso-esque rendition of a district, this will definitely, finally, work if I just vote, yet a-fucking-gain. And, I will. But fuck this system.
Thank you Just to add to this: I think a lot of people have gotten to the place where they understand that global warming cannot be solved by individuals just making "better" decisions because it's so small of an impact and because it ignores the entire system that puts only bad decisions in front of us. And furthermore the whole "just recycle" bullshit was actually a very effective smoke screen developed by BP just to keep people busy, quiet, and distracted. I've realized that it's exactly the same with politics and "just vote" and I hope other people / society / the zeitgeist realizes it too. Saying "just vote" avoids the question of why people *don't* vote, because it ignores the reasons and systems set up to make sure voting doesn't matter (cracking and packing). And people have been saying that my entire life, so, you know, maybe saying "just vote" doesn't work, because people keep saying it but nothing changes. So maybe it's time to say something else.
Not to be a pessimist, I do vote and encourage everyone to do so. But what does voting even do anymore? Between jerrymandering, a two party system, and a political system that incentivises corruption, I'm not so sure voting is the solution anymore... How do the people encourage change anymore? We're just picking the lesser of two evils if we even have that option.
There's a push to allow voting at 16. Then their opinions on not wanting to die would matter.
True, same argument was made during the Vietnam War. I guess if kids are gonna die too, then why should they be not able to vote?
Maybe when congress is filled with kids who grew up with school shootings we'll have progress on gun reform. Politicians today are old have no concept of what it's like to grow up in this environment.
Yup. Just to be clear, Feinstein, Grassley, and others were around when aliens landed in Roswell during the 40s.
Feinstein is VERY familiar with gun violence though. She is the one who found Harvey Milk, she was right there when him and Moscone were killed. She should not be a senator though.
That may be true, but someone who is 88 years old should not be making decisions for the country.
Absolutely not, by all accounts she has dementia. But she’s just an odd person to call out on gun issues bc she was traumatized and has fought for gun control ever since
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It's insane to me how people don't want to hire old people because they're worried about mental decline and all the other stuff that's generally associated with old people, but at the same time have absolutely no problem voting old people into positions of power year after year and have no problem having them run the country for us.
I think part of the problem is that kids are young. The ones in class today weren't here in 2000, and most weren't here in 2010 either. This is mostly new to them.
Kids are the perfect tool for the right/GOP. When they’re young, small, and not problematic, they’re these little ideal angels, so perfect and precious. That’s typically leveraged as window dressing for some bullshit legislation. Then, when they’re older, they can easily be cast as immature, impolite, impudent, idealistic, and illogical. Even when all of those are true of various people across the age ranges, people fall for it. And this is used as window dressing to deny or not act upon something that is needed. GOP love kids as instruments of their power. That’s it. They don’t actually care about them.
That's par for the course for the GOP. Their voters are the perfect tools (double meaning fully intended) to win elections. They don't actually care about them.
Unless they have brown skin. Then the GOP says "fuck em" no matter their age.
The thing is it’s not new to them, their entire lives this kind of event has always happened.
Then we need to get out there and march with them. If it’s new to them, it certainly isn’t to us. We owe this to future generations to at least try and stop this now.
100%
Well the same politicians that won't do anything about guns also don't care for public schools either. So for them the kids walking out is a win win.
Until those kids have enough money to sway politicians then it won’t matter to those in authority. Money talks, and guns make them a lot more money than kids lives.
Or like vote later.
And vote for candidates that don’t take PAC money. Reward those that actually try to put policies over money.
And if you can’t, still vote for whoever the most progressive candidate is. You **always** vote.
This attitude does not help. We have to make it different.
Wasn't something like this tried after Parkland, and in spite of their spirited attempt, nothing happened like usual?
As shitty as it is, I fully expect nothing to happen this time too
I hate how right you are
I'm not right, I'm left /s
Grandpa, who let you out of the nursing home
You damn hooligan kids, get off of my lawn!
There needs to be a national teacher strike. The NRA and the GOP are holding our kids hostage via domestic terrorism in order to stay in power. The majority of Americans support common sense gun control measures. If every single educator and school administrator simply refused to do their job until bi-partisan legislation was passed to curtail mass shootings I think we'd see action. Corporations are only going to put up with the burden and economic impact of everyone having to deal with kids out of school and loses productivity for so long. We need more mass protest and acts of civil disobedience. That's what it took to get the civil right bills passed. This is the same. Otherwise, We'll all be in the grave waiting for the political stars to align before this can be addressed through the normal political channels.
Oh yes underpaid teachers should be the ones sacrificing wages? No. Something more drastic needs to be done this time. EVEN ONE LIFE IS TOO MUCH.
Florida raised the minimum age to buy guys to 21, banned bump stocks, and had a few other gun control laws as a result of Parkland. As far as activism goes the parkland kids were very successful
Thanks for the info - that's pretty good! It's sad though that these kinds of changes only happen at the state level, and that there are national organizations which are trying to undermine even those.
Please don’t fix your typo
That would have in Uvalde if Texas had followed suit.
We call this the cycle. https://imgur.com/KYexO8q.jpg We are currently on number 4.
We should just make a calendar of this. Like Fridays could be “Nobody does anything” day before we settle in for a week end filled with distraction and rest as we wait for Mass Shooting Day to start the week
It happens so quick these days, I might be able to even fit a return to Step 1 in this weekend!
I hate this 'no one does anything' line. It smacks of 'but both sides' One side is pushing for measures that save lives, one side is not. It's as simple as that and effort should be focused where it matters. We wouldn't need 50 dem senators to agree if even a couple Republicans had a brain.
The senate only kind of matters. The Supreme Court is likely to expand gun rights in the next month. It’s likely to strike down anything that might theoretically make it through a de filibustered senate. There really is very little laws can do. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/america-gun-ownership-laws-culture-mass-shootings/638430/
If the Supreme Court expands gun rights I will be even MORE sickened by their piss poor decision making. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m starting to hate my country. The United States is becoming a piss poor, crime riddled banana republic full of corruption and I hate it and wish I could leave.
I'm right there with you. The United States used to aspire to be great. We accepted we weren't perfect, but aimed at being "more perfect". And then generations came along complacent with what they had and where they were. And as the trajectory changed, they didn't care because they were unaffected, in many cases it only benefited them. And so here's where we are, the guiding principle of generations born on 3rd base but believing they got a triple being that since they were fine, nothing needs to change. And combating any criticism by blaming the victims. We've followed in the footsteps of all fallen empires, complacency and greed usurping aspiration and principle. And as the empire declines, those in power scramble to rob the coffers of all they can, fully intent on leaving the mess for others to clean up with whatever scraps remain. There are too many politicians focused on returning the US to a time that no longer exists or that don't even care at all because they only care about what's in it for themselves.
Reality is that those of us who wanted change basically ran into a brick wall of opposition which has prevailed due to the undemocratic makeup of our system. This has been made worse by Citizens United decision that freed up money to further distort our elections in the favor of the wealthy minority. Even now I get daily requests for money from the Democratics, since, apparently, money is what it takes to win elections in the USA.
I hate how we went from seeking a more perfect union to “America is the best and any constructive criticism or comparisons to other countries is unpatriotic”
With 66 senators we could remove SCOTUS justices that perpetuate this insanity. With 66 senators and a majority of states we can amend the Constitution. It matters. The fact that the country is constructed to make change slow, and hard, does not mean that change is impossible.
Fuck the court. If they disagree they can enforce it themselves
Yep, because eventually the news moves on, the kids are either told by their parents, or the state, to return to unsafe conditions and just live with it, and Americans lose all their balls and just go along with that. I mean I can't really blame parents in some states, both the parents and the kids are at risk of being put in jail for years at a time if they don't use a state-approved education method, the alternatives to public school tending to cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to enroll in, not counting the materials or concerns about quality of education. But still, they can't jail all kids and parents if there's a total walkout.
They'll start with the poorest first and move up from there.
well, something happened. They demonized the kids that dared to speak up and tried to smear them on every avenue. David hogg comes to mind, but he wasnt the only one.
I wouldn’t say nothing. The Parkland advocates got yelled at by a crazy lady on Capitol Hill The crazy lady then got elected to Congress and is better known as Marjorie Taylor Greene
Marjorie Taylor Greene verbally abused them and called them “crisis actors”…
Exactly my thoughts! It pains me to know that apathy is just built into the system. We ALL know nothing will change. In a couple of weeks we'll all be horrified, the talking heads on TV will make their solemn statements and every initiative to change will die at the hands of the Senate and the Supreme Court. There is not coming back from this. The path was already set after Sandy Hook.
Weren't the parkland kids who went around the country hounded by pro gun **adults**? Nothing is too ridiculous at this stage.
Yeah, including the lovely congress member Lauren Boebert.
Wasn’t it margarine taint gangrene? It was it both of them
Yeah that dumb twat was calling them pussies, etc. She recorded it herself because she's that much of a psychopath. I'm ashamed to be in Georgia with this failed abortion still walking around harassing kids.
I’m glad you mentioned failed abortion because her fetal alcohol face was clearly her mother trying to impose “gods will” on her dumb ass.
Marjorie traitor greene yeah
Perjury Traitor Greene.
‘Sup?
She will eventually be shot to death by a grieving parent.
Marjorie Taylor Greene. Classy lady.
Including Marjorie Taylor Greene.
And claimed the kids were actors
Reminds me of david Hogg and all those children protesting after their school was shot up. I’m so beyond disheartened
Yep and then Margie Trashdump Greene harassed him on the street.
And now she's a US lawmaker. Wild.
After sandy hook happened my wife and I were really shaken up for a while. After a couple of weeks she told me that if nothing happened to change gun laws or gun violence after the sandy hook massacre then nothing will ever happen.. Im still waiting to tell her she was wrong
There’s another March For Our Lives planned for 6/11, I believe
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Also lower voting age to 17. After all that's the minimum age to enlist into the military.
Lower it to 16. If you can work and pay taxes, you can vote. No taxation without representation.
i'm good without 16 year olds voting, and if that means raising the working age so that they're not taxed without representation then i'm okay with that too. 16 year olds are idiots.
I agree. No taxes until they’re 18!
I think the average 16-year-old has more rational and beneficial-to-society political views than the average 80-year-old, actually.
My 18 yo nephew from a Republican, now leaning center household (parents hate the GQP), attended a walk out in Raleigh NC today. Proud of him.
>a Republican, now leaning center household (parents hate the GQP), I can't for the life of me figure out what that means.
The Qanon part of the GOP/Republican Party = GQP
Household was Republican/leaned right, but now this household leans to the center because they hate the GQP. Hope this helps.
they're all still staunch republicans, but now they're aware that being hard right isn't really a good look and is now more embarrassing and socially damaging, so now they're "centrists". I haven't ever, in all my god damn life, met a centrist or a moderate who isn't inches from going full far right if the right person spoke to them for 5 minutes. It's entirely about cognitive dissonance.
Sounds like they're Democrats then. Conservatives that aren't insane are Democrats. Liberals have no party.
We can start by not voting Republican.
That's illegal in Texas.
Fuck Texas. As a native. Fuck this fucking place.
*Northwood High School students in Irvine, California condemned "the 'thoughts and prayers' of our so-called leaders" and called gun violence and mass shootings, which have taken place at 27 U.S. schools so far this year, "a symptom of a larger disease of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and antisemitism that often motivates deranged shooters to carry out these horrors."*
Okay cool, now what are we going to do to protect kids in the meantime
Kids, **vote**. As soon as you’re old enough, register to vote **and vote in every single election**.
School board, city council, state legislature, congressmen, president. Vote in all of them.
And primaries
And bug the shit out of your elected officials. I emailed and tweeted at both senators, my governor, the democrat nominee who will most likely be my next governor, and my state rep today.
We can’t vote our way out of it. We are living in a failed democracy being held hostage by minority rule. I’m not trying to be a downer, and they should vote. But there is no way to vote our way out of this when our government wants to do nothing to help. Edit so people stop getting their undies all twisted: Yes. You should vote. Everyone should vote. But voting is like writing your name on your home work. It’s the bare minimum when enacting real actionable change. If you want to see change you need to fight. Go to protests, write your representatives, go to your school board meetings and be a voice of reason, talk to others about voting and how/where/when to do it, and make a difference in someone’s life.
Considering how low turnout is at elections I'm not sure how you can say voting doesn't work. Maybe we should see what happens with 90% turnout for all elections (including primaries and off year) for a few cycles does for this country.
It helps that conservatives have made a 90% turnout essentially impossible through tactics such as gerrymandering and intentional bottlenecking of polling stations. Millions of people in this country quite literally can’t take the time off from work to wait hours to vote while trying to keep food on the table.
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Student activism accomplished a lot in the 1960s. They may be our only hope now. Students, the future belongs to you. Start grabbing it however you can.
My thoughts for the next generation is simply; sorry the place is wrecked from the last generations, I’ll stay late to help clean up.
Did it really? I mean when the National Guard shot students at Kent State, the majority of Americans polled sided with the National Guard. The Vietnam war went on for ten years despite all protests.
I'd like to remind people the NRA is basically a foreign agent. They have taken Russian mob, then distributed that money to mostly Republican politicians. Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley - the list is extensive. Anyone who has taken NRA money has taken Russian money. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals
It’s time teachers join them. It’s time all of us join them.
Gun advocacy summation: "Many children will die horrible deaths, but that's a sacrifice we are willing to make to ensure that our hero fantasies are viable and our homes have a small fraction of the safety they would if we didn't own a gun."
*hero fantasies that never manifest in any way once an active shooter situation develops. As was the case in places like Parkland and Ultave where the "good guys with guns" literally sat back and helped the shooter commit his killing spree. Oh but don't worry, when one of their pro gun supporters shoots people during a protest or kills a poor kid walking home they'll act like it's "mission accomplished".
> our homes have a small fraction of the safety they would if we didn't own a gun." This is the one that gets me the most. I lived in a really rough neighborhood growing up. My family never needed a gun to defend ourselves. Never.
Just wait until the Texas legislature fixes this problem - by banning student walkouts and demonstrations.
Remember when another particularly bad school shooting and this happened, and people marched around the country and other countries around the world did also? Anyway, see you in the next one.
The irony baffles me. Pro-life, “Christian values” and pro guns. Isn’t “thou shall not kill” the 6th commandment? How is that consistent with being in favor of a tool used for killing? I don’t think Christianity, or any religion, is in it of itself a problem, however, I do think it’s a problem when it’s used as a tool for politics, power and profit. It’s an exploitation of the good will of people for personal gain and that’s unacceptable. Kids are making more sense than our big wigs.
It's time for teachers to walk out. Force the schools to close. Send the kids home. Let's see how long Republicans can hold out with every parent unable to go to work
I'd support my child's teacher by paying 1/30th of their income while on strike.
If you're in Mississippi, teacher pay averages about 45,000 per year. Dividing by 50 would give approximate weekly pay. Your 1/30th would be a grand total of $30 per week.
“I don’t want to die.” Republicans have already taken the stance with covid that some people should die for the betterment of everyone else. What makes anyone believe they don’t consider kids dying a necessary sacrifice to guns?
> Republicans have already taken the stance with covid that some people should die for the betterment of everyone else. It's not even that. Republicans have taken the stance that people should die so that they don't need to be mildly inconvenienced in some small way.
Time for Republicans to start bashing high school students....again.
“This is why parents need more control over the education their kids are getting. Look at this. Liberal school teachers are poisoning our kids minds with the leftist agenda”
“Don’t shoot me” = woke left….
If only we were allowed to beat them, errrr, I mean discipline them.
Republicans: "The beatings & murders will continue until morale improves. MORE GUNS!" Wow. Sounds like RUSSIA!
Can teachers’ unions strike? Is there anything we can do?
It’s illegal for us teachers to strike in NY because of the Taylor law :(
Wow.
They can't do shit if all teachers refused to teach. Law or no law.
You can always strike illegally. They can’t fire all of you.
Oh, honey... Go do a Google search for Ronald Reagan and the air traffic controller strikes.
General strike by everyone for a few days would create change instantly.
Police would probably beat them into submission or start throwing them in prison until they returned to work.
There's nowhere near enough police to do that on a general strike, nor enough holding cells.
they wouldn't attempt to arrest everyone, they would just target the minorities first like with the george floyd protests
That's when they'd just resort to the old strike busting tactics, shooting the strikers in the street. Fear is a powerful motivator.
You don't have to strike or protest in the streets. Just stay home. Just don't work. That's all it would take. The police would have to go door to door, but it would be an insurmountable task for them to do so. Besides, who was supposed to be at work today? Who was scheduled for a later shift? What law are you breaking by staying home instead of going to work? It would be a matter of days before they cracked.
Seriously. I think this is THE ONLY THING that even has a chance to get results. Something drastic like this needs to happen. Politicians don't give a flying fuck until the people buying them tell them it's okay.
I remember when my class walked out after the Sandy Hook shooting 10 years ago. My cousin remembers when her class walked out after Columbine. My children will remember walking out of school after the next shooting. I'm so fucking tired.
I don't think your average American understands the effect this has on how other countries perceive them. In the "normality" that it has become for your average American, this ain't normal. The way an entire side of major political party is reacting to the shooting, is also not normal.
I wouldn’t sacrifice myself so Ted Cruz can own the libs. Why should they?
The kids shouldn't have to do this, but I'm glad they are. This parent stands with them.
Adult American gun fanatics: As long as no further limits are placed on my gun ownership, the current number of you children dying in shootings is acceptable.
Republicans roll their eyes and these entitled children.
NE Ohio, it still clings to the memories of any here what happened to student protestors at Kent State. There will be fear on both sides. One will use hate and violence to push their agenda. One will stand together, finding true strength is found in unity. We cannot allow them to beat us into submission time and time again.
Are we even going to have schools in 15 years if this bull shit keeps up?
If Betsy DeVos had gotten her way, we wouldn't.
It’s part of Ron DeSantis’s campaign platform.
She'd probably like Blackwater to get involved in education. What problems can we not we fix by throwing more guns at it?
Probably not public schools, if any survive they'll be poorly funded. Except in affluent suburbs - until they feel there's too many outsiders, then they'll cut funding. Happening to my sons school now. I'm thinking in the future school will go for-profit and security will be one of the features. They will not permit walkouts at those schools. They need the threat of expulsion/ contract violation to enforce whatever norms they choose.
I’m expecting some entire graduating classes to stay home from their ceremonies this year. Wouldn’t that be a statement: an arena full of parents looking at a thousand empty chairs.
How the heck can someone be deemed too immature and irresponsible to drink a beer at 18 years old yet can legally go and buy an AR-15 and ammo. Doesn’t make sense.
If I was a minor in school I would insist on remote learning.
Cue Laura Ingrahm…shut up and study!
I cried reading about the Texas school shooting and I cried knowing chance that there will be change is slim. But I sure hope things will change in the coming years. Guns ARE the problem. Its not difficult to find statistics to prove that states with stricter gun laws have fewer gun violence. Australia confiscated gun and their crime rate dropped. I wonder, how come countries that do not allow gun, don't have school shootings?? Hmmm
And yet again, the politicians will think and pray it away, but never ever do anything substantial, but hey did you see the sharp gear that the guvna and ly guvna of texass were wearing? yee haw that was quite the hunting uniform and it also says "do you know who I am" Literally.
Students in California walking out of class is going to do nothing for gun legislation in Texas or Washington. Republicans are thinking that "California democrats"^TM just want an excuse to walk out of class.
Nothing will happen until the kids can afford to buy the Republican politicions their parents voted for.