It is usual following each and every mass shooting incident in this country, for there to be an out-pouring of emotion and calls to action. Indeed, were that not the case there would be something very wrong with the society we live in.
It is cogently argued that there are, actually, some things that are very wrong with the culture in this country, a country where if you miss one mass-shooting don't worry, the next will be along very soon. Personally, and I exempt hunting from this argument, I do feel that the only thing improved by selling guns to individual citizens are the sales figures of the manufacturers. Of course, undertakers do quite well too.
Yet it usually transpires that the motivations of most mass-killers are buried deeply in their own psyches, as was the case in the most recent incident. What was different this time was that we are privy to a detailed "manifesto of a killer", and the reasoning scares the crap out of me.
I want to pivot away from the incident. As it happened it is no less horrific, and had little to differentiate it from all the other deeply flawed people who commit such crimes. It is for another time to debate the extent to which we fail the perpetrators, and in doing so fail the victims. It is also clear that nothing will be done this time, and nothing will be done next time. Indeed, I rather suspect that nothing of any significance will be done until those who broadly support a peaceful society own more politicians than those who don't.
This time was different, for the people who comment and Diary on Daily Kos, mostly because of the reasons specified by the killer. In this case, a hatred of and violence towards women appears to have been the sole motivation.
Now it would be at least faintly ludicrous to suppose that anyone here (trolls excepted) actually either hates women or feels violent towards them. If you are a guy reading this, who wonders that they might not fit that description, then please go get some help. We no more want to hurt women than we want to marginalise people of color, or discriminate against those whose sexuality is not the same as our own, or indeed persecute any minority group just because we are part of the majority. I expect society to do all of those things and many more ... I do not expect the Users of Daily Kos to.
In the nine years I have been around this site, some common complaints have traveled across the ages. The site is too narrow, the demographic here is too white, too male, too affluent (I am doing my best to redress the average of that last). The Blog is not welcoming to Hispanic people, black people, women, young people, poor people ... the French! Given that I am English, and our national pastime is "hating the French", I can forgive that, but all those other groups? Are we really content to be white, male, college educated and comparatively wealthy .. to the almost total exclusion of all others? That is not the society you live in. It is not your family, or local community. It is not your workplace, or city ... Why should it be your online organ of choice?
I understand that the medium is well set-up to encourage us all to post our views and share opinions. What it is less well able to do is encourage you to listen to the views and opinions of others. That is your personal responsibility. If you are seeking information or enlightenment, searching for debate or merely wishing to hang out with like-minded folk then all those are valid reasons. What concerns me is that society is not monochrome, it is a many-faceted, multicolored spectrum of views, peoples and experiences, and we can learn from them all.
Daily Kos could be an echo-chamber of like-minded people sharing one-dimensional views, or it could serve to push us out of that comfort zone and into a world that is, actually ... Reality Based!
So what's yer point twigg ... you garrulous Limey?
My point is a very simple one. The latest horrific episode did one thing that could prove useful to the inhabitants of this site. It encouraged the women among us to display an honesty and courage that I have not seen, except in small doses, in my entire time here. They went to their keyboards and with an unvarnished truth they told us of their experiences, their realities and their need for support.
They told us to "shut up and listen", some bared their souls. They did not ask us to solve their problems. They did not ask us to even propose solutions, and they did not ask us to remind them how tough life can be for men!
So some of you face a choice. You can choose to get your nose put out of joint. You can choose to make it all about men. You can choose to remind us that violence against women is falling ... sigh. You can choose all of those things but let me be very clear. If you make those choices you deny the women their voice. If you make those choices you are telling our women, your wives, mothers and daughters, that they have no platform here. You are confirming for them all of the experiences they have shared with you ... that they are the problem and that you are not prepared to be part of the solution.
You can have your community as small or as broad as you choose.
I've made my choice, what will yours be?
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