Quote Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy View Post
I do trust my perspective. I think you and the others decrying all this "violence" are full of shit. It's not as extensive, and it hasn't changed in volume recently, people are saying otherwise because they're alarmist or because they're looking to score political points. I think quite a few are doing the latter, I've already said in this thread that we're seeing these comments as a variation of "have you stopped beating your wife yet" accusations, and as the latest version of "death-panel" rhetoric. I'm saying that if you want to make a claim which I view as obviously wrong, you should back it up with proof, since, as I pointed out, there are some easy ways to quantify it and poli-sci academics are performing this analysis all the freaking time.
Two things: 1) Violence in general. Are you saying all the public schools, universities, airports, state/federal office buildings are being "alarmist" with their safety screenings? Those precautions are just to appease an unreasonable or hysterical public? Or is it because we've had more violence in recent years, the kind that harms several people in one fell swoop....

2) Nastiness in politics. Town Hall meetings where people yell and scream, thinking it's okay to physically approach candidates in a threatening manner, or spit on them. Birthers denying our President is a citizen. A handful of congress wanting to conduct "investigations for anti-Americanism". FBI following threatening phone calls and e-mails in increasing numbers.

If poli-sci academics analyze this all the freaking time, then where are the reports saying our society has no need for all these new security measures? Sure, they post crime rates, and how violent crimes have remained steady or gone down in most major metropolitan areas. But the type and degree of violence has changed (bombs or semi-automatic guns instead of knives or pistols). I don't mean from Prohibition Bonnie and Clyde days, but the 20th century in general. We don't have airplanes hijacked to Cuba now, we have underwear bombs and terrorists flying planes into buildings. Going Postal means something very different in the last couple of decades, like the DC area sniper hiding in the trunk, Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc. Instead of an isolated Kent State incident, students are attacking and killing teachers and fellow students.

We have more piracy and kidnappings, mass shootings and bomb threats, murder/suicides, sarin or anthrax threats, violence at the Mexican border, gangs and drug lords that shoot up entire neighborhoods, lots of young people dying en masse, more GSW in the ED than ever. Do you deny all that?

I'll concede the point that we've always had violence, crime, even assassinations. We're a violent culture. But IMO it has gotten "worse" or escalated, at least since the 80's. If I have a bias, it's not to confirm some existing belief of my own (Loki). Possible it's related to our media tools and 24/7 internet coverage, splayed across screens everywhere? (Kind of like saying our cancer rates are historically the same, they just appear higher now that we can diagnose earlier and more often?) Maybe it's related to the type of weapons that can spray bullets into crowds, planes used as weapons (just one guy will fly into an IRS building), or larger bombs. Maybe it's not frequency but severity.