trump is teaching our kids that violence towards people he considers less than himself is appropriate and warranted.

I would like to take these kids and do to them what they did to this helpless man.

When you figure out what we need to be doing for the midterms do let us know.

I stopped donations to everyone except Mark Elias, and Democracy Docket. No point in supporting candidates if we can't even vote.

the felon is one of the agents of social decay. No doubt. Although I have not read them, there have been a number of posts that identify some of the parents, and so there is anger and outrage aimed at them. I understand people being upset, but I'm hoping that no one seeks to somehow get "revenge."

Obviously, I know nothing about the parents, and will not speculate on them. But I know -- from my work, and that of family & friends since I retired -- that we have multi-generational families that are damaged from lacks of parenting skills. One cannot teach what they do not know. And while there isn't any easy cure, it is actually a heck of a lot cheaper to address this in the home, than wait until things go way out of control, including outside that home.

who are also to blame for electing the orange turd. As bad as Trump is he didn't create the MAGAts, he just became their grifting vessel.

My younger son was a school social worker just outside of Binghamton for years. He knew, for example, that the guy who shot the people at the store in Buffalo had threatened to do a school shooting during his class's graduation. The kid came from a seemingly "normal" -- whatever that may be -- middle class family. He said that he had been influenced by the internet, likely as an attempt to shift some of the blame, I think.

There are a heck of a lot of kids growing up in single parent families. My son worked with kids who had a parent incarcerated in county jail or state prison. A few had both parents incarcerated. Now, there are many, many outstanding single parent families. There definitely are. But there are a lot that are not, due to other factors such as poverty, addiction, etc. There are neighborhoods without positive role models.

Some of these issues will take more than a generation to address and heal -- if this country were to invest in serious efforts. I remember towards the end of his life, former two-time heavyweight champion Big George Foreman said he remembered a time when this country cared about poverty. (My son contacted George, who put on a free showing of his movie for the kids!)

What they intended by filming and uploading a grotesquely violent attack. Did they not consider that folks other than their friends would see it? Did they think that adults, law enforcement and other citizens would just say, "Well done boys; that's really impressive"?

I've noticed an uptick in such stupid acts here in Oz and can't get my head around the violence and stupidity.

Vale Peter Bennedum.

I think it is a solid example of teenage boys being seemingly incapable of thinking of the potential consequences of their actions. An extremely vicious example.

How do kids so young get so evil? How do they lose their humanity, if they ever had any? My heart breaks for Mr Bennedum and those who loved him.

I don’t have any answers. I wish I did. I know they're kids, but they must be punished. And I don't mean a slap on the wrist and two weeks probation. I know that kids don't always realize the consequences of their actions, but come on. They beat a human being to death. That wasn't a prank that went wrong. If they're that evil when they're 13-15 years old, I shudder to think how evil they will be when they're adults.

There have to be real consequences. This isn't in the league of skipping school or shoplifting. It is disturbing that kids that young are capable of such violence for entertainment.

Of course, leaders can set an example or capitalize on chaos and hate.

Section 230 or not, such acts are disallowed on most “social media’” and some make feeble efforts (OK, less than feeble) and others (you know which one(s)) actively encourage it.

I do trace the poisoning of the internet to advertising, which

Made everything (like quality) subservient to “clicks and screen time”

I was on the internet before there was an internet. It was wild west but mostly academic and research and some naughty stuff, but none of these hate rampages and snuff videos.

George Monbiot nailed it long ago.

Advertising is a poison that demeans even love – and we're hooked on it

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/24/advertising-poison-hooked

George Monbiot

I chant for world peace starting with each individual.
People, especially young people, need better values and better examples in life.

They are being deceived and manipulated.

I remember when I was young, and Andy Warhol being quoted in a 1967 magazine article predicting that "everyone will become famous for 15 minutes." These teens will be famous for longer than that. I find myself wondering who they were trying to impress with their horrible video.

Life's a mirror.
How we treat others reflects how we feel about ourselves.

Strong people lift others up.
Weak people try to cut others down.

This most obvious fact is unknown to most.

In fact, society so distorts reality (for control and profit) that people widely act to their own disadvantage. To wit:

Some people I've known since grade school, and considered to be moderately intelligent, had been vocal about supporting the felon. His campaign was all about fixing the economy, releasing all the Epstein files, and no foreign wars. But it is liked that has been erased from their minds.

A cult often "legitimizes" some forbidden vile behavior as a "hook". And the members legitimize the cult leader's vile behaviors in return for whatever the cult offers psychologically (beyond my pay grade to explain)

Projection

Denial

Privilege

Key items. A sort of 80/20 explanation.

I have a modified form of Pascal's wager. If my compassionate behavior has no "eternal reward" then at least I have led a rich life (give or take a few moments).

Win, win, so to speak.

Thought it was a real cool movie, but we never contemplated indulging ultra-violence ourselves.

One of my friends pointed out that "Choice" was the key point of the movie.

I saw it when I was young, and watched it again a couple of years ago. It seemed different the second time. We've had other teen groups involved in violence. One of the guys today brought up where teens beat a guy in his 30s to death in his hometown in 1995. I noted that an almost exact same thing took place in the exact same spot in 1895. (I was aware of that, as it was part of railroad history, and my family worked on that railroad for generations.)

Obviously, these kids were not capable of using the internet in planning crimes, as Dr. Brucato addresses older violent criminals doing these days. The kids went public, rather than being silent behind a screen. They made a terrible choice, followed by a really foolish choice.

We can all just hope to do better and lead others to help.