IS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING ASSASSINATION?
Jul. 21st, 2010 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogMeanwhile, in Alabama two months ago:
To be fair, one of his students says it’s not as bad as it sounds:
And indeed, who hasn’t made a joke about killing Obama? Fox News and presidential candidates do it all the time. So do kids on Facebook. And fundamentalist preachers (except they’re not joking, but whatever). So, you know, why so serious?
Don’t get me wrong. I fully understand why the Secret Service takes even jokes or off-the-cuff assassination remarks seriously. But this does get me to thinking about how so many people make jokes about killing other people all the time – the President, the mayor, yr annoying co-worker, yr loud neighbors, the person who cut you off in traffic, K-Fed, etc.
Most of us don’t act on it, or even give it any serious thought. And in a sense, ever since JFK, presidential assassination as a concept has become more of a pop-culture abstraction. I suspect it’s a plot device to most people, except when it actually happens. Then it’s not funny.
But most people, I think, do distinguish between the abstract concept and actual assassination attempts. And I think we can all agree that in real life, assassination is not a good thing.
Well, maybe not all of us.
Leading by example,
This is dF
To be fair, one of his students says it’s not as bad as it sounds:
"We were going over a test and getting reviewed for our finals and were going over tangency," sophomore Malia Drummond said. "A student walked in and said, 'Well, if you shoot the president...' and the teacher picked up on it and said, 'OK, if you shoot off his ear, that is a point of tangency.'"
[...]
"Yeah, the comment was probably inappropriate, but who in America hasn't made a joke about Obama?"
[...]
"Yeah, the comment was probably inappropriate, but who in America hasn't made a joke about Obama?"
And indeed, who hasn’t made a joke about killing Obama? Fox News and presidential candidates do it all the time. So do kids on Facebook. And fundamentalist preachers (except they’re not joking, but whatever). So, you know, why so serious?
Don’t get me wrong. I fully understand why the Secret Service takes even jokes or off-the-cuff assassination remarks seriously. But this does get me to thinking about how so many people make jokes about killing other people all the time – the President, the mayor, yr annoying co-worker, yr loud neighbors, the person who cut you off in traffic, K-Fed, etc.
Most of us don’t act on it, or even give it any serious thought. And in a sense, ever since JFK, presidential assassination as a concept has become more of a pop-culture abstraction. I suspect it’s a plot device to most people, except when it actually happens. Then it’s not funny.
But most people, I think, do distinguish between the abstract concept and actual assassination attempts. And I think we can all agree that in real life, assassination is not a good thing.
Well, maybe not all of us.
Leading by example,
This is dF
