Connecting the VTech killer to "Oldboy"

[stressedjustin]

So, for those who didn't know, Cho Seung-Hui sent a multimedia manifesto to NBC News in between the two attacks. In it, the manifesto contained writing, photos and videos. (It's all over the news).

One of the photos shows Cho holding up a hammer ready to strike.
Sound familiar?

Comments

[wronske]

i sort of see where you're going with this, but i still don't think you can argue that abuse ALWAYS breeds monsters.

i was raped dozens of times over a few months when i was 5- does that mean i'm going to molest other little girls or boys? nope. and let's say i DID end up abusing a kid- does that mean i'm absolved of all responsiblity because my fate as an eventual abuser was already decided by my past? and just how do you decide what constitutes "abuse"? neglect? verbal assault? spankings? or just something that the average person considers horrible? i don't disagree that parents who torture their children should be punished, but to look at a situation like this and draw a straight line from (possible) parental abuse to psychological trauma to THIS is reckless at best.

and to address your poorly-contructed analogy: a pet owner specifically training a dog to attack is completely different than a grown human (with a capacity for knowing the difference between right and wrong and making decisions based on that) committing a massacre. if you can't see the difference between the two, then you're likely to end up making some pretty atrocious errors in judgement, and i can only be thankful that you're not in a position to PASS those pudgements.

[rensco]

Yep I'm pretty sure I didn't say ALWAYS, I said more likely which I still stand behind. I'm also not saying that the abuse victim isn't just as guilty as someone who did the same thing and wasn't abused and shouldn't be treated in the same manner. I'm just saying that the original abuser should also pay the consequences because even if they didn't physically pull the trigger that day they still played a role in it.

I view abuse as the law and the specilists in the field of abuse view abuse. It's not for the average person to decide there has to be clear cut rules and I'm sure those are already in place so I don't see what is so reckless about following professionals who know much more about this matter than both you and I. I'm also not saying that I should be the one PASSING these judgements, I'm just saying that there should be a person, who is hopefully competent enough, to pass these judgements and to hand out justice.

Also I don't see why my analogy was so hard for you to follow. I stand fully behind it. A small child that has been 'gotten to' before the brain has a chance to develop can (though most likely more difficult but still can) be trained to attack. Humans are complex creatures, the most complex on this planet, but probably not as complex as you think we are. We all follow patterns if we didn't fields such as psychology simply wouldn't exist.

In your little senario, you were raped when you were 5 does that mean you will rape others? NO! Does it mean that you are more likely to rape others than a person that wasn't a victim? YES! Should you be absolved of all responsibility? NO! you've been delt a bad hand but you've still done something wrong and you should pay just the same. Should your aggressor be partly held accountable as well? YES!!! that's all I'm trying to say.

[wronske]

interesting that you're so up-in-arms about children being "trained to attack", and yet you're immediately jumping to conclusions about horrific abuse. i'd be more willing to bet it had something to do with violent shoot 'em up video games.

and i yes, i still find your analogy hard to follow- it's one thing to take a kid out for target practice with guns and train them to shoot people. abuse does not equal "attack training".

what's more, imagine how his parents are feeling right now. abuse has not even been hinted at in the investigations, from what i know. and if there was even a slight concern about him even being spanked as a kid, you know the headlines on the papers would all be something to the effect of "inhuman abuse made him a blood-thirsty beast". could you imagine how it would feel if your child did something like this, and then people started saying "you must have abused your kid!! you should be tortured and killed!!" speculation is hurtful at best, and dangerous at worst.