"How far have we advanced in the wussification of America?"

lumbingmi

lumbingmi

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Boortz, others blame VA Tech victims for not fighting back
In the April 18 edition of his daily program notes, called Nealz Nuze and posted on his website, nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz asked: "How far have we advanced in the wussification of America?" Boortz was responding to criticism of comments he made on the April 17 broadcast of his radio show regarding the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. During that broadcast, Boortz asked: "How the hell do 25 students allow themselves to be lined up against the wall in a classroom and picked off one by one? How does that happen, when they could have rushed the gunman, the shooter, and most of them would have survived?" In his April 18 program notes, Boortz added: "It seems that standing in terror waiting for your turn to be executed was the right thing to do, and any questions as to why 25 students didn't try to rush and overpower Cho Seung-Hui are just examples of right wing maniacal bias. Surrender -- comply -- adjust. The doctrine of the left. ... Even the suggestion that young adults should actually engage in an act of self defense brings howls of protest."

In the April 17 edition of his program notes, Boortz had similarly asked: "Why didn't some of these students fight back? How in the hell do you line students up against a wall (if that's the way it played out) and start picking them off one by one without the students turning on you? You have a choice. Try to rush the killer and get his gun, or stand there and wait to be shot. I would love to hear from some of you who have insight into situations such as this. Was there just not enough time to react? Were they paralyzed with fear? Were they waiting for someone else to take action? Sorry ... I just don't understand."

In questioning the actions of Virginia Tech students involved in the April 16 incident, Boortz joined the ranks of various commentators, including National Review Online contributor John Derbyshire, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Steyn, who also writes for the National Review, and right-wing pundit and Fox News analyst Michelle Malkin.

In an April 17 weblog post on National Review Online's The Corner, Derbyshire asked: "Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake -- one of them reportedly a .22." Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox criticized Derbyshire in an April 17 post on Time magazine's political weblog, Swampland.

Steyn and Malkin have made similar statements, as the weblog Think Progress noted. In her April 18 syndicated column, Malkin wrote: "Instead of encouraging autonomy, our higher institutions of learning stoke passivity and conflict-avoidance. And as the erosion of intellectual self-defense goes, so goes the erosion of physical self-defense." In his April 18 National Review column, Steyn suggested that Virginia Tech students were guilty of an "awful corrosive passivity" that is "an existential threat to a functioning society."
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I have been wondering about this myself for a while not just this event but other similar events.

If one is going to die, then at least act like you care and go down hard. That professor who barricaded his door while paying with his life but saved his class is a HERO! He paid with his life but his actions vindicated what he believed! That life was precious but sometimes one has to pay the ultimate to prove it.

The rest of those that were too intimidated and were too frightened to do anything...you really have to wonder why they bother living in the first place. It was almost like "Oh! I'm supposed to die now...er...okay shoot me my life didn't really mean anything anyway". There are moments in one's life that one has to decide that it is worth trying to do something even if it meant dying because of it. So many lives could have been saved if some people had some courage. That is the main problem for the most part...lack of courage for the convictions one has for living.

Lest people misunderstand me, this was an horrific act of evil by the gunman and in no way do I accept why he did it for any reason.
 
^^^ exactly. however the plm sometime it s easier to say stmg when you re not in that situation whereas you re facing the possiblity of being killed. Again, I dont know what exactly happened. It is not easy to react when someone is pointing a gun at you. You wld be likely to be froze like a deer in headlight and being mercy at person with guns.

But these radio host have a good pt - if you re being line up , why dont you try to go rush to gunner and try to attack . yes you might be injured but at least you wld distract him and others would try to take him down.
 
KINGOFNOOBS said:
...however the plm sometime it s easier to say stmg when you re not in that situation whereas you re facing the possiblity of being killed. Again, I dont know what exactly happened. It is not easy to react when someone is pointing a gun at you. You wld be likely to be froze like a deer in headlight and being mercy at person with guns.
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Absolutely! It is one thing to say something...it is a whole different thing to act upon it. I do believe the times are different now. If this were to happen back in the old days when the Wild West was going strong, I don't believe for a second that those individuals would just sit around and be killed.
 
The only problem is, how do you fight a man with a gun? I don't expect most students to know how to pull a Bruce Lee on the gunman.

When people hear a gunshot, they run for their lives. They often don't fight back because they would rather run away to save themselves.
 
ismi said:
Ah yes, the fine American tradition of blaming the victim.
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In this case, I have to say poppycock! Nobody blaming the victims. What bothers some people is that if one knew there wasn't going to be any help from the outside and the idiot is just shooting away, then why not take one chances to rush him. One is probably going to die anyway so what difference does it make when you die? At least die having the satisfaction know one tried to do something that might have made a difference for themselves and/or others.

If you prefer to just sit there and be shot, be my guest. I have had the experience one time in my life (not gun related) to decide to do something or die and I chose to do something. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here typing this...

I do know this, today's society is ill-equipped to handle life threatening events simply because we don't discuss the fact we do die at some point somewhere. We much prefer not to ever talk about it unless reality forces it upon us.
 
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