Jives wrote: Yay! My first chance to go head to head with Anastrophe! Listen, Anny...this isn't a little Led Zepplin, Alice Cooper, or even Ozzy Osborne that we're talking about here. This band has more in common with Neo-Nazi Skinhead bands, and I KNOW you aren't going to stick up for them!i saw the Dead Kennedies play years ago. admittedly, one of their signature tunes was "Nazi Punks, **** Off!". but it was absolute thrash, grinding, pounding stuff. The Clash. The Sex Pistols (lots of violence in sex pistols - 1977!) i've heard all manner of hateful/hate-filled music. i've also seen TV evangelists preaching hate, and then there's people like the former FG member bullet talking about beating the **** out of someone for being gay. *words* about violence are not violence.
Speak for yourself...when I listen to Rammstein, I drive faster, cut people off, and generally get into a really bad mood. Are you actually saying that music has no effect on emotions?!! Of course it does, a Mozart waltz can calm you and "Ride of the Valkries" can get your blood pumping.
i'm certainly not saying that music has no effect on emotions. however, i am saying, that someone who would commit murder, rape, child molestation, whatever - they are *not* going to be impelled to commit those acts due to listening to the music *if they were not already predisposed to true violence*.
yes, i know about driving faster, cutting people off in traffic. that's all dandy. cutting someone off in traffic != cutting out someone's heart with a chainsaw.
this should not be a difficult concept to understand. certainly we are influenced by music. you could subject me to the most violent, hateful, grotesque music for 24 consecutive hours, strapped in a chair, and you know what? when it's done, i might be in an utterly foul and mean mood, but i am not going to go kill someone. the leap from anger/cutting people off/bad mood to taking a human life is one so massive that it will not happen unless one was already predisposed to it. but i'm repeating myself.
Besides, there's always a Dylan Klebold (Columbine) that will take it seriously. Yes, he was already messed up, but there's always someone out there like him.
yes, there is. and there will always be someone out there who will watch a video of hitler and decide he wants to kill the jews, gays, and gypsies too. unless you want to utterly sterilize the world in order to make us 100% safe from the insane, there is *nothing that can be done about it*. it will happen regardless of the 'trigger'. the 'trigger' is merely a convenient place to point, other than the culpable individual.
Isn't 36-year old David Lee Onstott, a registered sex offender, and murderer, being prosecuted for just that offense right now? He raped and killed first born 13-year old Sarah Michelle Lund. Now tell me again that this kind of thing never happens.
am i to understand that he uttered the words "rape and kill", that somehow those words magically manifested in reality as sarah michelle lund being raped and killed? or did david lee onstott commit those actions of his own volition? the culpable party is david lee onstott. a kid yelling "i'm going to rape your first born" is not in fact raping your firtborn. he is simply getting attention. works every time, apparently.
What? So your argument is that we should back down and condone this? Why not condone teen smoking, too? And underage drinking, and casual teen sex, and teen pregnancy...these things are bad, and as responsible adults it's our job to say so. Maybe a few will listen! We can NEVER say that bad things are OK!
no, i'm saying that the music is not the activity. someone listens to a song about casual teen sex - have they then by that act committed casual teen sex? no. a song about it, and actually doing it, are two different things. if a kid decides 'hey, xyz talked about casual sex, i think i'll do it', then does it - then that means he or she has typical 'absent parents', who haven't properly raised their kid - it does not mean that xyz caused that kid to have casual sex.
The difference, Anastrophe, is that in the 1950's growing long hair was the rebellion of choice. In the 21st century, when gang violence is prevalent, and teens have both the acess to and the will to use firearms, dismissing violent hate music seems to me something we would do at our own risk.
teens had far greater access to firearms in the 1950's than they do today. a typical high school would have marksmanship classes, and the kids would carry their rifle to and from school.
there were plenty of violent gangs in the 1950's. west side story was a cute romp about a real problem back then. things are no different now.
Caused? No. Influenced? Yes. There is a fine line of sanity running through teens. Some only need a single negative influence to go off the deep end. Sure, they were unstable to begin with....but would they have gone ballistic without the extra negativity and hate-influence. No.
again, the question is, is the music capable of influencing a kid beyond that he/she was already capable of? i don't think it is. i was about as screwed up as they come when i was a teenager. i'm practically as screwed up now! but listening to the sex pistols never 'pushed me over the edge'. there will always be a proportion of kids who are on the edge. far more likely to put them over the edge is the jock who (violently) shoves the fat kid around, not a song about hating fat kids.
Shoes do not correlate with emotion. Music does. Shoes do not send a message, music does. Shoes do not influence behavior, music does. Bad analogy.
uh, this day and age, shoes don't send a message? wrong. the cool kids gotta have nikes or adidas. or whatever. it's a whole statement. when's the last time you saw a high school jock wearing birkenstocks?
the point of the analogy is that there are a million correlates one can find ex post facto. stating that a particular correlate was responsible is dandy, but it is not explicitly correct unless you examine the individual circumstance. dylan/kleibold didn't shoot up their high school due to listening to bad music. they shot up their high school after relentless humiliation and violence against them by jocks and others. and clearly, it was a 'sum is greater than the parts' formula when those two misfits came together. and of course - absentee parents who were utterly unaware of how truly screwed up their kids were.
It isn't the statistics that I'm objecting to. What I'm stating is that as adults, we have a responsibility to our children to protect them from negative influences. That's why the term "minor" was invented, they do not have the skills or the experience to make good judgements about what is good or bad for them. We must do it, it's our duty to them. To casually say, "Oh, they won't take this hate music seriously, or even if they do only one in ten million will kill anyone." is completely irresponsible to me.
fair enough. my argument is, the more you get your dander up about it, the more it tweaks the teens innate sensitivity to 'hey, this really bugs that old guy, let's do it some more!'. i believe you make the problem worse by stating just how bad you think it is.
Why not just as well say, "Only a few kids that try marijuana will get hook on heroin, so pot is no big deal." What about those who's lives go right down the drain? Can condoning any kind of drug abuse ever be good? No. and neither is condoning violent hate music.
well, you're talking to the wrong guy about drug abuse. while i do believe that those under legal age should not be legally allowed to use mind alterants, i'm against most drug laws. and the fact is, whether we say it's bad or not, some proportionof kids are going to do it anyway - sometimes they'll do it specifically *because* we tell them it's bad.
i tried pot and lots of other drugs as a young teenager. pot doesn't lead to heroin, no matter what anyone says - heroin is the only one i never got a chance to try! was i too young to make informed decisions about using those drugs? of course. but that didn't stop me. i was a rebellious teen. it's right there in the Rebellious Teen Contract - act out, do stupid things, get into trouble.
And one was enough. Are you stating that we should say that it's OK to shoot the President? No, I know what you are saying, why censor everyone, when only a few will go whacko and go on a killing spree?
My answer is this, I'm betting that if someone you love is one of the people killed in that killing spree, you views on hateful music and violent shows will be changed forever. I'd like to stop that from happening, not only to you and your loved ones, but to anyone.
well, i can't say what i'd feel if one of my loved ones were killed, but i believe i'd blame the mother****er who killed them, not music, or the gun, or society. i'm utterly sick of the blame game we have - 'xyz caused me to do it, i'm not responsible!'. well, screw that. what if the person who kills my loved one was listening to copacabana by barry manilow right before he killed them?
One senseless death of a young child isn't enough for you? Just how many children will have to die, before you come over to my side and agree that anything that incites violence is a bad thing?
then we need to ban "America's Funniest Home Videos". that show is a tutorial in finding people getting hurt to be funny, and various ways to commit violence.
obviously, things that incite *real* violence are bad. my argument is that violent music is not going to incite someone to *real* violence unless they were already predisposed to do so, whether listening to The Clown, or listening to Wagner.
And I'll stand by that statement. To my mind there is little difference. Both categories of people take advantage of the young. Both know that what they are doing is wrong, and still cause mayhem and violence among the children. Both have no conscience. Both enjoy doing evil.
A child molester destroys children a few at a time. ICP sells their blatant hate message wholesale, not only saddening and depressing the youth of today, but also subverting and sabotaging the families of tomorrow....if anything they are worse than child molesters, if only for the sheer numbers affected.
well, we'll have to part ways. the two things are so far distant from each other that it demeans the gravity of the one (child molestation) to compare it to the other (loud, angry, music).
forgive me, but there's no other way to approach it. are you saying that someone up on a stage, singing the words "axe blood kill" whatever, is equivalent to an adult male breaking into your home, entering your daughter's room while you sleep, holding his hand over her mouth, penetrating her vagina and anus with his fingers, beating her in the head to make her dazed, then forcing her to orally copulate him, all the while fondling her breasts? singing "axe blood kill" is equivalent to that *real* horror?
we'll never find common ground with that basis. the one is disturbing lyrics and sounds. the other is a vicious violation of an innocent human being. you would be legally justified in putting a bullet in that molesters head if you caught him in the act. you would be carted to jail as a murderer if you shot the lead singer of the ICF (or whatever they're called) because he was singing those lyrics, which you find equivalent to the actions of a child molester.
Over the top? No, much, much more than that. Across the line. Across the line of decency. Across the line of civilty. Across the line of anything that can be tolerated by a society. I consider this band evil of the worse kind, devious and powerful. Iit's message of evil is popular for exactly the same reason Hitler was popular...it appeals to what is worst in human nature.
sure. ever seen Fear Factor? the message is evil, and appeals to the worst in human nature. ever visited
http://www.rotten.com ? the message is evil, and it appeals to the worst in human nature. ever watched slo-mo of a nascar car wreck shown during the sports segment? well, not so sure about evil, but it clearly appeals to the worst in human nature.
ban the actual evil behavior, not songs or images of it.
You stick up for it if you want. As for me, I intend to fight for the good. I will never turn my back and dismiss this terrible assault on children. I refuse to laugh it off and turn my back. I intend to challenge this "Dark Circus" at every opportunity. I will work, pray, cajole, prod, preach, and hope for a future when this kind of insidious evil is a thing of the past .....
okay. the evil is the actual child molester. a group of chowderheads singing over the top lyrics is not the evil. in my opinion. work to keep *actual child molesters behind bars*, not prevent kids from hearing stuff that sounds icky.
As do all people that love life and hate evil. :-6
where we differ is the definition of evil. depictions of evil are not evil, in my opinion.