Charlie Kirk (US conservative campaigner) shot dead

It's from a song

Originally Posted by Mr K

Cars aren't designed to kill. Guns are.

Congratulations on your skill at wilfully missing a point.

The point, for the genuinely hard of thinking, is that societies take decisions based on a balance of risk versus reward. For Americans who own guns, the value of gun ownership outweighs the risk, even though the risks may have fatal consequences.

You don’t have to agree with their analysis - I certainly don’t - but you won’t understand the American gun debate if you refuse to understand the terms in which it is conducted.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr K

Think you've taken a trip to bonkers land again. The chief suspect doesn't look much like a rapper. Even if he is, not sure rhythmic music is fatal. Appalling maybe.

https://youtu.be/ICG0MuzEYzw?si=4FsLRGiIuGuRpzr-

You should get out more.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Chris

Congratulations on your skill at wilfully missing a point.

The point, for the genuinely hard of thinking, is that societies take decisions based on a balance of risk versus reward. For Americans who own guns, the value of gun ownership outweighs the risk, even though the risks may have fatal consequences.

You don’t have to agree with their analysis - I certainly don’t - but you won’t understand the American gun debate if you refuse to understand the terms in which it is conducted.

If thats their choice, then let them shoot each other. Not sure why they keep getting outraged when these things keep repeatedly happening. One day maybe they'll do 'thinking'.

The language of hate/division/guns is their choice of how to live/die, let them get on with it. The world would be a better place without the current USA, it wasn't always the case.

I read this about how social media is distorting our view of the world/politics: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/civil-...ots-and-losers

I think it makes a good point that although most of the country isn't on social media, people in politics and political commentary are disproportionately on there, so it has an outsized influence on our politics. I think that's true of this country as well.

A lot of what drives the media narratives and politicians' view of the public is what they've read on social media, curated by their bubble and algorithmically generated to be more extreme.

Originally Posted by Mr K

If thats their choice, then let them shoot each other. Not sure why they keep getting outraged when these things keep repeatedly happening. One day maybe they'll do 'thinking'.

The language of hate/division/guns is their choice of how to live/die, let them get on with it. The world would be a better place without the current USA, it wasn't always the case.

I agree.

I do, however, challenge the pearl clutching and ‘serves him right’-ing from those who think he’s somehow the author of his own demise for holding what is, within the US, a thoroughly mainstream point of view, no matter how incomprehensible that might be to us.

[vincerooney]

Originally Posted by Chris

Congratulations on your skill at wilfully missing a point.

The point, for the genuinely hard of thinking, is that societies take decisions based on a balance of risk versus reward. For Americans who own guns, the value of gun ownership outweighs the risk, even though the risks may have fatal consequences.

You don’t have to agree with their analysis - I certainly don’t - but you won’t understand the American gun debate if you refuse to understand the terms in which it is conducted.

so we should only listen to the opinions of those who own guns??

Pew Research (April 2024): 51% of U.S. adults say it’s more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 48% think controlling gun ownership is more important.
Pew Research Center

Also from Pew: 58% believe U.S. gun laws should be more strict, 15% believe they should be less strict, and 26% say current laws are about right.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Chris

America’s in trouble if it’s at the political killings stage now.......

Its thier own fault for allowing so many guns in this country!!


Im glad they found out who did this.. But they still dont know why he did it!! (The last I heard)


Very sad all the killings going on.......

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Dude111

Its thier own fault for allowing so many guns in this country!!

Im glad they found out who did this.. But they still dont know why he did it!! (The last I heard)

Very sad all the killings going on.......

I just checked a few sites and can't see anything about a suspect being arrested though. Hopefully a matter of when not if he is arrested.

Originally Posted by vincerooney

so we should only listen to the opinions of those who own guns??

Pew Research (April 2024): 51% of U.S. adults say it’s more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns, while 48% think controlling gun ownership is more important.
Pew Research Center

Also from Pew: 58% believe U.S. gun laws should be more strict, 15% believe they should be less strict, and 26% say current laws are about right.

If you could highlight the part where I said that, that would be helpful.

I wonder what South Park is going to do; they have started mocking him in recent episodes so they will probably have to pivot quite hard now. Either ignoring it and dropping that character or confronting it somehow.

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Damien

I wonder what South Park is going to do; they have started mocking him in recent episodes so they will probably have to pivot quite hard now. Either ignoring it and dropping that character or confronting it somehow.

i think the world has bigger things to worry about than a cartoon show

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Damien

I read this about how social media is distorting our view of the world/politics: https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/civil-...ots-and-losers

I think it makes a good point that although most of the country isn't on social media, people in politics and political commentary are disproportionately on there, so it has an outsized influence on our politics. I think that's true of this country as well.

A lot of what drives the media narratives and politicians' view of the public is what they've read on social media, curated by their bubble and algorithmically generated to be more extreme.

Absolutely true.

It’s why people were so shocked Brexit happened and couldn’t believe it when Corbyn was smashed in the Boris election.

[papa smurf]

being reported that the suspect has been arrested

Charlie Kirk latest: Trump says 'I think we have him' in hunt for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect


https://news.sky.com/story/charlie-k...ation-13428517



Until he was shot i had never heard of him

Originally Posted by papa smurf

Until he was shot i had never heard of him

Mostly that would be down to whether you engage with social media, and then even if you do, what sort of stuff you read. For me, I follow American politics and more broadly, some of the social issues Kirk talked about that resonate on this side of the pond (transgender issues being the main one).

My missus had never heard of him, but within an hour of his shooting both my daughters (older teens) had been downstairs because they saw him get shot on TikTok.