Yes it’s sad and terrible what happened to Rep. Giffords and the others that died in the Arizona shootings. There’s no excuse for it, there’s no defending it.
But what’s worse to me is all the arm-chair behavior going on. As of now, the shooter, Jared Loughner, hasn’t said a word. We don’t know why we did it. Sure a few things about him have been obtained online and based on that everyone is painting him to be “the other evil”. That is, whatever group I’m a part of, he’s a member of the other group that stands as evil opposition to me. The right is painting him like a lefty-nutjob, the left is painting him like a righty-nutjob. There’s a massive informational void, and everyone is filling it in with their own assumptions, their own bias.
There’s calls for more peaceable behavior, less vitriol and venom in political discourse, but yet in doing so so many are just escalating their anger at “the others”. Something about a log in their own eye….
Everyone is trying to jockey this for their own political gain. It’s very sad, and really serves to feed the very thing they’re supposedly rallying against.
Stuff From Hsoi 
I agree man. It is sad.
It is the continuing polarization of our country into black and white, where most folks are somewhere in between. The media stokes the fires in their need to make it some kind of “us versus them” kind of situation, like real life is some kind of football game to be won.
The kid was a 22 year old Karl Marx/Adolph Hitler fan. If that doesn’t tell you how politically undecided he was, I am not sure what does. The only common thread there is that both Hitler and Marx had their view of what socialism meant and both were racists. But like you said, all speculation until the kid talks.
I remember when news was just that, news. Not opinion, not endless talking heads that need to fill airtime so they ramble on and on and on and on. When TV was fun, not full of ugliness… reality TV uses this as its very foundation. But it also says something… they are products, and like all products they only stay on the market so long as there are consumers to consume them and keep them economically viable. So really, it shows what the public wants… it’s giving the public what they want, and that speaks far more (worse?about society (at least in the USA) as a whole. *sigh*
But… it’s also why I just don’t pay attention to those “News channels”, because none of them are. If I watch TV, I’m watching cartoons.
And you’re right about the guy… loved Hitler, loved Marx. Go figure. To draw conclusions beyond the immediate data is merely wild speculation and shoving it to fit your own agenda… which is really bothersome. At this point all we can say is the dude is just a looney, and a confused looney at that.
Meantime folks…. if this event does cause people to pause and reflect on how ugly we’re getting a society then well, maybe something good can come out of this, but only if people realize that we need to stop being so ugly. Stop all the blame games, stop all the name-calling, and try to be a better person yourself. Maybe that will improve things.
I don’t think he was a follower of the right or the left; from what I can see of his website, he was just a plain-vanilla whack job.
That’s what it looks like, but it’s sure not stopping everyone from attempting to jockey it for political gain, or at least to use it as ammunition against those they don’t like and wish to further paint as whackjobs by association.