You see? Ignorance fought.
Nowhere in that post does it say that there is anything in my life that is comparable. I just said it’s funny that Shayna, without knowing a single thing about me, said that I couldn’t possibly know what I’m talking about. Maybe my life is 24 hour sunshine and I have kittens that poop rainbows. Maybe I watched my parents get gunned down for their pocket money and jewelry when I was 10 years old. You don’t know. Neither does Shayna so her telling me that I don’t know what I’m talking about when she doesn’t know what she’s talking about either is pretty funny.
Here’s one just for you and I’ll even take your lead; like your story, it’s not as large scale as the OP’s situation or even a murder. When I was seven a plane crashed into a house so close to my own that my whole house shook (think pictures falling off the walls) and I could feel the heat from the resulting fire from my front yard. Really close plane crash, raging fire, fire trucks, ambulances, hazmat, a couple news vans, and debris as far as the Dairy Queen parking lot. It was crazy, remarkable, unusual… not traumatizing. Maybe if it had crashed into my house or if I had known the people in the plane or the people whose house the plane crashed into (they weren’t home, btw). It’s a little different from your situation, as well as the OP’s, in that other people absolutely were in danger because that plane could have crashed anywhere; that it crashed into an empty house is pure dumb luck.
Another one, still not grand scale but this one has murder in it. A guy up the street from my house lost his shit when he decided to not take his meds. First he started shooting at traffic through his living room window. His dad showed up at some point and the guy took him hostage. After much drama and stand off with SWAT and every single police officer in the town and surrounding counties, he took one shot at a cop (killed him) and then was shot a lot of times. It sounded like fireworks only louder and way too fast. Again, it was surreal and remarkable, but not traumatizing and we knew the cop who was shot.
Still not large scale but a little more personal, a friend of mine was taken from the gas station where she worked and killed after suffering God knows what. Forensics couldn’t tell either because the guy burned her until there was nothing but bone fragments and some teeth in a pile of ashes. Horrified, saddened, shocked… yes. Still not traumatized.
Jesus Christ, I was held up at knife point at a gas station when I was still a teenager and wasn’t “traumatized” (scared out my fucking mind though (see above; this happened less than a year after that), I’ll give you that) until it happened again the following week.
Maybe I’m working with a more severe definition of “traumatize” which, in my mind, is more personal and overwhelming (changes in behavior, decreased function, withdrawal from personal relationships/social activity, possibly self-medicating with pills and booze, taking up compulsive gambling, that sort of thing… actual and lasting (at least some time) symptoms of psychological damage) as in being the victim of a rape or other violent crime (or even violent non-crime, like being on the I-35 bridge when it collapsed or something), and less “WOW, THAT WAS CRAZY! Can you believe that just happened?!” like with the plane crash above. You can be scared or horrified or think something is fucked up and not be “traumatized”, I think. If I were traumatized by every fucked up crazy thing that happens around me or that I see on the news, I’d be fetal in a corner somewhere eating my own shirt and yodeling. I couldn’t handle that.
Anyway, as for me being a cunt and vile and not a nice a person and callous and blahblahblah…
:rolleyes: People on this message board have made way worse jokes about things way more tragic, so I have my doubts that my post even approaches the most awful thing anybody has ever laid eyes on. If it does, I suggest you stay away from the rest of the internet.
No, that’s exactly what you’re doing, jizzwit. Someone does something absolutely heinous, and you condemn him for doing so. You don’t create excuses for him based on the fact that he lost his job and didn’t get unemployment.
Meh, I’m with the doc. You’re a fucking troll. Someone who actually was stupid enough to refer to a man who killed 9 people as a ‘perceived sociopath’ wouldn’t bother defending his idiocy.
I have read enough on serial killers like Bundy and mass murderers like McVeigh to consider myself knowledgable on the subjects.
Pardo was NOT a serial killer or a mass murderer. Those two types kill strangers. Their motives are sexual and/or revenge against an unknown group.
Pardo’s motivation was a weird, massive form of domestic revenge. He had gone through a bitter divorce and was obviously pissed beyond belief at his ex-in-laws. To have planned a crime of this magnitude, carry it out, and have plans to escape was just incredibly sickening. He wore a Santa Suit to gain entrance and to avoid being identified, then blew up the house to avoid witnesses. If he had been able to flee to Canada, if’s unlikely he would have been caught.
Comparing him to a serial killer or mass murderer is wrong. The motivation and the way he committed the crime disqualify it.
Oh, it’s nowhere near the most awful thing anybody has ever laid eyes on. It was still pretty fucking shitty, though.
Were you shot in the face as a 9-year-old? Didn’t think so.
Fuck off.
I like that there’s always someone around to play devil’s advocate on the SDMB, but defending somebody who just went on a killing spree is taking it a little too far…
I believe you’re correct, for what it’s worth, he was a spree killer motivated by revenge and more psychopath than sociopath, what with the exit strategy and all.
Nope. Spree killers go on killing sprees (hence the name). Mohammed & Malvo, the DC snipers, are a good recent example. They usually kill several people, but individually and over a short period of time. They don’t know their victims. It’s like a sport to them. They is not a sexual motivation to their crimes, unlike most serial killers.
Pardo commited a serious act of domestic violence, motivated by revenge. Nothing more.
Oh! You got me. I wasn’t shot in the face when I was nine. Now, if you could tell me how that is relevant to the post you quoted or, hell, anything else in this thread, I would really appreciate it. Even better if you can make it make sense.
The way you quoted me and then posted this without any other reference to what it is you’re talking about makes it look like you’re referring to me here. Given that I haven’t actually defended Bruce Pardo, that would be kind of dumb, wouldn’t it?
Damn straight. Your joke inspired me to check out the Encyclopedia Dramatica entry on Bruce Pardo. Now that was some traumatizing shit.
Yeah the joke was funny, after a second, but my first reaction was “Damn, dude!” I think I see where you’re coming from, and it basically boils down to “These people aren’t in my Monkey Sphere, so I’m not really caring all that much. Tragic? yes. Worth getting my panties in an RO’d bunch? No.” The thing is, just because they’re not in your monkey-sphere doesn’t mean they aren’t in the OP’s, or in other people’s. You don’t have to share the outrage, just try to have some sympathy for the situation, you know? This was a monumentally fucked up episode for the people involved, and it’s bound to be pretty hard-hitting for the neighbors.
One other note: everyone’s threshold for trauma/stress is different. Just because you aren’t traumatized by a particular situation doesn’t mean someone else won’t be by a comparable event.
I know. I recognize that probably we’re all just working with different definitions of “traumatize”, which I laid out a couple posts ago, so that’s okay. I still think it’s odd that somebody’s threshold would be that low (I’m telling you, I’d lose my damn mind) but to each their own, as they say.
They would’ve caught him at the border – or at the airport itself, if he was stupid enough to purchase the plane ticket in his name (which he probably was.) Even if he did escape to Canada, there would’ve been a nationwide manhunt for this guy. His face is already plastered all over the news, everyone knows what he looks like. The only way he could’ve conceivably escaped is if he’d kept his crime on the down low, perhaps by only shooting his ex-wife and nobody else.
Were you? Was the OP? Didn’t think so, either. :rolleyes:
This is a good point. Kind of. But I have a few issues with that point.
1st, this is the pit. Seems unfair to me that a poster should have to be so careful in the pit of whose sensibilities he may offend.
- Humor doesn’t really work for me in the way that someone must be outside of my monkeysphere in order for me to find humor in tragic situations. I tell this story often, but, when my daughter was having her eye operated on, my husband was cracking lots of tasteless jokes. I am so happy he did that for me and with me. It took the edge off of the trauma of that time.
Also, not to beat the African Aids Babies analogy to death, but it is a good one, I think. I think it was Sam Kinison that said, “What’s up with people starving in Africa? I don’t feel sorry them if they aren’t smart enough to just move where the food is!” I think that is funny.(When he says it; I’m no comedian) And still, I realize that a 9 year old adorable African girl is starving to death right now, in Africa.
If someone laughs at the Family Guy Prom Dumpster Babies, or Sam Kinison’s starving African schtick, and then gets horribly offended when someone makes dark joke in a PIT, then Imma go ahead and call ‘hypocrite’.
I can see what you’re getting it, but I’m not sure these are analogous. People rarely see Dumpster babies, nor do they see starving Africans right in front of them. I always figured Kinison’s jokes were borne out of some frustration with the ongoing mess in Africa, and some of us laugh because we share the frustration. It’s just different when it’s closer to home and feels more personal. (Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but it is.) I’d be hard-pressed to imagine a comedian making a joke about a child being shot in the face.
YMMV.
Whoa! Vivalostwages, I would never guessed that he meant that joke as an outlet for frustration that there is an ongoing mess in Africa. I think he meant it as a joke…nothing deeper than that. The fact that it is absurd to expect the people to move where the food is. Funny.
The rest of your post makes no sense to me either. I have seen as many sick African babies (none) than I have seen children shot in the face. (none)
I’ve got an idea. We seem to have enough dopers on moral high horses, that we could form a polo league. With outrage as the ball (or whatever they’re called) and ‘being right’ as the goal.
I don’t have a moral bone in my body.
I just draw the line at making fun of children getting shot in the face.
And that’s an esthetic standard for you?
OK.
Yes it is.
Sorry, but this is wrong. There is a class of serial killer called “comfort killers.” These are people who kill for material gain or other lifestyle improvements, such as so-called black widow killers who knock off husband after husband to claim insurance or inheritances. There are also mass murderers who have killed family, friends and coworkers.
Agree Pardo is not a serial killer, although he does fit the FBI definition of a spree killer. At the very least, he is a mass murderer, despite your claim to the contrary.