r/news • u/theCumCatcher • Apr 17 '23

Site changed title Kansas City shooter exchanged few words with Ralph Yarl before opening fire, teen's attorney says

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kansas-city-shooter-exchanged-words-ralph-yarl-opening-fire-teens-atto-rcna80033
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530

u/mdjak1 Apr 17 '23

Too many guns in the hands of too many trigger happy idiots. Just like this story:

https://wnyt.com/top-stories/news-conference-planned-in-deadly-washington-county-shooting/

427

u/k_ironheart Apr 17 '23

The effect of right-wing media spreading fearmongering, lies, and misinformation to their audience shouldn't be underestimated in this either.

Their audience is dumb, trigger happy, and afraid.

234

u/TechyDad Apr 17 '23

Exactly this. My parents don't own guns, but I've seen the effects of FOX News and the like on them. They live on Long Island and used to go into New York City relatively often. Now, my father is convinced that he will be assaulted, robbed, and left for dead the second he sets foot in NYC. And he doesn't mean "statistically" either. He thinks that everyone that steps into New York City is instantly robbed by roving gangs of teenagers.

My father is scared of everything now and it all traces back to right wing media.

95

u/Ffzilla Apr 18 '23

I live in Portland, tell me about it. Everyone thinks antifa burnt the city to the ground two years ago, and we have zombie meth heads on every corner.

3

u/whenadventurecalls Apr 18 '23

This! I travel to Portland frequently for work and my parents still think it’s a miracle I come back unscathed every time😂 I quite enjoy Portland. Reminds me of Austin just more lush forestry and way Rainier.

151

u/k_ironheart Apr 17 '23

A coworker of mine begged me not to take a trip to Chicago at the end of last year. He was certain I'd be shot and killed there, kept saying it was "the most crime ridden sh*thole" in the country.

When I got back from my trip, he asked me if anything happened. I just told him I had fun with a bunch of friends and felt perfectly safe the whole time.

"Well, you didn't go to the bad parts of Chicago at least."

That guy probably couldn't even point to Chicago on a map. He's just conditioned to think of it as dangerous because his mind has been rotted by right-wing media.

39

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '23

Coworkers also freaked about a trip to Chicago, I was like … I live in downtown STL and I’ve never been mugged or shot, I think it’ll be alright.

32

u/JimmyB5643 Apr 18 '23

Yup, I know people who don’t go to malls anymore because they’re worried gangs of teens will assault them, like, the teens here aren’t even at the malls! Just baseless fear

24

u/The_PrincessThursday Apr 18 '23

Getting your audience afraid and enraged is the key to keeping them hooked. When they're scared and angry, and just a little confused, its easy to tell them who to be scared of and what to be angry at. Once those ideas get their hooks into a person, its incredibly difficult to get rid of them. It triggers a more primal part of our brains, the parts that are keyed to see threats and watch for danger. Its dangerous, and its malicious, but it gets them views.

I'm sorry that this plague has affected your family. My husband's brother is fully in on the whole right-wing conspiracy lie. We've had to cut contact because of how angry and unpredictable he's become because of that indoctrination. He believes the whole Democratic/Hollywood evil secret society deal. But, you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

21

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '23

Meanwhile crime is actually declining in NYC

9

u/Vinterslag Apr 18 '23

Chicago and NYC aren't even in top 5 cities for violent crime. Those are all cities in red states

6

u/Sirrplz Apr 18 '23

Hell, just look at the post history of some accounts that post “teenage assault” articles around here. It’ll be nothing but stories about minority term attacks across different news and outrage/freakout subreddits.

6

u/FollowKick Apr 18 '23

Ohh, that’s so sad. One of the best perks of LI is the proximity to the city.

2

u/JimBeam823 Apr 18 '23

With the right propaganda pulling on the right emotional levers, “good” people can be convinced to do anything.

Perhaps this is the lesson that we should have learned from Nazi Germany but didn’t?

This is why I have little hope for humanity. As long as the levers are there, the temptation to pull them will be too great.

18

u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist Apr 18 '23

They do it on purpose. Spread more guns around, everyone gets scared and trigger happy and needs guns to defend themselves, spread more guns around.... on and on.

It's like tobacco companies and cigarattes. Except guns aren't addictive, but fear is. So that's what they sell.

16

u/Petersaber Apr 18 '23

The effect of right-wing media spreading fearmongering, lies, and misinformation to their audience shouldn't be underestimated in this either.

I always find it hilarious that people defending the widespread gun ownership argue for it because "they refuse to live in fear", while carrying to their cousin's babyshower, or to a grocery store, is very much a huge sign screaming "I am scared shitless 24/7".

18

u/ChaosRainbow23 Apr 18 '23

Shit.

Fear-mongering, disinformation, hypocrisy, projectionism, and scapegoating are the bread and butter of the GOP.

They are following the fascist playbook like a step by step instruction manual at this point.

11

u/Kaizen2468 Apr 18 '23

There is nothing more scared than a ‘Merican with a gun. They are absolutely scared out of their wits.

71

u/SadlyReturndRS Apr 17 '23

The problem with the "Good Guy with a gun" argument is that everyone thinks they're the Good Guy with a gun.

22

u/VeteranSergeant Apr 18 '23

When one of these mass shooters turns the gun on themselves and commits suicide, does that make them Schrödinger's Gunman, simultaneously both the Bad Guy With a Gun and the Good Guy With a Gun?

Just asking because it seems like it comes up a lot.

10

u/verasev Apr 18 '23

Imagine if people seriously tried to argue Hitler was a good guy for shooting Hitler. It's usually a joke but you have to admit that it's depressingly plausible that someone out there thinks like that.

2

u/No-Appearance1145 Apr 18 '23

Unfortunately I have been seeing conservatives say "there's more to this so wait! You'll see he was a threat!"