So why is the US so violent?

[Lago PARANOIA]

Really, I got nothing. Is it income inequality? You'd think so, but the gini index went up like crazy during the Bush years and violent crime still went down. Is it media violence? Frank and Crissa showed me in a thread I don't care to bump that it's not necessarily the case. Is it the guns? Maybe, but even in countries with high gun ownership don't experience violent crime to the extent of the US. Is it our judicial system? Is it our police system? Is it some invisible element of our culture?

Someone help me out here.

[Josh_Kablack]

Because of ignorant yokels like you coming in here and starting crap like this. Duh!!!

[/sarcasm]

[name_here]

I'd bet on invisible element of our culture. The judical system errs on the side of innocence, but i don't think that's it. Admittedly, we don't have talking cameras on street lights but that's fairly new anyway, and i don't know how widespread it is.

Video games made media violence rise and yet the crime rate continues to drop.

[ckafrica]

I believe this explains it fairly well

[Talisman]

American entitlement gets my vote.

The US was founded on some pretty (for the times) revolutionary ideas, among them the concept that every (white male) person is entitled to both liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, over 200+ years of human corruption, a frightening number of people have come to the conclusion that "liberty" means "I can do whatever I want, so shut the hell up," and "pursuit of happiness" means "the world owes me because I'm so awesome, so I'm going to take whatever I can get."

Throw in a (un)healthy dose of corporate/government corruption and selfishness, flip the peasantry off in regards to health care and - in many cases - basic standards of living, season with cynicism and perpetual youth rebellion, and voila!

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I vote because the government trains us to hate people so we don't question it when they say that there's brown people that need slaughtering.

[angelfromanotherpin]

People work too damn hard and the marijuana is illegal but the booze is not.

[Username17]

Slavery. Or rather, the culture which created and allowed for slavery. If you take Southerners out of the equation, America isn't especially violent as a place compared to other struggling modern nations.

Dallas has nearly nine times the murder rate of Prague, but The United States has less than half the murder rate of The Ukraine. Basically, The South has a culture of violence and oppression that goes back hundreds of years and they show no signs of letting it go. Southerners make the rest of the country look bad. If we cut the South loose almost all of our systemic problems - from Creationists to Violence to Dodgy Economic Practices would go away over night.

-Username17

[Crissa]

Well, except that we've let southerners move all about the country for the last hundred and fifty years.

-Crissa

[JonSetanta]

Well, except that we've let southerners move all about the country for the last hundred and fifty years.

There should be laws against that.
Doesn't help that Southerners are in the U.S. government though.

The U.S. is violent due its very nature of the 'melting pot' theory.
Ironically whenever a culture has diversity it also tears itself apart.
Compare the U.S, a nation that attacks itself on a regular basis, to some random ex-Soviet nation or tiny African tribe with such alien notions as a homogenous religion, language, environment, and attitude.
Hey, they might even look like an entire nation of cousins, or even be a nation of cousins.
We don't have that luxury or option in the U.S. to become homogeneous. Can you imagine how a push for such a thing would even begin? Who or how would it be decided which aspect of America is the One True Way?
Which race is superior? How and when will people have sex?

To decide something like that would be outright vile and wrong.
Doesn't keep certain groups from trying though, and not just the KKK, Zionists, or Evangelical extremists, but also the various disillusioned blacks subscribing to the "equal but separate" motto even though such a strategy has been proven illogical and ineffective, if not outright hypocritical. I call them the Booker T's after their idol.

Maybe in a few hundred years the racial divisions will blend while religion gives way to sanity, but human nature says otherwise. And... that's the stuff of fiction.

There are pros and cons to being diverse, but internal violence is an inevitable outcome and ever-present con.
It's unfortunate when that boiling hatred spews out internationally but that's more of a symptom than the cause.

TL;DR: diversity makes U.S. violent and there's nothing ethical to do about it.

[Username17]

Sigma, that's bullshit. One of the highest murder rates on the planet is Belarus. It's also one of the most homogeneous and White.

-Username17

[Judging__Eagle]

Sigma, that's bullshit. I live in Canada, our supposed motto is "a mosaic" or "diversity" not "melting pot" the way that the Americans do.

Diversity isn't making the cities of Toronto or Vancouver rip apart at the seams last I checked.

The fact that you mentioned the word ... "race" is also a problem. I've got as much genetic material in common with my blood relations as I do with certain people in Ghana; and probably more genetic material in common with those same people from Ghana than I do with any other whitey on the streets of anywhere in Canada. Get the word "race" out of your vocabulary, unless it's meant to work with it's cousins whitey, kraut, jap, chink, peasoup, paddy, raghead, paki, [EDITED], kike or whatever the fuck bullshit terms people use to separate differences between people based on the strength and flavour of their tan.

Diversity doesn't lead to fear and violence. Ignorance does, and always will.

The US has a deep-rooted aversion to knowledge and wanting to understand. That's partly why they are the way they are; they like to be stupid.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

That reminds me of an argument that lead to me leaving a message board I used to frequent.

I was told that no one could possibly understand foreign policy and I should just assume the Government makes the right decisions. Literally, that's what he said. When I told him not to project his ignorance on me, he flamed me for several days, calling me every name he could think of, mocking my weight, my hobbies, my taste in music, the fact that I don't have sex while he fucks basically the nastiest whores on the planet, called me weak, said I would defect to the other side the second America was invaded, called me a raghead (?), until I left.

[JonSetanta]

One of the highest murder rates on the planet is Belarus. It's also one of the most homogeneous and White.

Whites killing whites in general is pretty damn common when you look at Western history. There's more than Belarusians (?) in Belarus. Within that context, who is killing, who is dying, and why is it happening?
I suspect there is diversity has nothing to do with race.
I also don't really have a comparison for you since one nation is founded on rebellion and slavery while the other was a puppet for the USSR for years.
The foundations and history are far too different.

I live in Canada, our supposed motto is "a mosaic" or "diversity" not "melting pot" the way that the Americans do.

Are tensions hidden or suppressed, or do you suppose they are actively mediated? I doubt the tension between ideological differences is not there.
And what's with the focus on race? There's more to prejudiced conflict than color.
Hence the sarcastic questions... totally out of context without including the start of the next paragraph I wrote.
Genocide is a fast track to eliminating diversity and it works really, really well if you like that kind of thing. That's the whole objective of it.
.. yet vile and wrong, no exceptions. Don't skip that part.

I wholly disagree with the use of melting pot theory even though it's been shoved down American throats throughout public education.
.. as if telling the next generation to like each other will stop the caustic vendettas coming from previous generations. It doesn't work like that.
Diversity should be eased in like a scalding hottub, not boiled. Perhaps that's where Canada got it right.
If there's a solution for America, let's hear it. I'd love to know since we're close to Godwin's Law here.

Count: .. wat?

[cthulhu]

Being poor and isolated is usually the problem - violent crime in Australia is heavily concentrated into a small number of areas, typically have

A) Low eduation rates

B) High levels of unemployment

C) High levels of drug use

D) Large disadvantaged populations - usually migrants.

[Username17]

The fact is that there is nothing "diverse" in Ireland. Unionists and Republicans look exactly the same. Catholics and Anglicans seriously differ in how many fingers they hold up when their bishops bless things. The Clampets and McCoys look and talk exactly the same. Serbs and Croats speak the same damn language. While people have historically been very happy to claim that some random Skub/Anti-Skub divide is what's making them willing to use a hammer to nail the heads of small children to furniture - the fact is that the exact same Skub/Anti-Skub divides exist all over the world without perpetuating barbarity. And frequently such distinctions are so bullshit minor that outsiders can't even tell the difference even after having it explained.

Indeed, the vast majority of violent crime is done within arbitrary groups, not across group lines. The majority of victims of Black murderers are Blacks. The majority of victims of White murderers are White. Indeed, most violence happens within families and close acquaintances.

Diversity. Does not. Cause Violence. Period. There is absolutely no fucking evidence whatsoever to indicate anything of the kind. Do you want to talk about the grinding sameness of the populations in Belarus? Latvia? Lithuania? Estonia? These countries are among the least diverse on the planet and they are in the top ten for murders per capita.

When you look at the huge murder rates in South Africa, you are much better off comparing it to the comparable murder rates in Reconstruction Virginia than you are trying to find a nation with a comparable number of tribes, you're going to of course find a lot of countries that have a lot less murders. I mean fuck, it's got pretty comparable diversity to Qatar.

Fuck, do you realize Iceland has more murders than Chile? Which do you think has more diversity? Iceland literally has the least diversity of any country on Earth! The fact that there are any countries with less violence than them gives the lie to your idea. And there are actually a fuck tonne of countries with less violence than Iceland. Hell, the United Kingdom is one of them.

-Username17

[Koumei]

People live in Iceland?

Also, JE, I lol'd. Only one of those words got edited out. Is it the term for our Korean friends? I vaguely recall that being edited out in hilarious instances (gobbelty-edit and a typo of "you can vomit caustic goop all over foes").

[ckafrica]

Ultimately it boils down to economics. People who are economically content, and don't fell economically threatened are generally less prone to violence because everything is good.

Though, in all fairness, back in my home town you probably had to be more careful of a pack of upper middle class teenagers loitering at night than a few balck guys walking down the street

[Lago PARANOIA]

Though, in all fairness, back in my home town you probably had to be more careful of a pack of upper middle class teenagers loitering at night than a few balck guys walking down the street

White teenagers, of course, since white is the normal state of being for a citizen in this country and doesn't need to be appended. 8)

Ultimately it boils down to economics. People who are economically content, and don't fell economically threatened are generally less prone to violence because everything is good.

I'm having a hard time believing this is the case. Violent crime in the United States went down from the mid 90's to now even though income inequality and the poverty rate also rose during this time.

[ckafrica]

Though, in all fairness, back in my home town you probably had to be more careful of a pack of upper middle class teenagers loitering at night than a few balck guys walking down the street

White teenagers, of course, since white is the normal state of being for a citizen in this country and doesn't need to be appended. 8)

Well likely yes, though it could easily be a mixed race group. Halifax NS is largely vanilla, but with sprinkles

I'm having a hard time believing this is the case. Violent crime in the United States went down from the mid 90's to now even though income inequality and the poverty rate also rose during this time.

well according to this the percentage of people in poverty in the US is down off it's all time highs and began it's decline in the mid 90s. Inequality is less of a concern than poverty. Middle class are less likely to cap someone for the luxuries they wish they had than the poor are to get necessities they cannot gain by other means.

[JonSetanta]

Also, JE, I lol'd. Only one of those words got edited out. Is it the term for our Korean friends? I vaguely recall that being edited out in hilarious instances (gobbelty-edit and a typo of "you can vomit caustic goop all over foes").

I'll space it out to avoid the filter.

"N e e e"

[Crissa]

Violent crime rose the last few years, tho.

-Crissa

ne·fa·zo·done (n-fz-dn, -fz-)
n.
An oral antidepressant with a chemical structure unrelated to SSRIs, tricyclics, or monoamine oxidase inhibitors, thought to inhibit neuronal uptake of serotonin and norepinephrine.

When used inappropriately, it creates an euphoric or hallucinogenic sensation. Often abused in conjunction with methadone.

[Judging__Eagle]

People live in Iceland?

Also, JE, I lol'd. Only one of those words got edited out. Is it the term for our Korean friends? I vaguely recall that being edited out in hilarious instances (gobbelty-edit and a typo of "you can vomit caustic goop all over foes").

You're thinking Greenland; I don't think people actually live there. While there's an actual country on the tiny little island of iceland.

The [censored] word is the one for black people. I didn't think of the forum censors when writing. I was just angreh.

On the first day of my cultural studies class this semester the idea of "race" was brought up. Our instructor asked us to group ourselves, and people with similar skin tones started to group together, I sort of stood apart since I knew it was a BS exercise. Then when we went by geography the groups started to look different, I stood apart b/c I've got ancestors (that I am sure of) from all over the place.

While ethnicity and nationality are things that can be defined, race is something that cannot be defined between human, because it doesn't exist.

Seriously, if I grab any two chickens from the same farm I can expect more genetic variety between the two of them than between me and not only every one else on these boards but anyone else on earth.

Rabbits that have only been fucking their immediate relatives for several generations have more genetic variance than any two random humans. We're a very inbred species. Very inbred. Hasn't stopped us from being the most overtly dominant life form on this planet though.

Fruit flies have more genetic variation than any two randomly chosen humans could ever hope to accomplish.

And supposedly we're supposed to hate someone because they worship the Crescent Moon god, or the asshole YHWH or believe the teachings of a man that thinks that "everything was awesome back when men were men and women were women, and children respected their elders, and nobles protected the peasants, and the Emperor sat on the Dragon Throne"; or any other religion.

We hate each other for real reasons, then use bullshit ones to cover for what we do. If you're greedy or jealous or too lazy, then say so, but don't tell me it's b/c you don't like the gods that someone worships or the books that they read or even the colour of their skin.

[ckafrica]

People live in Iceland?

Also, JE, I lol'd. Only one of those words got edited out. Is it the term for our Korean friends? I vaguely recall that being edited out in hilarious instances (gobbelty-edit and a typo of "you can vomit caustic goop all over foes").

You're thinking Greenland; I don't think people actually live there. While there's an actual country on the tiny little island of iceland.

Peasants
Greenland has a population of about 56000 living in communities here

It is an independent country within the kingdom of Denmark. They even have roads and cars

[Count Arioch the 28th]

My grandfather was stationed in Greenland during WWII. They figured if Germany was going to invade America, it would have to be through Greenland.

He said there really wasn't much there, but people do in fact live there.