In his fourth installment of “The Cho Factor,” Robert Ringer takes a look at a series of shootings over the past decade, to show a pattern of taunting and bullying. And it is true, that all of the examples he gives of students who shot multiple victims, the shooters had been bullied and harassed before – sometimes for years. He indicates this exercise in comparing shooters is to show how perhaps it was not that Cho was evil, only his actions. But it also seems to be a way of setting up his later “big point” – of preparing his readers to think his way.
Let’s look at this idea – of getting people to think your way. I’m not knocking it – after all, don’t we all try to persuade people about different things? Maybe we want to go to a certain movie or restaurant, or we want to paint the bathroom a certain color? And politicians and advertisers are always trying to persuade us to their view. “Buy this car!” “Vote for me!” So there is nothing intrinsically wrong with trying to persuade people. My argument will be later with what he is trying to persuade us on.
One other point that Ringer brings up about several of the shooters is their attitude that they were “made” to do what they did – that they were “forced…into a corner” (Cho), or that it was their “only option” (Robert Hawkins, who killed 8 shoppers in an Omaha mall before killing himself). Why is it that these young people feel they have been forced into their actions? Ringer asks this question as well, but he has a different core reason than I do. But on one thing we both can agree – whatever the core reason (or reasons), we need to try to get a handle on what is happening to our young people.
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