Society & Politics

Do you think people’s opinions are too outcome-influenced”?

Before I even start, let me make ABSOLUTELY clear that this is not in reference to any specific events or people. I don’t want this to turn into “how DARE you?”, because that’s kind of the nature of the question to start with, how we get to these takes where only one narrative is accepted. I will be referencing school shooting situations such as the one in Oxford, MI the other day, but again, I cannot stress enough that this is not specific to anyone, perpetrator or victims alike. My take on that specific event is “kids died, and that sucks”, just so we’re clear. I just want to explore an idea that society’s opinions rarely permit us to explore, for the sake of “respect”, and the ol’ “don’t speak ill of the dead.” I’m used half my words for that preamble, so if anyone comes back with a “how dare you” response, know that I’ve already addressed that concern and that you’re the one taking this all wrong.

Gotta be succinct here: so…. one thing that bothers me is that we usually just hear the conclusion of a story, and we let that drive the entire narrative. It’s not that it’s always wrong, I just don’t think that’s how to arrive at that answer. It’s basically the Louis CK concept of “OF COURSE…. but mayyyyyybeeeee….” for me.
An event happens, the victims are always described as innocent, the perpetrator always an unhinged lunatic…. and sometimes that’s the case. But sometimes, I wonder what led to it, not that it justifies an extreme reaction, but I think it’s weird how we immediately just make it a random thing, or if a targeted attack, it’s all on the shooter. So let’s take a hypothetical school shooting similar to Oxford…and again, I’d never condone killing people as an answer. Popular “cool kids” get shot up by the “loner freak.” Might be random, might be “ok, I’m going after Joey, Billy, Ashley, and Lauren, because they constantly bully me.” What I was thinking about was, if the “shooter”, just shot himself and let you know who inspired it, now the narrative…
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is completely different, the “poor kid was bullied to death by his heartless classmates, who should be ashamed of themselves.” OR, you have the exact same day-in, day-out circumstances, and the kid responds murderously, now HE’S the bad guy, and you won’t hear a bad word about the victims, who may have actually been huge assholes, despite not deserving to die for it, but that’s not the narrative, it’s just what a good kid they were and how tragic their death is. All of these things can be true…
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the events leading up to it can be decidedly one-way in guilt, and how one person responds then dictates the ENTIRE story. No one is ever like “well, the kids that died, it’s for sure tragic…. but they were giving this kid wedgies every single day.” And the media dictates it to us. Benny the Butcher once said in one of his songs: “A child miss his father, a wife miss her husband/That n——a was a killer, but the news said he got hit for nothin’.” The news has no clue what the backstory is, but we…
Do you think people’s opinions are too outcome-influenced”?
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