Another weekend of mass shootings lost in the "confusion" of what really "matters"

In Fresno, California four people were killed and 10 wounded as a gunman broke into a backyard and sprayed bullets into a gathering to watch a football game. The people involved were Hmong, an Asian “ethnicity” whose historical base is mostly in southern China but spread out into Southeast Asia. It is being suggested by law enforcement that the attack was gang-related. Although the Trump administration repeatedly talks about MS-13, Hmong gangs—which represent the largest Asian gangs here and are scattered throughout the country—also have a reputation for violence. A 2016 study by the University of Southern Illinois notes that the “model minority” stereotype and the fact that Asian gangs tend keep a low profile to avoid attention from police has shielded them from media scrutiny. The Hmong community, which tends to be isolated by both language and culture from the larger communities they live in, have been particularly susceptible to gang activity, and such targeting of get-togethers by unsuspecting victims are common. 

But the Hmong were hardly the only people doing some shooting this past week. Today in Duncan, Oklahoma, three were left dead in a shooting outside a Walmart. Yesterday a San Diego man took his own life after first killing his estranged wife and three of their children. A couple days ago in another school shooting, a teenager killed two and wounded five before shooting himself in Santa Clarita, California. According to a Wiki count, there were 323 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2018, in which 387 people were killed. Including the Duncan shooting today, there are now 387 mass shootings this year, with 462 dead—and there are still six weeks to go in the year. To be “fair,” the vast majority of homicides in the U.S. involve one perpetrator and one victim, but mass shootings that occur in public places tend to receive the most media attention.

We live in a culture now where “confusion” about what is “normal” and what is not “acceptable.” Older people, particularly males, are now left to ponder what was once considered “normal” behavior in the past is now subject to public “shaming” and potentially to destroy one’s reputation and livelihood. Yet a  Microsoft News poll appears to shows that Millennials are actually more likely to be accepting of Donald Trump’s behavior than Baby Boomers, and are less convinced of his having committed impeachable offenses. What does this mean? It would seem that younger people are more interested in the personal than in the political. Today’s youth are not listening to the “peace” and “love” music of my generation, but the self-centered whines of the Taylor Swifts of the world, and the vulgarity and menaces in much of rap music. They see their “celebrities” and sports “heroes” frequently involved in negative and sometimes criminal activities. You have Fox News telling millions of insular bigots that what is up is actually down.  As I pointed out a couple of posts ago, the culture seems “confused” about what constitutes “good” and what is “evil”—depending on the parties involved.

Back in the “old days” when we didn’t have cell phones, the Internet and dozens of news outlets, some running 24 hours a day, you tended to get the unvarnished facts in newspapers and news magazine that you had time to read and digest and understand what the stakes were. Today, people are inundated not just with partisan bullshit on news shows, but everything from the “unwanted” pat on the back to mass shootings, and it is difficult to tell which is “worse” given the news coverage, since they can seem to get the same amount of attention. Some people seem to think that some “unwanted” touch made years ago to them personally is worse than dozens of “other” people dying in a mass shooting. No wonder this past week of shootings, looking to add to a new yearly “record” total, is just another passing ship in the night, slipping “harmlessly” by. Even those who fight the good fight to stop gun violence have become inured to it, because most people they are trying to convince just don’t think it is "important."