He drove across state lines with a weapon to "protect property", knowing if he was called to action he'd be shooting another human being. 17 or not, this is a bad take.
Did I stuuter an excuse for him exactly Darth?
Ultimately I state he AND his mother made a choice.
And I hope that, frankly, both he and she face the consequences of that choice. A choice which I again say is based on the bovine excrement put out by the Right Wing echo chamber. A choice to uncritically ascent to Romanticized Reactionary Fantasia and Paranoia.
But I'm sorry if it's a "bad take" too also state the reality that he is a 17 year old teen. And that neither you, I or any other person when we were that age had any ****ing clue about any ****ing thing, much less a real sanguine and cleared eyed view of politics and society, no matter how good of a student one was in high school.
Here's an uncomfortable truth, and take it from someone whom you know has repeatedly talked about how my current take on the GOP and conservatives in general and of Trump supporters in particular is to reference the final scene of Inglorious Basterds... There are "victims" among those that many would call oppressors. Shocking. But they have a humanity... And humanity does have a deep and abiding darkness sure. But many are set on their course because of family, friends, environment what have you. Those have gigantic gravitational pulls on people when it comes to forming who they are and what they believe. Some, if they find those things to be negative, can make the effort to break those ties or move beyond how they were raised. You'll be hard pressed to find many aged 17 that are equipped to do that intellectually must less on an emotional level.
I am not saying to forget the people he shot. Or to excuse his mother's apparent approval of and aiding in bringing him someplace where he was armed and put in harm's way. I'm not saying I wouldn't throw the book at him and his mother if I could.
But no matter our own outrage (The thing those on the Left continually counsel the Right about...) there is a reality where it can be viewed that this dumb **** teen (Please see my post in the Racism thread for more...) and all the potential of his life is a victim of the Racial Psycho-drama of this country as well.
I've not asked for parity of sympathy have I? Did I say that the tragic outcome here is the same ass the police shootings that have inspired all the protest and unrest?
Right now, and I get why, believe me, we all wanna make this kid Dylan Roof. And his three victims and their families for sure don't want to hear anything about having sympathy for him. But I don't see him as Dylan Roof. As of right now... I don't see a monster who was fated by birth to be a raging racist fascist enabler. That's exactly what makes it tragic on all sides.
One person in the hospital, two dead and all at the hands of a 17 year old whose future should have been better protected by his family in the form of his mother and by the state frankly, because local law enforcement was fine with the "militias" on the street.