4 ms·

I cannot believe you're serious... You believe that people should go to jail for the things that they say, really? It doesn't matter if it was tacky or juvenil

I cannot believe you're serious... You believe that people should go to jail for the things that they say, really? It doesn't matter if it was tacky or juvenile or vulgar. When you were a teenager, you didn't do and say things that flew in the face of convention just for the sake of making noise? Saying the things that you know were verboten, just to get the reaction?

hluska 13y ago
First, I don't want this young person to go to jail - quite the opposite, in fact. Second, when I was a teenager, my Dad was a police officer and my Mom worked in a Catholic church. I rebelled hard and got in trouble for wonderful things like wearing a Bad Religion shirt to my Catholic school, or writing obscenely long, self important indictments of Christianity in Christian Ethics exams, or driving at extremely high speeds around the school parking lot, listening to the Ramones and playing "Scare hockey players." My very first, formative experience with computers was actually playing Shadowrun on a BBS. Had I gone to high school post-Columbine, that game would have gotten us all kicked out of school and likely thrown in jail. Thankfully, nobody ever found out what we did or the kinds of things we said online. I was an especially pretentious teenager and fell under the guise of 'straight edge punk', so I absolutely shunned drugs and alcohol and stopped being friends with people who drank or got high. In retrospect, that pretentiousness likely kept me out of serious trouble and I'm quite glad for it. Long story short, I rebelled hard and was friends with many kids who rebelled equally as hard, or even harder. Unfortunately, in the 18 years since I graduated from high school, a shocking number of the people who got me through high school have died because of drugs and suicide. So yes, I rebelled. And yes, I did many things solely for shock value. However, I also lost some really good people because we didn't get the help that some of us (myself included) needed. Consequently, I take the view that some things are far enough away from the norms to justify further intervention.
- Groxx 13y ago
  "whole lot of trouble" and "whole lot of legal trouble" are massively different things. I'm not sure how you can not be sure how you feel about this case, since it's the latter, not the former.
- lawnchair_larry 13y ago
  I'm having trouble telling whether you are serious here. You seem like you are, but you're saying you rebelled by playing Shadowrun, speeding, and not drinking or doing drugs? I don't want to be condescending but I want you to consider that your perspective might need some calibration. Most professional working adults I know today still do far worse than that, and nobody really considers it rebellious. Likewise, this act was not rebellious in the least. Watch any comedy central roast and they say worse things all night. Personally, I think people who are afraid of these statements need therapy.
  - rdouble 13y ago
    I'm having trouble telling whether you are serious here. You seem like you are, but you're saying you rebelled by playing Shadowrun, speeding, and not drinking or doing drugs? Canada is a different kind of place, I guess.

hluska 13y ago

First, I don't want this young person to go to jail - quite the opposite, in fact. Second, when I was a teenager, my Dad was a police officer and my Mom worked in a Catholic church. I rebelled hard and got in trouble for wonderful things like wearing a Bad Religion shirt to my Catholic school, or writing obscenely long, self important indictments of Christianity in Christian Ethics exams, or driving at extremely high speeds around the school parking lot, listening to the Ramones and playing "Scare hockey players." My very first, formative experience with computers was actually playing Shadowrun on a BBS. Had I gone to high school post-Columbine, that game would have gotten us all kicked out of school and likely thrown in jail. Thankfully, nobody ever found out what we did or the kinds of things we said online. I was an especially pretentious teenager and fell under the guise of 'straight edge punk', so I absolutely shunned drugs and alcohol and stopped being friends with people who drank or got high. In retrospect, that pretentiousness likely kept me out of serious trouble and I'm quite glad for it. Long story short, I rebelled hard and was friends with many kids who rebelled equally as hard, or even harder. Unfortunately, in the 18 years since I graduated from high school, a shocking number of the people who got me through high school have died because of drugs and suicide. So yes, I rebelled. And yes, I did many things solely for shock value. However, I also lost some really good people because we didn't get the help that some of us (myself included) needed. Consequently, I take the view that some things are far enough away from the norms to justify further intervention.

Groxx 13y ago
"whole lot of trouble" and "whole lot of legal trouble" are massively different things. I'm not sure how you can not be sure how you feel about this case, since it's the latter, not the former.
lawnchair_larry 13y ago
I'm having trouble telling whether you are serious here. You seem like you are, but you're saying you rebelled by playing Shadowrun, speeding, and not drinking or doing drugs? I don't want to be condescending but I want you to consider that your perspective might need some calibration. Most professional working adults I know today still do far worse than that, and nobody really considers it rebellious. Likewise, this act was not rebellious in the least. Watch any comedy central roast and they say worse things all night. Personally, I think people who are afraid of these statements need therapy.
- rdouble 13y ago
  I'm having trouble telling whether you are serious here. You seem like you are, but you're saying you rebelled by playing Shadowrun, speeding, and not drinking or doing drugs? Canada is a different kind of place, I guess.