JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: THE IDEA THAT HEAVY NEWS COVERAGE CONTRIBUTES TO MORE MASS SHOOTINGS - A WORD ABOUT THE WORD EVIL

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

"Widespread media coverage contributing to rise in mass shootings"

I do think there is some truth in that.

It works much like advertising, or political propaganda in the newspapers, with constant or regular repetition and references.

Only here the people being reached are people who are ill and already have dark thoughts.

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Response to another reader’s comment:

The word evil is just a religious term, adding no understanding, to label with disapproval what are simply some part of the range of expected human behaviors.

Every human population has a naturally-occurring probability of including some killers, just as it does some child molesters, the seriously depressed, the schizophrenic, and many, many other terrible human conditions.

This is what we see with other organs and limbs - some frequency of their being inoperable or sick or badly shaped - and the most complex organ of all, the brain, is not a whit different.