awed-frog:

By the way, if there’s still someone out there wondering how Germany accepted Nazism and why most people just went with it – remember Columbine? That was in 1999. Almost twenty years ago. If you’re old enough, maybe you do. Maybe you remember the horror and the refusal to believe that was true and just sitting there in shock, looking at article after article. And maybe you remember how you felt in the days after? Like something had to be done, like that couldn’t happen again? Well. Yesterday, seventeen people, both kids and teachers, were killed in a school in Florida. It’s the eighth school shooting in the US in the last six weeks. And the thing is, many people will tell you this is now normal. Part of life. Something you need to accept, and man up, and shut up about it. 

Let that sink in for a moment? 

Because it’s 2018, and millions of citizens of a free, democratic country (a country which, despite everything, is still a privileged haven compared to 1920s Germany) are perfectly okay with children being shot in their classrooms. Because it’s just what happens, and it’s regrettable and sad, but what can you do about it? So I’m not comparing the two historical periods – this is not me saying, haha, the US is like Nazi Germany because gun laws – this is me saying, by the third time it happens, you’re okay with it. Humans adapt, are happy with someone else in charge, still reason in terms of immediate tribe so we worry about our families first and foremost – and that’s how everything happens. Oh, they’re shooting kids? I’m sorry for their parents, but it’s inevitable, there will always be a random madman, can’t control everything. Oh, they’re rounding up the Jews? Well, it’s a pity, I liked old Mrs Berg from the post office, but that’s how it works, isn’t it? They’re not actually German citizens. Oh, they’re locking up political opponents? Yes, it’s a bit extreme, but so was saying all those awful and hateful lies about the government. Oh, there are faceless corporations knowing where I am at all times? Uhm, not ideal, but how else am I supposed to call an Uber? Oh, there’s like three companies controlling the food market? Okay, that’s a bit disturbing, but it’s how the economy works, right? Hasn’t it always been like that? Oh, the President of the US constantly lies to the public? Yeah, I guess he does, but nobody’s perfect – let’s just focus on the big issues, okay? Oh, people are expected to work for free so they can ‘gain experience’? Most people around me do that – it means it’s normal.

People get used to things. That’s what we do. It’s a survival mechanism, and it’s part of our mindframe as social animals. Much of what’s going on around us would have been unthinkable and unacceptable two years ago, ten years ago or thirty years ago, and school shootings are one of those things. 

This is what a 15-year-old kid had to text her mother yesterday: “If I don’t make it I love you and I appreciated everything you did for me.”

This is not normal.