Re: "The only GOOD DRONE is a DEAD DRONE. Y'hear me, scumbags?!"
>>"It is a matter of personal opinion, of course, but I feel that a family man with a shotgun in the house is, by definition, a psychopath in training."
Opinion / Shminion. You're a journalist and have a duty to make sure your opinions are informed. How would you like it if a popular news site made you sound like a dumb, hick bigot based on the author's personal prejudice?
Switzerland has one of the highest gun-ownership ratios in the world. Is it a nation filled with psychopaths? And don't pass it off as being just about military service - there was a proposal that guns should be stored in central armouries and it was rejected by popular referendum. I.e. the Swiss people as a whole actively voted that they all be allowed to keep their guns in their home. And it's not just Switzerland. Very many countries have a much higher proportion of gun ownership than the UK, voluntarily owned. Are you saying that psychopathy occurs much more frequently in other countries than runs in good English blood?
Different cultures perceive the meaning of things differently. Someone who grew up in a big city might stand 50cm away from someone and think it a good conversational distance. Someone who grew up in the countryside might find a person doing so to be aggressive and invading their personal space. You find someone owning a gun abnormal and look for explanations as to why they'd do something like that. In many other cultures, it doesn't signify anything. And not just America, not by a long shot. In much of the world owning a gun is common. 'Ah,' you might say. 'but these areas of the world violence is quite common and its sensible to want to defend yourself and your family'. To which I say "Hello - USA, anyone?"
What is a psychopath ? Someone who doesn't grasp consequences, someone who lacks empathy for others or social conscience? That better describes the drone pilot who hassled their neighbours and then lied about the facts; was aggressive when caught and later tried to whip up support with, as it happens, stereotypes about the guy who shot their drone.
Perhaps I'm simply too far at the opposite end to a psychopath and over-burdened with empathy, but I can't help feeling that I would be pretty upset to see myself maligned by some journalist who had never met me and plainly had just invented their own caricature to suit. I mean you admit outright that you have an a priori view on Their Type. Come to think of it, this is what you did last week with your piece about how a hacker actually wears Iron Maiden t-shirts and smells of urine. Have you not noticed that your stereotypes are rankling with people? I'm sorry if this and my last post come across as aggressive or mean. I know you put work into these articles and honestly, I usually enjoy what you write. It's just this mean stereotype humour I don't get.