Why do I feel sympathetic towards the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because he's white and good looking, basically. People are literally that dumb.

That's it exactly. These horrible young men probably remind you of family members. If they looked like the initially descriptions of them said they did (dark, black, Saudi) you would not feel the same! You are judging the book by the cover, and the notion of these horrible people does not fit with your picture of what it should look like.

So what exactly is your point? What it sounds like to me is that you feel they all should fry, and that the only way you can wrap your mind around a person being empathetic toward a suspected murderer/terrorist is if they are white. You are the one with race issues, not the PP's.

[Anonymous]

While I've never been able to work up an ounce of sympathy for heinous rapists, I feel for this guy as well as Lanza. Of course, I think they should be held accountable for their crimes. Pains me that there is no outlet to channel their frustrations and fury other than murder.

[Anonymous]

It is my opinion that more spiritually advanced people will have sympathy for everyone. Even murderers. People less evolved will not understand this. The best way to describe it would be, what if it was your brother who did this crime? You would have sympathy then...but when you don't know them you don't care. I have sympathy for everyone because to me no one is unvaluable or unworthy of love and compassion. No one!! I have felt this way since I was a young kid.

[Anonymous]

Weird - saying you're more evolved - this is just so ironic.

[Anonymous]

Because he's white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I've never been able to work up an ounce of sympathy for heinous rapists, I feel for this guy as well as Lanza. Of course, I think they should be held accountable for their crimes. Pains me that there is no outlet to channel their frustrations and fury other than murder.

It's called rage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is my opinion that more spiritually advanced people will have sympathy for everyone. Even murderers. People less evolved will not understand this. The best way to describe it would be, what if it was your brother who did this crime? You would have sympathy then...but when you don't know them you don't care. I have sympathy for everyone because to me no one is unvaluable or unworthy of love and compassion. No one!! I have felt this way since I was a young kid.

You are a nice person. I think you may have led a sheltered life, and you just have no reference point for feelings of rage or terror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is my opinion that more spiritually advanced people will have sympathy for everyone. Even murderers. People less evolved will not understand this. The best way to describe it would be, what if it was your brother who did this crime? You would have sympathy then...but when you don't know them you don't care. I have sympathy for everyone because to me no one is unvaluable or unworthy of love and compassion. No one!! I have felt this way since I was a young kid.

You are a nice person. I think you may have led a sheltered life, and you just have no reference point for feelings of rage or terror.

I'm not the PP, but feel similar. My life has not been sheltered. I am able to identify and separate the desire for revenge and compassion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't there the same kind of sympathy for Adam Lanza?

There was and still is. Just because it isn't publicized doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Same for Lee Boyd Malvo. How do young men get led into this type of thinking?

Do you feel sorry for Kleibold and Harris?

Not the Pp but yes. I feel sorry for anyone who gets to a place where they feel like the best option is to murder innocent people. That has to be a really horrible place to be in, one I can't even comprehend. It isn't just an idea they get one night...their life leads to that moment and I feel sorry for the life they have lived, that it led to being in that mind space. That doesn't take away from the atrociousness of their actions or their guilt or the consequences.

Some people are just...wrong. At the FBI academy they teach the Bundy case as a beginning to people who can just be bad. I know it's scary to think that some people are like this, that you want to live in a world where if you fix someone they won't rape, murder or bomb. But, there are bad people. Even from good homes.

I'm glad you've lived a world that you never had to face that, I hope you live the rest of your life never knowing another world.

I actually work with people with antisocial personalities and in forensics. I don't believe that anyone is simply born irreparably evil and that their destiny to be a murderer, rapist, bomber is made at that point - that they had no choice in the matter. I work with people who are at a point that they have no conscience, no remorse, no guilt, no empathy. They laugh at causing pain and suffering. They feel nothing other than pity for themselves. And I still don't believe that any of them were just born evil. It isn't an issue of bad homes. Sure sometimes they had terrible homes, but bad things also happen to kids who grow up in good homes. On top of that many had obvious signs at an early age of mental illness that wasn't properly treated or with sufficient intensity. Some people overcome adversity, others are very damaged by it. Even Ted Bundy had adversity in his life. Can we prevent all acts of violence - no. It is the cost of humans being imperfect.

We can argue nature vs nurture forever, lets just agree to disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because he's white and good looking, basically. People are literally that dumb.

That's it exactly. These horrible young men probably remind you of family members. If they looked like the initially descriptions of them said they did (dark, black, Saudi) you would not feel the same! You are judging the book by the cover, and the notion of these horrible people does not fit with your picture of what it should look like.

So what exactly is your point? What it sounds like to me is that you feel they all should fry, and that the only way you can wrap your mind around a person being empathetic toward a suspected murderer/terrorist is if they are white. You are the one with race issues, not the PP's.

I think you mean sympathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weird - saying you're more evolved - this is just so ironic.

My thought exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is my opinion that more spiritually advanced people will have sympathy for everyone. Even murderers. People less evolved will not understand this. The best way to describe it would be, what if it was your brother who did this crime? You would have sympathy then...but when you don't know them you don't care. I have sympathy for everyone because to me no one is unvaluable or unworthy of love and compassion. No one!! I have felt this way since I was a young kid.

You are a nice person. I think you may have led a sheltered life, and you just have no reference point for feelings of rage or terror.

Nice? I was thinking condescending, self-righteous, and holier-than-thou.

I think someone who premeditates and carries out a mass murder and then assassinates a police officer is both unvaluable and unworthy of love and compassion.

[Anonymous]

22:05. No one is unworthy of love? Really? Hitler, Pol Pot, Vlad the Impalar, Atilla the Hun, Ayatollah Khomeni, Idi Amin, Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, Elizabeth Bathory, Mengele, Bin Laden, Himmler, Eichman, Kim ll Sung, Hirohito, Genghis Khan, Mao Zedong, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is my opinion that more spiritually advanced people will have sympathy for everyone. Even murderers. People less evolved will not understand this. The best way to describe it would be, what if it was your brother who did this crime? You would have sympathy then...but when you don't know them you don't care. I have sympathy for everyone because to me no one is unvaluable or unworthy of love and compassion. No one!! I have felt this way since I was a young kid.

I think this captures the crux of the issue. Those who publicly preen about their sympathy for the killers are merely attempting to demonstrate their own "spiritually advanced" nature and their superiority to those "less evolved" souls who reserve their sympathies for those who, you know, got blown up. Engaging in this sort of status competition with such people is like wrestling with a pig in mud; you both get dirty, and the pig enjoys it. I believe there is a vanishingly small probability of meaningful discourse with anyone who non-ironically refers to themselves as "spiritually advanced" on these sorts of issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I've never been able to work up an ounce of sympathy for heinous rapists, I feel for this guy as well as Lanza. Of course, I think they should be held accountable for their crimes. Pains me that there is no outlet to channel their frustrations and fury other than murder.

Channel their frustrations??? Seriously? They killed and maimed innocent people. Maybe they should have taken an art class or tried some yoga.