Is it okay to be interested in Columbine?

Here’s a link to the duplicate question, which has been closed for some reason.

@Jeruba, it was closed because the question was moderated due to quality standards. This is the moderator-approved, resubmitted question.

To answer your question, @edimarco93, I don’t see anything wrong with your interest. And I don’t think you should worry about what others might think about things you find interesting.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, why wasn’t the original question changed instead of being closed and recreated, so the responses would all be in one thread?

@edimarco93: Why would this question not be socially acceptable? By whom? You can be interested in World War II without planning an invasion of Austria, can’t you?

I find crime shows interesting, but would never commit a crime, so I don’t think your interest in Columbine to be bad unless you are obsessed with it beyond reason.

Inappropriate? Hell no. I think it’s important to be interested in what happened at Columbine High School, Tucson, Arizona and Virginia Tech and all of the other places where mass murder has taken place. Both ‘why’ and ‘how’.

[Reposting previous response]

I can’t tell you what’s okay for you, but I can tell you that I am interested in the Columbine shooting and what led up to it.

One reason is that I have always taken an interest in sniper incidents and mass shootings because of the terrible randomness of them for the victims who were not intended targets, and the stark reminder that you never know what may be heading your way.

Another is what was in the minds of the perpetrators and what, if anything, could have been done beforehand to prevent the event.

I was especially interested in Columbine because at that time I had a youngster who was having problems of depression, alienation, etc. I was trying like everything to find the right kind of help for him, and I can’t begin to tell you how difficult it was and how unsuccessful. Finding anyone who can work therapeutically with a teenager—and recognize serious signs of trouble in a secretive kid who is really smart and knows exactly how to tell people what they want to hear—is more of a challenge than many of us can match.

When I saw all those self-righteous newspaper columnists after Columbine writing things like “Where were the parents? Couldn’t they see that something was wrong? Why didn’t they get help?” I wanted to shake them and shout, “Oh, yeah? Why don’t you try it?”

At the same time, trying to identify and lock up everybody who admits to having had a violent fantasy at one time or another—and who hasn’t?—is tantamount to letting the Thought Police run roughshod over the populace.

is it ok?… not quite sure what you mean by ok but if you’re worried about seeming weird to others then I imagine you will seem weird to a few, not weird to many others. How do you feel about yourself, do you feel weird? And for the record, I don’t think you are weird at all, simply naturally fascinated by a tragic event in history that stunned the world.

What, exactly, do you mean by “interested”?

It could be fine, and it could be worrisome, depending on what this word means. If you obsess over the weapons and the killing and exactly how people were killed and how bloody and gruesome it was, yes, that could be worrisome. Focusing on why it happened and how to prevent it, and the tragedies it caused- I woudn’t have a problem with that.

I’d even say you can be interested in the blood and gore. What disturbs me is that you feel like it might be socially unacceptable to be interested in something. I suppose it depends on what group you want to be able to express your interest to, and whether they’re probing you for your interests and then judging you on them, or whether you are inflicting your interests on others.

I think a discussion on Columbine can be instructive and informative. Good for you! Welcome to Fluther.

To put this into a little perspective, there are a lot of “things” that are unacceptable in most of our lives and cultures, such as “sex for entertainment” and torture, to name two. Amsterdam has both a Sex Museum and a Torture Museum, which are both wildly popular tourist venues for average people from all over the world.

On the other hand, fashioning a shrine in your room to the Columbine killers, for example, would be off-putting to nearly anyone.

Context. It all depends on context.

Welcome to Fluther, by the way. I hadn’t noticed earlier that you’re new here.

You know, I have this weird interest in serial killers. I’d say that it’s perfectly fine. Maybe a little unconventional, but I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with it.

I also have interest in the macabre.

Like @troubleinharlem I research serial killers. (Al Fish, anyone?) WWII is the only war I find “interesting,” and have no doubt it is solely because of the Holocaust.

As long as you aren’t obsessive, you can speak about it from an analytical stance and have no desire in repeating the acts yourself, I say you’re safe.

@Taciturnu : Do you think that Hitler could be considered a serial killer?

@troubleinharlem Yes.

@troubleinharlem a lot of people are interested in serial killers. You are not alone.

I don’t think it’s wrong at all. Frankly, I find things of this nature fascinating. Things of this nature ought to be discussed, lest they repeat themselves.

What I find fascinating about Columbine are all the unanswered questions. Was it an isolated incident or does it say something about our society? How do we reach out to those who are alienated? What role is played by the easy availability of guns?

If anything, Hitler was massively parallel.

There are lots of people who are fascinated by Nazi Germany, or even the entirety of World War II. Curiosity is fine, unless you start causing trouble with or for it.

It depends on why – if you are planning on creating a similar event and want to avoid their pitfalls, yes it is wrong. If you simply have a morbid curiosity in it, then don’t worry, there are millions who love that sort of thing.

And . . . here you’ll find some Ph.D. dissertations pertaining to the Columbine shootings. It’s okay for academics to be interested in this topic, so why not you as well?

It is ok to be interested. It helps get an idea on why those two students shot up the school. If the “popular” students and the “jocks” kept their arrogant mouths shut and if the teachers actually punished them for their abuse then this terrible tragedy would have never taken place. That said the two shooters also killed people for believing in God, for being black, for wearing sports appearel ( from what I heard). These 2 students who shot up the school should have been denied a funeral. Instead their bodies should have been torn to peices and placed on display until they rotted away. As a warning to others. Then the surviving students should have had to attend an assembly where they would have been giving lectures on shutting their stupid mouths and not antagonizing people to the point where they snap and shoot eveyone.

Whoa.