Truth about Columbine and the Killers

[John Picard]

10 years later, the real story behind Columbine

They weren't goths or loners.
The two teenagers who killed 13 people and themselves at suburban Denver's Columbine High School 10 years ago next week weren't in the "Trenchcoat Mafia," disaffected videogamers who wore cowboy dusters. The killings ignited a national debate over bullying, but the record now shows Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold hadn't been bullied — in fact, they had bragged in diaries about picking on freshmen and "fags."


Their rampage put schools on alert for "enemies lists" made by troubled students, but the enemies on their list had graduated from Columbine a year earlier. Contrary to early reports, Harris and Klebold weren't on antidepressant medication and didn't target jocks, blacks or Christians, police now say, citing the killers' journals and witness accounts. That story about a student being shot in the head after she said she believed in God? Never happened, the FBI says now.

So whom did they hope to kill?
Everyone — including friends.

Harris, who conceived the attacks, was more than just troubled. He was, psychologists now say, a cold-blooded, predatory psychopath — a smart, charming liar with "a preposterously grand superiority complex, a revulsion for authority and an excruciating need for control," Cullen writes.
Harris, a senior, read voraciously and got good grades when he tried, pleasing his teachers with dazzling prose — then writing in his journal about killing thousands.
"I referred to him — and I'm dating myself — as the Eddie Haskel of Columbine High School," says Principal Frank DeAngelis, referring to the deceptively polite teen on the 1950s and '60s sitcom Leave it to Beaver. "He was the type of kid who, when he was in front of adults, he'd tell you what you wanted to hear."

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

 

[Misfit Toy]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

You're not really using the horrific tragedy of Columbine to make an undercover political comment in Misc, are you?

 

[John Picard]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

You're not really using the horrific tragedy of Columbine to make an undercover political comment in Misc, are you?

No, I am not. It was a tragedy that he capitalized on for his own personal gain. Now, 10 years later, the facts are coming out and it would be interesting if/how people's opinions change.

 

[MIB]

I'm no fan of Moore, but he made his commentary on this seven years ago. So unless the man is known to be extremely prescient, I don't think it's fair to start screaming "LIAR!" when this information just wasn't there at the time.

As for the article itself, it's interesting. However, I'm skeptical. Were Kleibold and Harris just generally psychotic? That's certianly a possability. Even a likely one. But I read the article and notice that while the author can pull out direct journal quotes about how much they hated their lives, the bullying claims are left vague and paraphrased. (Even thought they bragged about it extensively in their journal according to this article). I see alot of speculation from authors and random psychologists. There's a claim that the FBI said it all with no information regarding when they put out this statment. In fact, in the same paragraph, he says its a police statment only to say that the FBI is saying it just three lines later. etc. etc.

My overall impression is that its an article with plenty of fluff, but little verifiable fact other than what's already been known for a long time now

 

[Roger Wilco]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

As far as I remember none of the things you quoted had any relevance to the film Moore made about Columbine, in fact the "massacre" was only sort of the backdrop to his film.

Maybe you should watch it before you make such judgements...

 

[Misfit Toy]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

You're not really using the horrific tragedy of Columbine to make an undercover political comment in Misc, are you?

No, I am not. It was a tragedy that he capitalized on for his own personal gain. Now, 10 years later, the facts are coming out and it would be interesting if/how people's opinions change.

I also wonder how many Christian organizations made use of the "story about a student being shot in the head after she said she believed in God" for their gain (increased donations, membership, publicity, etc).

 

[Sci]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

Bowling for Columbine was about more than just the Columbine shooting -- it was about the question of why gun violence is so pervasive in American society even though countries like Canada have similar per-capita levels of gun ownership and similar histories of violence and unrest yet have much lower per-capital levels of gun violence. Its essential thesis is that the United States has a culture of fear and alienation, especially between the different races and ethnic groups, that is promoted by a sensationalist, fear-mongering media and political elite, and that it is this culture of fear that causes higher levels of gun violence.

There's nothing in your report about Harris and Klebold that contradict anything major I recall in Bowling for Columbine.

 

[sidious618]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

Bowling for Columbine was about more than just the Columbine shooting -- it was about the question of why gun violence is so pervasive in American society even though countries like Canada have similar per-capita levels of gun ownership and similar histories of violence and unrest yet have much lower per-capital levels of gun violence. Its essential thesis is that the United States has a culture of fear and alienation, especially between the different races and ethnic groups, that is promoted by a sensationalist, fear-mongering media and political elite, and that it is this culture of fear that causes higher levels of gun violence.

There's nothing in your report about Harris and Klebold that contradict anything major I recall in Bowling for Columbine.

Exactly correct.

 

[Davros]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

But he didn't make mistakes in Bowling For Columbine. For some reason, I do not think you have ever even seen the film.

 

[Lowdarzz]

The doc in question was actually about the so-called gun culture of the United States. Moore just used Columbine as a tool to push his reasoning.

That said the best part of the film was when Moore was burned by Charlton Heston.

 

[Shaytan]

And I thought The Truth would involve at least 3 or 4 knights templar, I'm a little disappointed...I don't know why, the title sounded like a promising conspiracy.

 

[Captain X]

You'd need to watch Manufactured Dissent and Michael Moore Hates America to get a better idea of how much Moore stretched the truth or outright lied in Bowling for Columbine or in any of his movies, really. Things like reediting two NRA meetings together to make them look bad, or making it look like you could walk into a bank and get a gun for setting up an account there, or just the complete misinformation in that cute little cartoon of his that shows he doesn't let inconvenient things like historical fact get in the way of telling it the way he sees it.

 

[hellsgate]

~lowers my head & folds my hands together in a respectful gesture of silence.~

It was tragic nonetheless. The kids that fell that day will never be forgotten.

Bullying, psychotic control freaks, or whatever the issue, I'm hoping something positive can come of all of this.

More decisive communication between County / State / Federal Legal Authorities, Civil Rights Authorities/Youth Advocacy Groups, Schools, Parents, and Mental Health authorities.

The culture of silence (and the stigma of being "a 'rat'",) needs to change especially when someone comes across a potentially unpredictable and volatile personality in a blog that might end up resulting in a Columbine or Montreal Massacre.

To Those No Longer With Us,
May You All Forever Rest In Peace. ----- And May God (Or Whatever Almighty Deity of Salvation/Creation My Readers Believe In,) Help Us All.

 

[Sci]

You'd need to watch Manufactured Dissent and Michael Moore Hates America to get a better idea of how much Moore stretched the truth or outright lied in Bowling for Columbine or in any of his movies, really. Things like reediting two NRA meetings together to make them look bad, or making it look like you could walk into a bank and get a gun for setting up an account there, or just the complete misinformation in that cute little cartoon of his that shows he doesn't let inconvenient things like historical fact get in the way of telling it the way he sees it.

Neither of which has anything to do with Columbine. Again, nothing in this report contradicts anything Moore claimed in Bowling about those shooters.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

More like Michael Moore, the prophet, revealed the endless hypocracy or the NRA, the Republican party and right wing extremists in general. Something he continues to do very well.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

As has been noted, the biggest exploiter of the Columbine tragedy has been the Christian evangelical community, which continued to cynically tout the "She Said Yes" myth about Cassie Bernall even though it was debunked by the Rocky Mountain News not long after the shootings.

Her family continues to host a site selling books and soliciting paid speaking engagements (aimed mostly at churches) that says in huge letters that she "was killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, after professing her faith in God." Which is quite simply a lie.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Didn't Michael Moore, the blubber, fat lying sack of crap that he is, make a movie about this? Think he'll correct his mistakes? I doubt it.

And here we have a textbook example of how not to start a Thread, even if there wasn't a moratorium on controversial Topics.