Florida Gay Club PULSE has been attacked with injuries, and possible hostage situation.

[sixthson]

And I note, unfortunately, that events like this one seem to make only more.

Often, the response isn't to rise above hate, but to repeat it back, in kind.

A just and orderly world isn't founded in emotional soup.

There is a right way to respond to this and the right people to target. Even your buddy Bernie Sanders said today that we need
to do everything human possible to destroy ISIS.

 

[dereperez]

In addition, there are safety in numbers. Never ever go to a gay bar alone if you can avoid it. Find LGBT friendly cousins, classmates, coworkers. IF you do go alone, try not to stay out to late.

Always stay in your group, never wander off with someone without consulting your group, and really don't walk off with anyone intoxicated.

Good advice. Except being in a group doesn't help much when you have a crazy guy with an assault rifle that attacks by surprise. When you're out and having fun with your friends, you nor your friends stand much of a chance against a nutjob gone mass shooter.

And I note, unfortunately, that events like this one seem to make only more.

Often, the response isn't to rise above hate, but to repeat it back, in kind.

A just and orderly world isn't founded in emotional soup.

Agree with this, which is the scarier part: copy cat shootings.

 

[-Kane-]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/orlando-shooting-victims_us_575e0bebe4b0e39a28adf8cf

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

And I note, unfortunately, that events like this one seem to make only more.

Often, the response isn't to rise above hate, but to repeat it back, in kind.

A just and orderly world isn't founded in emotional soup.

But it is so easy to hate. Takes no effort.

 

[KaraBulut]

Looking at the list makes me realize there will be people (if we can call them that) all over the world who are secretly, and some not so secretly, celebrating the deaths of not only gay people, but people whose ethnicity is not their own. There is so much hate in our world... Let us love one another....

A lot of the international coverage has been very sympathetic to the impact of the tragedy, even in the middle east. There have also been several articles pointing out that the AR-15 was the weapon used in Sandy Hook, San Bernardino and now Orlando.

The BBC has even created a page with pictures and bios for several the of dead.

One interesting thing that hasn't really happened yet. Many of the dead and injured are Puerto-Rican. Orlando has a huge Puerto-Rican community that has been growing because of the island's financial troubles. Articles in Puerto Rican news outlets have been distracted with the Supreme Court's decision against PR debt restructuring and they have just begun to link the victims to the island.

There has also been a change in US rhetoric- it has solidified a recent change in US politics: that slander against the LBGT community isn't acceptable in public. Many of the conservative politicians- in many cases, the same politicians that have never uttered the phrase "sexual orientation" in public- are waking up to the fact that hate crimes against the GLBT community are still a reality in 2016 and that words matter.

Perhaps they'll also wake up to the reality that "religious freedom" is not a valid excuse for hate crimes, bigotry and homophobia.

 

[eastofeden]

Kara....."Perhaps" is a good term....I don't think so.

Just this election season....Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee which are all Republican Candidates for President attended a public event hosted by THIS man....and that is a seal of approval....

...and this is mainstream Christianity.....

...and mainstream politicians....one who got very close to being our Commander in Chief....

 

[offthewall14420]

Human life often proves itself to be culpable when demonstrating the absurd, at a time when human kind needs practical assistance.

President Obama immediately waived bigoted HIPPA laws too. Otherwise a lot of people wouldn't be able to find out their loved ones' statuses.

 

[Kabluey]

I hope that in the long term, the savagery of such an attack serves to create the shooter as a role model of how not to be.

America's worst mass shooting in history was against gays. People who participate in casual violence against LGBT people from this day forth do so knowing that their actions will be judged against one of the ugliest events in US history.

 

[Level27]

Jason Benjamin Josaphat, 19 years old

There are no words for a loving song disrupted.

 

[KaraBulut]

Kara....."Perhaps" is a good term....I don't think so.

Just this election season....Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Mike Huckabee which are all Republican Candidates for President attended a public event hosted by THIS man....and that is a seal of approval....

...and this is mainstream Christianity.....

...and mainstream politicians....one who got very close to being our Commander in Chief....

Let's stop referring to these candidates and their ideology as "mainstream". It's extremism. And extremism is dangerous- whether it's judaism, islam or christianity.

Jon Oliver did a monologue about how many people lined up to donate blood in response to the shootings. If only we were as motivated to vote against these extremists and send them into political and professional oblivion where they belong...

 

[LeicsDom]

A problem is that if Americans ever concede that the 2d Amendment allows the Federal government to place some limits on guns, the liberals will claim they can do whatever they want, even end all gun ownership. Give them an inch, they will take a mile.

Good. Ban them. Completely

 

[Sausy]

When extremism becomes the mainstream default setting of a large sector of a major American political party... I'm looking at you, GOP... that it's been able to do so over the past thirty plus years... they rant about radical Islam and imposing of sha'ria law but how are these people any different? Wanting the US to be governed, at least strongly guided, by "Biblical" values.

Most people are good, or at least try to do good and be decent to others. Unfortunately, enough are corrupted by power, ego, selfishness, greed to do great damage. And even more unfortunately it's those who have the upper hand because power and influence is intoxicating.... and with money, organization and having the ear of elected officials and the institutions supposed to look out for us, we're screwed.

 

[TheLoveableLoner]

Because the only way to respond to anti-gay hate is anti-Muslim hate.

This man was born and raised in the USA and not a devout Muslim. Despite whatever ties he sought with ISIS for relevance, his homophobia and access to deadly weapons were about as American as Apple Pie.

 

[Benvolio]

Good. Ban them. Completely

Your attitude is exactly why compromise does not happen.

 

[billie]

Yeah, more guns. Always more guns.

I think he was trolling.



What really surprises me is how the media distracts people from thinking about the easy access of guns in America. I am not saying that ISIS and the radicalism is not an important issue but people should wonder how a guy with bipolar disorder obtained that military-grade weapon.
Anyways, my condolences to those who suffered this tragedy, it is a pity that this news didnt have that much impact in Spain, not many people seems to know about it. When Paris/Brussels attacks and the syrian drowned kid happened, the outrage was massive in here.

That law that ban gays from donating blood is one of the biggest bullshit I have ever read, as if a straight person can not be a STD bearer...

 

[gsdx]

Your attitude is exactly why compromise does not happen.

Yes, it does, and yes, it can.

I've said it before here and I'll say it again. Assault weapons are made for one purpose only. They should not be as easy to buy as a lawn mower.

Unfortunately, it's always the innocent people who suffer the consequences.

 

[MorrisseyX]

America is too violent the violence is alarming and shocking. Think about it anyone in America at any mall can own a gun and shoot your brains out. The political will needs to change. This is the reason I see the USA as inferior to Canada and the western European countries. The USA needs to deal with the gun control issue. It is sad but the American politics seems incapable of doing anything about it. The first huge shooting I heard about was columbine in 1999 yet seventeen years later USA still had the same gun control problems.

 

[eastofeden]

Let's stop referring to these candidates and their ideology as "mainstream". It's extremism. And extremism is dangerous- whether it's judaism, islam or christianity.

Jon Oliver did a monologue about how many people lined up to donate blood in response to the shootings. If only we were as motivated to vote against these extremists and send them into political and professional oblivion where they belong...

The problem that I see is not enough people call them out...and unfortunately...if you do call them out you get people who put words in your mouth or assign you a position you did not take and expect you to defend it..and that is when it becomes mainstream because it becomes impossible to separate the actual extremism from the not so extreme....

In this case...that guy did call saying he was doing this for ISIS ahead of time...and the Orlando Mosque invited a guy who they knew advocated killing gays and defended it...so at that point....where is the line drawn? I would say they are as extremist as the speaker....

I would not be comfortable being neighbors with anyone of any religion who invited a speaker or Preacher or Mullah who advocated killing gay people or ANYONE because their book told them to do it. I think the people who listen to it without protest or don't take it as a chance to look at themselves in the mirror and see what they are or have become are more dangerous than the people who are speaking....

With religion..I have pretty much concluded that Liberal members of any religion tend to actually represent the version of GOD that is not extremist....and Conservative members of any religion either stay silent or condone Religious Intolerance and Extremism....

...and they use fear to justify all of it...and a certain member of one party has risen to the top of what was a crapfest to begin with using these tactics and is now quite mainstream....and scary....

Bottom line: I worry that extremism is becoming the norm.....

 

[KaraBulut]

The problem that I see is not enough people call them out...and unfortunately...if you do call them out you get people who put words in your mouth or assign you a position you did not take and expect you to defend it..and that is when it becomes mainstream because it becomes impossible to separate the actual extremism from the not so extreme....

The US has a tradition of free speech... and that tolerance includes ugly, hateful speech.

What we can do is vote these demagogues out of office. They get into office by appealing to the lowest common denominator- evangelical activists who vote in primaries. Or they depend on votes in states where party "straight ticket" voting is allowed- all a voter has to do is walk into the booth and check a single box to vote for everyone in that party.

Bottom line: I worry that extremism is becoming the norm.....

The global trend has been that religious moderates aren't active in their religions. Liberals and reformists are increasingly agnostic or cynical about organized religions. This leaves conservatives and extremists which unfortunately also overlap with lower socioeconomic groups who also have higher birth rates.

In this case...that guy did call saying he was doing this for ISIS ahead of time...and the Orlando Mosque invited a guy who they knew advocated killing gays and defended it...so at that point....where is the line drawn? I would say they are as extremist as the speaker....

He wasn't an observant Muslim- he was clean-shaven, he didn't cover his head, he was apparently sleeping with women outside of marriage and there's little evidence that he observed the five pillars of Islam.

What these guys always have in common is that they start with an agenda and they find religious justification that supports their existing beliefs. From the people who knew him, it sounds like this guy was mentally ill- to the point that his first wife left him to escape an abusive marriage and his coworkers quit to get away from him. Multiple people had reported him to police and the FBI because of his (fictitious) claims to coworkers about being associated with terrorist organizations.

Mental hospitals are full of people who claim to be divinely inspired. That's probably where he belonged.

 

[Alnitak]

From the people who knew him, it sounds like this guy was mentally ill- to the point that his first wife left him to escape an abusive marriage and his coworkers quit to get away from him. Multiple people had reported him to police and the FBI because of his fictitious claims to coworkers about being associated with terrorist organizations.

Which in turn is another common thread among terrorists - displacement and social rejection.