It started with a picture on Facebook and has now created a firestorm of outrage. Two Penn State students, dressed as Virginia Tech shooting victims, at a Halloween party have enraged people from the Virginia Tech community, as well as the entire country. 10 On Your Side has seen all of the controversial pictures. They are of two Penn State students and are extremely graphic. Both are wearing Virginia Tech t-shirts and elaborate make-up. Both have bullet holes in their bodies.
“It’s not that it was funny, it’s that we are notorious and infamous in the state college, so we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value,” he said. Penn State officials were quick to respond to the costumes. ” We are appalled that these individuals would display this level of insensitivity, indifference, and lack of common decency and sense by dressing up in this manner,” the school said.Some of the upset members have left threatening messages to the Penn State students. “This is a group of college students who now think it’s trendy to be upset about their friends being killed,” one of the two Penn State students who wore the costume said. “I don’t know what they teach people in Virginia Tech, but at Penn State we don’t learn to threaten people with murder to teach them that murdering is wrong.”
I like an off color joke as much as the next guy, but what were these kids thinking?
#57 – dk
Hate to say it, but you have something there. Male homosexuals in English-speaking countries are considerably more likely than the members of the general population to exhibit traits consistent with a diminished or absent conscience.
In short, and oversimplified, a higher percentage of them are cold-blooded and conscienceless than the gen pop. This is the reason (for example) for gay males higher incomes than other groups, controlled for age, occupation, geography, etc. It’s also the reason for the spread of AIDS by individuals who are HIV-pos, yet continue to engage in anonynous, unsafe sex with multiple partners and who do not inform those partners of their HIV status. And the overrepresentation of gays among pedophiles is another key piece of evidence. These conscience-free individuals simply do not give a shit what happens to others as a consequence of their actions.
And they would much rather that the public not snap to this.
Note, this does NOT describe most gays, but a minority. Still, it is significantly less common among straights. The reasons why are still a matter of speculation.
So this guy’s stunning lack of conscience and his orientation are not unconnected. You got it right, dk, but just sorta backwards;
“It figures that some one that is already fucked up in the head about his sexuality would do some thing like this also.”
It’s not being gay that makes him lack a conscience – but people lacking a conscience are more likely to be gay, because, as you noted, they’re already fucked up in the head, so that defect will show up in other aspects of their lives.
LOL THATS HILARIOUS!!!!!1111
It was tasteless. These students are acting as if a private joke was told. Taking a picture for public viewing is not a private matter anymore than the Nazi’s marching in Skokie, Il. It hurt feelings –a private joke doesn’t hurt feelings unless it becomes public and then it’s not private anymore.
As to one of the Pranksters/Perpetrators refusing to apologize. I am reminded of another sick villian who has sparked “JUST OUTRAGE” Lori Drew–whose insensitivity and piss poor joke caused a 13 year olds suicide. She , too, has refused to apologize.
Have we lost all civility?
To not admit this was a tasteless act just makes it that much more sick. We’ve all done stupid things, especially when we were younger, but to not apologize, to try to reason this out as a good thing is just a total lack of class.
Will this guy also defend the freaks that show up at funerals with their signs?
Since he’s homosexual, next year he can show up as the kid that was murdered and tied to that fence in Wyoming.
HELLO!!! This guy went to a private, drunken, college costume party – not a church social! He has nothing to apologize for. Pretty soon people will be asked to apologize for being naked in the shower. Putting that aside this kind of behavior is nothing new. A few years ago the Howard Stern Show had a “Tasteless Halloween Costume Contest”. Three people dressed up as “Elizabeth Smart and her Captors”, and some girl dressed up as “Lacie Peterson” (with a bleeding baby coming out of her gut) and everyone laughed hard. The only thing this kid is guilty of is not being creative enough. I would have dressed up as Michael Vick with dead dogs hanging from my coat (and I love dogs). At the root of every joke is an exaggeration.
I am disturbed that there are actually responses in defense of this. Yeah, yeah freedom of speech, just a costume – blah blah blah. Any point of view from you bratty little punks of today is moot. 10 yrs from now when you have your own kids and career and things other than happy hour and GPA are important to you you’ll regret taking this stance. Trust me -write it down and remember it. Show it to your kids if you’re so proud of it. Just go chug a beer and shut the F up!
i think its despicable to dress up like that, i think the two students need to see their friends get killed then watch someone dress up as their dead friends, see how they like it, im not a student of virginia tech but i know the hurt of losing a friend and the pain of someone making fun of that death, they should be ashamed of themselves its idiots like them that give americans a bad name, since when is it okay to make fun of someone elses pain, those costumes totally cross the line. my heart goes out to the virginia tech students and the familys of thoses lost.