There was a shooting at a school in Tennessee, where a 15-year-old freshman walked calmly up to another student, and shot him in the chest. He then walked away. This is a horrible tragedy, obviously, but a blogger, Katie Allison Granju (never heard of her until now) has figured out why this happened. It’s because teenage boys are stupid!
Teenage boys are idiots. And today’s American teenage boys – whom our culture holds in a sort of manchild limbo long past the age they need to be doing some sort of hard work and earning their keep – are even bigger idiots.
By the time a male is about 16 years old, he has the body of an adult male, an adult male with a brain under assault by a dramatic rush of hormones the likes of which he’ll never again see during any other period of his lifetime. Teenage boys are more impulsive and aggressive than any other group. WItness their penchant for crashing cars, diving headfirst into rock quarries, experimenting with drugs, and deciding to “play chicken” by draping themselves across dark country roads in an attempt to prove something to their similarly stupid peers.They are driven by sexual curiosity to the point of insanity, and they hold a misguided sense of immortality.
Yes, I’m generalizing. Many teenage boys are polite, respectful, accomplished individuals, but those of them who are are pulling this off are doing so by fighting the natural impulses to be idiots that threaten to overtake them every day.
There is, perhaps, no other single group in American life less suited to have access to handguns than teenage boys. Which leads me to the primary question I have yet to see answered regarding yesterday’s tragic shooting at Central High School. Where did the boy get that gun? I want to know the provenance of that gun, and if evidence is found that any adult knowingly or very negligently allowed that kid to get his hands on that gun, that adult deserves to be sitting behind bars this morning along with the boy who fired the shot.
Teenage boys are stupid.
So are the adults who allow them to get their hands on guns.
I’ll admit it, I pretty much wanted to smack this blogger. Hard.
These kinds of people — mostly women — bother the hell out of me. OMIGOD! Teenage boys are, like, SO stupid! They’re irresponsible! They’re reckless! YEARRGHH!
Can the people who come up with this crap, just once, come up with an original thought? Please?
Yes, teenage boys tend to be more of the daredevil type. Yes, they do stupid things sometimes and take stupid risks. They also tend to be exceedingly loyal and I’ve found them to be rather considerate and great friends. Unlike teenage girls, may I point out.
I had many more guy friends in high school than girl friends. Part of this was because I participated in a male-dominated sport (crew), but another part of it was that I wasn’t interested in having a lot of girlfriends. I had a few, but by and large I didn’t get along with a lot of girls. Why? Because girls are vicious, jealous, backstabbing bitches in high school. They’re two-faced and evil and mean. Hell hath no fury like a teenage girl. Teenage boys, at least, stick with their friends through and through. Even when they get into a fight, they’ll duke it out and then ten minutes later, be best friends again. So simple. So uncomplicated. No three hour conversations about who screwed who over first or why such-and-such’s boyfriend was MY boyfriend first and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Piss off a teenage girl and it’s never a ten minute fight. She won’t try to kick your ass, but she will try to ruin your life. She will poison every well, spread as many rumors as possible, and in general try to make your life as miserable as possible. I don’t care if saying this pisses people off, because it’s the truth. Sure, there are exceptions, but teenage girls simply tend to be not very nice people.
Let me give you an example of how vicious girls can be. I was going to play in my high school’s annual Powderpuff football game. Every year, it’s the junior girls vs. the senior girls, and every year the seniors win. Well, my senior year rolled around and the junior girls were making a lot of noise about how the game had been fixed all this time, and this year they were finally going to win. It got the entire school talking. So, in our next senior girls planning meeting, what was decided? That the juniors needed to be taught a lesson. A pot was passed around, and everyone was asked to throw in money. The senior girl who drew the most blood from the juniors would win the entire pot.
I promptly quit.
Teenage guys, while reckless and daring, are by far less cruel than girls are.
My brother is a good example for this. He was definitely one of the stupider kids on the block when it came to doing dumb shit. You could dare him to do anything, and he would. He had scars all over his body from getting hurt, but usually after he got hurt he’d just pop back up and do it again. He did a lot of BMX in high school, was pretty good at it, and even built his own ramps in a sandlot behind a church for him and his friends. They were constantly falling down, breaking bones, bleeding, bruising, and in general hurting themselves. But they were boys. And that’s how boys are.
Although, I will say, I didn’t know of a whole lot of diving headfirst into rock quarries. That one, I think, must be some kind of phenomenon that only happens to teenage boys the author knows, because I sure as hell have never heard of it.
Anyway, my brother was also one of the sweetest, kindest people you ever could meet. He treated his girlfriend, Becky, like a princess. He was one of the most loyal people I ever knew. And he volunteered every summer at Camp I Am Special, a summer camp for disabled children, even taking a lifeguard position there so he could spend more time with the kids there. He had a big heart. And he wasn’t an anomaly.
Of course, according to Ms. Boys Are Stupid over there, that meant he was fighting the natural impulse all boys have to be stupid tooth and nail. I guess according to her, teenager boys are idiotic creatures with very few things running through their pathetic little minds (sex, drugs, and do dumb shit). I really, really hope this woman doesn’t have any male offspring. How would she explain this to them when they become teenagers?
And of course, there’s the whole “access to guns” schtick thrown in there, too. Because, you know, once the gun was put into this reckless and stupid boy’s hands, he suddenly was a man possessed and completely not in control of his actions. If only he hadn’t have had access to a gun, he never would’ve had the will to murder.
Christ almighty. Why is it that liberals are so anxious to blame the gun? Or society? Or anything beyond the sick individual who pulled the trigger? That gun did not cause the murder of an innocent teenger, a sick twisted screw-up of a human being did. But oh, no. Teenage boys must never, EVER have access to guns because if they did, they’d all go on murderous rampages!
Of course, I guess giving them access to guns in a safe environment, under strict supervision, where they can learn to use them properly and respect the danger of weapons would just be terrible. TERRIBLE. It’s far better to just keep them away from them altogether.
I mean, seriously — no one wants teenagers to have unlimited access to guns. That’s why you have to be over a certain age to buy a gun. That’s why there are regulations as to who can own a gun. I don’t disagree with that. But, you know, it’s pretty ridiculous to say that parents shouldn’t allow their kids to touch a gun with a ten-foot-pole is a good idea.
Let’s just call this tragedy what it really is. Some asshole had problems with an innocent kid, and because he’s twisted in the head, he murdered him. It’s not the gun’s fault. And it isn’t yet another example of how stupid teenage boys are. Sure, teenage boys act like idiots sometimes, but everyone does. It doesn’t mean they are idiots. Saying that teenage boys who are polite, decent, courteous, kind, and caring people are abnormal and weird is rude and wrong. Very, very wrong.
But this kind of hyperbole from women is accepted now, isn’t it? It’s OK for women to bash men left and right. It’s OK for women to talk about how horrible the male gender is. Not enough women stand up and say how wrong it is, and not enough men defend themselves. Too many of us, male and female, let this kind of thing just happen without complaint. Well, not me. I won’t just sit there and let these women think they’re speaking in my name.
Yes, there are some teenage boys who do awful things like this. There are also some teenage girls who do terrible things (remember the YouTube fighting incident?). And hey, guess what? There are adult men and women who do terrible things. Whaddya know? There are crappy people in the world. Saying it’s normal for a certain demographic is wrong and offensive. These kinds of people are in the minority, regardless of their age or gender. To say otherwise, as this idiot blogger did, is wrong and irresponsible at the absolute least. But of course, you’re allowed to put down boys and men. Substitute “teenage boys” with “girls”, “blacks”, “gays”, “muslims”, or any other minority, and the backlash would be unbelievable. She’d be fired, no doubt about it. And it’d be just as wrong as her thesis that all teenage boys are stupid is.
How much longer will we tolerate hateful women like this one putting down boys and men? It isn’t OK. It has an impact. And it needs to stop. We should be just as offended. We should be just as outraged. There’s no place for this kind of thing in our society today, and we shouldn’t let this happen anymore. Unfortunately, we just sit there and meekly take it. Ladies, these are your husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers that are being slandered. We need to let our voices be louder than those of the screeching hate harpies.
But hey, this author need not fear. If Maureen Dowd ever retires, there’s surely a position open for her at the New York Times.
Hat Tip: InstaPundit
