[monkeysocks]

I'm not sure if this really belongs here, but I just wanted to vent about some graffiti I saw in the bathroom today. Apparently, some genius thought it would be funny to draw a swastika on the wall. I mean, I can get used to people writing homophobic slurs on the wall. Most kids I know who are homophobic just don't understand and aren't actively hateful. But I don't get how someone could not wrap their head around millions of people dying.

So there's my mini rant. Jeez, I haven't posted on here in forever. In other news, I'm now on Celexa and just started high school. So, to end this post on a happier note, things are looking up for me.

[Oxidopamine]

Graffiti in high-school bathrooms is not very well thought out. The purposes of such graffiti is to grab people's attention (which it did based on your post) and for the graffiti artist to brag to his/her friends they're such a badass.

[monkeysocks]

I'm used to internet trolls pulling stuff like this and it doesn't really bother me. I guess the reason I was so ticked off was that a person from the "real world" did this. I may have overreacted a bit.

[DenisDonnacha]

stuff like that is all over school bathrooms, it's just idiots putting it there who probably even couldn't make the connection between a swastika and WWII.

[monkeysocks]

Yeah. *sigh* This is only my second year at public school (well, seventh, technically, but I was at private school for three years), so I'm not that used to the graffiti.
When I mentioned it to the teacher in class, I heard a girl ask her friend what a swastika was. To me it's like basic information. I tend to forget that other people don't know everything that I know...

[Emptty]

If a kid is over 13 and doesn't know what a swastika is that's pretty pathetic.

The graffiti is probably just kid stuff, a little way of being rebellious and acting out or on a different, more sinister note - there is an active nazi party in america.. I'm sure it also exists in other countries. When I was in 10th grade I dated a guy who was a neo nazi. He wasn't born into it but 'joined up' in middle school before I had met him.

There's too much hate and ignorance in the world, it's a shame that so many groups are targeted.

[monkeysocks]

True. I prefer to think that she just didn't know the word for it.
Ugh. And you dated this guy?
Yeah. I live in what I like to think of as a fairly open minded state. Yet recently there have been several incidents where racist graffiti was written on the homes of immigrant families. I try to remember that the good people outweigh the bad people and the only reason it seems the opposite is good people don't usually make for very interesting news stories. it's hard sometimes, though...

[Emptty]

Well my father is racist and at the time, dating a nazi didn't seem that bad I guess.

I tend to think differently, I don't know about good and bad people but I think that most bad people are ignorant or stupid and that's why they do bad things. With the country going the way it is now I tend to believe that most people are stupid and overall, self-serving. The hardest part about growing up is realizing how major problems exist almost everywhere.

I remember, where I live there were a number of beatings last year - a group of young guys went around atttacking mexican immigrants and in my neighborhood there's a group of blacks that jump whites, circles of violence everywhere. It's so sad but don't turn your head and think that it isn't everywhere -that graffiti in the bathroom should be covered up. Schools these days *sigh*

[monkeysocks]

Originally Posted by Emptty

I tend to think differently, I don't know about good and bad people but I think that most bad people are ignorant or stupid and that's why they do bad things.

I think that's true to some degree. Some are "crazy" or "evil" (psychotic or sociopaths). Some know what they're doing is wrong and just don't care. I don't think being ignorant or stupid is the most common reason to do bad things, but it's definitely a reason.

Originally Posted by Emptty

With the country going the way it is now I tend to believe that most people are stupid and overall, self-serving.

It's sometimes discouraging how people act. I don't believe people, in general, are that bad. And this is coming from someone who attends public high school. Yes, sometimes it's easy to lose faith in humanity. But it's important not to think about things in black and white. The kids that I find stupid and self-serving are much more than just the labels I apply to them. Some of them I've found to have redeeming features. I guess the point is that people are extremely complicated (we wouldn't be here if they weren't!) it's hard to label them, or even simply most of them.

Originally Posted by Emptty

The hardest part about growing up is realizing how major problems exist almost everywhere.

Amen.

Originally Posted by Emptty

I remember, where I live there were a number of beatings last year - a group of young guys went around atttacking mexican immigrants and in my neighborhood there's a group of blacks that jump whites, circles of violence everywhere.

That's awful. Where I live is a very safe state, statistically. Things like that don't happen around here.

Originally Posted by Emptty

It's so sad but don't turn your head and think that it isn't everywhere -that graffiti in the bathroom should be covered up. Schools these days *sigh*

I didn't mean to give the impression that it isn't. I'm just saying that it's only a small group of people doing these things. And don't worry, I'm sure it's gone now. It was only in pencil, anyway. The only reason I didn't get rid of it myself was that I didn't have an eraser on me.

[Perna]

The swastika is not just about Nazis, they stole it, like many other symbols. http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/swastika.html

I kind of doubt a high school student in this day and age would have a clue, anymore than Prince Harry did http://www.time.com/time/specials/pa...076811,00.html it's a little like a young elementary student saying a "bad" word.

[junkDNA]

graffiti is anonymity wanting an identity

[monkeysocks]

Originally Posted by Perna

The swastika is not just about Nazis, they stole it, like many other symbols. http://www.iearn.org/hgp/aeti/aeti-1997/swastika.html

I kind of doubt a high school student in this day and age would have a clue, anymore than Prince Harry did http://www.time.com/time/specials/pa...076811,00.html it's a little like a young elementary student saying a "bad" word.

It's true that the Nazis stole swastikas, but they've become associated with them. I think that the average high school student isn't likely to be aware of that. I doubt that they didn't know what it meant, and if they didn't, I almost find that worse. At least when little kids say bad words, they have the excuse of being young.