I take major issue with your mentioning of suicide and "identity politics" in the same paragraph here. The thing is, "identity politics" (in quotes here because I am referring to the term itself) is often used as a term in argue that one's identity isn't important, but the problem is that it is. It is very common for people who are different in some way for people who are different in some way to be bullied.

For instance, if we look at some statistics (note that much of this is direct quotes):

82% of LGBT students had problems the previous year with bullying. (A different site mentions a 74% rate of verbal bullying about sexual orientation.)

35.3% of students with behavioral and emotional disorders face high levels of bullying.

As a baseline statistic, 20.8% of students report being bullied.

Sources:

https://nobullying.com/lgbt-bullying-statistics/

http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp

Don't. It's dtgreene you're talking with. dtgreene brings gender bullshit into every topic and always finds a reason to be offended by even the most harmless postings.

Exactly. Those who do what their parents and teachers failed to do long ago. I salute them. I adore them, I idolize them. I wish I had their strength at their age, and I wish I had their strength at my present age. Had there been a shooting at my school, I wouldn't even leave the house any more.

If it was spontaneous, you'd give their protest exactly zero point zero weight, because you would never hear about it. Come on, it's true. A nation wide protest needs a whole lot of organisation. This doesn't work any other way. You're basically saying you'd give these kids your time of day if their protest was ineffective as fuck.

That is an entirely different problem complex, completely unrelated to what we've been talking about, but one I'm very willing to debate in. One possible answer to the wholly non sequitur question is, of course, that the protest right now clearly is one for legislation, i.e. for sensible gun laws.

The problem of bullying however can not be solved by legislation, and attempting that is not only foolish, but can also massively backfire. Lawmakers do not even understand an inch of the online methods that exist today to make other people's lives living hell. Lots of food for thought on the topic can of course be found in Zoë Quinn's Crash Override, a book on that exact subject that I unconditionally recommend. Of course, it doesn't give any ready-made recipes for a better world. But Quinn does indeed know where change can come from, and in this case all must start in the microcosm of the individual rather than the macrocosm of new laws.

I'm all for bullying awareness weeks and the active teaching of basic human empathy. Hell, I'll teach a class if need be.

Another way to answer the question, of course, is that their school bully killed 17 of them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/nikolas-cruz-shooting-florida.html

Maybe in a way they WERE protesting against bullies and the effects of their deeds.

Apparently a lot of the American people tend to see free speech as the über right that overrules any and all others. Any damage that the excercise of this right in any form does to other people's rights, to other people's freedom, is simply ignored, is declared insignificant. That is of course e.g. also why many horrific forms of online bullying, leading to depression and suicide, are completely legal and will remain completely legal. It's as frustrating to me as it is to you, I assure you that. These are protected forms of expression and they will not be touched (or protested against).

Well, wow, that left a whole lot to be desired. :| I don't think they engaged with the actual snopes criticism much. But no amount of tampering with the nomenclature or cutting inchworms out of the full data will make things any less clear.

http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/mass-shooting
Nothing compares. Nothing compares 2U.

Thanks for bringing the thread back on track. Because that IS a question that needs an answer, and yes the mind of a six or seven year old kid WILL bear the marks of excessive violence in the media it consumes. I'd love to hear what you think a rating/regulation system that most of Europe has, kind of what Hillary Clinton tried to introduce with the FEPA bill in 2005, would do in these particular cases.

You got me on 5. The joke is there's nothing wrong with it? or The pic is not Sarah Palin? or The newsreaders really a bloke?
I dunno? Tell us.

Calling Sarah Palin a "contender" XD

I didn't pay much (if any) attention to the 2012 US election, it was a bit a non event and forgone conclusion.