Serendipitously jumped here from another video about kindness - the one where a victim's father tells the killer he forgives him. And the killer cries. http://videosift.com/video/What-Makes-a-Serial-Killer-Cry?loadcomm=1#comment-1535227

>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.


Very well put.

He is so used to negative feedback from people, it probably just fuels how he validates his actions. It is the unexpected act of kindness that he was not prepared for.

When I see someone who is sick, I see a symptom of that illness. When I see a member of society acting in this fashion I see a symptom of a social illness. We are all responsible for our own actions, don't get me wrong. However I wonder if there was any point in this man's upbringing where something could have been done differently so that he wouldn't have brought so much pain to others.

On a side note I have a ton of respect (despite his tendency towards believing in mythology) for a man who can forgive another for such a devastating act of cruelty.

>> ^critical_d:

No, Pennywise is the clown from It. John Wayne Gacy was a cereal serial killer who dressed as a clown for charitable services.
>> ^ant:
>> ^critical_d:
Or John Wayne Gacy.
>> ^ant:
It?


That was the clown's name from It?



Ah and thanks.

No, Pennywise is the clown from It. John Wayne Gacy was a cereal serial killer who dressed as a clown for charitable services.

>> ^ant:

>> ^critical_d:
Or John Wayne Gacy.
>> ^ant:
It?


That was the clown's name from It?

>> ^luxury_pie:

>> ^quantumushroom:
This is the best the left can do, a serial abuser of women and likely rapist.
Sorry to crash the love-fest, but as Slick Willie told Monica when she complained about not getting enough hugs: Every day can't be sunshine.
But you can't argue with the fact that he is a fantastic orator... especially for a rapist/ serial killer/ abuser/saxophonist


You doubled up some of your catagorization. I fixed it for you.

>> ^quantumushroom:

This is the best the left can do, a serial abuser of women and likely rapist.
Sorry to crash the love-fest, but as Slick Willie told Monica when she complained about not getting enough hugs: Every day can't be sunshine.
But you can't argue with the fact that he is a fantastic orator... especially for a rapist/ serial killer/ abuser/ saxophonist

Wow! All that, and a mind reader too? You're awesome!

It takes a particularly high level of arrogance to tell someone you've never met, and haven't spent any significant amount of time interacting with, what they're actually thinking and how it's different from what they say they're thinking.

But sure...you're right, and everyone who disagrees with you is on the dark side. Whatever...>> ^swedishfriend:

Thinking in such absolutes has never led to anything good. It is a matter of degrees. The serial killer kills because that extreme of a thing is what it takes to feel anything. Without emotions you become passive. I am right about what I wrote. With some introspection on your end you will realize it too. Denying the dark side of yourself will force it to be expressed, which the tone of your comment clearly shows.
>> ^Stormsinger:
>> ^swedishfriend:
Yeah that is it exactly. He was telling himself and others that they really aren't bad guys because the workers want to be there. This shows that he does have empathy and does care. If he didn't care he wouldn't need to comfort himself like that. He is just really good at burying his empathetic feelings and making excuses to himself so that he will feel less bad about it. I am sure we can all relate to some degree. Everyone uses these tactics. We simply cannot help all the people in pain that we come across in our everyday lives. He has done it for so long, so much and regarding such serious situations that even desperately unfair conditions like these aren't enough to make him act properly. Not a good choice for a leader of anything.
>> ^enon:
>> ^shinyblurry:
I don't think there is any way to judge this comment unless we find out what Romney did with the factory after he bought it. I don't think he was bragging, and from what I've heard and read, his description of the fierce competition for jobs in China is accurate.

First off, you're previous comment, minus all the godly stuff, was quite beautiful and is how I strive to live my life - minus the godly stuff
In regards to Romney's comment -- from my vantage point it sounds more like he was expressing surprised relief that the slave labor factor he had just purchased was actually staffed by willing slave laborers rather than forced slave laborers and this somehow alleviates what ever remote feeling of guilt he might have had. It gave the appearance that either way he was going to work these poor women to the bone, it just made it easier on him now that he knew they were semi willing participants. Obviously this is all conjecture but I'm hard pressed to hear and sympathy or remorse in his voice, it was much more akin to "Did you know these mother fuckers actually WANT to work like this? So in reality we're doing good and turning a profit!" His voice has far more interest in that fact than disgust which is kinda the tipping point for me.
I try to remind myself that this can potentially happen to anyone. He was raised and has lived far away from what would be considered a working mans life and it is hard to feel empathy for someone if you are not able to relate to them or have never been taught it. I think it's pretty evident from his lifestyle that this holds true for him. He's not a bad person because he's evil, but because he's incredibly ignorant.


Seriously? You think his attempts to paint himself in a better light shows he has empathy?
No. It shows he realizes just how fucking sociopathic his behavior is, and he's trying to sell a "nicer, warmer" image of himself to his audience. He flat out does not care...he'd be just as willing to bleed those women dry, and profit from their blood. Because he's better than they are...they're just peons, and don't count for a thing, just like all of us. We're not him, so we don't count.

Thinking in such absolutes has never led to anything good. It is a matter of degrees. The serial killer kills because that extreme of a thing is what it takes to feel anything. Without emotions you become passive. I am right about what I wrote. With some introspection on your end you will realize it too. Denying the dark side of yourself will force it to be expressed, which the tone of your comment clearly shows.

>> ^Stormsinger:

>> ^swedishfriend:
Yeah that is it exactly. He was telling himself and others that they really aren't bad guys because the workers want to be there. This shows that he does have empathy and does care. If he didn't care he wouldn't need to comfort himself like that. He is just really good at burying his empathetic feelings and making excuses to himself so that he will feel less bad about it. I am sure we can all relate to some degree. Everyone uses these tactics. We simply cannot help all the people in pain that we come across in our everyday lives. He has done it for so long, so much and regarding such serious situations that even desperately unfair conditions like these aren't enough to make him act properly. Not a good choice for a leader of anything.
>> ^enon:
>> ^shinyblurry:
I don't think there is any way to judge this comment unless we find out what Romney did with the factory after he bought it. I don't think he was bragging, and from what I've heard and read, his description of the fierce competition for jobs in China is accurate.

First off, you're previous comment, minus all the godly stuff, was quite beautiful and is how I strive to live my life - minus the godly stuff
In regards to Romney's comment -- from my vantage point it sounds more like he was expressing surprised relief that the slave labor factor he had just purchased was actually staffed by willing slave laborers rather than forced slave laborers and this somehow alleviates what ever remote feeling of guilt he might have had. It gave the appearance that either way he was going to work these poor women to the bone, it just made it easier on him now that he knew they were semi willing participants. Obviously this is all conjecture but I'm hard pressed to hear and sympathy or remorse in his voice, it was much more akin to "Did you know these mother fuckers actually WANT to work like this? So in reality we're doing good and turning a profit!" His voice has far more interest in that fact than disgust which is kinda the tipping point for me.
I try to remind myself that this can potentially happen to anyone. He was raised and has lived far away from what would be considered a working mans life and it is hard to feel empathy for someone if you are not able to relate to them or have never been taught it. I think it's pretty evident from his lifestyle that this holds true for him. He's not a bad person because he's evil, but because he's incredibly ignorant.


Seriously? You think his attempts to paint himself in a better light shows he has empathy?
No. It shows he realizes just how fucking sociopathic his behavior is, and he's trying to sell a "nicer, warmer" image of himself to his audience. He flat out does not care...he'd be just as willing to bleed those women dry, and profit from their blood. Because he's better than they are...they're just peons, and don't count for a thing, just like all of us. We're not him, so we don't count.

>> ^Yogi:

So if I don't have a record I can shoot black people? I can't follow any of this logic...I have to go lie down for awhile cause this is depressing.


And by that logic you can kill everyone and therefore be the most prolific serial-killer of all time, charged with nothing. "He was coming right at us!!!"...


This makes me sick.

His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's t-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things, rotting fast, in their sleep
Oh, the dead

Twenty-seven people
Even more, they were boys
With their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God

Are you one of them?

He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed
He kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took off all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss on the mouth

And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floor boards
For the secrets I have hid


Sufjan Stevens on John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
“I think it’s kind of an exercise in humuliation. I won’t pretend to empathize with his behavior or his desire. But I can empathize with his nature. I feel our way of alienating and disassociating with serial killers is a way of disengaging with the reality of our nature, and that we are very selfish, possessive, violent people. I have high regard for the industry of humanity and our ability to give and generate love, but I also think we are selfish animals. I guess I felt a real conviction, although I don’t know where it came from, to humanize John Wayne Gacy, Jr. in a way that enabled us to encounter our own beasts within ourselves. [But] there was nothing good about him. He had no sense of grief about what he did, even to the very end. I’m not pretending to know where that comes from.”

>> ^kronosposeidon:

Tim Roth was such an excellent baddie in this film. You SO wanted Rob Roy to dice him up like Hannibal Lecter.


This might be the best sword-fight ever captured on film. Certainly is my favorite.

Interesting you bring up Hannibal Lecter. Brian Cox (who was in Rob Roy) was the original, and still the best actor to play the role in "Manhunter" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091474/. His Hannibal Lecktor was menacing and chilling- much more so than Anthony Hopkins in my opinion. Tom Noonan as the serial killer "The Tooth Fairy" was positively terrifying and utterly convincing.

Now, as for Videosift's very own crazed killer, I wonder how @choggie is doing these days?

*promote

Not just Romney is a serial killer.

Sigh.. fatuous rhetorical questions... do you REALLY need me to confirm that this type of thing is an exception and not morally wrong? Technically/semantically, there's no conscious decision there. Killing someone who's an immediate threat to your children is an instinctive reaction, not a deliberate moral choice.

If it helps you to wrap your head around the concept, I'll re-phrase: the conscious and deliberate PLANNING to take someone else's life is always wrong. This would include any kind of pre-meditated killing like the death penalty, or abortion*, but not euthanasia. Please don't hit me with another obvious exception like if a serial killer mails you a gun and his address and says you have to kill him within an hour or your family dies. Yes, you would be morally right to kill him.

I find your notion that government should be empowered to take people's lives as a form of "justice" to be utterly disgusting. I can really understand now why it's considered rude to bring up politics at the dinner table. (EDIT: I sound like a real ass here, reading this back. You're entitled to your opinon... )

* while abortion is morally wrong, people ought to have the right to do it. You can't legislate morality.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

Always wrong though? Like if someone is trying to kill my daughter and I kill him in the struggle?

Isn't 20, the age at which she said she had her first paranormal experience, also around the age that schizophrenia normally manifests?

I mean, the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz claimed his neighbour's dog was possessed by a demon which told him to kill people. In fact a number of serial killers claim that God, or Satan instructed them to kill. Does she propose that they were crazy, but she is sane?

shinyblurry, the flaw in your thinking is that somehow this Bible is a perfect work and completely true word of God, and yet there are so many different versions. You can't even come close to agreeing on the basic concept of what is God. How is your Trinity correct, but the Catholic church is wrong, and the apostles are wrong, but somehow YOU are correct.

The central truth of the gospel is what is important, and that is what has nigh universal agreement, throughout the church, and throughout history. That is, that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and through Him we are saved and reconciled to God. Anyone who believes that God raised Jesus from the dead and confesses that He is Lord will be saved.

The real problem with your nonsense is that a child molester who murders old ladies and is also a serial killer... just has to say a few words and poof, he is as pure and spiritual as you are. I'm not sure how that sits well with you.

The reason you have a problem with this is because you see yourself as a good person. Yet, the bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If you only sin 5 times a day, by the time you are 70 years old you will have sinned over 100k times. There is no one good but God, and God doesn't show partiality between sinners.

>>You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only -- James 2:24

Only a faith that produces works is a justifying faith. A faith that produces no works is dead.

Also, Jesus likes to contradict himself even from the same author within mere paragraphs of one another:
>>If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. -- John 5:31
>>Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true -- John 8:14

John 5:32

There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.

He is saying, if it were only Him that testifies, His testimony would not be valid. Yet, His Father also testifies on His behalf. Now let's look at the rest of John 8:14 that you ommitted:

John 8:14

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.

He is now saying that His testimony about Himself is valid, because He heard it from His Father, He told Him where He came from and where He is going. There isn't any actual contradiction, but just a lack of study.

>> ^joedirt