Why The Parkland Students #Never Again Movement May Founder

Delaney Tarr, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland FL, three months ago, warned the NRA backing pols: "We are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action, demanding that you make a change!" 

Part of the crowd which showed up for the "March for our lives" in Washington, D.C. two months ago.

No fully conscious citizen can forget how the Parkland #NeverAgain protest movement began with great fanfare three months ago, marking its high point with the "March for our lives" on March 24. The event featured stirring speeches from a number of the students whose Parkland FL school was the scene of the worst ever mass shooting for a high school.  In one of the first speeches, Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior Delaney Tarr told the crowd of the students’ demands, including background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

“When you give us an inch, that bump stocks ban, we will take a mile. We are not here for breadcrumbs, we are here to lead.”


Before her D.C. march appearance, Ms. Tarr appeared a number of times earlier, including on CNN, and MSNBC, warning NRA-backed politicos that "we are coming after you".  She achieved much prominence, as did the other Parkland students  - including Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and Cameron Kasky  - based on their poise, knowledge and ability to articulate the anxieties of millions of kids nationwide, trapped in an out of control gun culture. (An estimated 300 million guns are possessed by a minority of U.S. citizens.)

Parkland student Jordan Khayyami, 15, warned: “I think that legislatures should be aware that the next generation of voters is right in front of them so if they don’t want to promote change then we will vote for change.”

The scenes of  hundreds of thousands of activated students was overwhelming to many of the victims of earlier gun violence, including Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was one of the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012, Barden told a reporter from the UK Guardian:

“I did not expect this. I’m still astounded,. To me, it looks like our entire nation is finally on board, on the right side of this issue. It’s so inspiring and encouraging and overwhelming, and beautiful to me.”

The students - including speakers from other gun-victimized high schools, e.g. in  D.C., Maryland, Chicago,  also took time to set up voter registration booths, to prepare as many 18-year olds and others eligible to vote this year as possible.

But what has transpired since the last marches in April? Not much, and this bespeaks why the #Never Again movement may now be running out of steam.   This also highlights the bane of too many incipient mass movements that begin with energetic protests but soon expire - especially in the modern era (including "Occupy Wall Street"). The cautionary note being that even the most sensational mass marches and activism are often interpreted in hindsight as merely temporary shows of enthusiasm.  

Indeed, as we discovered in the 1960s, it is extremely difficult to translate march protests into sustained mass movements that can change history.  In fact, for most of American history -  going back to the "Wobblies" in the 1920s and even before - it was understood that movements required months or even years of planning and effort as well as determined commitment. It couldn't simply be a case of rousing the masses to concerted action, then say going off to college and forgetting about them, or assuming they will organize on their own.

This is why starting in the mid 1960s one was often asked to be part of "the movement", which was understood to mean committing your heart, mind and soul to the work at hand and then showing up whenever and wherever bodies were needed. That included not only in march protests like the kids from Parkland put on, but also appearing in Southern diners alongside African American students - say in Birmingham or Jackson, Mississippi in the fall of 1964, or on buses as "Freedom Riders".

I learned early at Loyola, in September, 1964, at a rapidly- called meeting by the  Loyola chapter of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) that I was not cut out for such commitment.  I came out of curiosity to the meeting, held at nearby Tulane - with about 35 other Loyola freshmen - expecting to learn ways we could contribute. But when we were told we needed to board buses that weekend to go to Montgomery, Alabama as "Freedom Riders", many of us balked. For me it was a matter that I'd just commenced my college first year and was on scholarship - which I didn't want to risk. For others, it was that they simply didn't feel the amount of time  needed was feasible.  For others, it was a fear of actual physical harm since we'd already read of Freedom Riders being beaten and buses set on fire.

As it turned out, those who joined the CORE campaign were not seen at Loyola from the next year. The word was most had either dropped out to join the movement full time, or had been injured, or flunked out and left.   This brings us to the #Never Again movement.

Recall how two beat writers (Arian Campo-Flores and Nicole Hong)  on the staff of The Wall Street Journal wrote a stirring article ('From Shooting To Gun Control Movement')  of why these Stoneman  Douglas students were different, noting:

"The students at Stoneman aren't like those who witnessed previous mass shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, or Virginia Tech in 2007. They are digital natives, at one with the language and power of smartphones and social media.  That is one reason why the movement they started, dubbed #NeverAgain, has become a nationwide phenomenon in barely a few days, and shows signs of becoming the kind of campaign success that a company or politician can only dream of."

This and similar media pieces naturally spawned vast expectations.  It prompted the expectation - especially after a number of states had enacted new gun laws in response  - that this was just the beginning. But one little element appeared to escape the attention of the movement optimists: Most of the Parkland activists were Stoneman Douglas seniors who were now in the midst of Advanced Placement preparations (the AP Calculus test, for example,  was last Tuesday a.m.) and are going off to college. How then can the needed motivation and commitment be sustained if one must take on intense, new obligations? As many of us learned in our first year at Loyola, it can't. You can't honor two masters at the same time. If you honor your education with first priority you have to let full commitment to the movement go.

This is what Parkland's ambitious student activists are now learning and the rest of us as well.  That is, just dispatching social media texts  from an office and organizing to show up on the streets and in schools,  does not necessarily presage a movement or earn you enduring credit.  While jump starting a movement is easy, making it stick is a helluva lot more difficult - especially to translate into concrete change.

Make no mistake the latter has been achieved by the Parkland kids and victims, in terms of new state gun laws (see previous post), but much more could still be done - especially mustering the numbers to get 18 years registered to vote for the mid terms. Who will see this through?  What is possible, of course, it that the younger Stoneman Douglas students, e.g. 15 year old Jordan Khayyami and 16 year old Morgan Williams, can now take up the banner from their older peers.

If they don't, or can't - say because of time constraints or academic priorities - then the #Never Again movement that held so much promise three months ago, may now founder on the rocks of lower energy and inattention.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/cesar-chelala/77791/a-student-s-message-to-politicians-about-the-florida-massacre

Cowardly "Bonespurs" Hides, While Courageous Kids Marched for Their Lives - An Assessment Of Saturday's Events

"WAAGH! I can't handle facing a million kids when they know I bent over for the NRA"



An "officially" estimated throng of 800,000 kids  (I estimated closer to a million) marched in Washington, D.C. Saturday as our fearless,  would -be leader Donnie Dotard, aka  "Captain Bonespurs",  hightailed it out of town to Mar-A-Lago. There we presume he could hide and perhaps ponder Stormy Daniels dishing on him in a 60 Minutes segment. .So as the students gathered, Trump was whisked by motorcade to his West Palm Beach golf club where he later tweeted support for “the victims of the horrible attack in France yesterday” (sic).  But the imp never once mentioned the rallies on Twitter.

Of course, this was a deliberate, trademark (and transparent)  Trump dodge : an expedient excuse to avoid giving any acknowledgement or respect to the student marchers in D.C. -   given he'd long since bent over for the NRA. This after a meeting in the White House when he was all bravado about "not being afraid of the NRA".  As for the tweet to "support the victims in France" let's get real. This degenerate filth cares no more about them than he cared about the dead Syrian kids from a toxic gas attack last year. He merely used it to posture-  releasing a benign cruise missile attack on a Syrian base - to impress his guest, China's President Xi at Mar-a-Lago. But this is what  he knows best how to do, just as he's used the French attack as an excuse to avoid mentioning the 'March For Our Lives.'

The NRA also predictably stayed silent  (except for a pair of burps by resident hacks on NRA-TV, see below) on the student presence and passionate speeches, prompting MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews to refer to it as their typical M.O.  "They wait until all the activity has died down and then show up a few weeks later when all is quiet."   He asked a  Parkland student nearby how one might "flush them out" in real time, but the student noted the only solution is to vote out their lackeys and puppets.

 Outside the FBI headquarters in Washington, about 30  misguided gun-rights supporters staged a 'counter-demonstration" standing quietly with signs such as ‘"Armed victims live longer” and ‘Stop violating civil rights’.  Both of which are a crock  Armed victims would be just as dead going up against an active shooter with an AR-15  unless they also had ARs, and preferably SWAT training.  Civil rights aren't being violated either. No one has any intention of taking anyone's rightfully allowed, and owned guns away, only getting rid of military style weapons which aren't protected by the 2nd amendment anyway, see e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/02/sorry-you-have-no-constitutional-right.html


In one of the first speeches, Marjory Stoneman Douglas senior Delaney Tarr told the crowd of the students’ demands, including background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

“When you give us an inch, that bump stocks ban, we will take a mile. We are not here for breadcrumbs, we are here to lead.”

Parkland student Jordan Khayyami, 15, said: “I think that legislatures should be aware that the next generation of voters is right in front of them so if they don’t want to promote change then we will vote for change.”

And give the student march organizers due credit for setting up voter registration booths, to prepare as many 18-year olds and others eligible to vote this year as possible.

The scenes of thousands of students on the streets was overwhelming to many of the victims of gun violence who attended . Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was one of the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook in 2012, told a reporter from the UK Gaurdian:

“I did not expect this. I’m still astounded,. To me, it looks like our entire nation is finally on board, on the right side of this issue. It’s so inspiring and encouraging and overwhelming, and beautiful to me.”

Barden has spent five years pushing for stricter gun control laws, first with the support of Barack Obama’s White House, then continuing when  gun control again dropped off the national agenda.

At the same time in New York, Paul McCartney stood in solidarity with marchers in Central Park and referred to fellow Beatle John Lennon’s fatal shooting outside his apartment building in 1980.  He told CNN:

 “One of my best friends was killed by gun violence right around here, so it’s important to me not just to march today but to take action tomorrow and to have these people to have their voices heard,"

Meanwhile, the pundits at FOX News were complaining that one of the Parkland parents,  Andrew  "I'm really pissed!" Pollack, had not been invited to speak to the throng on Saturday. Pollack, the father of  one of the victims (Meadow),  had broken off with the student activist contingent with his own ideas (voiced at a WH meet with Trump a month ago) about school security. In the CBS documentary '39 Days'  on the evolution of the  #Never Again movement, Pollack said  that while he wished the students "the best" he believed they were "wasting their  time" with gun control. This is incredibly defeatist given the movement has already played a major role in getting the first significant gun legislation passed in Florida in 20 years, enticing Oregon and Rhode Island to tighten gun restrictions, getting giant retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods to stop selling assault type rifles and long time corporate partners ending their relationships with the NRA.

The movement obviously hasn't yet achieved its primary goal - a ban on all military- style weapons- but give them time. They are playing the long game which Pollack ought to appreciate.

What then is Andrew Pollack's solution? He prefers outfitting schools like security fortresses or airports,  with special electrified gates, metal detectors, and so on  - which is plain nuts.

As one of the most passionate student speakers, Edna Chavez, 17, from Manual Arts high school in Los Angeles, declared:

"Security systems and electric barricades won't work! Metal detectors won't work! These will just criminalize students!"

She observed it will be mainly the "black and brown skinned students" singled out. Thus, it was a good idea not to  have Pollack speak, which would basically dilute and divide the message. I also believe he wouldn't want to speak because he grasped it would be like a wrong note sounding in a symphony. When he comes around, as I believe he eventually will, then he can put in his two cents and join Delaney Tarr, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Emma  Gonzalez et al in a righteous movement that has a hell of a lot more chance succeeding than turning all our public schools into gated, high security "Super Max" prisons. (Bear in mind when you lock out bad guys you also lock in good kids.)

Then there is the other clueless NRA tool making the talk show rounds on behalf of the gunrunners and 2nd amendment phonies. That would be Kyle Kashuv, e.g.

Who actually tweeted the following ding on his fellow Parkland  students:

No one's feelings are hurt by a group of people who Don't have a basic understanding of US case law and are fighting to get existing laws passed.

Which is total balderdash.

In fact it's Kashuv who lacks a basic understanding of U.S. case law pertaining to the 2nd amendment given he is blissfully unaware there is NO  "existing law" that currently bans military grade weapons like the AR-15 which is one of the provisions his classmates want passed.

Nor is he aware of the D..C. vs. Heller  Supreme Court decision that clearly does not include ownership of  such weapons as a  2nd amendment right, see e.g. the previous link.

As conservative Joe Scarborough put it regarding those unaware of the Heller ruling:

Go back and read Heller, 2008, what Scalia and the Supreme Court said. You're right, you can have handguns in your home, and shotguns to protect your family. But the court has allowed states  - like Maryland (2017)  to ban assault style weapons.  They let this and other laws stand   - without challenge - as constitutional ."

Adding:

If you want to make the argument that the Supreme Court should protect your rights to have military style weapons, that's legitimate.  But if you say it is your God-given constitutional right to have an AR-15 that is not what the second amendment says. And it's not what Justice Scalia says or the Supreme Court says.

Of course, Janice has a more succinct take: "He's not articulate! He just knows how to parrot what his parents told him about guns and the NRA. Big deal!"   Ouch!

Clearly, Kashuv's classmates are vastly more in tune with the actual 2nd amendment and its limits than he is. (Which is also why I suggest here the kids also demand: a) stricter gun licensing laws such as Massachusetts, which require not only passing a state -approved gun safety course first, but also being licensed - as one would if getting a car - as well as fingerprinted, and b) abolition of all state "concealed carry" laws -  which new research - reported in the latest TIME with Parkland kids on the cover-  see 13- 15 percent increased homicides within 10 years of being enacted.)

 As for Kashuv's latest prominence, hey, it was inevitable!  He realized quickly that his contrarian and conservative stance is a terrific way to grab center stage on gun issues - separating himself relative to the Parkland activists. This gets him the limelight on sundry cable shows, and even a special one- on -one with Trump in the Oval Office. Oh yeah, and with Melania too. ("Gee, she was just so maternal!") After all,  the mostly clueless media is clearly eager for "balance" and here's a willing tool...errr...kid, to provide it. What's not to like? Plus he's become as big a "hero" to the righties as Blaine Gaskill.

 Hell, the kid's  singular PR "pro-gun" profile especially  works if  one day he might be looking to replace Dana Loesch as the main voice for the biggest gun lobby in the world. Just sayin'.

Loesch herself reprised her role as the heartless harpy  (as before in the CNN town hall)  when she insisted - on NRA -TV   - that the marching students were willing pawns for a "PR stunt". Well, if anyone knows PR stunts it is certainly "the beet juice lady", and maybe she could teach some of her tactics to Kashuv as her willing understudy.

Then there was the NRA's token black man, also appearing on NRA-TV,  who goes under the pseudonym, "Colion Noir" (real name: Collins Iyare Idehen Jr.) He thought he was brilliant by lashing the Parkland kids as hypocrites, e.g.:

"They hate machines that cause death except, hold on, you ain't never gonna take their cars away."

A totally imbecilic accusation that mixes apples and oranges given that cars are machines designed expressly for transport that may (in the case of accidents) incidentally result in death. Whereas military grade rifles like the AR-15 are specifically designed for mass death -- which is why they were once considered as replacements for the M-16 in Vietnam. (The M-16, as shown in the Ken Burns documentary on the Vietnam War, often jammed.)

Our "brilliant" TV star Collins also failed to note that - according to the Harvard School of Public Health - it's easier to get an AR-15 than to get a license to drive a car.

"Noir" further babbled over the NRA's  airwaves:

"To all the kids from Parkland getting ready to use your first amendment rights to attack everyone else's second amendment rights at your march..."

Forgetting that the kids from Parkland were not attacking anyone's "second amendment rights". They were proposing reasonable curbs using universal background checks - which 90 percent of Americans support, limiting high capacity magazines, and banning military -grade rifles like the AR-15 which are NOT protected under the 2nd amendment, again by way of the D.C. vs. Heller SC ruling. 

He also went on to yap:

"I wish a hero like Blaine Gaskill had been at Marjory Douglas High School last month because your classmates would still be alive. And no one would know your names because the media would have utterly ignored your story."

Which is total rubbish that I already skewered in  a prior post:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2018/03/sorry-nra-guntards-md-school-shooting.html

In fact, the most likely outcome - had Gaskill tried the same tactic at Stoneman Douglas - is that even more kids would have been killed, most likely as collateral damage from misfires out of Gaskill's gun. There's also a high probability Gaskill himself would have ended up a statistic.

As for Andrew Pollack, I don't believe he's actually a right wing gun zealot,(though he's appeared with Kyle Kashuv on a number of cable shows) just a desperate  father seeking solutions.  I just hope he eventually grasps that converting each school into a mini-Supermax is not a solution. It never will be, any more than arming teachers. See e.g.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/kali-holloway/77917/is-the-armed-teacher-debate-americas-lowest-stupidest-media-moment


Even as scenes of the student march played out, The Denver Post Saturday edition featured two articles of note including one that cited these AP poll results (p. 10 A):

- 7 in 10 Americans want a nationwide ban on bump stocks

- 6 in 10 Americans demand a nationwide ban on Ar-15 style rifles

The same piece quoted a 50 year old Miramar FL gun owner, John Karnosh, who expressed dismay so little change has come about since Columbine, adding (ibid.):

"I see what these kids are doing. If anyone can drive a movement for change, these kids will do it."

One page later, there appeared an article on CDC findings pertaining to gun deaths, in which we learned:

- 26,000 deaths of children (under the age of 18) killed by guns from 1999- 2016

- Among the world's wealthy nations the U.S. accounts for 91 percent of all firearm deaths of children under age 15

- Factor in as well, 1, 678 children under 5 years of age killed between 1999- 2016

- The preceding include 184 infants, under one year old,  223 1-year olds, and 294 two year olds.

As Maryland student Matt Post put in an interview on 'AM Joy' yesterday morning:

"Is your love of these guns really worth all the carnage they've caused?"

 There is something seriously wrong with any nation bearing these stats. It leads me to quote a former soldier (Army sergeant)  who had a letter published in the local Indie paper after the Parkland massacre. Paraphrasing his words:

"Okay, let's say the military-  style weapons are not the cause of the mass shootings. But we have to at least admit they are the means.  So let's deal with controlling the means right now and we will deal with the cause later."

In other words, cease the endless back and forth about  the 2nd amendment  - when it emphatically excludes owning military style rifles as a special right.  So, we ban these weapons like the UK did after the Dunblane (Scotland)  massacre, and Australia did after their Port Arthur massacre. (Note: it is true these weapons are responsible for only 5 percent of all homicides, but given each mass murder event is the de facto equivalent of a terror attack - and indeed instills terror - it is not overreach to ban these rifles.)

It's time this nation take similar steps now. The previous stats cited are a blight not only on our history but on our people and their understanding of the Second Amendment and the nature of rights.  Which entail responsibilities as well as the exercise of limited rights.

I suspect it also means the gunnies cease "wearing their guns on their sleeves" to use Denver Post editor Chuck Plunkett's phrase from his column yesterday.  What Plunkett was arguing for is altering one's identity in the use of guns - especially long rifles - to what it was a generation ago, i.e.

"If you went hunting you were praised for how few rounds you used to bring down a wild turkey, not how many."

Indeed. And if you used more you'd be encouraged to take up a different pastime.  But as he also notes, in today's warped cultural environment everything is based on excess  and worse for 2nd amendment absolutists this excess becomes a matter of identity, e.g.

"Gun ownership has become a religion, it's in our faces everywhere, on hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers, flags and social media profiles."

This is what the student movement's leaders must grasp: they are facing not only recalcitrant politicians - who btw are more terrified of the voting power of NRA members than the money they receive or don't- but also those afflicted with the gun identity syndrome.

The students have to figure out how to break that tribal identity connection to guns, especially the military assault variety. One recent letter writer to The Colorado Springs Independent  proposed the following quirky solution predicated on diluting the hyper-macho B.S. associated with gun ownership, especially of assault weapons:

https://www.csindy.com/coloradosprings/reader-a-proposal-to-stem-gun-violence-without-taking-away-anyones-second-amendment-rights/Content?oid=10816601


Somehow, I don't believe coloring all these rifles pink will quite work. Anyway these kids are energized and organizing a call for Town Halls on April 7, as well as another mass walkout on April 20th and an ongoing voter registration campaign.  

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/gary-leupp/78329/the-children-s-crusade-against-early-death-by-school-shootings

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/henry-giroux/78344/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence

WSJ Piece Easily Explains The Confidence, Media Savvy Of Parkland FL Students

"We are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action, demanding that you make a change!"  The words of Delaney Tarr, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland FL.


Let's admit that the Right's screechy knotheads  - twisting themselves into knots at the media savvy of the Parkland  FL students,  still convinced they're all "paid crisis actors"-  need to get a life, or learn more.  I am convinced their cockeyed "theories"  arise because: a) they don't know enough about what they're criticizing, and b) they too often sell fellow humans too short, or at least give them no more credit for brains or talent than they themselves possess.  They pretty well did the same thing a year or so ago when protesters appeared at numerous town halls in Red states to protest the GOP plan to overturn Obamacare  The Right's troglodytes blamed the  massive assemblies and outspokenness on "paid protesters."   As if anyone seriously had to be  paid to protest in Trump's Amerikka.

So it was really no surprise to see these clueless yahoos come out again to accuse the articulate students of Stoneman Douglas, including the brilliant Delaney Tarr (who really IS Mensa member material), David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Emma Gonzalez (another Mensan in waiting) of being paid crisis actors.  Collectively the posts questioned the honesty and credibility of the grieving students as they spoke out against gun violence.  For example, online media sites including Gateway Pundit, Reddit, 4chan and YouTube swelled with false ­allegations that Hogg was ­secretly a “crisis actor” playing the part of a grieving student in local and national television news reports.

Another troll  (Kelley Campbell) responded sarcastically to one of Delaney's appearances, bellowing: "FAKE NEWS!  You can't just walk into a building with $130 and walk out with an AR -15".   But if this turd had thought a bit more, assuming he had the brains, he'd have perceived that Delaney couldn't possibly have been an actor.  This is because any professional actor (actress) would not have made the error of citing the too low cost of an AR purchase as $130, when it actually runs upward of $1200.  My point? It showed these kids really are....just kids...they have media savvy but when they're passionately speaking out their hearts tend to lead their heads and  they don't always have all the friggin' facts in tow. Give 'em a break, for god's sake.

Same thing with senior Sam Zeif when - in the midst of a passionate speech at the Trump "listen in"  last week  -  misspoke, i.e. saying that the Australians changed their gun laws after a "school shooting" in 1999. It was after a tourist massacre in 1996.  But again, these are errors of fact  a kid would make, but I'd argue not a professional "crisis actor" who'd have his or her script well prepared and double checked.  (Of course, there is a species of hyper cynical skeptic who'd assert a kid woud deliberately include erroneous claims ,...to present themselves as an unknowing....student.)

But anyway, we can thank two beat writers (Arian Campo-Flores and Nicole Hong)  on the staff of The Wall Street Journal for scuttling these stupid memes with a piece that gives a prosaic account ('From Shooting To Gun Control Movement')  of why these Stoneman  Douglas students are so good in their media exchanges.   As we learn from the piece- and this ought to be required reading for all the loopy naysayers at Reddit, 4chan, Gateway Pundit and other blogs:

"The students at Stoneman aren't like those who witnessed previous mass shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, or Virginia Tech in 2007. They are digital natives, at one with the language and power of smartphones and social media.  That is one reason why the movement they started, dubbed #NeverAgain, has become a nationwide phenomenon in barely a few days, and shows signs of becoming the kind of campaign success that a company or politician can only dream of."

 Adding:

"In particular they have used Twitter to build a grass-roots network of activity leading to school walkouts around the country by students protesting violence."

The kids know no fear, i.e. they are also "tweeting directly at Donald Trump".  You can also thank the Stoneman Douglas kids for mounting a successful boycott social media campaign - under the hashtag #BoycottNRA - for already getting 17 companies to no longer honor NRA member discounts. These include:  United Airlines, Delta, Best  Western Hotels,  and assorted car rentals (Hertz, Avis), MetLife as well as computer security company Symantec.(WSJ, Feb. 23-24, p. B4) 

 As the piece put it, companies "are reacting to the social media pressure ....energized by the emotional calls for gun control from the survivors of the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida."

And why not? If Diaper Donnie Dotard can tweet profusely with so much balderdash content and stir up division and upheaval in our nation, why can't intelligent kids create their own social media firestorms? Including slapping the imp down and getting companies to abandon the NRA.

Another key aspect showing these are not professional actors as the Right's trolls seem to think:

"The messages are expressed in genuine teenage voices   alternating between lighthearted selfies and posts about how they are coping with the trauma."

Even more impressive, in four days these kids have raised $2.2 million in an online fundraiser for a rally next month (March 24th).  Much of this action was mounted by the students themselves meeting at one of their homes with personal computers, smartphones etc. at the ready. `

What makes these Stoneman Douglas kids so damned smart? Delaney Tarr explained it in a nutshell in one answer to a VOX interview (see link at bottom):

"So many of us are in politics clubs. So many of us are in AP government. We dedicate ourselves to this. We dedicate ourselves to learning about this. So we are in a place where we are lucky enough to know what to say, to know what to talk about, and to know what changes need to be made."

So - to the consternation of the Right's trolls - it's not like any of these youngsters need coaching from us liberals. They already have the academic and other wherewithal to succeed on their own  - and the social media aptitude to organize huge marches (like on Mar 24th) as well as to get large companies to boycott the NRA.

Still, their optimism and actions have opened up even darker forces on the net to pump in more fake news than ever. As reported in The Sunday Denver Post ('Incidents Show Dark Online Battle', p. 10A):, trolls have now taken to using software tools to create Twitter posts and a phony Miami Herald story  - including copying the paper's font and masthead - to scare the bejeezus out of already fretful citizens.

In one incident the software was used to create two fake twitter posts - from a Miami Herald reporter (Alex Harris) asking "Where are the photos of the dead bodies?" Again hearkening back to the Sandy Hook episode, in which  Reich trolls deemed "no one really died", the victims were just actors playing a role in a gov't false flag operation..

In the second incident, a full Herald story was created under the byline of Herald columnist Monique O. Madan, claiming that a "Miami-Dade middle school faced threats of potentially catastrophic events on upcoming dates."- indicating a new mass shooting was imminent.  Screenshots of the fake story were then passed along Twitter and Snapchat.

Aminda Marques, executive Herald reporter quoted in the piece, said:

"This is hampering our ability to cover this terrible story in our own backyard because we're having to deal with the backlash"

But WHY is there a backlash to genuine  news accounts of human tragedy on the scale of this school massacre? What manner of human swine or reptile resorts to such perfidy? Author Susan Jacoby has provided many answers in her book, 'The Age Of American Unreason In A Culture of Lies',  forcefully arguing that too many are responsible for their own ignorance  and have also fostered - by their anti-intellectual attitudes and bias ignorance at the highest levels of government. In other words the ascension to power of a dangerous, degenerate ignoramus like Trump reflects on that segment of the electorate responsible.  Much of this due to "junk thought" that makes no effort to separate fact from opinion or deliberately faked news such as circulated by trolls that generated the  mock Miami Herald stories.

Yes, the trolls and fake news generators definitely merit a measure of blame for attempting to distract and mislead people. But, citizens also share part of the blame if they lack the critical thinking skills to separate trash from truth and reach a stage (as the Post article describes) where "they are unsure what to believe.". That development of critical thinking - and specifically a "nose"  for truth - necessitates reading widely and critically,  from diverse sources - especially to cross check stories purported to be true but which are fake to the core.

To see the transcript of a recent interview with Delaney Tarr go to:

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/20/17031050/florida-shooting-parkland-advocacy-gun-control-delaney-tarr


See also:


http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-reich/77915/the-moral-movement-against-violence

And:


http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/camillo-mac-bica/77918/i-am-a-teacher-not-an-instrument-of-violence