The family of Parker Mustian clearly had not heard that great song by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (see below). PZ brought this young man’s story to my attention.
Parker Mustian, a 16-year-old former student at Cardinal Newman high school in Columbia, South Carolina was arrested by local law enforcement officers last month after he appeared in a pair of racist “public service announcements” that were circulated among students at his school.
Mustian is further alleged to have threatened to “shoot up” the Catholic school following his expulsion last month.
“Howdy, I’m Parker Mustian and I hate black people,” the teen begins in the first clip. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people.”
And it gets even worse.
It turns out that Mustian is the son and grandson of prominent South Carolina figures.
But as I read the linked source article, one thing jumped out at me.
Sources close to Mustian’s family tell us the young man is not a hateful person by nature, but was part of a group of boys who made videos purely for “shock value.”
“The idea was to see who could be the most outlandishly, ridiculously offensive,” the source told us. “They weren’t being serious.”
It doesn’t matter if they were ‘being serious’ or not. The problem is the entire idea of competing to see who can be “the most outlandishly, ridiculously offensive” just for the sake of its “shock value”. Someone who thinks that is acceptable behvaior is clearly someone whose mind has been thoroughly warped and has become a hateful person. Minimizing it with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude tells me that the people around him have seriously warped values too.
Here’s the song I mentioned at the top for the few who have not heard it, performed live minus Neil Young.
Just look at those three guys with acoustic guitars (CSN). Neil Young came in with his electric guitar and blew the whole thing wide open.
Imagine what would have happened if he were black….
The shooter in Ohio was in a band that played shock music.
robertbaden@#3:
The shooter in Ohio was in a band that played shock music.
Is that another way of saying “deliberately bad”?
Apple, tree. Cracker, box.
You don’t say crap like that at 16 unless you feel safe saying it, and safety starts at home.
@ Marcus: yes, and also gross and viciously misogynistic. It’s called “pornogrind” for good reason. Even the song titles are hideous. I’m not going to give examples. Like Mustian, they claim it’s all just a joke, but Betts’ bandmate said he was shocked, shocked that Betts apparently wasn’t in on the joke.
Or Muslim; e.g., If the El Paso shooter had been Muslim …: