Why does society glorify Bonnie and Clyde, yet hates more recent random shooters?

[Grummgug]

I never understood this one. Bonnie and Clyde were mass killers. That entire gang was nuts. Yet society venerates and glorifies them, makes films about them, and they are almost iconic lore. We glorify mass killers like Jesse James as if they are a celebrity.

Yet we see a mass shooter every once in a while, and we denounce them and wonder why they did it, and how could they do such a thing...

And then we have no problems with massive media coverage of the shooting, which some can misconstrue as glorifying the event. And some crazies who view the media coverage and things like Bonnie and Clyde coverage as glorifying will be convinced to shoot people as well. They hope they get a film made about them someday, perhaps.

It all seems really screwed up.

[Banzhe]

I guess the society you're referring to is the US?- nothing really makes sense over there tbh!

[goobernoob]

I never understood this one. Bonnie and Clyde were mass killers. That entire gang was nuts. Yet society venerates and glorifies them, makes films about them, and they are almost iconic lore. We glorify mass killers like Jesse James as if they are a celebrity.

Yet we see a mass shooter every once in a while, and we denounce them and wonder why they did it, and how could they do such a thing...

And then we have no problems with massive media coverage of the shooting, which some can misconstrue as glorifying the event. And some crazies who view the media coverage and things like Bonnie and Clyde coverage as glorifying will be convinced to shoot people as well. They hope they get a film made about them someday, perhaps.

It all seems really screwed up.

while i'm not sure about bonnie and clyde specifically, a lot of the bank robbers that came out of the south in that era were thought of as an extension of the civil war fighting the union and the carpet-baggers etc and because of that they were liked in the south and hated in the north.
(yes, even generations later. some folks still wont admit that war is over)

[Maelle]

People find the "romantic and dangerous" love affair exciting I suppose, not so much the killing everyone side if that.

[Dakara]

Time heals all wounds apparently.

I mean, we make video games based on World Wars, Hitler/Nazi has become a household name.... TV shows have already cashed in on 9/11. Pretty twisted when you put it into context, but it's just the way world is.

After enough time has passed, a tragedy becomes "some thing that happened in history" and people cash in on it.

[Cernunnos]

bonnie and clyde, jesse james and all those others didnt go into schools and start shooting up the place.

They robbed banks and trains often as a last resort because they couldn't make money any other way. Bank foreclosed on their farmland, what ever.

[Zyzzyx]

Time heals all wounds apparently.

I mean, we make video games based on World Wars, Hitler/Nazi has become a household name.... TV shows have already cashed in on 9/11. Pretty twisted when you put it into context, but it's just the way world is.

After enough time has passed, a tragedy becomes "some thing that happened in history" and people cash in on it.

Bingo. As soon as they unravel the mystery and come up with a tragic motive behind these behaviors, and give it a hundred years, people will probably feel the same way about it.

[Sayl]

I never understood this one. Bonnie and Clyde were mass killers. That entire gang was nuts. Yet society venerates and glorifies them, makes films about them, and they are almost iconic lore. We glorify mass killers like Jesse James as if they are a celebrity.

Yet we see a mass shooter every once in a while, and we denounce them and wonder why they did it, and how could they do such a thing...

It's the typical appeal of the outlaw folk hero. Society romanticizes, supports, or treats such figures with a degree of sympathy because on some level it's perceived that they're fighting injustice or oppression. Those types of characters persist through history whether real or imaginary. I don't particularly understand the appeal either. To me it's just another example of our cultural priorities being rather FUBAR. (Like so, from recent memory.)

[Grummgug]

bonnie and clyde, jesse james and all those others didnt go into schools and start shooting up the place.

They robbed banks and trains often as a last resort because they couldn't make money any other way. Bank foreclosed on their farmland, what ever.

They slew 9 police officers and many civilians.

[dokilar]

They slew 9 police officers and many civilians.

but as a whole those gansters in the 30s 40s and 50s were seen as semi-heros because there was a lot of resentment towards the government by the lower class of people. the great depression was probably quite taxing on a lot of people, moreso than we can fully understand since most of those people who lived back in those days are dead or very old.

it was simply a different time and era. lots of people had their property taken away by the banks so im sure they had little sympathy for them whens someone like john dillinger knocked off a bank. in most cases im sure they tried to avoid killing civilans but theres always bound to be colateral damage when commiting crimes like that.

i dont know, im quite fascinated with that time era. movies like public enemies and j edgar often dont tell the story completely accurate but i still find them quite interesting.

[Dezerte]

Give it time.

In a few hundred years (give or take) we'll be making movies about them too, but hopefully we'll be a bit more advanced than that in the future.

[Slummish]

There's nothing noble, romantic or exciting about a killer that walks into rooms full of unarmed sitting ducks; blows them all away indiscriminately with no reason, provocation or motive; and then turns the gun on himself.

You can't compared the actions of iconic outlaws and criminals to the garbage we see today in the actions of Adam Lanza, Anders Behring Breivik, James Holmes, Jared Loughner or Seung-Hui Cho.

Society doesn't glorify rampage killers. Take a look at the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers

No one there has been romanticized and that list goes back more than 100 years.

[Grummgug]

There's nothing noble, romantic or exciting about a killer that walks into rooms full of unarmed sitting ducks; blows them all away indiscriminately with no reason, provocation or motive; and then turns the gun on himself.

You can't compared the actions of iconic outlaws and criminals to the garbage we see today in the actions of Adam Lanza, Anders Behring Breivik, James Holmes, Jared Loughner or Seung-Hui Cho.

Society doesn't glorify rampage killers. Take a look at the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers

No one there has been romanticized and that list goes back more than 100 years.

I guess I'm still not getting it. Its disgusting to me to glorify any of these killers. I don't bucket some into "rampage killers" and they those are different and cannot be glorified, but others are.

[Prokne]

The people you are talking about are generally "Robin Hood" characters. Bonnie and Clyde and other Depression Era criminals robbed banks that people blamed for the depression and some of them spread their loot with poor small town people. Jesse James gang was getting back at the Union after the Civil War so they were heroes to people who supported the Confederacy. It doesn't really matter that they killed people because it wasn't their real motive, they just wanted to rob stuff and had to kill people to do it.

Also in the past violence was much more common in real life than it is now. Unless you are in the military or live near armed conflict you don't really experience real violence and only see it in games and movies. People used to think they were lucky to live a long time and die of old age and now they just expect it unless you are unlucky and die from an "accident."

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Because Bonnie and Clyde had a movie.

[Trassk]

It is because bonnie and clyde came from an era a long time ago so its out of peoples minds, and there whole deal was romanticized by film makers and writers alike, the same way cowboys are romanticized, yet its a matter of fact they murdered and drove out the indigenous people of a land they invaded.

[Grummgug]

It is because bonnie and clyde came from an era a long time ago so its out of peoples minds, and there whole deal was romanticized by film makers and writers alike, the same way cowboys are romanticized, yet its a matter of fact they murdered and drove out the indigenous people of a land they invaded.

Cowboys did that? Its a matter of fact that just about every society known has done something similar at one point or another. All the various empires that sprang up and died in antiquity. Warring tribes of American Indians killing each other and driving them off lands. Battle of Hastings 1066. African tribal wars going on at this very moment.

That was a comment that kinda came out of left field.

[Deleted]

The same reason why alot of young teens love Che, even though he fought against everything Capitalism stood for.

I see it as rose tinted goggles.

[derpkitteh]

There's nothing noble, romantic or exciting about a killer that walks into rooms full of unarmed sitting ducks; blows them all away indiscriminately with no reason, provocation or motive; and then turns the gun on himself.

You can't compared the actions of iconic outlaws and criminals to the garbage we see today in the actions of Adam Lanza, Anders Behring Breivik, James Holmes, Jared Loughner or Seung-Hui Cho.

Society doesn't glorify rampage killers. Take a look at the list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers

No one there has been romanticized and that list goes back more than 100 years.

they're exactly the same. murderous savages. glorifying any of these animals is ridiculous.

[Trassk]

Cowboys did that? Its a matter of fact that just about every society known has done something similar at one point or another. All the various empires that sprang up and died in antiquity. Warring tribes of American Indians killing each other and driving them off lands. Battle of Hastings 1066. African tribal wars going on at this very moment.

That was a comment that kinda came out of left field.

sigh.. The point is cowboys are romanticized as these rugged outback heroes and in nearly all american westerns portrayed as heroes against the evil savage Indians. People don't want to know the truth about what really happened back then, or understand the native american culture and what the white america ancestors did in those times.