Agreed. And his response to that was to say that he would only fight someone if they attacked him.
Regarding the confederate flag, he specifically stated that he holds the opinion, as many in the South do, that the confederate flag represents southern pride and not racism. Granted that may be a minority opinion, but it is just opinion.
The comment about the rainbow flag and fisting I believe was meant as a comparison/analogy to his Confederate flag reference to say that "just as hanging up a gay pride flag doesn't imply that you endorse fisting, having a Confederate flag doesn't mean you're a racist".
To be perfectly clear I am NOT trying to defend SW for what he has done .. we don't even KNOW exactly what happened yet
But I've read page after page of people trying to make a psychoanalysis of the guy based upon his haircut, and taking one or two quotes out of context. People all have a right to their interpretations, but none is definitely "right", it's just an opinion
The way I read it, SW held some conservative views, and was attending a very liberal-minded high school. So just for that and being different, he probably felt quite persecuted, which may have led to his "loner" persona and feeling of being ostracized. Add to this that it seems he may have been a closet homosexual, and there were likely many things tearing at his emotions. After all he was only 16 when he wrote those things, and certainly trying to figure out who he was. To the extent that he was figuring that out, most of his 'friends' were telling him he was wrong. Wouldn't you be a little emotionally unstable under those circumstances?
In any case, pigeonholing him into a box before we KNOW more about him isn't really appropriate. All I ask is that we keep open minds and wait for some more facts.
Agreed.
My HS sons close friend has changed his appearance a lot in the last year, growing his hair out, wearing goth clothes, listening to death metal, getting a pet snake, and I think experimenting with alcohol and marijuana. Fundamentally I think he is still the same good kid. His parents went through a bad divorce and I see this as a reaction to that. It doesnt mean that he is a murderer or wants to shoot up the school. But guess what? Violent song lyrics found on school bathroom stall must have been written by him (the goth kid at preppy school) and he felt so persecuted that he recently left the school. God forbid he were ever charged with anything. Folks would bring all this up and say he was expelled from school when he voluntarily left.