What Happened To Accountability?

Since when do we hold dogs more accountable for their actions than a human being? Since when is it acceptable to justify a criminal’s actions by putting blame on a victim? Why does society feel sorry for people that are held responsible for their actions? It makes me sick!

Everyone plants their feet so firmly in not-my-fault ground that people start believing them. And yes, there are always going to be reasons… and those reasons aren’t always a responsibility cop-out. People want to know why, and people often want to share why… but it seems everyone has just started confusing the reasons they choose to do something with actually being forced to do something. 

The Steubenville rape case has been shoved in our faces recently, and while justice was only partially served… Rather than support to the victim, we saw death threats to her and sympathizers to the guilty. Those poor rapists  will have that branding follow them around for the rest of their lives. You know what I say? HOORAY! Actually, I say they deserve worse… And the city tried to cover it up because the culprits were part of their beloved high school football team… Dafuq? (Dark humor warning:) Welcome to Steubenville; It’s not gang-rape, it’s teamwork!

And in the midst of all this, I see news articles about a cyclist couple in India where the husband was beaten and tied up and the wife gang-raped… and the authorities tried to say they were partially to blame because they didn’t stop at a police station to ask where a safe place to camp would be. Umm… how about it’s India’s fault for not putting signs that says “People here waive all rights to not be beaten, raped, and robbed in this area.”

Now, it’s obviously not just rapists that don’t take responsibility… Parents are pretty much one of the worst offenders. Not all parents, just the ones that were raised being told nothing was their fault. I see product recalls where parents have done something that can only be defined as stupid, and then blame the company. I made mention of the grandmother that blamed Nintendo for a dog attack because the child was playing a dog video game and… wait for it… it made barking noises! They blame teachers for their child’s bad grades, they blame fast food companies for their child’s weight problem, they blame video games for violence, they blame cops if their kid is caught with drugs…

They blame bullies when their child shoots up a school.

That last one, I want to take a moment to clarify that I’m not remotely saying that bullying is okay or taking it lightly. But there are two sets of crimes and two sets of victims in that statement. It is NOT okay to bully someone, regardless of the reasons. It is NOT okay to willfully murder someone, regardless of the reasons.

I’ve got one! Let’s blame the parents. We’ve all heard that one before… But here’s a question: At what point does it no longer become the parents’ fault? Not legally, but just in general. I know there’s no black and white age that a person suddenly thinks and acts for themselves… but where’s that grey area age range where external influences stop affecting you the way they did as a child? At what point are you done being ‘raised’ on a personal level? My own belief is that it’s probably around 15-16 years old… I know that may sound really young, and I know we’re still stupid at that point, but I feel like it’s around that age that you start really making decisions for yourself (not always good) and learning through mass-scale experiences instead of the cause and effect within the tiny bubble that is childhood… and I’m well aware that some go through this at much younger or older ages (if ever)… but that area feels right in my mind… I’d love to hear input on that.

I should probably include more examples of personal accountability rather than focus so much on criminal accountability. Politicians are the worst about personal accountability… I would love to see examples of politicians that actually take responsibility for something bad. I cannot think of one off the top of my head. Has it ever happened? Okay, this side of responsibility isn’t as much fun to talk about..

Oh, here’s another. Let’s blame guns for people’s deaths. That one is far beyond my brain’s capability to understand. Again, back to earlier in this post… ” it seems everyone has just started confusing the reasons they choose to do something with actually being forced to do something.“

*SIGH*

It’s just incomprehensible to me that a human being is considered less in control of themselves than a freaking pet. If a dog attacks a person, they get euthanized. If a human attacks a person, let’s look at the victim to see what they did to provoke it… or what someone didn’t do to prevent it (because we’re supposed to be psychic, don’t-cha-know?)… Our justice system has turned into a game of technicalities. Not only the actual justice system, but the one in our own heads. It’s no longer about something being right or wrong, it’s about the varying degrees of right and wrong and spinning it to our advantage and convincing the world that being less wrong is somehow the same as being right… and suddenly, it isn’t our fault.