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Oh MI Gawd...this is nuts

by Jason Kanigan
19 replies
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Police: Wisconsin girl, 12, stabbed 19 times; friends arrested - CNN.com

This is freakin' nuts. Really right out of a bad horror story.

Kids. Seeing Slenderman stories on a wiki and then acting one out.

I've watched hundreds of bad horror movies and read lots of scary stories...but what the heck. Who would ever want do do something like this?? How did reading turn them into little psychopaths?

(Guess it's time to ban books...)
  • Profile picture of the author socialentry
    And it's about slenderman, of all characters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
    Drugs perhaps?

    I'd like to know if the 2 accused girls are taking any prescribed meds.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Could this be what they were getting it from:

    Slender: The Eight Pages, originally known simply as Slender, is a free download indie-developed first-person survival horror video game released in June 2012 as a beta for Microsoft Windows and OS X, utilizing the Unity engine. The game is based on the fakeloric figure known as Slender Man, who is known for the abduction of children in mysterious, dark settings.
    How long before parents realize that allowing unlimited access to computers and related electronics and allowing any and all video games to be endlessly played.....is NOT a good way to raise children?

    No - I don't blame computers. I don't think parents yet realize how "real" online games seem to young children. Children glued to a screen image aren't learning to make decisions - aren't developing empathy or human connections - aren't enriching anything but the software developers.

    At some point we need a parental movement based on "turn it off....now".
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      Could this be what they were getting it from:



      How long before parents realize that allowing unlimited access to computers and related electronics and allowing any and all video games to be endlessly played.....is NOT a good way to raise children?

      No - I don't blame computers. I don't think parents yet realize how "real" online games seem to young children. Children glued to a screen image aren't learning to make decisions - aren't developing empathy or human connections - aren't enriching anything but the software developers.

      At some point we need a parental movement based on "turn it off....now".
      Gee, I never felt movies or whatever were real, and I have obviously seen MANY. People keep blaming other things. Just wait, they will bring up gun control for THIS, even though guns weren't used! But they won't talk about big media. There is some PERVERTED stuff there, Apparently, some people take it as GOSPEL, and figure THEY should do it.

      Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      Could this be what they were getting it from:
      Slender: The Eight Pages, originally known simply as Slender, is a free download indie-developed first-person survival horror video game released in June 2012 as a beta for Microsoft Windows and OS X, utilizing the Unity engine. The game is based on the fakeloric figure known as Slender Man, who is known for the abduction of children in mysterious, dark settings.
      How long before parents realize that allowing unlimited access to computers and related electronics and allowing any and all video games to be endlessly played.....is NOT a good way to raise children?

      No - I don't blame computers. I don't think parents yet realize how "real" online games seem to young children. Children glued to a screen image aren't learning to make decisions - aren't developing empathy or human connections - aren't enriching anything but the software developers.

      At some point we need a parental movement based on "turn it off....now".
      This terrible event had nothing to do with a beta video game. Slender Man was/is an internet meme(s) that took on a life of his own in "literature". In-fact it is the writers of the horror stories that are being "blamed" by some, and it is Creepypasta that is is taking a large share of that blowback.


      A long statement was posted on the Creepypasta website...

      I've recently been alerted to the horrific events that took place in Wisconsin.

      I've received both messages of concern and blame, and while it seems that the Creepypasta Wiki is bearing the brunt of media attention and finger-pointing, I feel it's necessary for me to make a statement.

      First and most importantly, my condolences go out to all the families involved. I cannot even imagine how painful and confusing and awful this has to be for them. I don't have children, but I can imagine how my mother would feel if something like this happened to me, and it absolutely breaks my heart to even consider her having to go through that. The families of the young ladies who committed this crime also have my heart going out to them - I know this can't be easy for them as well, and I'm sure they'll have to deal with mistargeted backlash and anger even while they try to get through such a trying time themselves. So when I say that I extend my deepest sympathies and my prayers to those affected, I hope that you understand that I mean it. I know that words can seem hollow or come off as mere lip-service to the cynical, but it's the truth.

      Of course, the next thing I want to talk about is this site and the creepypasta phenomenon at large as I'm sure that many people are here because they want to know precisely what is being blamed for this event.

      Creepypasta comes from the word copypasta, which itself is a play on the "copy and paste" function. They were short, creepy stories that people spread around the internet for fun. This website is one of the many Creepypasta communities that accept submissions; people write their paranormal stories, I read them and decide which ones I personally like enough to post, and visitors read them and post comments - usually from the perspective of how the author can improve as a writer. I think that, more than other Creepypasta websites, we focus more on being a writer's community. We have a spin-off site dedicated to getting feedback (don't use so many ellipses, please don't write romance stories about serial killers, please remember to proofread - that sort of thing) for authors who ask for blunt community critique and I try to do community promos for writers who self-publish or work on other projects like movies, anthologies, comics, and so on.

      Creepypasta is not solely dedicated to horror and murder or revenge fantasies, despite what some media outlets claim. They come up, of course - but so do ghosts, zombies, angels, mythology, urban legends, conspiracies, lost civilizations, aliens and sci-fi, vengeful deities, as well as real-world struggles, sorrows, and dangers. It's a wide umbrella of inspiration, to be sure, but I'm sure that anyone who has ever browsed the horror or paranormal or sci-fi sections of a library or bookstore has noticed just how vast the possibilities are within those genres.

      I think that most of you will understand when I say it's hard to justify pinning blame on an entire genre of writing. Unless you're okay with blaming the world's ills on Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft, I don't believe that it makes sense to say paranormal writing or an interest in the macabre should be blamed or even used as an indicator of a "sick" person (as a few emails have already felt the need to call both myself and all the authors here). The human race has long held and encouraged a fascination with things that go bump in the night.

      Read more, alot more...

      Statement on the Wisconsin Stabbing - CREEPYPASTA.COM - Scary Paranormal Stories & Short Horror Microfiction
      Slender Man on Creepypasta...

      Slenderman Archives - CREEPYPASTA.COM - Scary Paranormal Stories & Short Horror Microfiction

      Victor Surge (Eric Knudsen) created Slender Man...he was inspired by Stephen King.

      Victor Surge (Eric Knudsen): 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | HEAVY

      This was his first Slender Man image:



      Here is another of his Slender Man shots:



      Aleks Krotoski, a commentator for BBC Radio 4, called the Slender Man "the first great myth of the web". The success of the Slender Man "legend" has been ascribed to the chaotic, ambiguous nature of the Internet. While nearly everyone involved understands on some level that the Slender Man is not real, the Internet offers up a mess of conflicting perspectives, blurring the boundary between fiction and reality and obscuring the character's origin, thus lending it an air of authenticity. Victor Surge (real name Eric Knudsen) has commented that many people, despite understanding that the Slender Man was created on the Something Awful forums, still entertain the possibility that it might be real.

      Professor Tom Pettitt of the University of Southern Denmark has described the Slender Man as being an exemplar of the modern age's closing of the "Gutenberg Parenthesis"; the time period from the invention of the printing press to the spread of the web in which stories and information were codified in discrete media, to a return to the older, more primal forms of storytelling, exemplified by oral tradition and campfire tales, in which the same story can be retold, reinterpreted and recast by different tellers, expanding and evolving with time.

      Professor Shira Chess of the University of Georgia has noted that the Slender Man exemplifies the similarities between traditional folklore and the open source ethos of the Internet, and that, unlike those of traditional monsters such as vampires and werewolves, the Slender Man's mythos can be tracked and signposted, giving a powerful insight into how myth and folklore form. Tye Van Horn, a writer for The Elm, has suggested that the Slender Man represents modern fear of the unknown; in an age flooded with information people have become so inured to ignorance that they now fear what they cannot understand. Troy Wagner, the creator of Marble Hornets, ascribes the terror of the Slender Man to its malleability; people can shape it into whatever frightens them most.

      Slender Man - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      He never dreamed Slender Man would go viral...an interview with the creator:

      Cheers

      -don
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  • Profile picture of the author socialentry
    hey hey hey.

    Don't blame bad parenting on video games.

    There are many many benefits to video games

    Duke Nukem 3d and Doom should be mandatory in school because they encourage creativity.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
      How about encouraging creativity without video games? You know, the kind of thing where human beings interact with one another.

      All those social skills just looking for an outlet.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeAmbrosio
        Originally Posted by Ron Lafuddy View Post

        How about encouraging creativity without video games? You know, the kind of thing where human beings interact with one another.

        All those social skills just looking for an outlet.
        I saw a commercial recently showing kids all outside...

        Sitting on the stoop
        Out by the lake
        Camping (or something)

        All doing the same thing - playing Nintendo Gameboys.

        So now we're promoting playing video games outside.

        Edit: Here it is:

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        • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
          Originally Posted by MikeAmbrosio View Post

          I saw a commercial recently showing kids all outside...

          Sitting on the stoop
          Out by the lake
          Camping (or something)

          All doing the same thing - playing Nintendo Gameboys.

          So now we're promoting playing video games outside.

          Edit: Here it is:

          Nintendo 2DS -- Nintendo 2DS Kids' Summer TV Commercial - YouTube
          "You know, the kind of thing where human beings interact with one another."

          Mike, please read my above response again. The one you quoted.
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          • Profile picture of the author MikeAmbrosio
            Originally Posted by Ron Lafuddy View Post

            "You know, the kind of thing where human beings interact with one another."

            Mike, please read my above response again. The one you quoted.
            I wasn't disagreeing. Your comment just sparked my memory of that commercial - which is opposite of what you said
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  • Profile picture of the author stewie-Y
    I've spent literal months(possibly years) of my life playing video games. I can honestly think of no benefit to my life right now after all that time invested. All that's left with me are some fun memories, regret, and a repressed addiction.

    I'm not saying they're bad, but letting kids grow up on them unrestricted is something that both parents and child will regret later on.
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  • Profile picture of the author HeySal
    I started watching horror movies when I was about 4. One of the first ones I remember was Psycho. Those didn't turn me into a nutcase. Well, something did - but not a dangerous nutcase.

    I'm also wondering about what drugs the kids are on. I also agree with Kay that being connected to electronics 24/7 causes a lack of empathy building. I also think that all the heavy metals in our environment that cross the blood brain barrier are driving our population insane. There's more than enough info on sodium fluoride's mental effects, yet they are still dosing us. There's more than enough knowledge about the effects of mercury poisoning, yet some vaccines contain up to 25,000 times more than the EPA's safety specs for water contamination with it. Metal poisoning causing insanity is one of the reasons Rome fell. I don't see it doing us much good either.

    A poisoned population on electronics isn't working for anyone. Something has to change real soon or we're going to end up with a real live zombie apocalypse.
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    Sal
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I've spent literal months(possibly years) of my life playing video games. I can honestly think of no benefit to my life right now after all that time invested. All that's left with me are some fun memories, regret, and a repressed addiction.
      It's your generation of parents that may start to turn this around. You understand the time you missed while staring at a computer screen. You won't want that for your children.

      It's not the same as the scary movies or the Edgar Allen Poe I read at age 10. We knew those were not "real" in "our world". We could walk outside and see people walking around - sun shining - kids laughing.

      Today's kid looks at a computer screen with realistic killing games, stalking games, violent games...and is exposed at the same time to 24 hr media focused on killings, stalking, violence in the real world.

      Children don't need to be ghosting through the world glued to an iphone or ipad...they need to be IN and OF the world experiencing the reality of grass and trees, people, pets, and even weather around them.

      I was the mother of two extremely active boys. I remember giving in on Saturday mornings and letting my sons stare at TV cartoons so I could sleep some more. I didn't tell myself they were "learning creativity" - they were being entertained to keep them out of my hair for a couple hours. Never known a parent who didn't value a little mindless entertainment for their kids now and then.

      Today parents fool themselves about what kids are doing. They are "learning technology", "so good with computers", blah blah. It's mindless entertainment and unlike Saturday cartoons.....these videos games are 24/7.

      Parents need to LOOK at what their kids are playing and set some limits on what types of games are allowed and how long kids can play them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    I didn't see this in this thread, so in case you folks didn't know it, the two girls have been charged as adults.
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    • Profile picture of the author HeySal
      Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill View Post

      I didn't see this in this thread, so in case you folks didn't know it, the two girls have been charged as adults.
      Good. Kids that murder need to be tried as adults. When someone is dangerous, they are dangerous and need to be taken down.

      When I was at the crisis center there was a group of boys in town - age 15. They were going around beating and raping 80 year old women. They'd get thrown in a juvenille facility and "rehabilitated" - let go, and their crimes escalated to murder very rapidly, yet they were still put in the juv "rehabed" then let go again. They had a reign of terror, violence, and murder going until they became "old enough" to try as adults and were taken off the streets permanently.

      Humans have their logical facilities by the age of 12. There are too many people that are just dangerously nuts for us to misplace empathy on youth that are criminally insane any longer. I don't usually side with arresting kids - but when kids are murderers (yeah, I know, this one didn't die), they need to be dealt with accordingly. The hard truth is that you can't rehabilitate people at some levels of insanity.
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      Sal
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  • Profile picture of the author kenmichaels
    Ya know ... sometimes a bad egg is just a bad egg.

    ... and for some kids peer pressure seams insurmountable.
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by kenmichaels View Post

      Ya know ... sometimes a bad egg is just a bad egg.

      ... and for some kids pear pressure seams insurmountable.
      Frankly, this type of peer pressure is STUPID! I wish it would STOP! Yeah, I know, gangs, tagging,"doing the heavens", "knock out .....", etc.... STILL, STUPID!

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    According to the complaint, they planned and honed their plan since May. Premeditation.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    Originally Posted by Jason Kanigan View Post

    Police: Wisconsin girl, 12, stabbed 19 times; friends arrested - CNN.com

    This is freakin' nuts. Really right out of a bad horror story.

    Kids. Seeing Slenderman stories on a wiki and then acting one out.

    I've watched hundreds of bad horror movies and read lots of scary stories...but what the heck. Who would ever want do do something like this?? How did reading turn them into little psychopaths?

    (Guess it's time to ban books...)
    That means banning the internet! The original design of the www, that many now call the internet, even though it is only one protocol ON it, was to have a bunch of pages(like a book), that could be served over a network. The CGI aspect was likely added later. And TODAY, no matter how complicated it gets, it is still built around those to minor ideas and routines.

    So yeah, banning books, or even really limiting content, would now be VERY painful!

    Frankly, something has to be done to prevent the type of person that is so easily affected by things like this from even "integrating" with society! It will only lead to disaster! Banning knives, explosives, guns, movies, games, or books WON'T do it.

    Steve
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