when killing becomes fun

a long time ago, i watched a history channel program about battlefield archeology. at one point, the show went off on a sidebar about how they found weapons that were literally loaded with extra rounds, all the way up the chamber. the scientists and researchers said they took it as evidence of a human desire to avoid taking human life. they believed the soldiers were pretending to fire and reloading as tho they had.

so fast forward to 1,001 shows and articles (and conspiracies theories) about the work the pentagon has done to *overcome* this human urge to *not* kill.

add in videogames where the kill is a victory … and teevee shows too … and where to we end up as a society?
the washington post reports on five soldiers serving in afghanistan who have been charged with murder in the deaths of afghan civilians. one of those charged, however, is the whistleblower himself.
here’s more from propublica’s marian wang, with many more links included.