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Comment by complianceowl | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why I'm even responding to you -- but, the decision to isolate ourselves in pursuit of status, career obsession, and a life full of materialism -- is completely our own doing. And in other Capitalistic societies, like Mexico, the tight-knit, community-oriented culture is still alive and well, as is the case in many other countries that are also capitalistic. Your ideology has blinded you.

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I'm growing increasingly convinced that the US is anomalous, in many ways, because our society is individual-focused. I believe the preoccupation with self is fundamentally responsible for the proliferation of gun violence.

I disagree. I think radical ideologies, fatherless homes (e.g. broken homes, divorce), big pharma and their minions (doctors) who over-prescribe pharmaceuticals to the American population, boys who are given no guidance on how to become a man and interact successfully with the opposite sex -- I think those things are fundamentally responsible for gun violence.

But as I read in a book about systems: it's a lot more comforting to think that the problem is somewhere "out there", rather than confronting the fact that our system is setting up people to fail.

It's a lot easier to point at guns and say, "let's get these off the streets!", rather than confront the more difficult reality of everything I mentioned.

That is a good point. I'm also not usually that ideological, so thanks for pointing that out.

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