Developing…

ANTI-EMO RIOTS BREAK OUT ACROSS MEXICO

Riot police have taken to the streets of several cities in Mexico to … defend emo kids?

A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City. The next week, shaggy-haired emo kids were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana’s emo kids to stay away from the town’s fair next month.

But instead of just laying down, listening to Panic! At The Disco on their headphones, smearing their mascara to look tear-streaked, cutting themselves so they can “feel alive”, and surrendering, these Emo kids are rallying and preparing for war.

But the emo kids are organizing… Last week, they marched against the violence…

Here’s what a battalion of Mexican Emo kids looks like.

“What do we want? CHEAP RAZOR BLADES! When do we want them? NOW!”

And here are my two favourite faces in the crowd.

Gimp Emo:

Yessss, maassster.

Angry Emo:

Gaaarrr!

I don’t often glance at the Google ads by the side of my Gmail but this one caught my eye.

How could any self-respecting emo resist such a tempting offer?

I was going to start this post by making a joke about how I once tried to use MySpace and was so angered and frustrated by its hideous design, slow loading times, and complete lack of usability that I tried to top myself. But that would be in poor taste so I won’t.

Instead I’m going to have a bit of a laugh at the media’s newest sensationalist campaign in the wake of the tragic suicide deaths of two teenage girls: “Our Society’s Kids Are Addicted to MySpace and Are Catching the ‘Emo’ and are Making Suicide Pacts and Are Killing Themselves So We Must Ban MySpace and the Internet and ‘Emo’ and Childhood.”

Does any news outlet in the country ever let the concept of correlation vs. causation get in the way of a good sensationalist headline any more? Where were the “Listening to Nick Cave Music by Candlelight While Wearing Black Makes Kids Kill Themselves” headlines fifteen years ago?

Go read Jeremy and Adam 1.0 who have both written good posts about this topic.

UPDATE (6pm): Well fuck me dead:

[John] Howard was asked if the government could improve monitoring of the internet or educate parents in a bid to stop a similar tragedy.

“I think the greatest thing that has to be said about this is that parental responsibility in the end is the key to behaviour by children,” Mr Howard told ABC Radio.

“Government can’t educate parents to be responsible if they don’t have an instinct for responsibility.

“And whilst there are things the government can do there is a limit before you start running up against freedom of speech.”