O'Rourke 'not ... proud' of teenage murder fantasy writing

[MelissaB]

O’Rourke ‘not … proud’ of teenage murder fantasy writing

‘WASHINGTON, Iowa — Beto O’Rourke said Friday he is “not … proud” of fiction he wrote as teenager about murdering children, while acknowledging its surfacing could hurt his campaign.

“Stuff I was part of as a teenager … not anything that I’m proud of today,” O’Rourke told reporters outside a meet-and-greet here. “And I mean, that’s the long and short of it.”

O’Rourke’s remarks followed a report in Reuters that O’Rourke, as a young member of the computer hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow, wrote an online article about how society could work without money and, in a more disturbing missive, about killing children.

“One day, as I was driving home from work, I noticed two children crossing the street. They were happy, happy to be free from their troubles. ... This happiness was mine by right. I had earned it in my dreams,” he wrote, according to Reuters. “As I neared the young ones, I put all my weight on my right foot, keeping the accelerator pedal on the floor until I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two. I was so fascinated for a moment, that when after I had stopped my vehicle, I just sat in a daze, sweet visions filling my head.”

More: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/15/orourke-not-proud-writing-1223903

This is disturbing to me.

[Sherman A1]

1. It does sound a little peculiar

and as you say disturbing.

[Demsrule86]

3. It is kind of like writing about rape stuff and all.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[Demsrule86]

8. haha

[qazplm135]

38. Lol

Going to be interesting when that hits the fan.

[Demsrule86]

116. Yes indeed.

[lapucelle]

102. Beto was a teenager, not a grown man. I would find it more disturbing if an adult in his 30s did it.

[Demsrule86]

115. I agree. And my daughter wrote the most gruesome stories you would ever want to read as a

teenager. She loves horror movies.

[NastyRiffraff]

141. I wrote some dark stuff myself

as a teenager. I saw Psycho and drew on that as an idea and had my otherwise nice character murder people.

In my defense, no rape fantasies and I wasn't in my 30s.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

151. A "little"??

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[we can do it]

2. Yikes

[Cha]

4. yeah, Beto isn't the only one

who wrote a disturbing fantasy when they were younger.

[Autumn]

9. Beto's fantasy writing will be dropped from the conversation and excused as just fantasy

much faster than Bernie's.

[George II]

181. O'Rourke's was written when he was a teenager, not when he was a grown adult.

[ehrnst]

182. +1000.

[emulatorloo]

184. Yes, as Bernie was in his late 20's and early 30's when he wrote his questionable essays

So it wouldn’t be surprising that reasonable people hold an adult more accountable than a teen who’s brain is not fully formed.

[Zoonart]

14. Truly ridiculous.

Teens are encouraged to work out their alienation and disturbed thoughts via the arts. Writing down your demons is the accepted therapeutic avenue fir dispelling them. I am a writer and artist who has done teen art therapy and this line of attack is simply uninformed.

I have published horror fiction. Does that make me a disturbed individual? I would argue it makes me sane..

I call bullshit. Democrats, stop it.

[MelissaB]

26. The article and info is out there and will have to be discussed & dealt with.

[happybird]

57. +1

[MichMary]

96. Such writings can also be red flags

One of the Columbine killers wrote a very disturbing paper for a CREATIVE WRITING CLASS shortly before the massacre. The teacher spoke to his parents about it, and to his counselor, and it was dismissed as unimportant. There has been much second-guessing over whether a proper degree of attention paid to it could have prevented the deaths of 15 people.

Frankly, kids (and probably people in general) no longer have the freedom they once had to write disturbing stuff without being flagged, investigated, counseled, and whatever.

Since Beto never acted on his fantasies, it's probably safe to say he never will; however, I hope today's parents are keeping on top of their kids writings.

[dalton99a]

16. Laura Bush actually ran a stop sign and killed another kid

in high school

[mobeau69]

154. Intentionally or by accident?

[dalton99a]

159. According to her:

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/books/28laura.html
Laura Bush Opens Up About Crash
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
APRIL 27, 2010

... But it is her description of the deadly accident, and its subsequent impact on her life and her faith, that is the subject Mrs. Bush had most shied away from speaking about in her public life. On a November night in 1963, Mrs. Bush and a girlfriend were hurrying to a drive-in theater when Mrs. Bush, at the wheel of her father’s Chevy Impala, ran a stop sign on a small road and smashed into a car being driven by Mike Douglas, a star athlete and popular student at her school.

“In those awful seconds, the car door must have been flung open by the impact and my body rose in the air until gravity took over and I was pulled, hard and fast, back to earth,” she says. “The whole time,” she adds later, “I was praying that the person in the other car was alive. In my mind, I was calling ‘Please, God. Please, God. Please, God,’ over and over and over again.”

Mrs. Bush concedes that she and her friend were chatting when she ran the stop sign. But she also suggests a host of factors beyond her control played a role — the pitch-black road, an unusually dangerous intersection, the small size of the stop sign, and the car the victim was driving.

“It was sporty and sleek, and it was also the car that Ralph Nader made famous in his book Unsafe at Any Speed,” she states. “He claimed the car was unstable and prone to rollover accidents. A few years later, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration went so far as to investigate the Corvair’s handling, but it didn’t reach the same grim conclusions. I was driving my dad’s much larger and heavier Chevy Impala. But none of that would ever ease the night of November 6. Not for me, and never for the Douglases.”

-----------------------

I'm sure it was an accident. FWIW She also used the book to defend W. and attack Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid ...

[mobeau69]

163. Thanks. I remember now, this coming up during one of shrub's campaigns.

IMO it is a non sequitur vis a vis the story about Beto though. I'm glad our candidates are getting vetted now by us instead our eventually nominee by the pukes. When rump and the pukes find a bone they chew the hell out of it. We need to be united in 2020 like never before.

[George II]

180. Not saying there was a connection, but it was an ex-boyfriend of hers.

[David__77]

5. Strikes me as a bit ethereal.

Without digging in, it strikes me as some sort of commentary on “middle class mediocrity” or some such thing.

[Dennis Donovan]

30. Yeah, kinda in the same vein as "A Catcher In The Rye"

[Andy823]

6. Wow!

I though he had been "vetted", and now this comes out! Very disturbing.

[MoonRiver]

10. Wow that is really creepy!

[Loki Liesmith]

13. Not so much

[MelissaB]

15. Really? Not bothered at all?

[bearsfootball516]

140. It's weird, but teenagers do weird stuff.

[hedda_foil]

11. I wonder whose campaign did such deep opposition research into Beto to find this.

It's more disturbing than normal disaffected teen stuff and Cruz obviously didn't have it or he would have used it.

[MelissaB]

17. I think you're right.

This primary is going to be brutal.

[Andy823]

22. The question is

What else will get dug up?

[Lazy Daisy]

90. unless

They got ahold of this a little later in the race, AFTER they heard the cries for Presidency. Told Cruz to suck it up win or lose, this was Presidential level background.


Personally, unless there's actions to back up this stuff in his past, this is crap. People have creepy thoughts, we can't help it.
Ever drive on a winding mountain road and have a fleeting thought to "test" the guard rails? Or be somewhere high up and get that split second thought of jumping? People have creepy thoughts, it's what we do with them is what counts.

And before anybody start jumping on me, read this:
[link:https://themighty.com/2017/02/intrusive-bad-violent-thoughts-ocd/|

They've done studies on this. Yes, in some people it's a sign of something wrong and the person is dangerous to themselves or others. But in most cases we're just humans with funky ass thoughts.

[CentralMass]

105. It is a Politico article. The two authors are at ghe top of the article with linkable bios.

[hedda_foil]

113. True, but this kind of thing always comes to the media as a leak from the political opposition

[Loki Liesmith]

12. Lol. Ever been an edgy teen?

I wrote stories about annihilating the planet with an anti-matter bomb.

[Andy823]

18. Not even close

To "KILLING CHILDREN"!

[Loki Liesmith]

60. George Lucas also wrote about killing children

[Andy823]

82. And not one of them

Is running for president, are they?

[Loki Liesmith]

87. Weak sauce

You been done owned. If that’s the best you got best take a time out to regroup.

[LanternWaste]

191. Keep moving the goalposts.... bless your little heart.

[Polybius]

162. Oh come on

You can't compare a professional writing for a movie script about a bad guy to what Beto wrote. Beto sounded like he could have been pushed to the edge.

[Loki Liesmith]

169. I can. I did. I will.

[Polybius]

172. Yes, but it was absurdly laughable to do so

Lucas writes movies, some about bad guys who kill people. Arnold Schwarzenegger killed cops in Terminator. That's ok though because it's a huge difference.

[Loki Liesmith]

67. Stephen King wrote about killing children

[Loki Liesmith]

75. Nabokov wrote about fucking children

[Loki Liesmith]

79. Frank Miller wrote about gassing cub scouts

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dVQqkU-M8Wg/TbdpgO9p8oI/AAAAAAAAK1s/-MC29xctnbU/s1600/BatmanTDKR3-150+Hunt+The+Dark+Knight.jpg

[Loki Liesmith]

88. Wes Craven wrote about killing children

https://m.

[MelissaB]

19. Yes, and as a former English teacher I read a lot of essays.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

27. I think this kind of stuff gets reported to the authorities.

[marylandblue]

47. Not pre-Columbine.

[MelissaB]

51. Not sure. I had a student who wrote about

killing her English teacher and she didn't step in my class again.

I had another student who literally did try to run down another student with his car. He was an entitled little asshole whose parents thought he could do now wrong and justified everything he did.

[marylandblue]

61. Killing your own teacher is different. Personally scary for the teacher.

But I did write something rather gruesome for an English assignment and got nothing but a surprised comment. I am sure it would have been taken much more seriously today.

[MelissaB]

72. Yes, it is.

It was specific. That's why I also added the second example.

The first was targeted toward a teacher.

The second was a self-entitled asshole of a kid who thought the rules didn't apply to him.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

77. Writing about someone else being evil is much different than fantasizing running down kids.

So is stealing unsuspecting victims’ phone credit cards - especially when you come from an affluent family.

[marylandblue]

86. I don't care anymore. A Democrat could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue

and I'd be okay. Does this make me no better than a Republican? Damn right! I'm not giving up a winning but flawed candidate again so that we can lose to mobster traitor.

My only concern is how he handles it politically. If I were him I'd say I was a troubled teen then I cleaned myself with my family's help. I got a second chance. I want to help today's troubled teens who don't have that kind of help and end up in jail or on drugs.

[Tipperary]

107. What's this about the phone cards? I guess I have missed this.

Wow.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

110. .

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-politics-beto-orourke/

[TwilightZone]

129. The poster is misrepresenting the article. It's in relation to the hacking story.

Nowhere in the article did it say Beto stole credit cards. The poster is trying a little too hard to make this into a thing.

Here's the article:

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-politics-beto-orourke/

[emulatorloo]

186. +1 Always best to go to the original source. Sometimes DU'ers summaries can be inadequate

or inaccurate for whatever reason. We are humans after all.

[TwilightZone]

127. Nowhere in that article did it say O'Rourke did that.

It noted that some teens used that as a method and that two *other* teens were caught and let off with warnings. It does not say that Beto was involved.

And if that's all you gleaned from that article, you're trying too hard.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

142. It's in the Reuter's article linked

Like thousands of others, though, he said he pilfered long-distance service “so I wouldn’t run up the phone bill.”

[peggysue2]

166. Ever raise a bright, edgy kid?

My eldest son wrote bizarre fiction as a teenager, bizarre enough that I was alerted and told my son would be recommended for psychological evaluation. A single session with the staff psychologist and the matter was put to rest. In fact, I received an apology from his teacher.

Tempest in a teapot!

[MoonRiver]

23. But you're not running for president. nuff said

[Loki Liesmith]

91. Lol

[John Fante]

148. Neither is a teenage Beto.

.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

152. Maybe Loki SHOULD run for President...could prolly beat a loser like tRump.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[MineralMan]

24. But you're not running for President.

A lot of people will just shrug this youthful story off. I will. However, not everyone will do that.

Opposition research is very effective these days. Anything a candidate wrote and posted online is still out there, waiting to be found. And it will be found by the opposition. That's the reality of this time in history. Even old Bernie Sanders isn't immune to having early writings brought to light and displayed. Did those hurt him? Hard to say, really. Will they re-emerge this year? Absolutely they will.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

40. Did you also steal phone card numbers of unsuspecting victims?

At the time, people connected to bulletin boards by dialing in to the phone lines through a modem. Heavy use of long-distance modem calls could add up to hundreds of dollars a month. Savvy teens learned techniques for getting around the charges, such as using other people’s phone-company credit card numbers and five-digit calling codes to place free calls.


O’Rourke didn’t say what techniques he used. Like thousands of others, though, he said he pilfered long-distance service “so I wouldn’t run up the phone bill.”

I remember the news stories of distraught people receiving their phone bills via UPS in boxes.

[TexasTowelie]

58. I recall reading about one of the Democratic candidates

pilfering electrical service so he wouldn't have to run up the electrical bill when he was an adult with a college degree. I hope that the supporters of that candidate keep that in mind when they make accusations about theft of services.

[tblue37]

128. Who? nt

[TexasTowelie]

137. It wasn't the candidate that I'm supporting.

Google is your friend though.

[tblue37]

138. I can't find such a reference. What search terms worked for you? nt

[MineralMan]

70. Very true. I had a BBS system up for several years

to support my shareware software business. Someone was on it constantly around the clock. One person at a time, until I finally added a second line when that capability existed with the BBS software I used. The phone company gave me a special low rate for those phone lines. If I remember correctly, it was an answer-only service that cost just over $8 per month per line. Outgoing calls on the service they provided were billed individually, but there were never any outgoing calls on those lines. I knew who and where the calls came from, because using the site required registration with a call-back phone number.

At one time, before my wife and I moved into rented office space, we had eight phone lines coming into our little house. The phone company never asked a question about any of it. They would just run a new drop from the pole when we used up all the circuits from the existing lines. Our phone bill was horrendously high, but it was a business expense, so...

I wonder how many of those BBS calls were made illegitimately. some, I'm sure.

[Loki Liesmith]

80. No. But did hack email servers of government agencies

[happybird]

68. All those who are shocked better not look into fanfiction sites, lol!

Beto's story is pretty tame compared to the stuff I've seen and even read on Ao3.
People deal with things that shock and disturb them in different ways. Some write about it. It's fiction.

[democratisphere]

103. Sounds like an overdose of StarTrek.

[MineralMan]

20. The opposition digs deep to find whatever it can.

Who this particular opposition is, I don't know, but many people have old ghosts in their past they later wish didn't exist. So, it comes out, and must be dealt with in some way.

It's impossible to know which things will stick and be harmful to a campaign and which will not. Beto O'Rourke is not the only Democratic primary candidate to have written weird things many years ago. How much will this hurt O'Rourke? That's hard to say. Does he have other achievements that will balance that old writing? I don't know.

What I do know is that the opposition digs deep. If it's there, they'll find it and make it public.

Some people write strange, violent things in their youth. Most people never do that. This could hurt a relatively young candidate without a lot of powerful positive stories to tell.

We'll see.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

65. The "opposition" is not necessarily GOP, either.

[MineralMan]

73. That's especially true during the primary season.

Everyone's looking for an edge over the other 13 or 15 primary candidates. It can turn into a toxic mess, I think, that hurts everyone, and gives oppo research to the Republicans for the General Election for free.

I really wish we wouldn't do that.

[David__77]

21. Context may be important.

I’d be interested in seeing the whole essay.

[MineralMan]

28. Chances are you will see the whole essay,

along with pretty much anything else O'Rourke and the other candidates put online at one time. Even under a pseudonym. Internet archive researchers will find it all and we'll all get to see it, I'm sure. It's all there. It will all be exposed.

[Lulu KC]

71. Agreed

This could be what's going on in the villain's head, and a story needs a good villain. I see no evidence that this has been how he's lived his life, while others are actually separating non-fictional children from their families and letting them be abused and killed.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. What. The. Fuck.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

33. Seriously!! First I've heard of this... surprised this didn't come out during his Texas Senate run.

(Or, maybe it did and I missed it.) Would've given him more time to explain the context of his disturbing child-murder fantasy. Wonder if there's more where that came from. Full transparency requires that Beto divulge that information, dontcha think?!


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

29. Very disturbing indeed...wanna hear a clearer explanation of what exactly was goin thru Beto's mind.

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[McCamy Taylor]

31. So, does this mean Nabokov was a child rapist for writing Lolita?

Since this is a work of fiction, I will pull out my fiction editor's hat. Well written! Most American teens are functionally illiterate.

If Roland Barthes were here, he would remind us that when it comes to fiction, there is no author. There is just the fiction. So those trying to extract Beto's soul from this bit of fiction should give up. But they won't since this is about politics, so I will do what Barthes said not to do and attempt an analysis of the author.

If this piece tells us anything about Beto's soul, it is that he was once a teenager, full of teen-aged angst about how childhood happiness has given way to the hormonal fueled urge to procreate in a society which denies its young sex until they are 18. We all had similar thoughts about how easy childhood was compared to the turmoil of adolescence. Teenagers love the carefree nature of children. It is why most of them make such good baby sitters. Part of them wants to return to a state of childlike innocence and they can do it when they are around kids.

Teenaged Beto had enough self awareness and maturity not to be overwhelmed by self hatred at the odd, troubling things that sometimes cross the minds of angst filled teens. Rather than trying to suppress the troubling thought or deny it or bury it under booze, he shared it, the way that modernist writers have shared all their inner secrets. This process of giving voice to all aspects of humanity, even those that had been (up until now) unspeakable, is what makes modernism so humane. It does not deny. It does not cast out. It does not scapegoat. It says "I understand you and your pain."

[Zoonart]

34. THIS x1000

See my post #14

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

39. Nobody's accusing Beto of being a child murderer...that would be highly unfair. But, you hafta agree

Beto owes us a clear explanation as to his thinking and the context of his child-murder story and, in the interest of full disclosure, whether there are other writings of his that we should be concerned about. I think we can all agree, that's part of fully vetting a candidate... not an attack.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[David__77]

46. I don't think he owes that to anyone.

I see no ethical obligation to do so.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

95. We disagree then, but, regardless of owing it to anyone, it would be smart POLITICALLY...

if Beto addressed it voluntarily, as I suggested. Saying ONLY that he regrets saying that stuff doesn't reflect well and could make a bad situation worse.


Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[David__77]

98. I don't know the context of this.

Were there a number of “characters” in this narrative? What was his own thought about it?

I don’t know that it’s “smart” to address it, from the perspective of public opinion. That can be a fine way of getting stuck in a trap of sorts.

[Kurt V.]

43. nabokov considered burning the draft of lolita but decided he had created a true work of art.

beto is no nabokov

[Loki Liesmith]

81. Lol but a teenager might think they are Nabokov

A lot of them think they are.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

183. How does one find out if they are a Nabokov

if they can't write about anything dark until they know they are?

[Kurt V.]

189. excellent. truth is you don't, but this doesn't apply to nabokov himself.

by the time he wrote lollita he had written at least 6 great works already. none like lolitta.

[PeeJ52]

45. My thoughts too. Well written fiction...

I wanted to read more. I don't believe Stephen King is Pennywise any more than I would believe Beto is the person behind the wheel. Beto isn't my candidate, and I don't believe he will be my candidate, unless forced upon me by the rest of the party, so I'm not supporting him out of loyalty. I just feel jumping on him because a few lines of fiction have been released are a little much. The young Beto was evidently a very intelligent esoteric thinker. His roots in punk music and computer hacking activities indicate he wasn't your typical kid. I'd wait for more before jumping, unless you really just want to jump. Let's be for a candidate of our party, instead of against them.

[Politicub]

94. Lolita works because it brings you into the mind of Humbert

It's the genius of the work. And you feel terrible about sympathies you had for him when you read the last page and put the book down. It sticks with you, forever.

It frightens me when we tear down authors of fiction and call them unworthy of running for office. I would like to see more artists -- writers, painters, and the like -- and thoughtful people in positions of power. I want the people who rule to have a sense of empathy.

Empathy, according to a Psychology Today article, is, "... the experience of understanding another person's thoughts, feelings, and condition from his or her point of view, rather than from one's own." source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy

And empathy is a two-edged sword. When you have a strong sense of empathy, you don't just walk in the shoes of the benevolent. You also can see from the eyes of people who would do others harm.

For example of empathy for the malevolent, we believe Trump is capable of far more vile acts than he has already perpetrated. Many or most of us know this instinctually. His focus now seems to be on the subjugation of women around the world by denying them reproductive agency. We have to be able to think like Trump, or at least try, in order to predict what sadistic thing will come next from his administration so we can place barriers in his way.

[NurseJackie]

32. So, he was an actual teenager, right... not in his thirties?

n/t

[MrsCoffee]

48. +1

[R B Garr]

160. Yes, great point. Sn actual teenager. Not a grown man

in his 30’s. Very excellent point—says it all,

[dalton99a]

35. He also probably called his teacher an asshole and smoked an unapproved substance

[dlk]

36. This Looks Like Grasping for Dirt - Teenage Boys Sometimes Think About and/or Say Weird Stuff

Sometimes they even write it down. Who among us at one point or another hasn't had some type of odd or inappropriate fantasy and maybe even written it down? What counts is whether or not it's acted out. Good grief, let's move on to something that's actually substantial. This is counter-productive.

[patricia92243]

37. Not good then or now.

[McCamy Taylor]

41. Oh. This does not even need saying but I will say it. Kneecapping.

Gets an A Plus for effort. Excellent example of kneecapping.

[Renew Deal]

42. Gen X has arrived

[Tactical Peek]

44. If this can be successfully or adequately addressed,

then he should have addressed it long ago, certainly before he ran for Congress and probably before he ran for El Paso city council.

Now it is pretty damn far down the road for an, "Oh yeah, about that . . ." .


https://news.yahoo.com/special-report-beto-orourkes-secret-membership-legendary-hacking-153631672.html

[SidDithers]

49. Please, oh please, let Sanders' surrogates complain about Beto's early writings...nt

Sid

[NurseJackie]

52. Indeed. Let's open that door.

[TexasTowelie]

50. I'm more likely to excuse a teenager that wrote murder fantasies for an online group of hackers

and where he may have never thought he would be identified with little to no exposure than I am to excuse an adult man that wrote rape fantasies that were published in a newspaper and fully attributed to him. At least has Beto has expressed remorse for his writing. I'm not aware as to whether Bernie expressed any remorse for what was published under his name.

[NurseJackie]

54. No remorse. No apology. Just the typical "youthful indiscretion" type of dismissive excuses.

I'm not aware as to whether Bernie expressed any remorse for what was published under his name.

No remorse. No apology. Just the typical "youthful indiscretion" type of dismissive excuses.

[McCamy Taylor]

56. Please do not go there, TexasTowelie. I think maybe the other party wants us to go there.

And I, for one, never do what the GOP (or Kremlin) want me to do.

However, you have given me a clue as to why tis "story" is making the rounds. Is this really an attempt to get the Democrats fighting among themselves? What Buchanan called "Smears against one democratic candidate attributed to another Democratic candidate" in his dirty tricks/CREEP manifesto from 1972?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/stories/buchananmemo.htm?noredirect=on

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

62. I suspect ratf*cking from within.

It's happened before and it will happen again. We mustn't fall for it.

[TexasTowelie]

74. You are correct and I shouldn't stoop to that level.

I'm arguing with my brother at the same time as I'm posting and I'm not in a tolerant mood this morning (which is much kinder than what I originally wrote).

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

53. I guess it's a good thing Stephen King didn't run for office,

since he turned out to be a prolific serial killer, which anyone could have predicted from his weird, violent writings.


... oh, wait...

[crazytown]

76. +1

That’s an appropriate analogy. Horror.

[happybird]

78. Or John Saul

God gawd, he was murdering off children in droves, for years.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

84. Or any number of other writers of horror fiction and murder mysteries,

all of whom, as far as I know, have led law-abiding lives and have managed to avoid doing the things they imagined and wrote about. I'm a fan of murder mysteries and police procedurals. None of my favorite authors have ever murdered anybody but it's obvious that they thought about how it could be done. Some pretty blood-curdling stories are told in first-person by the fictional murderer, but I don't think authors like Ruth Rendell or Jo Nesbø or James Patterson have a basement full of dead bodies.

[happybird]

99. Exactly.

I also love murder mysteries and especially horror, and have since I found my Mom's trove of Stephen King books when I was 11. Carrie blew my little mind.

I think fiction is a powerful, safe way to process the unthinkable. As a teenager, Beto was probably realizing and accepting that there are real life horrors that we have no control over. That there are people out there who are either very ill, or amoral, self-gratifying sadists, or just plain evil. How the most innocent of victims can be chosen at random. That's an earth-shaking realization when you first have it.

[marylandblue]

55. Wake up democrats! This is nothing.

At this age, Brett Kavanaugh was getting shitfaced and raping girls. Trump was so incorrigible he was sent to military school and he's afraid to even tell us what happened there.

So I've got no problem with an angst-ridden teen hacker who cleaned up nicely. Neither should you.

[Nanjeanne]

59. I'm so much more concerned with policies and commitment and consistency and thoughtfulness . . .

[Iliyah]

63. All the Democratic Party's

candidates should air out what may be potentially embarrassing or shocking because Russia with the help of the GOPers are right now combing all avenues of "dirt" they can find and of course never forget, GOPers will just make up shit.

[CrispyQ]

64. LOL.

I write fiction & this doesn't bother me in the least. We explore all kinds of characters & situations & sometimes we don't even know why a character resonates, but they do.

[dalton99a]

124. But all fiction is autobiographical!

[Lulu KC]

66. I feel old

as I try to understand what the hackers were even doing.

I remain grateful that my youth was not documented beyond a few photographs and letters that are probably curling up in some old people's basements, if not in landfills. Their children might see them as they go through boxes before the move to assisted living, or after the funeral. What seemed so wild to us will be quaint and of zero interest.

This is our first group of politicians whose youths are documented on the internet. While killing children with a car and seeming to enjoy it crosses a line of horrifying, I contrast this with what currently sitting people and their friends have done and continue to do as adults--DT/Epstein come to mind, for one--that are lost in a blur of disgusting.

[Guilded Lilly]

69. -Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night- n/t

[Politicub]

83. He was a moody teenager. Whatever.

This will be baggage for the primaries, but it's not something that's important to me.

Why? Because people choose entertainment that portrays the murder of children, for one. There are people who write those scripts. I doubt many of them harbor secret fantasies about making what happens in their scripts come true. As an example, Law and Order SVU revolves around "especially heinous" crimes against children. Good writers must get into the characters of their manuscripts or the work is shit.

[BlueStater]

85. Whatever.

When I was 11, I wrote a story about the Terminator violently slaughtering the cast of Barney & Friends. I'm 32 now and I haven't killed anyone nor do I consider myself a violent person.

[Oneironaut]

89. People need to lighten up.

People don’t understand fiction anymore. There’s a huge difference between saying “I want to kill children” and writing a piece of dark fiction about killing children. One is a sign someone is crazy, and the other can have many meanings.

Teenagers like to write scary, disturbing things at times. Some adults do too. The point is to be subversive and shocking. It can inspire disgust and humor at the same time.

This is normal teenage behavior. They like to be edgy for the sake of being edgy.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

97. If only Bernie could get a similar pass... that would be progress!!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[David__77]

100. It would be nice if people lightened up generally.

Puritanism is very restrictive.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

146. Yes, VERY!

Bernie & Elizabeth 2020!!!
Welcome to the revolution!!!

[mr_lebowski]

92. I'd like to see the whole thing ... is it meant to be autobiographical, or fiction?

I mean I KNOW it is, at it's root, fiction, obviously, but is the character doing the storytelling meant to be the author? Is the main character, for example, a teen hacker from Texas (or wherever he's from)?

How I feel about this depends a lot on how obviously it's a 100% fictional story about a character who clearly doesn't EXIST ...

That being said, teenagers ... both boys AND girls ... have a hell of a lotta weird thoughts going on in their brains. Hormones, changes in the body, peer/social pressures ... it's a lot to process.

I remember, I was there.

[lapucelle]

131. The character was driving a car and coming home from work.

Doesn't sound like a typical day in the life of a 15 year old.

[mr_lebowski]

150. Indeed it does not ... ergo ... promising? (nt)

[Demsrule86]

176. He was a kid so BFD...not.

[crazytown]

93. It's Horror- in the style of American Psycho / Stephen King.

“I just sat in a daze, sweet visions filling my head” - The character is a psychopath.

[customerserviceguy]

101. It's the kind of writing

that I hope high school English teachers would go to the school guidance counselor with, who would probably then refer the matter to the local law enforcement authorities, just in case an "incident" ever came up.

[Tipperary]

104. He also apologized for the way he spoke about his wife, which had bothered me.

Already on an apology tour...not good.

[BooScout]

108. What way did he speak about his wife?

I confess, I don't know a whole lot about Beto O'Rourke

[Tipperary]

109. He joked about how she raises the kids with his "intermittent" help. He apologized last night.

It irked me at the time.

[redstateblues]

111. We should run a robot- with no emotions, no sense of humor. The perfect candidate.

[dalton99a]

114. Must be 100% pure clean - to wrestle with the pig

[TwilightZone]

132. No, then people would whine that our candidate doesn't have enough charisma.

[lapucelle]

117. What are you talking about?

What "apology tour"?

Beto is on an apology tour for writing bad fiction when he was a teenager and for saying his wife is a hard-working mother?

I haven't seen any of this stuff on the news. Where is it coming from?

Who's behind this whispering campaign against Beto?

It reminds me of what happened to Sri Kulkarni in Texas last year.

http://www.indoamerican-news.com/local-democrats-infighting-attempts-to-smear-sri-kulkarni/

https://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/texas-congressional-candidate-sri-kulkarni-acknowledges-teen-drug-arrest-youthful/article_54a39be6-1e55-11e8-8db1-6f520552146f.html

[Tipperary]

118. I read both stories on CNN. One was a podcast in which he participated last night.

He apologizes for how he spoke about his wife after the host challenged him. He also apologized for his youthful indiscretions, and said he recognized how being a white male from a wealthy home had benefited him.

[lapucelle]

120. Beto apologized? He didn't complain about being taken out of context

and then accuse CNN of stacking the audience with political operatives?

How refreshing.

[Tipperary]

121. Sigh. Never you mind.

You know exactly what I meant.

[lapucelle]

122. Indeed I do.

[melman]

125. "whispering campaign"

I thought vetting was extremely important. I read that right here.

[Tipperary]

149. I had not had time to read the entire Vanity Fair article, the cover story. Read it today.

Lots of interesting things to learn in there.

[lapucelle]

106. It's not like his was a grown man writing an essay.

It was a teenager's attempt at fiction .

I find a 32 year old man writing something like this much more disturbing than a kid trying to shock the grown-ups with a piece of fiction:

A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.

A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.

The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their "revolutionary" political meeting.

https://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8682503/bernie-sanders-rape-fantasy

Why would anybody think that those are the "typical fantasies"? Who was he writing about?

[melman]

126. .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

[TwilightZone]

133. Considering the posters who seem to be taking the most offense to it...

it's a valid point.

[melman]

136. It's actually not

[lapucelle]

134. Distinctions with differences are distinctions.

There is nothing comparable about a 15 year old's attempt at fiction to an essay by a adult man.

[melman]

135. What does one thing even have to do with the other?

Nothing.



also + =

[lapucelle]

139. Distictions with differences are distinctions.

There is nothing comparable about a 15 year old's attempt at fiction to an essay by a adult man.

[emulatorloo]

188. And there's more than just one questionable essay

[RandySF]

112. He's not the only candidate in the field who wrote disturbing things.

At least Beto was a teen and regrets it.

[lapucelle]

119. Pretty remarkable that Politico focused the story on a piece of bad fiction written by a 15 year old

when they had this as the starting point:

As the Texas Democrat enters the race for president, members of a group famous for “hactivism” come forward for the first time to claim him as one of their own. There may be no better time to be an American politician rebelling against business as usual. But is the United States ready for O’Rourke’s teenage exploits?

snip=============================================

In addition to critiquing racism, O'Rourke tried to do something about sexism in the male-dominated world of hacking.

O’Rourke befriended a 16-year-old California girl who was a regular on TacoLand, and he put her up for membership in the CDC. With Wheeler’s approval, she got in, making the CDC one of a very few hacker groups of the time that weren’t all-male.

During the weekend of the 1997 Hackers on Planet Earth conference in New York, O’Rourke reconnected with old friend Carrie Campbell.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-politics-beto-orourke/

[aikoaiko]

123. This doesn't bother me. Everyone, even the pros, make mistakes with attempts at art.

Especially the writing of a teenager.

[Vinca]

130. That's weird and creepy. I don't know if someone should be judged by what they wrote as a

teenager, though. (Maybe he should have been a mystery writer. The paragraph sounds like something out of a Jonathan Kellerman novel.)

[applegrove]

143. Bad.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

144. He might as well pack his bags and leave.

The Democratic party is a big tent, but might not extend to people who write about murder fantasies.

Beto on toast, done.

[SKKY]

170. I can think of 6.1 million reasons why you may be wrong.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

171. Dollars shouldn't matter, or Epstein would be a saint.

Maybe this blot will blow over, and Beto will be our nominee. But Trump, Cambridge Analytica, Fox, they'll drag this issue out day after day.

And he's still better than Trump.

[ucrdem]

145. Depends on what he was reading in school.

Crime and Punishment for instance is all about Raskolnikov fantasizing about murdering an old lady which he eventually does. Why that's taught in high school I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if this was a creative writing response to C&P or some equally Nietzschean assigned reading.

[BlueTsunami2018]

153. I hope no one unearths my D&D character logs.

I ran many a chaotic evil psycho character in my time.

This is really reaching for shit.

[sandensea]

155. Another one bites the dust - sadly, in this case.

I like Beto. But he knows better than anyone, that this is just a deal-breaker to most voters.

Republicans are smarter: they kill children all over the world - but they a) make sure they're brown; and b) they don't write essays about it.

[OneBro]

156. That's what writers do, and the guy was only 15.

Most of the "concern" seems to be coming from the same right-wingers who say NOTHING Trump did before his election matters, that his pussy grabbing comments were just locker room talk, and that of all the good Christians in America, Trump is the ONE who was sent by GOD ALMIGHTY to be President of the United States. I'm not interested in hearing jack sh*t from ANY republican on ANYTHING having to do with morality or family values.

Though Beto is way, way, way down on my list of candidates, I think it's utter b.s. that people are taking his writings as a 15 year old and gnashing their teeth as though the guy was actually out running over children. Can the Stephen Kings of the world never run for political office because their writings creep me the f*ck out?

I don't vouch for anyone so I ain't vouching for Beto either, but by all accounts and appearances the guy is in a healthy marriage with an emotionally healthy family. The ONLY reaction I had from reading Beto's writings was the exact same reaction I got from reading books like IT or The Exorcist.

As for my luke warm support of Beto generally, his image and candidacy has not been damaged one iota.

[mobeau69]

157. The problem is not what we think of this stuff but rather others.

The rebukes will be fundraising off of "The Song of the Cow". IMO we just don't need to deal with this shit.

[LovingA2andMI]

158. Umm....

Not good at all. Next....

[Devil Child]

161. This does not disturb me

Frustrating to see this tendency towards self-destruction and disunity. Considering who is occupying the White House who gives a shit what O'Rourke thought as a kid.

[MelissaB]

164. Me!

I taught middle and high school.

[Devil Child]

175. If we are going to reference personal work history to bolster our position

Then please note I am a board certified and licensed pediatric mental health practitioner. I am the person who talks to the kids in your class who express these thoughts.

This is a non-issue to me.

[Turin_C3PO]

165. Meh.

What’s the difference between that and any other horror author?

[WeekiWater]

167. Not sure it will play that big because of his age...

When it was done.

Sanders wrote a rape fantasy in his thirties and people seem to look past it.

[radius777]

168. allegory about gen-x alienation

is what this passage sounds like, with the kids representing childhood innocence, and the driver representing the cold reality of the postmodern world.

much of gen-x music and culture revolves around such themes, and a fascination w/the macabre.

kurt cobain, tupac, biggie - were modern day versions of nietzsche in a sense - poets of doom searching for catharsis via the morbid.

[Adrahil]

173. Beto was an edgy teen seeking to be shocking!?

What's next... wearing a dress in a punk band!?

Give me a fucking break.

[ComradeFunk]

174. Idc what he wrote as a teen.

[Amimnoch]

177. Some of my high school D&D campaigns would be equally disturbing,

My little brother, who obtained all of the artistic talent, in his high school years did some paintings, pencil drawings, that would likewise be “very disturbing”.

I was a self-loathing homophobe in high school.

My little brother was a self loathing, and bullied grunge/alternative individual in high school whom was tormented endlessly for being overweight.

My congratulations to anyone, whom, from their perfect backgrounds, went through all of highschool without any dark thoughts, or dark expressions of any sort. You are pillars of society.

[stonecutter357]

178. lol !

[George II]

179. He was a teenager. I'm sure many of us wrote things as teenagers that would one day....

....be considered dark or troubling.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

185. I give zero shits about this.

Now, the fact that his voting record is pretty centrist (which is kind of a gift to call it that) is troubling to me. That he dabbled in creative writing as a high school student, not so much.

[George II]

187. So since this has been posted here I guess it would be acceptable to post an essay....

....from a local Vermont newspaper?

The writings of a teenager are a lot less disturbing to me as those of a 31-year old man.

[emulatorloo]

190. Dunno, have you never heard of a teen trying his/her hand at writing fiction?

Just from the one paragraph, POV seems to be that of an older man. It is young person’s attempt at fiction.