Predictable Black Friday Violence Vile, Unexplanable

As predictable as it was disgusting, there were reports Friday across the nation of Black Friday violence, in which people rioted, fought, stampeded and otherwise behaved abysmally to grab the Christmas gifts they demanded.

Peace on earth, good will toward men? Not these morons.

A lovely Black Friday scene. Wish you were there?

I don't think there's a more shameful scene than people rioting in stores on the Friday after Christmas. I don't think any of the people who participate are nearly smart enough to have any self-awareness of how awful they are.

I poked around today looking for information on the psychology of Black Friday rioters and found precious little on the topic. It does seem there's an emptiness in these people that they try to self medicate by being the Top Dog in the holiday shopping wars.   If a few heads get smashed, so be it, I guess.

A Christian Science Monitor piece last year suggested the violence is desperation on the part of consumers and retailers to bust out of iffy economic times, come hell or high water.

Look, I know I've complained about people standing in long lines and struggling through clouds to attend the Black Friday festivities. It's not for me, but if you somehow enjoy that kind of thing, even if the deals aren't really as good as advertised, go for it.

The vast majority of people who partake in Black Friday are fine. They're mostly happy, or at least nonviolent. Almost all of them manage to avoid rioting.

The rioters? I hope they don't find what they're shopping for, and I hope the rest of their holiday season really, really sucks. They deserve no better.

Here's a happy little video of morons at a Wal-Mart this year:



The retailers that invite these riots are at least as disgusting as the actual rioters.. They create this onrush by appealing to the way our brains are wired. They create an atmosphere of scarcity by saying the deals are for an hour only, there's limited supplies, limit two per customer, yada, yada, yada.

And then the riots happen. So what if they're employees get trampled, punched, run over, injured, killed? The retailers' disdain for their employees is breathtaking. We have an associate in Aisle 3 killed by a mob? Get rid of the body and hire some other schmuck at minimum wage to face the homicidal mob. As long as we rake in the profits, who cares if a few people die in the process?

There's a lot of good in Christmas. But the Black Friday lunatics, and the retailers that enable them deserve something much worse than a lump of coal from Santa. They just need to crawl back under their disgusting rocks and leave us alone.