[Scuds]

there's a reason why people remember kent state.

[Amezarak]

The President who ordered the Kent State National Guard deployment won his re-election campaign in a massive landslide - 49 out of 50 states went for Nixon. I suspect that people that lived through it remembered Kent State very differently at the time than we do (or maybe than they do now).

[lurk2]

Nixon didn’t order the Kent State deployment. It was Ohio’s state governor, Jim Rhodes.

[pjc50]

Kent State was only, what, four people? Barely registers by modern mass shooting standards. The US is inured to violence.

For reference, Euromaidan involved the death of over a hundred protesters before the government finally collapsed.

[AnimalMuppet]

The thing about Kent State wasn't that four people were killed. The thing about Kent State was that the US military killed four people - four US civilians.

The people of the US may be inured to violence. They aren't inured to violence from their own military, though.

[lurk2]

What reason is that?

[pseudalopex]

National Guard killed unarmed students.

[ty6853]

The real danger of Kent State is it teaches in for a penny, in for a pound.

[philwelch]

Kent State is a classic case of historical revision. The majority of Americans supported the National Guard’s actions, in part because they were in valid fear for their lives after the rioters started throwing bricks at their heads.

[FireBeyond]

Revisionism you say? Most accounts say that before the National Guard was involved, most of what was thrown was beer bottles at police cars.

The Wikipedia article on the shootings doesn't mention the word "brick" once. It also says:

"While on the practice field, the guardsmen generally faced the parking lot, about 100 yards (91 m) away. At one point, the guardsmen formed a loose huddle and appeared to be talking to one another. They had cleared the protesters from the Commons area, and many students had left.

Some students who had retreated beyond the practice field fence obtained rocks and possibly other objects with which they again began pelting the guardsmen. The number of rock throwers is unknown, with estimates of 10–50 throwers. According to an FBI assessment, rock-throwing peaked at this point. Tear gas was again fired at crowds at multiple locations."

So there were rocks being thrown at National Guard members who were ALREADY teargassing the boxed in group AND had knelt and aimed weapons.

Somehow you extrapolate that to average people going about their day and randomly taking a brick to the head... huh.