Posted on 03/29/2018 4:56:59 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Mike Rowe Bemoans the ‘Epidemic of Fatherlessness’ Notes that majority of school shooters are fatherless SHARE TWEET EMAIL Mike Rowe / Screenshot BY: 12:57 pm
Mike Rowe, best known as the host of the Discovery Channel series "Dirty Jobs," took to Facebook on Tuesday to bemoan the "epidemic of fatherlessness," which he said affects every level of society.
While discussing an anti-bullying program for his web series, "Returning the Favor," Rowe considered the connection between the rates of fatherless children and the societal ills of bullying, poor educational achievement, homelessness, suicide, and violence.
Citing statistics, Rowe argued in a Facebook post that children, especially young men, who grow up in homes without a father are at a distinct disadvantage.
The facts seem pretty clear.
• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes – 5 times the average. (US Dept. Of Health/Census) • 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average. • 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average. (Center for Disease Control) • 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes – 14 times the average. (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26) • 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average. (National Principals Association Report) • 43% of US children live without their father [US Department of Census]
Rowe noted that, like bullying, the majority of school shootings are perpetrated by individuals from fatherless homes.
"Is it really so surprising to learn that a majority of bullies also come from fatherless homes?" Rowe asked. "As do a majority of school shooters? As do a majority of older male shooters?"
Rowe admitted that the topic is controversial and likely not to earn him many fans among those who seek a one-dimensional solution to the problems plaguing young men.
"I know this is controversial," he wrote. "I'm sorry to inject an uncomfortable element into a post about a ‘feel-good' show, but I think it's important to consider the possibility that this thing we like to call ‘an epidemic of bullying,' is really an ‘epidemic of fatherlessness.'"
Rowe also pointed to the fact that society and social media provide males, regardless of age, with a convoluted and conflicted message about masculinity.
"It's reasonable to conclude that our society is sending a message to men of all ages that is decidedly mixed," Rowe wrote. "On the one hand, we're telling them to ‘man-up' whenever the going gets tough. On the other, we're condemning a climate of ‘toxic masculinity' at every turn."
He argued that it is difficult enough for young men with a stable family support structure to distinguish what is expected of them from society, let alone those without a present father figure.
"If that strikes you as confusing, imagine being a 14-year-old boy with no father figure to help you make sense of it," he added.
Rowe did not dismiss the seriousness of bullying, but attempted to paint it as a symptom of the disintegration of family support structures. He lambasted efforts to blame societal ills on "social media," "guns," or genetic deviations, arguing that such excuses only serve to disguise the problem at hand.
"The bullying crisis is real, but the root cause has nothing to do with video games, or guns, or social media, or rock and roll, or sugary drinks, or any of the other boogymen currently in fashion," Rowe said. "Nor is it a function of some new chromosome unique to the current crop of kids coming of age."
Rowe said that the children of recent generations are not radically different from those that preceded them; rather it is "the parents who have changed."
"Kids are the same now as they were a hundred years ago—petulant, brave, arrogant, earnest, frightened, and cocksure," he wrote. "It's the parents who have put their own happiness above the best interests of their kids."
Such sentiment has resulted, Rowe claimed, in a generation of parents who have abdicated their responsibilities to raise well-adjusted children, opting instead to allow the community to play an ever-increasing role.
"It's the parents who actually believe ‘the village' will raise their kids," Rowe said. "When the village is profoundly incapable of doing anything of the sort."
Much true. When I was a kid I had all kinds of guns and ammo in my bedroom. If I even thought of chambering a round in the house Dad would have given me a .....stern look.
Mike Rowe will literally be crucified.
That is something people absolutely do not want to confront.
Mike Rowe. Spot on, once again.
Your comment reminds me of my dad. Never laid a hand on us. Just had to look at us & we got the message!
Can’t argue with his conclusions. The rampant divorce rate and the lack of stigma for out-of-wedlock childbirth have led to that.
Mike is right,
of course this will brand him a racist and a misogynist by the left.
Yes and no. The Columbine shooter had a very demanding father who was obviously concerned about him...and the kid started his spree by killing both his mother and the father. The same thing happened in WA a couple of years ago. The killer started by killing his parents.
I think a father is more likely to recognize than a mother that there’s something wrong with his kid that may need outside help, and possibly more effective in getting it. But really, the problem lies not only with family conditions but with social expectations. Once upon a time, a kid who was engaging in any of the behavior that led up to the killings would have been institutionalized, not only at the request of his parents, but at the request of schools and law enforcement.
Back in the 70s, some idiot (possibly Abbie Hoffman) announced that “only the mad were truly sane,” because they were reacting to the horrors of capitalism. And then we had books like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and others that all made heroes out of the mentally ill, heroes who were just exercising their right to express themselves.
Mental illness is real, but we stopped admitting that because mental illness could be used as an attack upon capitalism and supposedly bourgeois, conformist American society. Of course, marriage, parents and intact families were all part of the evil against which the mentally ill were expressing themselves.
Emma Gonzalez spoke about how the MSD high school shooter was ostracised by her and others, and spoke about how he "deserved it." Isn't this a form of bullying?
Could one of the reasons these shooters are committing these acts also be because they've been bullied by the people/types of people they're killing?
And he got BLASTED for that.
Saying kids need father figures is racist and sexist.
My wife was told that in a teachers meeting the other day. She laughed.
Yes there are outliers in any population. Rowe’s point still stands.
Who needs fathers? The government will take care of you and your children! LBJ assured that.
Oh no Mike, don’t go there........... you will taking on the socialist, big government believers and abortion advocates, or as I like to call them the media!
Rowe speaks the truth!!!
“The Columbine shooter had a very demanding father who was obviously concerned about him...and the kid started his spree by killing both his mother and the father. The same thing happened in WA a couple of years ago. The killer started by killing his parents.”
Interesting. I didn’t know that.
Saying kids need father figures goes against the Soros Agenda.
I don’t think ‘literally’ means what you think it means.
Harris and Klebold didn't kill their parents prior to the Columbine shooting. Not sure of their current status, but both sets of parents were alive after the shooting in 1999.
No, they did not. Neither of the parents of Eric Harris nor Dylan Klebold were killed. Harris' father was a pilot in the Air Force. Klebold's dad was a pacifist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.