My favorite thing about The Drama is Rachel's character because she reminds me of the kind of young person online who thinks the mere act of performing disgust or outrage at the morally wrong actions of someone else is somehow politically productive at all, or that it makes them a "good person."
Whenever I see someone disregard or disparage ideas of rehabilitation for people who have done (or in this movie's case, almost did) unforgivable things, I want to grab them and ask "what should be done, then?" Because, people like that do exist, in spades, and short of executing or imprisoning or Black Mirror White Bearing every person who's done or thought of doing something immoral, rehabilitation is probably the best bet for minimizing harm, right? (And if your answer to immorality IS execution or isolation... i do not think youre really the more moral one here...) But even taking out any potential empathy for the humans who do or think of doing immoral acts, sometimes, giving them the tools to lead a happy and fulfilling life are the exact thing that leads them AWAY from the potential acts of like, shooting up a school, regardless of how undeserving you think they are of that.
Its especially interesting because, in the movie, Emma had arguably done way more activism against gun violence than Rachel ever did, despite her cousin, but this means nothing. Emma's primary motivation for her planned shooting was bullying and the isolation she felt (and TCC tumblr), but it was when she found friends and real community and something else to invest her energy into, she was able to pull herself out of those dark thoughts and, like, rejoin society. And what does Rachel do when she finds out? Spreads rumors, and tries to isolate her. And, I say this not to victim blame, but to acknowledge that no one makes those big decisions in a vacuum and that understanding these things better is a NECESSITY for preventing them, which should be the fucking goal; that is exactly the kind of behavior that made her want to do that when she was 15.
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