Pop music fans
In the past few weeks, I've seen death threats from fans of Taylor Swift, One Direction, and Blood on the Dance Floor. I did a few sweepings of the Internet and found out that the pop music fans' semi-empty threats of violence are not only harmless, but amusing. YouTube personality NateTalksToYou chronicled the insanity of One Direction fans in his video:
The majority of One Direction fans are preteen or teenage girls, making them only threatening in movies such as Mean Girls, or, in real life, not at all.
Risk of getting killed by a fan of pop music: Extremely Low
Chances of being taken seriously if you're a fan of pop music and did make a death threat: Extremely Low
In fact, you could say they're more of a threat to themselves than to anyone else.
Gamers
Another group of people I notice making death threats are gamers. As a gamer myself, I've learned to laugh it off, namely because it's just a game, but there are people who take games quite seriously. Video games don't cause violence, because you'd have to be an idiot to want to kill someone over a few virtual pixels, right? Well, the news LOVES to fish for stories involving video games and real violence, even though psychologists and psychiatrists already have been saying for at least 20 years that there is no correlation between the two.
Here is a recent news article detailing some eight year old kid killing a 90 year old woman after playing Grand Theft Auto. Out of the millions and millions of people playing Grand Theft Auto doing things such as blowing up cars, shooting random people in the streets, shooting hookers and getting your money back, and vehicular homicide, you'd think there would be a drastic increase of actual crime, right?
Wrong.
Let's look at some contributing factors that will ultimately make people who go "VIDEO GAMES CAUSE VIOLENCE LOL" shut the fuck up, because they make my blood boil:
1. The gun was left loaded in an unsafe place, which is probably one of the most idiotic things you could do with a gun. If you're reading this and own a gun, store it away safely.
2. They lived in a trailer park, which is probably not the best place to be having a gun in the first place.
3. The kid was eight years old and thus, he shouldn't have been playing Grand Theft Auto in the first place. The real people who should be charged with a crime? His parents, for generally being shitty parents, child neglect, etc.
I don't know why they have to repeat this ad nauseam, namely because 20 years of studies done by people obviously qualified to make these statements are apparently not enough to convince idiots.
Risk of getting killed by a gamer: Medium
Chances of being taken seriously if you're a gamer and did make a death threat: Low
It's happened, but not as frequently as the media wants you to think. In fact, lag upsets me more than violence in video games.
Religious zealots
Good old religious zealots never can catch a break. People kill an abortion doctor to save the lives of the unborn, which in and of itself is hypocritical because "Thou shalt not kill" is the fifth commandment of the Ten Commandments; Islamic fundamentalists decide to carry out 9/11 just because the people in America prefer to worship Jesus over Allah. It's really a mess, and a mess that probably won't end unless somehow people manage to practice their faith without proselytizing it. There are quotes in the Bible and the Koran stating that all followers of Christianity and Islam must spread the good news of their faith or else (which completely defeats the whole purpose of the free will we were given).
An old teacher of mine runs a blog and it's probably the best sleep aid since televised golf. Not only has he managed to improperly practice Christianity (at least from my own experiences with him), but has also managed to make the Christian religion boring. How do you expect to follow the word of God if you make your religion appear boring? It's not intellectual charity if you're putting people to sleep (well, if your intended audience are insomniacs, it probably is).
Personal vendettas aside, religious zealots are pretty dangerous people. It's not because their religion is bad; it's that to them, violence is the answer, and you're going to die because you didn't accept their God for whatever reason.
Risk of getting killed by a religious zealot: Zero (Buddhist, Atheist/Agnostic), Medium to High (Christian, Hindu), Extreme (Muslim, Cult)
Chances of being taken seriously if you're a religious zealot and did make a death threat: Zero (Buddhist, Atheist/Agnostic), Medium to High (Christian, Hindu), Extreme (Muslim, Cult)
I have never been heard of anyone dying from Buddhist or atheist/agnostic extremists; in fact, Buddhists set themselves on fire as a form of protest. Atheists/agnostics tend to keep their extremism to Reddit and are mildly annoying at best and have probably ruined atheism/agnosticism for everyone else.
Christian extremists would historically top the list (Crusades, Spanish Inquisition), but nowadays it's just some random guys who are out to kill abortion doctors and serial killers who just happened to be Christian. If you're from India or know Indian history, you might remember Hindu extremists killing Mahatma Gandhi, who was allegedly the least violent person on the planet, and therefore didn't have an actual reason as to why they would carry out such an act.
There are multiple verses in the Koran that espouse peace and understanding, and just as many that say to kill infidels and all that other stuff you hear on the news. Why do we take them seriously, then? Well, Islamic extremists gloat about death and destruction and actually have the resources to do such things.
Cult leaders are self-explanatory. They would kill you in a heartbeat for the weirdest and most bizarre reason possible.
So here's a short guide as to whether you should be making a death threat and how seriously you'll be taken. Think twice before you make that death threat.
