I've bit my lip over this letting everyone else have their say while I watched and read, but I can't stand it much longer. So here I go...
Every time a mass shooting like this occurs, we(the U.S.) go through the same thing of:
Part 1. Shock, horror, disgust, and genuine surprise in spite of prior events.
Part 2. Wall to wall coverage(if it's that bad) with ample speculation from the media as to how and why it happened.
Part 3. Knee jerk reaction of two extreme polar ends shouting the loudest for the public to follow their suggestions to fully prevent future tragedies while the more moderate and rational voices get drowned out and ignored.
Part 4. Congress does some kind of action to show the public that it's "doing something" mainly to pacify the public.
Part 5. The public doesn't follow up with congress to hold them accountable to what they say, and eventually puts the entire incident behind them until another shooting occurs going back to Part 1.
I was on the
We Hunted the Mammoth(formerly ManBoobz) website when I read the "Retribution" video transcript. What I immediately saw was a lot of MRA/PUA/manosphere vocabulary in his rant. When I learned more about the shooter and read his biography and plans which he calls his "manifesto", I saw more of how this became, for a lack of a better term, a "perfect storm" for a rampage to occur.
In my opinion, this was an extremely narcissistic and self centered individual who had grown up in a want for nothing lifestyle. He was classist, elitist, sexist, and inexplicably racist. He believed he should get anything he wanted since, only obvious to him, he was a very sophisticated, elite, and all around awesome guy. He stated moving to Isla Vista to get blond girls because of what he saw in the media, but at that time he already had some very maladaptive behaviors such as extreme jealousy and anger. He was known to have dumped drinks on couples, pushed a couple over a ledge, display anger when his roommates talked about their own romantic encounters, and kept proceeding to rant on video or forum chat whenever he saw blond white women in the company of minority men. Meanwhile, he became increasing preoccupied with his loneliness and inability to get himself a girlfriend for sex, so he began looking at PUA sites and other manosphere "literature" about being an "Alpha male". When getting a car and dressing nice didn't attract women to him in droves, he became increasingly bitter and angry over it and even turned against the PUA community. Reports out there state he never actually approached a woman romantically, but those reports cannot be confirmed. After the shooting, a family spokesperson came out to state that he had a history of having Asperger's syndrome as well as being seen by four different therapists, but was being non-compliant with his medication. They even called the Sheriff's office to perform a welfare check when they saw his videos.
So to conclude in the shortest way possible:
1.) He grew up in a lifestyle in which he did not learn the value of earning things and that the world doesn't owe you anything just because you think you're awesome.
2.) Asperger's syndrome may explain why he may have had some trouble connecting with people, but
only some. As others have posted, having Asperger's syndrome or any other learning or behavioral disorder doesn't make a person violent, maladaptive, and/or dysfunctional. That still comes from the individual the vast majority of the time.
3.) Nobody nipped in the bud his growing level or narcissism, classism, elitism, sexism, and racism. When his narcissism grew to peak levels, by that time he couldn't be helped since he didn't see anything wrong with himself.
4.) The Men's Rights Movement can try to side step this all they want, but more and more people are beginning to truly see what their movement is really about. Just as the white supremacy movement was tied as partly responsible when Frazer Miller, James von Brunn, and others shoot up Jewish centers or the Holocaust museum, the Men's Rights movement shouldn't be let off the hook from this.
Thanks for reading. I knew that was long.
