Quote (Skinned @ May 18 2022 05:09pm)
Saying that this is a result of mental illness only serves to promote the stigma associated with mentally ill people. This guy does not have schizophrenia, or bipolar affective disorder, he has extreme political beliefs that are congruent with the Republican party of the United States. It is just not mental illness if it is actions based on popular political discourse in this country. If you prescribed him an antipsychotic he would still believe the lies that are making Tucker Carlson very very rich.
He clearly had mental illness. He had violent and fatalist obsessions that predated his political radicalization. This is a poster child for the archetype of "looking for a reason". Young kids who cut the heads off animals don't become killers because they are exposed to radical political views, they become killers because they were born with obvious violent mental illness. The politics is nothing but an excuse, a self-rationalization, an outlet for an already fatalist worldview. This kid was already held on mental health grounds after exhibited clear aberrant behavior
and made violent threats against classmates or himself. What does Great Replacement Theory have to do with his school peers? How would it justify him blowing his own brains out? For someone echoing Tarrant and immigration grievance, why target black people who are descended from a population brought here against their will? Its not a coherent political ideology motivating him.
This is a similar case to the Antifa mass shooter Connor Betts. He may or may not have held an ostensive political motive. The police investigation in the end was very inconclusive. He chatted in Antifa circles, he expressed radicalized beliefs, he even brought that same rifle to a counter-rally against the KKK. He targeted a bar with a vaguely conservative/southern theme and prominently displayed blue-lives-matter flag. His attack came just hours after the El Paso shooting, after he had tweeted about that same shooting, clearly on his mind. But what we know for sure is that he was a mentally ill person, who had obsessed over mass shootings, over violence and ways to kill people and get himself killed. A self-destructive fatalist personality.
People like these, like Nicholas Cruz, are walking red flags. They aren't clever and rational actors who can plot out the most dangerous attacks like 9/11, because they're limited by their own dysfunction and compulsive needs. We don't see them planning mass poisonings or arsons and getting away with killing hundreds from the shadows, we see them living out their fantasies of shooting a dozen people in the face at close range. Its extremely rare to see them devote
practical planning and strategy to their attacks to not only stage it but also cover their tracks for a long time to ensure their plan goes ahead like the Las Vegas shooter, its more common for them to obsess over image and statements and be unable to control their public/personal life outbursts and incidents like this kid.
Quote (ofthevoid @ May 18 2022 04:25pm)
Too many crazies in this world to successfully keep tabs and lock up simply based on some signals. Idk personally I'm skeptical of the authorities abilities on this. Nor do I necessarily think moving in the Minority Report type reality is the right thing either.
Well I'm not the one who supported the unconstitutional red flag laws or other mental health nonsense causes like "community violence interrupters"
This is a clear cut case where they had available red flags and perfect opportunity to use their law to mitigate this kind of attack, and didn't, because the system doesn't work.
Skinned came come up with a hundred reasons why it doesn't work, but that just reinforces why its bad policy in the first place.