Does anyone else get an Eliot Roger vibe from this Roof guy?

[Ex Lurker]

Fixation on one group, leaving a manifesto behind, parents who seem not to have a clue, friends, or at least acquaintances, who knew he was a little "off," but didn't do anything about it or didn't think he would go that far.

I've also read that his initial target was the College of Charleston, but he didn't think he could get past security. So, racist, sure. But was the racism a stand alone thing or was it a fixation related to underlying mental illness? Then he found these websites and they fed whatever pathology was going on in his head. Not excusing the guy whatsoever. He needs to be locked away indefinitely. I'd just like to know how he got from "there" to "here."

[OKNancy]

1. yes

[cwydro]

2. Yes, from the beginning. nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Yes, and he also makes me think of

that guy in Norway, Anders Breivik, who killed 80 people because he hated Muslim immigrants and the liberal government that allowed them in. He wrote a manifesto, too, and the tone was similar to Roof's - a convoluted "explanation" of why the target group is the cause of all of the country's problems; the citations to various racist writings (Breivik was a fan of the odious Pamela Geller); a statement to the effect that somebody has to do something to get rid of "those people" - and of course, I'm the guy who has this crucial duty to save my country by killing.

None of them is "insane," which is really a legal term, not a medical one - "insane" means the perp has a mental illness so severe he really doesn't understand what he's doing and he's therefore not legally responsible for his acts. These guys, though, are not psychotic - I'm guessing Roof, Breivik and Roger all might have some sort of personality disorder making them susceptible to hate speech - angry loners looking for scapegoats and a justification for killing, and in the cases of Roof and Breivik, thinking it would make them heroes. Which takes us to the issue of stochastic terrorism. The haters - the Pam Gellers, the Stormfront writers, the mens' rights movement in the case of Roger, even Fox News - can hide behind their hate speech; they claim they never intended to actually hurt anybody; their hands are clean, right? But they know damn well that there are plenty of guys like Roof and Breivik and Roger out there...

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Tim Wise is on fire on FB

He pointed out the intersection of racism and sexism at play - with it coming to light that his love interest picked a man who had brown skin over him.

I'm letting Tim Wise do what he's gotta do - I have the feeling he's having visceral emotional pain and is letting it all hang out.

[ecstatic]

5. Yes. He was itching for a shoot out.

When his mall stalking didn't work out, he went another route. Roger's psychosis manifested in his misogyny; Roof's in racism...But we wouldn't be talking about them were it not for easy access to guns. And once again, friends and family stood idly by as a disturbed person bragged about his massacre plans. Regarding terrorism, yes, it was terrorism because it has the potential to create more fear, distrust, and racial division. It's time to either reverse the second amendment or arm every damn body, since that's what it's coming to.

[JI7]

6. the parents had no clue ? not sure about that

most likely the joined in and accepted the bigoted shit he would spew . he probably heard it from them growing up also.

[daredtowork]

7. So why aren't we talking about White Male Terrorism?

It seems we can identify a trend here - especially if you include school shootings, and that trend will probably manifest in other terrorist activities.

Yet we don't have the same paranoia and demand for security and police surveillance we demand around Muslims. And why do the police have an itchy trigger finger around black males when all the domestic terrorists commiting mass murder seem to be white? The mental illness discourse is a refusal to be frightened of "our" children. These terrorists must be understood because they are still in the fold.

If we are going to do this, its time to get rid of the terrorism label all together. If we only use it to encode specific cultures or races as "evil", then the idea of terrorism is a tool of racism. The refusal to see the string of young white male terrorists proves it.