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Why the rash of mass shootings by young white men?
Who knows? But probably because we ALL live in an age of dwindling expectations.
And at least some white people are aware that they have long benefited from white privilege (spoken and unspoken) that long enabled them to live in any neighborhood they could afford to, go to public schools that were better-funded than schools in predominantly African-American or Latino neighborhoods or Native American reservations, get and maintain better-paying jobs than people of color, not have to constantly worry about being pulled over by overzealous cops, etc. And with this nation's economic collapse of the last 30 years (with the exception of the rich), as well as general right-wing hostility toward President Obama (for some, it's nothing more than the fact that a black man lives in the White House instead of being one of its housekeepers) and the words of some pundits who urge their mostly white listeners and readers (directly or implicitly) to blame everything on black people and/or on the liberals who make things easy for blacks at the expense of whites (as they like to say), a lot of white people feel that they are rapidly losing "their" country (which some of their ancestors took from the natives who were here first) and, whether out of fear or hatred of people of color, or both, some lash out, in much the same way that many Southern white people in the post-Civil War-South formed vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan and went around lynching black people, partly out of a misguided desire for revenge, and partly to intimidate other black people who had received, along with freedom from slavery, a few political rights and social freedoms--in fact, there were black people being elected to public office in some places in the 1870s, and that certainly infuriated and/or scared several whites in the South and elsewhere.
Also, I think our American sense of individualism-over-all is a factor. By that, I mean the idea that "in order for me to succeed I must run over other people to prevent them from snatching my spot in the upper echelon." And racists have always been successful at portraying, for example, workplaces' hiring of black, Latino, etc. persons as preventing white people from getting those jobs, especially with the advent of Affirmative Action programs in the 1960s and '70s, never mind that before such programs, ONLY white people were afforded the opportunity to get good-paying jobs with lots of benefits. Many companies only gave the lowest-paying, most labor-intensive and/or most hazardous jobs to people of color, if they hired them at all.
And when times are tough, most people tend to look out for only their best interests. Many blacks only want to look out for other blacks, many whites only want to look out for their fellow whites, etc. Or at the very least, many will identify with others like themselves in a "closing ranks" fashion and some will take this tendency to extremes, viewing members of other national, ethnic, etc. groups as being a threat to their own group and, by extension, to themselves.
Our society has become everyone for themselves. Black are attacking and killing their own people.
First of all whites are about 70% of mass shooters which is close to the overall population. Whites especially middle class whites are more likely to be socially isolated and lack a sense of community because they are hyper individualistic. There are a lot of angry young black Hispanic prole men as well as prole whites but they are more likely to express their rage by getting into fights or joining gangs. Middle class whites don't have those outlets so if they are enraged that rage builds. There's a lot of pressure to be successful in American culture and if you fail to attain the right social and economic status you are deemed a looser. Whites are expected to be successful but now with looting of the middle class you have a lot of young middle class white men with no economic prospects on top of social isolation.
First of all whites are about 70% of mass shooters which is close to the overall population. Whites especially middle class whites are more likely to be socially isolated and lack a sense of community because they are hyper individualistic. There are a lot of angry young black Hispanic prole men as well as prole whites but they are more likely to express their rage by getting into fights or joining gangs. Middle class whites don't have those outlets so if they are enraged that rage builds. There's a lot of pressure to be successful in American culture and if you fail to attain the right social and economic status you are deemed a looser. Whites are expected to be successful but now with looting of the middle class you have a lot of young middle class white men with no economic prospects on top of social isolation.
I didn't read the beginning of the thread but it is spot on. The main stream media response is usually that shooters are just crazy or evil but no one wants to talk about how society and culture create these individuals. The mainstream left says that white males are privileged and entitled and the right-wing in America has a mentality if your a looser its all your own fault.
Lonely angry white males scare me even as a white guy, I tend to be overly nice to them. I am nice to everyone thou. I used to kinda be a loner growing up although I am far more social now. I didn't have many friends growing up but lucky for me I was good at playing sports especially football so I always got confidence from that and I had fortune with women which helped my self esteem. I am definitely see how some people of all races get isolated from society, America is a very all about me culture with social media now and everyone is obsessed with looks and material success, I can see how somebody would lash out on society but you have to find positive things to occupy your time instead.
You are focused on slavery and I agree that it had to be destroyed and would have been without a war but at least that one very great thing came out of the Civil War.
But the concept of a state separating from the USA if they decided to do so is not treason, it is patriotism in the same way the USA separating from Great Britain was. But the culture I'm talking about of the South is based on family, religion, shared values...the attempts to destroy that will be fought.
When I heard "last 150 years", values such as God and family were not that values that I thought you were talking about. At least in relation to the South. When I think of the Deep South from 150 years ago, nothing good comes from it. And can you prove "PCNs" were doing this 150 years ago? Show me, because I don't believe it.
Lonely angry white males scare me even as a white guy, I tend to be overly nice to them. I am nice to everyone thou. I used to kinda be a loner growing up although I am far more social now. I didn't have many friends growing up but lucky for me I was good at playing sports especially football so I always got confidence from that and I had fortune with women which helped my self esteem. I am definitely see how some people of all races get isolated from society, America is a very all about me culture with social media now and everyone is obsessed with looks and material success, I can see how somebody would lash out on society but you have to find positive things to occupy your time instead.
The problem is how society treats them. If someone is lonely or depressed people tend to avoid them which only makes their psychological problems worth. If people made an effort to make them feel welcome they would have less problems. The media is saying we need more mental health but that's not a substitute for friendship community. Also I think American society is prejudice against introverts.
I haven't read through this thread, so I don't know if this issue has been addressed---
Young, white men in general tend to be from a higher socio-economic group, meaning they have access to health care, and insurance to pay for psychotropic drugs.
The trend for the past few decades has been to put young boys on such drugs whenever teachers, parents, etc, find this group to be difficult to manage. Of course, its the middle-class white boy who has the insurance to pay for such. These drugs actually create more problems than they solve.
My DS was on Seroquel for many years. It caused psychotic episodes, violent tendencies, and suicidal ideations. It became a viscous cycle. He would become violent, we had no choice but to call police, he would be hospitalized, then pumped full of more and more Seroquel, even beyond the drug manufacturer's stated limits, He would come home a zombie, barely able to stay awake. This was considered "success" by the psychiatric "industry" see, he's no longer violent
Well, his zombie state would last a few weeks, then, he would become violent again, starting the whole cycle over again He spent much of his high school years in and out of psychiatric institutions. We had to refuse to accept him back after he attacked me with a meat cleaver
Finally, we got him home----long story. He is now off the drugs. I can see where he would be capable of attacking others, if he went after me---I wasn't hurt,, DH intervened, but the potential was there.
IMO, if you dig deeper, you will find a statistically significant number of those "white boys" who committed mass killings, attacks, etc, were on some sort of psychotropic drug. Its the drugs that create the problem, but it will never be acknowledged. The drug industry is too powerful.....
There is a difference though. When you see mass shootings such as the one we just had along with the Colorado theater shooting and the Sandy Hook shooting, these individuals committing these heinous crimes have deep psychological issues. No sane person just wakes up one morning and decides to kill children in a school, people in a theater, or peaceful people during bible study in a church.
Blacks on the other hand tend to commit more spontaneous shootings/killings for different motives such as drug turf beef, gang beef, "he disrespected me", "he slept with my baby mama", "he looked at me wrong", "he bumped me in the club", etc...
BS. How do you know they have psychological issues? Cause Fox news says so? Just like people of a certain religion wants to kill us? Pure PROPAGANDA.
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He spent much of his high school years in and out of psychiatric institutions. We had to refuse to accept him back after he attacked me with a meat cleaver
