Christchurch Mass Shooting

[Steve]

At work, so I don't have relevant links immediately handy, but apparently there was a mass shooting attack on a mosque in Christchurch, NZ. The shooter livestreamed the attack on the internet and posted a manifesto.

As worthless a gesture as it is, my heart aches for the lost and their bereaved loved ones.

[Yukaphile]

It's really hard to feel sorry for the victims, as much as I do, when this shit is happening all over. But that this is New Zealand, I think it's a little easier to emphasize with them and their families more than here, because nothing's getting done and we are in fact moving backwards. Though I'm just dreading the anti-gun control nuts taking the chance to smugly proclaim, "See? Mass shootings happen even over there!" Even though... the population sizes are different, and that's the exception, not the norm. Hell, even during America in the 1990s, with the assault weapons ban in full effect, we had the Columbine shooting.

[Yukaphile]

Also, apparently the shooter was citing video games as his reason? He's one sick puppy, because this suggests he was seriously trying to make people think video games turn people into shooters. Just... SMH

[CharlesPhipps]

The killer is yet another sign that all the geeky misogynist racists on 4chan (who went to found 8chan) have stopped being a bunch of trolls and become a terrorist movement.

It's like someone decided to make No More Heroes into reality and it's horrifying.

[LittleRaven]

Jesus Christ. That is...monstrous.

What a horribly broken human being.

[Yukaphile]

Already people are breaking out the "he's crazy" excuse. It's so cheap and stops any attempt at understanding. Namely, giving someone agency over their own choices, and accepting they can CHOOSE to do this without having a debilitating mental illness. And he is no innocent victim of a brain disorder. He was just a hateful freak who lashed out because it was fun and he wanted to "playact" video games for real. Bah.

[Karha of Honor]

The killer is yet another sign that all the geeky misogynist racists on 4chan (who went to found 8chan) have stopped being a bunch of trolls and become a terrorist movement.

It's like someone decided to make No More Heroes into reality and it's horrifying.

Is the US military a terrorist movement because it had least one mass shooter?

Calm the fuck down with a hyperbole.

[Draco Dracul]

Already people are breaking out the "he's crazy" excuse. It's so cheap and stops any attempt at understanding. Namely, giving someone agency over their own choices, and accepting they can CHOOSE to do this without having a debilitating mental illness. And he is no innocent victim of a brain disorder. He was just a hateful freak who lashed out because it was fun and he wanted to "playact" video games for real. Bah.

Also because it would require putting the right wing under the microscope. What's really damning about the he's crazy excuse is that this was not a lone wolf attack, it was a coordinated attack with multiple people involved.

[Admiral X]

Already people are breaking out the "he's crazy" excuse. It's so cheap and stops any attempt at understanding. Namely, giving someone agency over their own choices, and accepting they can CHOOSE to do this without having a debilitating mental illness. And he is no innocent victim of a brain disorder. He was just a hateful freak who lashed out because it was fun and he wanted to "playact" video games for real. Bah.

That sounds kind of like something a crazy person would do, as in someone who was incapable of distinguishing fantasy from reality would do, or someone who was completely sociopathic would do. I'm leaning toward the latter.

[Yukaphile]

I could name many people who have what psychologists have termed "cognitive dissonance." That would describe a huge portion of the human population, actually. Yet shockingly, none of them seem to go on mass murder sprees, do they? And I wanna confess something. I've been tempted that way once or twice when I've been REALLY angry at the world and just wanted to lash out and let people know - but for only two or three seconds, and it's something I could never do because it's too wrong to ever really act on. If I can hold true to my principles of self-control, why can't this guy?