Who better to ask why mass killers do it than another mass killer. The article does quite a bit of myth busting on perceptions of such killers, all well-researched, and does a good and literate job of it. (Cracked: We Asked A Mass Shooter Why The Hell This Keeps Happening)
Note: you may not approve of the fucking language but the point is worth it and any profanity is not gratuitously used.
One of the biggest thoughts from it we got here at the Rockhouse was how much these killers are driven by humiliation. That applies directly back to manipulating people here through so much identification with the flag (e.g. flags everywhere, flag lapel pins, Pledge of Allegiance, etc, etc) people, particularly young ones, are personally humiliated by anyone or anything assailing it or said to be assailing it.
There's not much to add which wouldn't be simply paraphrasing the article. Best to leave it there since we regard the article in Cracked as a first-rate piece of journalism, something notably rare these days.
Hmmm ... might as well put it straight out. The conclusion we draw here is all mass killers, whether uniformed or otherwise, have generally the same base motivation, one of resolving humiliations either to themselves or something important to them, regardless of whether the humiliation is real.
One example of it is the "American Sniper" when he exemplified the robotic aspect of mass killers, as described in the article. While executing one or more sniper shots, he was talking with his wife about phone sex. He was joking but the point I took was he showed zero engagement with what he was doing except for whatever was needed to do it. His own explanations for why he thought it was important to shoot Muslims were weak and simplistic.
Another example is in cop shootings in which they almost always empty the entire clip from the weapon into the alleged bad guy. That has become an automatic (i.e. robotic) response. Frequently they are inaccurate in descriptions of what happened whether due to snapping out of the killer cop and regaining normal sensibilities or whether due to deliberate lies. As with the "American Sniper," their reasons are frequently simplistic such as 'I felt a threat to my life.' Really now? What was that threat and please do be specific.
Negative learning via humiliation must have been researched heavily by psychology longhairs but, frankly, we ain't willin' to do that much reading. We will assume you see the truth of it without calling up some citations from PhD longhairs.
There's a long monologue on the consequences of this thinking in general education and how the need isn't being addressed too well. One of the aspects of humiliating uncertainty in not knowing how to prepare a tax form, effectively format a resume for a job, or even know a C.V. or curriculum vitae means the same thing as a resume to a PhD longhair. All of these things set a general tone of humiliation for a kid trying to get started out of high school.
(Ed: you aren't seriously trying to stretch that into making them mass killers??)
Nah, it's only in terms of thinking how much humiliation is a motivating factor in various things. Fear of the stage is hugely-based on humiliation ... I know I'll suck ... I'll forget the changes and be the musical goat, etc, etc.
Maybe we're more terrified of humiliation than any other thing. One more on that theme as people are so determined to have weapons for protection. We don't believe there is enough of a threat to warrant the need for a weapon but many do.
Any invasion of your home is immediately humiliating; you have been violated, raped. Whomever comes inside disrespects your family and insults you directly as their protector. There is deep humiliation in such a thing and the only resolution is an immediate and violent response. It's not the purpose to question the nature of the response but rather the original need.
From what we see, the humiliation of such an invasion is so great not much empirical evidence is needed to justify protecting against it. Compounding it now is the even greater humiliation that the government will take my guns away and they will leave my family and I defenseless. You're now doubly-humiliated because you had to kneel to the state in surrendering the weapon and your fear is substantial someone will disrespect your family and you can do nothing about it.
It's no wonder they buy so many guns, not really. We see this phenomenon as grossly manipulated through exactly the media techniques noted in the article which precipitated all this.
Note: you may not approve of the fucking language but the point is worth it and any profanity is not gratuitously used.
One of the biggest thoughts from it we got here at the Rockhouse was how much these killers are driven by humiliation. That applies directly back to manipulating people here through so much identification with the flag (e.g. flags everywhere, flag lapel pins, Pledge of Allegiance, etc, etc) people, particularly young ones, are personally humiliated by anyone or anything assailing it or said to be assailing it.
There's not much to add which wouldn't be simply paraphrasing the article. Best to leave it there since we regard the article in Cracked as a first-rate piece of journalism, something notably rare these days.
Hmmm ... might as well put it straight out. The conclusion we draw here is all mass killers, whether uniformed or otherwise, have generally the same base motivation, one of resolving humiliations either to themselves or something important to them, regardless of whether the humiliation is real.
One example of it is the "American Sniper" when he exemplified the robotic aspect of mass killers, as described in the article. While executing one or more sniper shots, he was talking with his wife about phone sex. He was joking but the point I took was he showed zero engagement with what he was doing except for whatever was needed to do it. His own explanations for why he thought it was important to shoot Muslims were weak and simplistic.
Another example is in cop shootings in which they almost always empty the entire clip from the weapon into the alleged bad guy. That has become an automatic (i.e. robotic) response. Frequently they are inaccurate in descriptions of what happened whether due to snapping out of the killer cop and regaining normal sensibilities or whether due to deliberate lies. As with the "American Sniper," their reasons are frequently simplistic such as 'I felt a threat to my life.' Really now? What was that threat and please do be specific.
Negative learning via humiliation must have been researched heavily by psychology longhairs but, frankly, we ain't willin' to do that much reading. We will assume you see the truth of it without calling up some citations from PhD longhairs.
There's a long monologue on the consequences of this thinking in general education and how the need isn't being addressed too well. One of the aspects of humiliating uncertainty in not knowing how to prepare a tax form, effectively format a resume for a job, or even know a C.V. or curriculum vitae means the same thing as a resume to a PhD longhair. All of these things set a general tone of humiliation for a kid trying to get started out of high school.
(Ed: you aren't seriously trying to stretch that into making them mass killers??)
Nah, it's only in terms of thinking how much humiliation is a motivating factor in various things. Fear of the stage is hugely-based on humiliation ... I know I'll suck ... I'll forget the changes and be the musical goat, etc, etc.
Maybe we're more terrified of humiliation than any other thing. One more on that theme as people are so determined to have weapons for protection. We don't believe there is enough of a threat to warrant the need for a weapon but many do.
Any invasion of your home is immediately humiliating; you have been violated, raped. Whomever comes inside disrespects your family and insults you directly as their protector. There is deep humiliation in such a thing and the only resolution is an immediate and violent response. It's not the purpose to question the nature of the response but rather the original need.
From what we see, the humiliation of such an invasion is so great not much empirical evidence is needed to justify protecting against it. Compounding it now is the even greater humiliation that the government will take my guns away and they will leave my family and I defenseless. You're now doubly-humiliated because you had to kneel to the state in surrendering the weapon and your fear is substantial someone will disrespect your family and you can do nothing about it.
It's no wonder they buy so many guns, not really. We see this phenomenon as grossly manipulated through exactly the media techniques noted in the article which precipitated all this.
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