Hosts would book the #LafayetteShooting suspect to bash abortion and feminists. http://t.co/4rsYBZ9rKj pic.twitter.com/W0L7LGWX8G
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) July 24, 2015
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
Amanda Marcotte, at Slate:
When news emerged that a middle-aged white man in Lafayette, Louisiana opened fire at a showing of the Amy Schumer vehicle Trainwreck, I immediately had this sinking feeling that the movie choice wasn’t a coincidence—that this was, like the Elliot Rodger and George Sodini killings, an act of rage at women. While Trainwreck is a fluffy rom-com, it’s also a popular topic of chatter in the feminist-sphere, and therefore likely to be noticed by the seething misogynists who monitor the online activities of feminists with unsettling obsessiveness.
That fear is now moving from the uneasy-feeling column to the likely-possibility column, with Dave Weigel of the Washington Post reporting that alleged shooter John Russell Houser was a rabid right-winger—he even went to one of those unranked conservative Christian law schools—who had particularly strong anger towards women for their growing independence and rights. Former talk show host Calvin Floyd had Houser on as a frequent guest, knowing that his off-the-wall opinions would generate audience interest… Houser also had a history of domestic violence…
#LafayetteShooting also offers a lesson about who news orgs choose to give airtime and why.
http://t.co/a81X2Zj6Y7 pic.twitter.com/tT1YFCotW3
— Reed F. Richardson (@reedfrich) July 24, 2015
Mainstream press treats the for profit conspiracy theory hate mongers as kind of a joke because they seem so silly to rational people.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 24, 2015
"Only crazy people take the toxic garbage that extremist right media spews seriously," is a pretty convenient out at times like this.
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) July 24, 2015
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Once again, Balloon Juice won’t load at all in Chrome and keeps crashing with script errors in Firefox. Sure enough, Elon James White posted again. It’d be kind of nice if he fixed the scripts.
srv
You know, 30 years ago Alex Jones was the sane one on the Austin public access channel. And you think that’s a joke.
I blame the X Files.
Mike J
Which is pretty darned close to “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer, not a politician, no one should take him seriously.” To be clear, this is what his acolytes say every time he says something reprehensible.
Also, Glenn Beck refers to himself as a “rodeo clown.”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
What OS are you on? I run Firefox (latest version) with Windows 7 and haven’t experienced it crashing. I do use Adblock Plus.
I wonder if there are some Firefox settings you could change that would alleviate the problem.
I also use Chrome, but only on my phone and tablet. No problems there.
TheWatcher
Wow. Just wow.
Right Wing media is turning the US slowly into Rwanda.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Steeplejack (phone): Windows 8.1. I’ve tried playing with the settings and haven’t found any that solve the problem. I also know that I’m not the only one with this problem, and it is pretty clearly caused by the TWIB posts.
Linnaeus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I use Chrome regularly (my OS is Mac 10.10.4) to view this site and I’ve had no troubles.
ETA: I also use Chrome on my Windows 7 computer and also have had no problems.
Steeplejack
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
If you’re not using it, you could try Adblock Plus and see if that helps.
Also, you can avoid the main Balloon Juice page when an offending TWIB post is on it by navigating through the other posts with the previous/next links at the top and bottom of each one.
What version of Firefox are you using? The current one is 39.0.
Major Major Major Major
New section on my fish story. It’s shorter than normal but it has my favorite exchange I think.
NotMax
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym
NoScript add-on for Firefox (among others I consider to be must have or else extremely useful) is handy-dandy..
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack: @NotMax: I use disconnect.me, ghostery, and adblock, with chrome. Can take some tweaking but it’s super worth it.
Groucho48
Hmm. I use Chrome, on Windows 7, and haven’t had any problems on the site.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack (phone): I know someone was having a certificate error earlier today.
Major Major Major Major
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: The Elon thing isn’t about your browser, that’s some interface error with some aggregator that lets you post on multiple things at the same time. As for video, Firefox has broken Flash for months, and Safari decided it didn’t believe in it years ago.
David Koch
Another Holocene Human
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Working fine in Chrome for Mac. No double posts either.
eta: you could get ghostery or something like that and block the widget he uses to post his podcasts. I don’t, but maybe that’s the bit your computer hates.
Another Holocene Human
I posted basically the same thoughts last night several threads down. Look at the movie involved, his history of hating when women gain any power, the fact he shot women, and the apocalyptic stuff running through the man-o-sphere right now. Like Roof, I don’t think this is a case of “we’ll never know”.
We know. We just don’t want to know.
sparrow
I’ll repeat what I said right after the news broke and before we knew anything…
BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: I was thinking this as the first thing he’d say: “Could you direct me to the Vital Records Office, I need a copy of my birth certificate.”
Xenos
Who was it who wrote about the right-wing hate-media creating a supersaturated social state where it become very likely that unbalanced individuals act out in a predictable way, by killing ‘liberals’ in churches, movie theaters, and so on?
I don’t see how to stop this horror without imposing the fairness doctrine anew.
J R in WV
Some few years ago I – we – realized that most of the murders we saw covered on TV were guys killing their ex families, kids and in-laws too many times.
I don’t know what in the culture fomented this kind of nihilistic suicide, but it is by far the most common violent death here in central WV. Men’s Rights activists gone mad seems too sophisticated for most of these country guys. Horrific, that’s for sure.
For sure the news media are doing something very wrong with how they frame these incidents…
Another Holocene Human
@sparrow: You are spot on. Charles Johnson (not the evil Chuck) was posting about CNN yesterday: CNN had headlines like “We’ll Never Know” and all this crap.
Sure, a guy obsessed with keeping women in their place just randomly goes to an Amy Schumer movie, with a gun, and randomly snaps, and randomly slays women. Sure.
And Dylan Roof’s Confederate regalia was photoshopped over his “I hate Christians” badge. Sure.
edited for clarity: LGF was calling CNN out
tybee
i knew rusty houser back in elementary/middle school. don’t remember too much about him but he didn’t seem to be all that much different than the rest of us…
MattF
@Another Holocene Human: And the Wing-o-Sphere says, with a straight face, that it’s all Obama’s fault. Because… well… y’know…
Another Holocene Human
@J R in WV: No, you’re right. They had the journalist from USA Today on the radio yesterday, maybe it was the SnoozeHour simulcast (I was running errands about that time). She said the majority of mass shootings in the US are family violence and the perp is almost always a white male.
We see it over and over, especially during downturns and recessions. Apparently they think if they’ve fucked up financially, then their family is better off not being alive. There’s even a name for it: family annihilator. The other type is the obsessive, controlling ex who decides that if he doesn’t get full custody, or even if he does, that he can’t take his ex enjoying life without him in it. These creeps kill their exes and often the children too.
What is it about the culture? Maybe because they’ve been told they’re in charge. That they’re not a real man if they “lose”. It’s fueled in many cases by status anxiety which is a deadly, deadly thing. (In other cases, the perp has a personality disorder like psychopathy, narcissistic personality disorder, or sociopathy, or some combination.)
There was that grandfather in North Central Florida who killed his whole family, grandchildren and all. He struggled with depression and also had a violent temper. Cops had been called the house many times, but it was in a remote area. Finally he killed all of them and then himself. Typical of this fucked up area most people shrugged their shoulders and were all “We knew it was bad … but what can you do?” Fucked. Up.
MattF
@J R in WV: The suspicion is that it’s not a matter of framing by the powers-that-be in the media. More that they’ve felt the rage themselves, but are constrained from doing anything about it.
Another Holocene Human
@tybee: Emergent mental illness doesn’t show up until the early 20s. There’s some indication he had a touch of it. (Not that that would fully account for what happened the other day, or is in any way the most important takeaway here.)
raven
@tybee: Columbus?
Another Holocene Human
@Xenos: I don’t know, but the hate mongers have a vested interest in obscuring the links between their Radio Rwanda broadcasts and the violence that is occurring in our society because if the harm was provable there would be a compelling state interest in pushing it off the air. The 1st amendment doesn’t cover incitement.
So Breivik quoted American hatriots approvingly? Screech, deflect!
Sarah Palin paints targets and somebody shoots one of them? Those targets aren’t targets!!1!
Eliot Rodgers (thanks Anne Laurie) was embedded in the man-o-sphere? Lies! Random guy went mental!
Dylan Roof was a white supremacist? Fake! Shop! Gay!
Houser was a guest on local hate radio? We’ll never know/hoocouldanode!
And who can forget the hate cable purveyors encouraging the murder of abortion providers, which was a random tragedy by a criminal who probably never even heard of Bill O’Reilly, best selling author and best ratings on cable shut up.
bemused
I just woke up but not quite awake so I read Weigel’s tweet to mean media hosts would book Houser to bash feminists as if he were alive and free to do so. I would have laughed at my drowsy interpretation but there would be plenty of media outlets that would if they could.
Tommy
@Another Holocene Human: More than a year ago I got rid of cable. I don’t watch MSNBC anymore. The news I get via Tom Harken or The Young Turks, well all I get. Funny how the world changes when you do this.
Tommy
This is going to sound stupid. I just bought and got a world class compass. I often note here I am a hiker/camper. True. I got this thing on my phone that does it all, all real compass stuff. I like the “old school” stuff. Confuses me. Anybody know a site where they can learn to use a compass?
tybee
@raven:
yup
OzarkHillbilly
B-J is running a script on this page has me running as slow as molasses. I’ll come back later.
@Tommy: I just learned by doing. Same with reading topos.
Phylllis
@tybee: My husband lived in Columbus GA for almost thirty years; the guy was well known around there as someone with extreme issues.
henqiguai
@Tommy (#32):
Pick up a book on orienteering. I got one (haven’t done more than leaf through it) a looong time ago which looks good; and simple — “Basic Essentials: Map and Compass” by Jacobson, Cliff.
Tommy
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah just going to try and forget the Cub Scouts where I was supposed to learn orientation on my own. That didn’t work out so well. I got so lost :).
Shakezula
Don’t just pick on the right wing media. Deray McKesson says “Watch Whiteness Work” in reference to the deference the press gives to violent white men (especially when they turn their violence on people who aren’t white men). We get pictures of them opening presents as kids (Roof) or we’re told that the perp loves dogs (Hicks). The creep out in California got a long article in the NYT about his twoubled childhood.
Less than 10 hours after the shooting I started seeing this killer referred to as “Rusty” like he’s everyone’s pal or something. What the everliving fuck? And of course there are the trolly headlines and coverage that turn mass murder into a form of entertainment at the expense of the victims and people who are like the victims. The one that sticks in my mind for some reason is CNN re the Chapel Hill shooting which asked if it could have been a parking dispute. So yes, RW media sucks, but the mainstream press is modeling itself on it because there’s profit in humanizing bigots.
@J R in WV: It’s not just West Virgina. The gun violence study Bloomberg’s org. did found that most mass shootings (3+) are acts of domestic violence. (Man shoots wife/girlfriend/ex and her family members.)
Anecdotally, there seem to be many cases of men deciding to leave their families and killing them to spare them the sorrow of abandonment.
NorthLeft12
As a Canadian, and an Engineer, I think often about the Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal. There probably cannot be more of an overt misogynistic attack on women than that, yet there was still some debate about what Mr. Lepine’s motives/state of mind were.
Those assholes [the deniers] will never be convinced [at least publicly] that an attack on women like the most recent is what it is; a terrorist action that has been committed to put fear in a particular group of people, or to inspire violent action by another particular group of people.
Yeah, you could call him crazy, but he certainly was not legally insane in that he would have been declared not guilty of murder in a trial [IMO].
The Montreal Massacre inspired some real change in Canada, moreso in the Engineering profession I believe, by people finally facing the issues of harassment, misogyny, and discrimination. There is still a long, long, very long way to go [I have two daughters {one in England} and a wife who face these issues pretty regularly in the workplace] but I have seen a lot of progress. Hopefully, something, anything will change in response to the attack in Louisiana….if only to get the cops to stop saying they have no idea why he did it or why he chose that movie to commit his awful crime.
gene108
Yesterday or the day before there was a thread about how gun sales have more than doubled since Obama became President.
There was a quote from Erich Pratt, of Gun Owners of America ( a gun rights group with several hundred thousands of members, which exists because the NRA are a bunch of gun grabbing sell outs) about how people just seem paranoid that Obama’s going to take away their guns, so they run out and stock pile guns and ammo.
No self reflection on Pratt’s part about his and other gun rights groups stoking the paranoia of people to think Obama’s coming for their guns.
It’s as if the great gun rush just happened. It’s as if millions of Americans hot the same paranoid fantasy, at the same time, all by themselves with no external influences.
Iowa Old Lady
@NorthLeft12: I was teaching in an engineering school when that slaughter in Montreal happened. It terrified me.
satby
@J R in WV: There’s also the branch of fundie Xtianity that considers women and their children to be the property of the male “head of the family”. Property can be disposed of when it’s no longer useful.
Barry
@Tommy: “Anybody know a site where they can learn to use a compass? ”
Boy Scouts
Girl Scouts
Orienteering clubs
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: In the particular type of IT support I started in, I was the only female member of whatever team I was on for years. The misogyny of some men was a constant undercurrent to every day; and when I would get promoted, as I always did, it sometimes became overt acts of sabotage against me and my job. I count myself lucky sometimes that that’s all I faced. As far as I knew.
satby
@Tommy: @Barry: Do you mind? This isn’t an open thread, this has the subject of women being murdered for being women.
Matt McIrvin
@Mike J:
He actually pretty much is one, but that’s less about him than about rodeo clowns. Rodeo clowns these days are miked and have this banter they do with the announcers, and it’s usually jokes about how much they hate Obama and how crazy it is that you can’t make racist jokes any more, like this one I’m about to tell you about how teeny Asians are.
Basically there’s a whole segment of American society in which you’re being exposed to right-wing propaganda continuously.
satby
@Matt McIrvin: There is and it’s insidious. Liberal people I know sometimes repeat a right wing trope that’s presented as “common sense” because they are surrounded by the conservative frame and can’t even hear the dogwhistle. Until I point it out.
the Conster
Margaret Atwood is such a treasure. The Handmaid’s Tale was some prophetic shit. I recently had Mr. Conster acknowledge, with much sadness and head shaking, how oppressive male culture is, and he’s right there in Hauser’s demo – 60 year old white guy, so if he can see it…
Matt McIrvin
@NorthLeft12:
We’ve given up. Basically nothing will ever work. The change happens but it is only ever for the worse.
When these mass shootings happen, the gun people get their reaction to the reaction in BEFORE the reaction: gun laws get weaker to preempt their getting stronger, and the specific gun used in the shooting sells huge. So mass shootings just make mass shootings more likely.
It’s a positive feedback loop, and at some point, we’ll just all go collectively bugfuck and everyone will kill everyone, and you won’t have to deal with the United States any more.
Recovering bonsai
@satby: Delurking to say thank you.
debbie
@satby:
Ah, yes, the good old days, back when harassment was viewed as collegiality. RWNJs may hate political correctness, but I bet they’d hate even more the treatment their daughters would experience if it wasn’t for “bitches” like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.
Zinsky
@Matt McIrvin: Wait until the oil runs out. The streets will be awash in blood from all the gun goons who cannot assuage their circumstances or admit their pigheadedness contributed by not allowing subsidies for green energy.
satby
@debbie: No, a lot of them would want their women under some male’s thumb, as G_d intended. As property should be controlled.
NorthLeft12
@debbie: I don’t know about that Debbie. Those males that are so invested in the system as it is would just not recognize, or frankly believe, that harassment was occurring even if their daughter/wife told them so.
Hell, they probably actively participate in it at their workplace……..all in good fun of course.
The total lack of awareness and the willful blindness is astounding.
debbie
@satby:
And yet they never take into account how tough it was protecting, feeding, and caring for that property back when life was genuinely hard, do they? Dominance can be such hard work.
Ultraviolet Thunder
@satby:
My wife works in an overwhelmingly male, blue collar industrial environment. She’s a machine designer. Her workplace is awash in testosterone, bro culture and questionable behavior. They’re all ‘good guys’ individually but together there’s a critical mass of borderline assholery. Her reaction is to give as good as she gets because she’s clever and not easily pushed around. But a shy woman with a more restrained personality wouldn’t last a month before she was harassed out or started making complaints.
debbie
@NorthLeft12:
One of my dad’s business associates grabbed tit during a portfolio review. If he’d still been alive, my dad would have definitely done something. And if I hadn’t been so shame-filled and told my mother about it, she’d have figured out some way to make his life miserable.
Schlemazel
@gene108:
the other half of that statistic is equally interesting, fewer Americans own guns now than in 2008. That means a smaller pool is building a larger stockpile. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that its 27%.
Many of those people are not going to cause problems but too many of them will; encouraged by hate radio, gun-rights and mens-rights tracts. I don’t see them turning the hate down, 11 doesn’t seem to make it through the din anymore & trump seems to be making headway at 13 so the next one has to go to 14.
NorthLeft12
@Matt McIrvin:
I know this is hyperbole but that would be a sad day for me. And I hope you never stop fighting the good fight.
In this case, the first step is making the media and authorities call this what it is…..a planned attack on women by a misogynistic man. Enough of this lone wolf/disturbed crapola, this guy, and there are many, many more exactly like him, was a massacre waiting to happen, and most people [including the police] who dealt with him knew it.
It’s time they were called out on it and admit it. Then you can possibly do something about it.
The Other Chuck
@Zinsky:
Not going to happen, not the way you think. We hit Peak Oil at least a decade ago, and it’s a very long slide down. There’s still enough oil down there to ensure global warming gets us before we burn it all.
Schlemazel
@Tommy:
here is a basic video thats pretty good
http://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/navigation-basics.html
This site is dedicated to the practice of orientering
http://www.learn-orienteering.org/
hope that helps
satby
@Ultraviolet Thunder: I did, and did very well for myself, but it took a huge psychic toll on me from the stress (in addition to the usual IT support stress).
And I now have to unlearn that very blunt, aggressive (but always civil) behavior for my new way of life. My oldest son, who worked a summer with me back then, told me recently that I can’t talk to suburban soccer moms that way I used to talk to “those assholes you used to work with”.
I admit, it did make me LOL.
Schlemazel
@satby:
yes, you’re right, sorry for my part.
Wag
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I don’t have issues on my computer, but on my iPhone I get directed away from BJ and to f’ong myspace. It’s very random, and seems to happen mostly in the evening. When it happens, all windows that I have BJ open in simultaneously redirect me.
This only happens on BJ. I’ve never had it happen on another website.
I blame ALEC
RepubAnon
@Another Holocene Human: Sure, but mass murder is the price we have to pay to have an armed (and thus peaceful) society. Besides, the shooter wasn’t an undocumented worker, or a Mooslim – so it’s nothing to worry about, right? After all, when you’ve been shot by someone, your primary concern isn’t the wound you’ve suffered – it’s the religion and/or the immigration status of the shooter, amitrite?
(/snark)
Seriously, I’m disgusted at the difference in coverage of mass shootings based upon whether or not the shooter’s background matches a Right-Wingnut scapegoated group.
satby
And right on cue, the wingers a mewling about how even discussing more gun regulations somehow penalizes the law abiding gun owners.
Because lone wolf, mental illness, only bad guys will have guns, ad nauseam.
Shakezula
And here we go. Time does a story on Houser’s political ambitions, calls him disturbed.
Yeah he was a rabid sexist and an extremist and he shot and killed people, but that was just mental illness so no fair talking about him as a violent white male. Say, did you know he wanted to run for office?
gbbalto
@Xenos:
Not sure who invented the term but you are talking about “stochastic terrorism“.
satby
@Shakezula: We all know the summer is rerun season.
When robots take over our jobs, can they take over the media jobs first? It’ll probably be an upgrade.
Vince
@Wag: I haven’t had that happen here but plenty of times on other sites. People have figured out how to program ads to automatically redirect you somewhere else without ever clicking on it; usually to the Apple Store/Android store. It’s infuriating.
Frankensteinbeck
Mainstream press treats the hate mongers as kind of a joke because the mainstream press is overwhelmingly dominated by old white center-right conservative men, the kind who have a black friend and a woman employee. They mix socially with heavily conservative politicians and are convinced – oh, how convinced! – that they are average folks who got rich by being smarter and harder working than the rest of us. Their reflexive reaction to violence against women and minorities is to try to see things from both sides. Their reflexive reaction to violence against white men is terror. They are institutional bigotry personified.
the Conster
@Shakezula:
It’s all so fucking predictable. Deray’s (and other #BLM activists) tweets are invaluable for reading MSM coverage. It’s like having a crystal ball.
White Trash Liberal
The hyperreal is the new normal. All violence is molded into pre-existing narratives through marketing. These mass murders are transformed into reality shows every bit as lowbrow as the ones produced by professionals. And these mass murder shows reinforce the paradigm of white wealth and power.
In Egypt, everything you looked at when you walked down the streets was an advertisement of divine royal authority. So it has become with us. It’s everywhere, and even dead bodies every day are just grist for the manufacture of commercials reminding us of our rich white male overlords.
Randy P
@Vince: I get that on the mobile version of this site and Wonkette. You’re right, it’s infuriating. Is there any way we can get pushback from site owners? What good is ad revenue from advertisers who are taking viewers AWAY from you?
Chris
@Xenos:
I’m far from the only one, but I’ve said similar things. Specifically, WRT the Giffords shooter in Arizona – my point was that while the kid himself didn’t seem to have any coherent political affiliation, the fact that he lived in an environment saturated with stories about the various conspiracies liberals are allegedly guilty of, and with discussions of “Second Amendment Solutions” as the proper solution to this, probably played a role in making him think it was a good idea to do what he did.
Kropadope
Ain’t that the truth? This has long since turned into some sort of weird online stalking; posting the personal information of activists, the threats, the weird arguments about women wanting to dominate men; it’s freaky.
Eric S.
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: I have the same issues. Windows 7. Most recent version of Chrome.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Off to swim and run errands.
Plus, I have a date with Peanut this afternoon – she wants to go see Pixels..LOL
See you later.
Betty Cracker
From the NYT:
Houser also had domestic violence and arson in his record. And Roof also shouldn’t have been able to buy a gun either. Maybe it’s time to improve that “imperfect” database.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
I had an interesting experience this week. I work part time in a big box store. One customer asked me what I thought about the confederate flag, and then asked what I thought about guns. He then told me his truck was all confederate. And he was going to
paint “her” truck like the “General Lee”. I assumed he meant his wife/girlfriend and not his dog that he had with him, but I was not
absolutely sure. Later, one of my coworkers told me he wants to talk to anyone he can about guns and the confederate flag.
He did not seem delusional, but you never know about obsessives like that. Most are harmless, even to themselves, but some
seeming insignificant thing can push them over the edge.
gene108
@Frankensteinbeck:
Or maybe like the BLM (fed agency) handling the Bundy standoff, they are scared some McVeigh wannabe is going to drive a truck full of explosives into their office and blow a bunch of people up.
There’s an under current of right-wing terrorism that exists in this country. It’s on the radar of the Feds, but no one else dares talk about it in “polite” society.
It’s the dirty little secret that underpins much of American society, but we are supposed to pretend it does not exist because otherwise a lot of half cocked people and their friends in powerful places will do terrible things.
Chris
@jake the antisoshul soshulist:
If the Confederate flag is okay because the Duke boys had it, does this mean that trafficking in illegal substances, running from the cops, and causing a ton of property destruction is also all good? Inquiring minds want to know…
I’m at a smallish, touristy town in northern Florida, and the amount of Confederate flag themed shit that I see has definitely gone up since the shooting. I can’t even complain about them in good faith, since the store I work at sells a couple of these items too.
dww44
While I didn’t know John Houser (and didn’t know he even existed), I did know his brother ( who was interviewed on CNN last evening along with a former mayor of Columbus) with whom I worked for more than a decade or so. The brother was a good person and didn’t seem to be engrossed with all things political. In hindsight, though, it’s not difficult for me to identify the effects caused by constant exposure to conservative talk radio beginning in the 80’s and 90’s. I knew lots of professional decent white guys who started listening to conservative talk radio and who gradually became more extreme in their views, but not violent, including some close family members.
In Houser’s case, though, he was clearly mentally ill and that’s where we need to start to begin to slow down the rate of these senseless killings. I don’t know what it will take to convince Americans that this is a public health issue. Perhaps when Obama’s presidency is over,the 2nd amendment absolutists will no longer hold sway.
lou
The thing that drives me nuts is in everyone of these cases, the media and politicians are quick to point to mental illness. But in the case of the Chattanooga shooter, where it’s clear that he was mentally ill, nope, it’s Islam.
So if it’s Islam in his instance, why isn’t it misogyny in Houser’s case?
the Conster
@lou:
Because shut up, that’s why.
GregB
It’s time to watch Talk Radio again.
Mike E
@dww44:
I at first laughed at this, then cried a little.
Kathleen
@Shakezula: Thank you. I totally agree with what you said. Somewhat unrelated, but our local media nicknamed an armed bank robber “The Sock Hat Bandit”. He, of course, was white. And finally captured. Alive. Can you imagine a cutesy nick name for an African American suspect?
Shakezula
@lou: And as we see here it can be ANY mental illness. And if there’s no history of mental illness, someone will make it up. I see ASD mentioned a lot when the killer is a younger man. As proof of their theory, these Dr. Frists will point out that he was quiet and/or moody and/or some other trait we associate with teens and young adults.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
That would be a valid hypothesis, but the rest of the data is so consistent with ‘they’re Republicans and mild-to-moderately-bigoted themselves.’ Racist killers aren’t just given a pass, they pile on to paint black victims as deserving their fate. The media’s descriptions of Obama have been painted in racist caricatures since day one. Republicans are given much more deference on news-ish shows, and are always treated as serious, while Democrats are always treated as not serious. Hell, the reception Brokaw got when he gave his little speech about how people needed to learn to live without ‘entitlements’ spoke volumes. The month-before-the-2014-election shitshow of all ISIS and ebola all the time sounded like a conservative chain letter. Basically, they go far beyond what they would have to do merely to keep from making themselves a target. Evidence consistently points to national journalism being a social group that is led by and whose group-think is formed by conservatives of the ‘Reagan Democrat’ mold.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
Also interesting: it’s not just 2014 or other elections where Republicans are clearly ahead. The run up to 2012 was all Benghazi, all the time. The run up to 2008 less so, but after that they fell all over each other trying to explain that this was still a center right nation and it was incumbent on Obama to respect that and reach across the aisle. They’re not just blowing with the wind: they’re all Republican all the time.
Shakezula
@Kathleen: Is “Dangerous Thug” a nickname?
You are so right about the cutesy names, I’d never thought of that before.
kc
There is this: http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/chattanooga-gunman-struggled-depression-drug-addiction-article-1.2297523
opiejeanne
Do women now need a slogan such as Women’s Lives Matter?
Ruckus
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
I use FF, no script and ad block. The entire internet is much nicer that way.
For Netflix I use Chrome as it runs HTML5 and I was able to delete Silverlight off my computer. At this point I have no MS programs. I like that.
Ruckus
@tybee:
It does take some time to ferment that level of hate and stupidity. It isn’t an inherited trait, it is learned, or better stated, absorbed, rather than learned.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Yes it is.
Wouldn’t that require some funds, authorized by congress?
tybee
@dww44:
so you knew Rem?
i assume the former mayor was bobby peters?
Sherparick
@Mike J: I think when 27% of population is out there eating this stuff up, and another 20% thinks about joining them, we have a problem.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
Maybe something like:
Black Lives Matter, Your Life Matters, All Lives Matter.
I’d shorten it by leaving out the first segment if we didn’t live in a society that values black lives only if the can be controlled, stolen from, ridiculed, beaten, murdered for no reason at all.
Sherparick
@Frankensteinbeck: Yep. With types of Ron Fournier, Jonathan Karl, Major Garrett, Sheryl Atkinson, and many others as reporters and producers, the idea of a “liberal” MSM is the biggest joke around.,
Sherparick
@Shakezula: As long as he is not a Muslim. If the perpetrator is a Muslim then he is part of a global conspiracy in which all Muslims are considered at best fellow travelers. One would have to expect it is mentally painful to make one self so unaware of one’s own biases for the MSM not to notice the different ways they have reported the mass killings of the last 3 months. And the fact that we have 300 million guns lying around the country that any nut can get his hands on is simply not commented on any more.
opiejeanne
@Ruckus: I was being a snot. The Women’s movements in all their variety have been trying to drive this home for quite a while now, back to antiquity.
inkadu
@lou: If it’s terrorism, that means that one-third of America is the political wing of a terrorist organization — at least if we used the same standards for American terrorists as Islamist ones.
J R in WV
@satby:
@Shakezula:
I know it isn’t just here, in WV, but that’s where the events I learn about are. We have so many of these that they don’t even write a local story about an event in Indiana, unless he kills non-family members, or is otherwise outstanding for some reason other than just killing his whole family.
And I also know that the patriarchy regards everyone who isn’t a patriarch as sub-human property, to be controlled closely “for their won good” since they aren’t in touch with Jeebus Laird like the patriarchs believe they are. Which shows how delusional they are to me.
What I don’t know is how to fix it, without major social changes. It’s obvious to me that there is a constant drumbeat of propaganda that puts women into the position of being inferior and in need to control by their men. All the religious networking is to that end, to protect the rule of god’s chosen men over the needy women.
As some else said, this is really fomenting illegal acts, which isn’t really protected speech at all. So if we could get a court case which spelled out the damage propaganda is doing to the nation, and allowed for those faucets of hate to be shut down, that would be a first step in closing down these women-hating terrorists.
Then we would have blood in the streets from all the patriarchs bursting out in fear and agony to kill the people who don’t fear and hate their women. How crazy does that sound? When you just say it in a short sentence like that, it puts it in the proper place – totally crazy, all the time.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
That’s OK, inspiration can come from many places.
The other day I was thinking that we talk here a lot about how bad some things are, guns, racism, etc, etc, etc…….. What does it take to make any change, even it that change is just to get the ball rolling? There is always a turning point, something that sets off a chain of events. Something about cake and the French for example. Or Black Lives Matter. But that chain has to remain unbroken, MLK’s big speech and the march was a turning point, his entire life being smeared and killed is an example of a broken chain. And that chain was broken so long ago that it will take a do over rather than be a continuation. That’s why marching with MLK was great, but isn’t as important as right now.
So back to my point, what do we do? A slogan? Join organizations, march/protest? These things have been done and made as best as I can tell, little progress. What will it take to change our course as a nation? From that which still allows racism, misogyny, no that’s wrong, from one which is, by a large portion of it’s citizens, actively encouraging these to one where that is the exception, the unusual. I know it can be done, what I don’t know is how fast, how many generations and how do you get it started and keep it going for that long? People have pointed out the flaws for ever and what else? We had the equal rights amendment but could only get 33 states to ratify, so at least some in 17 states think many lives don’t matter.
Uncle Cosmo
@gbbalto: You posted it so I didn’t have to, thanx.
FTR the ur-example of stochastic terrorism in fiction is the central situation of the movie The Fisher King. Jeff Bridges plays a former shock jock whose tirade against the patrons of a yupscale Manhattan venue “triggers” one of his listeners to walk in & start shooting.* The way you can tell it’s fiction is that the obvious connection between the broadcast & the murders ends up destroying the shock jock’s career & shattering his emotional health. Good luck with that ever happening to one of the Far Wrong’s favorite yammering heads…
—
* IIRC this was based on an actual incident, but I’m having trouble tracking down a source for that.
dww44
@tybee: Yes, knew Rem well. Worked in and out of that Columbus office from my base in Macon for about 15 years. Yes, Peters was the Mayor.
MBunge
@J R in WV: And I also know that the patriarchy regards
The concept of patriarchy is very useful in understanding society and why it is the way it is, but we all understand that there is no such thing as “the patriarchy”…right?
Mike
tybee
@dww44:
finding out rusty did that was weird. if i had heard that bobby had done it, i’d have been “yeah, i can see that”.
dww44
@tybee: Honestly, since I lived and live 90 miles away, my relationship with Rem was purely a professional one, although I had met his wife a couple of times. We never talked about family in any great detail. I just know that he seemed to be a good and decent person, which was pretty much supported by the article in our paper yesterday, quoting a couple of folks who knew them all. Plus, I’ve been retired a number of years.
Tehanu
The talkshow host says,
Well, at least that’s a change from, “The neighbors all said they had no idea he was going to do that. He seemed like such a nice, quiet guy.”
Tehanu
@debbie:
They might … but it would only be because it was THEIR daughters. If it was their daughter’s workplace colleague, they not only wouldn’t give a shit, they’d boast about how their daughter was smarter than “that complaining pain-in-the-ass coworker who tried to poison the atmosphere.”