• FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    140
    arrow-down
    31
    ·
    9 months ago

    Never found a motive? Are you joking? We’ve got tons of info on the psycho who did it. He was a distraught aging white male with a history of depression, gambling, and firearms who wanted to hurt the world and kill himself.

    Sad losers are a dime a dozen but at least most of them aren’t as stupid as that guy. There is no reason to discuss this outside of proposed changes to our society as a whole to better prevent these stains on history.

      • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        I don’t mean to sweep this under the rug, but I think that just stands as another case for the fact that an enormous amount of people in this country have mental health issues. It’s normalized at this point.

        Besides that, news outlets that report on this only do so basically of the drama and the views. The solutions are in front of us, always have been, but that’s not what anyone truly cares about.

        • fustigation769curtain@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          I think framing it as a ‘mental health’ issue puts all the blame on the individual.

          It’s not a ‘mental health’ epidemic. Society is broken and more people are realizing it every day.

          These problems will only get worse as the disparity in wealth continues to grow and more people feel like they have nothing to live for as a result.

          • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            9 months ago

            Oh absolutely. You’re right, framing it that way does seem to ignore the current issues we face as a society.

            I believe that our mental health as a society is problematic, but it’s not the individual’s fault due to neglect. There are root causes in the background that are responsible. People don’t need therapy, but rather living conditions need to improve.

      • Siegfried@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        9 months ago

        Depressed white male dressed as a policeman: So, why did you do it?

        Mass shooter: because I’m a depressed white male

      • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        9 months ago

        I mean you can discuss it to death, but without facts – which don’t exist, because he didn’t tell anyone the intimate workings of his fucked up mind – the best you can do is speculate. By all means, go ahead.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        9 months ago

        If you had read my comment then you would know that was exactly what I would rather we discussed.

    • CeruleanRuin@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      9 months ago

      But but but why did he spray bullets at a crowd with intent to murder hundreds? Why, man, why? We need his manifesto, his tax records, the political affiliations of his associates and family! How else am I supposed to fit him into my narrative if I can’t prove why he thought to do the unthinkable?

      /s

        • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          28
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          In an alternate universe…

          He was a distraught aging black male with a history of depression, gambling, and firearms who wanted to hurt the world and kill himself.

          It’s the inclusion of ‘aging white male’ listed with the other negatives, so it could be viewed as ageist, sexist, and racist.

          Yes, yes, let your feelings guide the mouse to the downvote button

          • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            20
            ·
            9 months ago

            White men are the most dangerous segment of the population, which is clearly shown by violent crime statistics. There is a reason that rural census tracts (which are overwhelmingly white) are the most dangerous places to live.

            • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              9 months ago

              That is not what I said, nor is it true. While males are 97.7% of the NIJ’s Index of Mass Shooters, only about 50% were white which is lower than their proportion of the total population. However, depression amongst that demographic is higher and growing, and mental illnesses correlate highly with those who harm others and themselves, so I’m just saying the Vegas Shooter ticked every box on the proverbial check list.

              • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                edit-2
                9 months ago

                ~30% of the US population are white men but according to that link 52% of mass shootings are perpetrated by white men. That is a ~22% increase over what you would expect if the US didn’t raise its white conservative men to be violent and hateful and specifically teach them they are the only types of people who are allowed to be violent or threaten the possibility of violence in public spaces.

                How is this not evidence that white men are the most dangerous people in the US? Not in terms of being likely to commit a crime of desperation but rather to be an utter loser and decide to shoot a bunch of random people out of pure hate? White men might not be the most likely to hurt you in the US, but they are BY FAR the most likely to hurt you for no reason other than you who happen to be and what you happen to represent to them.

            • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              15
              ·
              edit-2
              9 months ago

              I believe you may be misinformed. Surely not blatantly making things up to fit your narrative?

              https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/revcoa18.pdf

              Based on data compiled by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, it found that while Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population, they were 33% of persons arrested for non-fatal violent crime (NVC), which includes rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and other assaults. Black people were 36% of those arrested for serious non-fatal violent crimes (SNVC), including rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

              Similarly, Hispanics make up 18% of the US population and were 21% of those arrested for serious non-fatal violent crimes. Whites, who are 60% of the population, were 46% of persons arrested for non-fatal violent crimes, and 39% of those arrested for serious non-fatal violent crimes.

              The designation “Black” and “white” often did not include those who are Hispanic. In 9% of single-offender incidents and 12% of multiple-offender incidents, the victim was unable to tell whether the offender was Hispanic.

              https://bjs.ojp.gov/data-collection/ncvs

              In 2021, crime victimization rates were higher in urban than rural areas. In urban settings, 24.5 out of 1,000 people aged 12 or older reported being the victims of violent crimes, and 157.5 reported being the victims of property crimes. In rural settings, those figures were 11.1 and 57.7, respectively. How many people report being victims of crime?

              In 2021, more than 4.5 million violent incidents involving victims ages 12 and older were self-reported in the US in the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). In the same year, 11.7 million property victimizations were also reported, according to the Criminal Victimization report from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Statistics.

              Despite this, US crime victimization rates have been on an overall downward trend since 1995. The DOJ tracks crime victimization data by location, which shows how trends vary for urban, suburban, and rural areas. One common narrative is that urban crime victimization rates exceed those in rural areas — and this is true, based on the data.

              • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                15
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                9 months ago

                Arrests and convictions are not a valid proxy for violent acts or crimes committed. If you knew absolutely anything about this area of study you’d be aware of that. Have fun with your willful ignorance.

                  • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    9 months ago

                    Thanks for being reasonably-minded.

                    If nothing else, I’m finding discussions like these helpful in curating my Lemmy experience. If someone is spreading misinformation, ignoring evidence to the contrary, and refuses to provide an argument as to why they feel the way to do, even if it’s only a rationalization, then it’s clear they’re not (yet) capable of debate with critical thought and without emotions and social conditioning blinding them. I’ve never been one to block people but Lemmy is infested with groupthink in a way I’d never thought possible, it’s beyond reddit.

                    Also any snark is highly frowned upon, unless it’s in favor of the groupthink, so that’s my own fault.

                • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  arrow-down
                  9
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  9 months ago

                  So the victims say the perpetrator is a white man; police arrest black male. I’ll wait for you to link to the 4 times that’s happened as if it’s a checkmate.

                  I’m sure you have the added statistics for convictions and they fully support what you’re saying. Pray tell, because your urban vs. rural assumptions on violence is clearly not supported by the evidence.

                  Convictions show the same? Curious about your reasoning for that, that doesn’t sound wildly racist.

                  If we’re not going off of facts (statics of arrests and convictions) then what are we going off of? Feelings? I’m more than willing to have my mind changed if you can provide an argument that rural white men are the most dangerous group, as long as it’s based on more than feelings and hearsay. A black man in urban attire walking into a sunset town of 100 people has the same result as a white man in a suit walking down a dangerous inner-city street. Same cause of effect: human nature.

                  At the risk of sounding racist, I think it’s quite obvious that when you buy a foreign people from their homeland as a commodity (sold largely in part by warlords and warring tribes of the same race, by the way), treat them as chattle (literally) and forbid any written or oral history of their culture or familial past, while raping the women and killing the babies or selling them off, creating extreme intergenerational trauma, hatred, and injustice, and then continue treating them like shit even after the law says you can no longer treat them as less than human…

                  You may have a societal problem on your hands that doesn’t resolve itself in a measly few generations. A societal problem that results in higher rates of violence.

                  We need better support in this country in so many aspects. For women and men of all races and creeds. But until we break away from being an overly materialistic consumerist society, that won’t change. What we don’t need is a distortion of reality to fit a false narrative.

        • Lmaydev@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          25
          ·
          9 months ago

          There’s no need to mention their race right? Unless it was a racially motivated attack, which I don’t remember coming up.

          • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            9 months ago

            Because of statistics which indicate aging white males are more likely to:

            1. Own a gun SOURCE

            2. Have mental health concerns SOURCE

            3. Harm themselves SOURCE

            4. Harm others SOURCE

            Sorry to tell you, but demographics play a part in societal ails.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        9 months ago

        It is unfortunately relevant information on the topic of demographic shifts and marginalized groups. What the shooter did was not typical by any means, but who he was is extremely typical for what he did, sadly.