I think the Elliot Rodger case is an example of the ugliest sense of entitlement
I feel for the victims but this will just be used to further push gun control without addressing the real issue of the mental health discussion taboo.
This just proves how dangerous it is to give everything to a child and not tell them where it came from; how it was attained. Elliot Rodger, first and foremost, was an egocentric narcissist.
Elliot Rodger has caused the deaths of at least 6 people and himself in a killing spree dealt out with handguns and knives in Santa Barbara, California. Rodger murdered 3 of his roommates with knives before shooting 3 female students on campus, two of them fatally, before finally finding another victim post-fleeing the scene of the first crimes.
This guy is such a textbook case it is not even funny. Young male, sexually frustrated, with narcissistic tendencies and a terminal belief that he was wronged by society and must pay 'them' back. Any one of these could be swapped for another. It's the same every time. It's not like he even knew what he was definitively angry about. First seeming to be annoyed about rejections from girls and then posting on a forum that seeing an 'Asian' boy with an 'attractive, white, blonde girl wasn't right'. Rodger was not in fact white, he was mixed race, seemingly rejecting his own Asian heritage in some sort of identity crisis, probably not helped by the fact that he was born in Britain and moved to the US at the age of 5. Moreover, he considered himself white, and considered himself 'lucky' to be able to pass as 'only white'. He also talked in pretty racist ways about the Asian roommates he would eventually murder in cold blood. He wrote in his manifesto, although I'd call 'manifesto' a glorifying term, that they are "ugly, stinking Asians" and will end up 'slitting their throats'.
It goes without saying that Elliot Rodger had mental health issues that may have been undiagnosed/misdiagnosed. Most likely some Narcissistic personality disorder that caused his disturbing behaviour. Reports say he had Asperger's, was seeing multiple therapists and that his had family reported him to the police several weeks ago for his YouTube Vlogs. This is what is most gut wrenching about this case. It seems like not an awful lot could have been done to prevent this so I can only thank his family for apparently doing as much as they could realistically do to help Elliot. I'm not totally convinced he even wanted help with his issue with women. It seems his real love was having an enemy to be perpetually paranoid of. Given his diagnosis of Asperger's, which is an Autism Spectrum Disorder, the medication Risperidone, that he refused to take, is an anti-psychotic drug mainly used to treat Schizophrenia, could have done a lot more than help his paranoia. This, coupled with his several-years-long appointments with therapists, that would 'take him out on the town', make this more than a 'he had Aspergers' story.
Rodger didn't feel shame for the thoughts in his head though. In acts of, what may be seen as pride, he repeatedly posted video diaries of himself to YouTube where they gained popularity on sites like reddit causing worry and an odd schadenfreude enjoyment of his peculiarly awkward, Patrick Bateman-style behaviour.
Rodger was not a stupid young man. Clearly well-educated and wealthy he was a self-pitying and self-stylised hero for the 'down-trodden modern man'. He viewed his life, one he made no effort to hide as comfortable, as blighted and miserable.
'You girls have starved me of sex and enjoyment and pleasure for my entire youth, you've taken 8 years away from my life'
Despite sitting in his BMW. At the beach. Talking about college. This man felt deeply entitled to more than just the material objects he hadn't earned himself.
Now has never been a better time for people to go watch ‘Bowling For Columbine’ by Michael Moore. The main question Moore leaves with us in the documentary isn’t ‘Why don’t we change gun laws?’, it’s ‘What is the psychological reason for why these shootings happen and why do Americans feel the need to protect themselves with deadly weapons?’
The view that most Americans want the law changed is false, after the Aurora cinema shooting in 2012, gun sales in that area went through the roof, and it turns out neither do the government. After the Newtown Elementary school shooting, Republicans in the Michigan House rammed through a bill making it LEGAL to carry a gun into a school or day care center. The fact of the matter is politicians will look for any quick fix or short-term ‘solution’ to gun crime so they’ll be seen as doing something. Gun control is just sweeping a bigger issue under the carpet.
People seem to be ignoring the fact that Jared Loughner (Tucson 2011), James Holmes (Aurora 2012) and Ryan Lanza (Connecticut Yesterday) are/were all young, white males seemingly to have no monetary motive to perpetrating these heinous crimes. Heck, James Holmes, an undergraduate in neuroscience, spent $20k on the equipment he used to kill 12 people.
Well, it MUST be the guns then. How are they getting these guns? Legally, through the same tests and protocols that every single one of the 89 of 100 people in America who own guns do. 62% of gun-owning Americans say they have more than one weapon in their household. Well it’s obviously the Law/Constitution's fault. A 225 year old constitution is wrong... now? Why exactly?
Every time a mass shooting gains public attention we get stuck in an endless circle of blame and the buck doesn't stop at the real reasons. Remember when we used to blame Rock ‘n’ Roll for these incidents? Everything from music, cartoons, video games, Satan and (for God's sake) Marilyn Manson have been given the blame over the last 20 years.
Marilyn Manson: …with the upcoming election. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky and we forgot about [how] the President was shooting bombs overseas, yet I’m a bad guy because I sing some Rock ‘n’ Roll songs, and who’s a bigger influence, the President or Marilyn Manson? I’d like to think me, but I’m going to go with the President.
Michael Moore: Do you know that on the day of the Columbine massacre, the US dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other day?
Marilyn Manson: I do know that, and I think that’s really ironic, that nobody said ‘well maybe the President had an influence on this violent behavior’ Because that’s not the way the media wants to take it and spin it, and turn it into fear, because then you’re watching television, you’re watching the news, you’re being pumped full of fear, there’s floods, there’s AIDS, there’s murder, cut to commercial, buy the Acura, buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath they’re not going to talk to you, if you have pimples, the girl’s not going to fuck you, and it’s just this campaign of fear, and consumption, and that’s what I think it’s all based on, the whole idea of ‘keep everyone afraid, and they’ll consume.’
This feeling that we're bombarded with that sexual prowess and being loved physically by other people should give us our sense of self-worth is so screwed up.
Guns are still used more for suicide in the US than for homicide; the US has the highest gun-related suicide rate in the world. I didn’t think it would be long before the Right-wing news channels found Adam Lanza’s Facebook page and start poking fun at how he’s some sort of 'social freak' and it happened pretty damn fast. Faster than James Holmes (his dating profile) and faster than Wade Michael Page, the Neo-Nazi Rocker who shot up a Sikh temple because he thought Sikh’s were related to terrorist Muslim groups.
This time the poking at the perpetrator's online footprint began before the crimes even took place.
Elliot Rodger's rampant misogynistic views and entitled feelings towards females is pretty disturbing but he is not alone. Legions of young men feel the same, they may never act in such a horrific manner but they're thinking the same thoughts and to them it's completely rational to see a woman walking down the street and perceive her as property that don't 'own'... and they're angry about it. To them the onus is on women to provide pleasure to them.
Sexist/Rape culture is real. It's a societal issue but first and foremost it's part of many, many mental health issues. A critically thinking mind should be able to discern irrational doctrine from common sense.
"I am not part of the human race. Humanity has rejected me. The females of the human species have never wanted to mate with me, so how could I possibly consider myself part of humanity? Humanity has never accepted me among them, and now I know why. I am more than human. I am superior to them all. I am Elliot Rodger...Magnificent, glorious, supreme, eminent...Divine! I am the closest thing there is to a living god. Humanity is a disgusting, depraved, and evil species. It is my purpose to punish them all. I will purify the world of everything that is wrong with it. On the Day of Retribution, I will truly be a powerful god, punishing everyone I deem to be impure and depraved." - an extract from Elliot Rodger's disgusting 140-page manifesto, 'My Twisted World' http://www.scribd.com/doc/225960813/Elliot-Rodger-Santa-Barbara-mass-shooting-suspect-My-Twisted-World-manifesto
It's clear from the amount of premeditation that went into this that he was planning on doing much more damage than he did.
So please don't use this to talk about guns. There are many more deep seated social issues here to talk about.
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