Tick tick tick...
Update: Changed the photo because it was unclear if it was Adam - see comments below. Hopefully this is him, and not Ian Brown of Stone Roses fame.
PS It's nothing to do with guns - do you really think a psychopath killer is going to care about gun laws?
It's capitalism that drives us mad.
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Was he angry about the acne?
ReplyDeleteThink you might have the wrong photo here Rich.
ReplyDeleteNewspapers reporting that he had no electronic footprint hence no Facebook photo.
Check it out and until then suggest you remove the pic.
Think that's him, Will.
DeleteI'll leave it up for now in the services of disinformation.
x
I think the photo is of his brother, Ryan.
ReplyDelete"PS It's nothing to do with guns - do you really think a psychopath killer is going to care about gun laws? "
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot easier to stop a psychopathic killer who doesn't have a gun than one who does.
And a psychopathic killer can kill a lot more people with a gun before he's stopped than with any other weapon.
Just a thought...
Also, there were mad people before capitalism, so "it's capitalism that drives us mad" is bullshit.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
I'm no fan of capitalism either and see the bad it does, but that's a bit of a stretch to say the least...
Is your point about guns strictly from an Anarchist viewpoint about not wanting to restrict people's freedom to do what they want (ie. own guns, not kill people)?
ReplyDeleteOr is that Libertarianism?
Anarchism is about personal freedom too, I think, no?
Or at least, not wanting to be controlled by the state and shit...? [not sure]
Just don't understand your dismissal of the gun issue followed by basically blaming it solely on capitalism.
"I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that," to quote something I read recently on some shitty forum... :p
George Carlin - a hero of mine - was a Libertarian (quite troublingly so in some ways as he got into his last few years and became even more hardened/sickened by people and the world as it is.
He once did a show where he said he believed people have the right to own guns, but he also believed he had to right to shoot them in the face... or something like that.
I get the opposition to the immediate reaction of "this is all about guns and banning guns will stop shit like this" as it's clearly an over-simplification.
I don't think we'll ever understand the factors that contribute to someone doing something like this and I daresay capitalism and the social mentality it engenders, plus the inequalities and all the other shit it creates has a part to play. But brain chemistry is also surely a big factor here. Some people just become mentally ill in the same way that some people just become ill in all sorts of other ways. I think it's true to say that some who become ill in this precise situations are exacerbated by the kind of shit that capitalism creates... but to say it's the only or even primary cause - I strongly disagree with that.
Who knows what creates this kind of mental and physical reaction in mostly youngish kids?
But taking guns out of such widespread circulation is undoubtedly something which would reduce both the frequency of incidents like this and the severity and death-toll, plus making it easier to apprehend the attacker before they cause so much carnage.
That's why I agree mostly with the calls for gun control after these incidents, because it's the only thing we can be certain of that will make a positive change in this regard.
Having said all that, and to slightly agree with that I assume is your own view (though slightly different to what you said), I do think besides debating the gun issue we need to start looking very hard at what factors contribute to kids doing things like this (mental health, anti social disorders - neither of which are given much respect or constructive prominence in social discourse on these matters. And, yes, the inequalities that out system of capitalism engenders in people who don't fit in, both economically (though I think Lanza was from a "comfortable" family (or the mother, at least) and socially (esp. in schools where outsiderness is brutally treated by peers and sometimes even teachers.
I don;t know shit, clearly.
But I do know that focusing solely on gun control (while I still think that's the most solid way of ensuring far, far less of these incidents occur and the severity of those incidents) is not the whole solution... not even close.
It seems the most important thing to focus on first, while also (right now) starting a debate about all the other possible factors that contribute that I mention some of above.
Unfortunately, I think - yet again - the "debate" (such as it is) will be "GUN CONTROL IS THE ANSWER!" vs. "THIS BOY WAS EVIL!" and that's it.
Personally, I agree with as much personal individual freedom as possible, but in practice I think it's clear you have to have restrictions on that freedom.
Sorry to ramble on and again if I've misunderstood your viewpoint here, but I'd be interested to know why you dismiss the gun control argument and then lay the blame squarely at capitalism - is it just that as an anarchist, that's how you see the problem?
I dismiss the gun control argument cause it is daft and simplistic.
DeleteI'd love a gun.
How is it daft and simplistic given how much statistical data shows that countries with tight gun controls have far far less incidents like this and considerably less people being shot to death?
DeleteAre you just unwilling to debate this properly?
"I'd love a gun" - isn't this the basic argument of those who don't want gun control?
"I love my big shiny gun and I don;t give a fuck how many people die."
Finland has a roughly equivalent gun ownership.
DeleteNot too many bonkers massacres there...
I didn't know that about Finland. I've just been reading about it. Very interesting, thanks.
DeleteYes I see it isn't so simple, now.
I also just read a report (don't know how true it is) that Lanza's mother was a paranoid "survivalist" who was prepared for imminent economic collapse.