He had a good life going
Based on accounts from people who knew him at school, he did not.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
57 points (77.7% liked)
Asklemmy
43856 readers
1783 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Yeah, where the fuck would anyone get the impression that guy had a "good life"?
load more comments
(2 replies)
The weapon he used was owned by his parents for many years prior. He grew up in a household full of guns. From everything we can tell right now, it seems like your typical school shooter. Depression and mental illness leads some to want to go with a bang, pun not intended. It doesn't seem like he hated Trump, so much as he wanted to target someone famous.
That said to your ladder point, literally millions of people gave their lives to kill Hitler.
your ladder point
The point made by a ladder!
(It's "latter" point, haha)
Aaah thank you, I reread the original post trying to find a point related to a ladder and eventually decided I just didn't understand what the "ladder point" was referring to, but now I understand them!
Languages are fun :)
Depression and mental illness leads some to want to go with a bang
No, they really fucking don't, privilege and the sense of entitlement it gives do.
Like seriously, beyond the bullshit that is scapegoating mental illness because it's easier than facing reality, that's literally not how depression works, nor "mental illness" in general, especially when you consider that mentally ill people are significantly more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrate it.
Stop perpetuating this lazy counterproductive bullshit.
While I get the point you are trying to make, unfortunately unthreaded bipolar depression can indeed lead to manic psychosis episodes. Hyper fixation and grandiosity are also common symptoms. We're not talking about gender or racial violence here.
Your best source is a Tumblr blog?
Most people do not go out and attempt an assassination. That alone is an indication of some sort of psychotic break. Evidence may not have been made public yet or there may not be any. The only person who knew for sure is dead.
To add to this, he had looked up several targets, including Biden. So it was likely as you say, a psychotic break followed by lashing out, rather than a partisan choice.
I donβt think we can necessarily call all killers psychotic. Antisocials in the broadest of terms, maybe, sociopaths, probably, but theyβre not necessarily all losing touch with reality.
In his case, given what we know so far, it does sound rather likely.
to kill him probably
Maybe it was just to have the ear of the president.
It was just ear piercing from long distance....
So this is the kind of piercing gun they use for earrings
It's a new NRA service, they needed some big influencers to start promoting it
maybe he was out of earshot of the president and wanted to be in it.
It seems odd this happened; President Trump has an ear to the ground.
He was listening for the sign, but someone called the shot too loudly. That's probably why his ear hurts.
He probably didnβt hate Trump. He seemed to be targeting a bunch of politicians. He was probably either mad at politics, or just trying to be famous.
I really think this country is too crazy to really determine a motive. Why do people shoot up elementary schools? It seems so easy to think it's politically motivated, but I'm not convinced he hated trump, really.
Some people see injustice and the suffering of others and are willing to sacrifice their own lives regardless of how good they have it. I also don't understand this guy's motivations, but I sympathise with people all over the world who have chosen to end their lives in pursuit of some higher goal.
Look at Aaron Bushnell. He ended his life to protest Israel's crimes in Gaza and the US's complicity in them. I often wish I had that courage.
And with regards to killing other people, some people just deserve to die and I'm not succumbing to some liberal bullshit about civility when those same people who spout that nonsense turn a blind eye to the mass slaughter of innocents around the world in the name of the status quo and their privileged existences.
load more comments
(2 replies)
The shooter is dead, knowing what they were thinking is going to be impossible now. People are going to guess based on situational information but we will never know
Maybe he was listening to Marilyn Manson.
Itβs a shame heβs been accused of being a creep/rapist. Not for his sake, I hope justice is served, just so many misplaced βI told you soβs to go around because of it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
They said he searched online for both Trump and Biden. Maybe it wasn't matter for him whom from them to kill. Just to kill a person of power as big as the president or a candidate of such country as US, with all modern security measures. Like Unabomber, or like in the film The limits of Control. And he was quite near.
Probably saw that Project 2025 had a section on banning porn and jailing its creators. His last phone search was even for porn π
He was going for the post nut clarity.
No, but speculate we shal!
I think all he wanted was his ear, nothing more! He just wanted to become Lee Harvey Earswald.
Or Mike Tyson?
gamer
Can people quit saying he bought the damn gun...he got it from his father.
All signs point to depression + disillusionment imo. He seems to be targeting the most convenient major political figure available. With the system being as inexorably broken as it is, it makes sense.
he was able to buy an AR-15 at 22 I think.
Pretty sure the reports point to him having it for over a decade. Without taking any effort to look it up, I think his dad bought him that gun in like 2013, so he was much younger at the time.
As for 'good life going', doesn't sound that way in general, but apparently he just got his associates degree from community college, and had been accepted into a university, but he decided not to go.
Not truly. We can make guesses and assumptions. But probably not really know it
We can never know or speak for why anyone does anything, unless we're relaying what the person says, because no matter what kind of act we're speaking of, the only ones who can speak for someone's intentions is that person. Anything else is putting words in their mouth, an educated guess, based on what we see and not what we don't. People should stop emphasizing motives as much as they do. Sometimes a motive might not even be able to be manifested in words while still existing.
I am sure that some information and reasoning will emerge at some point, after they've looked through his phone, computer, home and talked to people who knew him.
They googled a bunch of public figures and locations, so guessing notoriety
view more: next βΊ