repoman
Contributor
I read about it but didn't see it. The whole thing is fascinating, how people can become so deranged. According to the Sun (local Toronto newspaper) he is autistic and was bullied brutally growing up, mocked later on by men and women alike, withrew from social contact from pretty much everyone in real life and then found a community online that helped him become what he became. Not too unlike what we hear about the western people who went off to join Isis. Does that match the interview video you saw? The Sun isn't the most reliable paper.
The video interview is only 20 minutes and is very informative. His demeanor is churchmouse meek.
Seems like a follower. Ellit Rodger may have been a touch autistic (literal not the internet insult) but his videos show a person with a fairly full range of emotions and probable ability to interact with people in a normal way with proper treatment. Of course he was a self pitying, narcissistic moral monster, so there was that...
Manassian probably had little ability to not be awkward for his whole life, just wired that way. If he actually did have social media contact with Elliot Rodger (and is not lying for odd reasons) then that is really sad.
Without that contact what would Manassian have done otherwise?