White mass killer just had a bad day

[Elixir]

I’m saying sexual angst is a better explanation. See: Bundy, Gacy, et cetera.

But how much of the sexual angst is due to the perversions of the church?

Zackly. Unknown ...

 

[Toni]

My criticism isn't simply about the "bad day" part. The Bernie Sanders supporter who nearly massacred the GOP at a baseball practice was suffering from a nervous breakdown. That sounds a bit different than having a "bad day". Had a black guy killed eight people in cold blood, the term "bad day" most likely wouldn't have been used by police.

It comes off as 'he isn't a psychopath, he just had a bad day'. That he drove a good distance to target Asian Massage parlors implies that this wasn't simply an act of a person having a bad day. It was premeditated.

Regardless, time will tell if this was a religiously indoctrinated attack, where this guy was beaten over the head to believe that sexual desire was sin and the normal things he was experiencing was actually the devil trying to ruin him... and he had his "bad day", murdering the people he thought were going to ruin him spiritually.

My take is that the officer reported that the murderer 'was having a bad day' as a statement of the murderer's reasoning and also to differentiate these killings from politically motivated targeting of Asians (or massage parlors).

I am a little less outraged than it seems everyone else is by the humanity shown by law enforcement. How else would they be able to talk to this murderer and learn his motivation. Aren't we all a little glad that this does not seem to be part of some white supremacist political assassination plot? Isn't it better that these murders are the actions of a man suffering from acute mental distress of some kind? When I write 'better' I am fully aware that these murders are horrific and terrible and should have been prevented by better gun laws (and a lot of mental health care).

I am NOT getting any sense of victim blaming but of an attempt to help the public understand the irrational thought process of this murderer, who is also a young man who very likely grew up in the same or similar circumstances as most white people in his area. Surely those law enforcement officers looked at him and saw a tiny bit of themselves, their sons, their brothers: Young man raised in the church by god fearing parents who probably love him a great deal. But still had this capacity for evil inside him.

I personally think that it is a profound mistake to label mass murderers as inhuman monsters. Instead, I think we need to look them square in the face and then look in the mirror at our own reflections no matter how much what we see contradicts what we want to believe: These murders are monstrous but they were committed by a very human young man who, like so many of us, was unable to face parts of himself that he did not like, that he was taught to hate.

I believe that we can recognize horror of these murders, fully feel the outrage and disgust at this senseless loss of life by people whose only 'crime' was that they existed in the wrong spot at the wrong time on the wrong day. We can grieve for them and with their friends and family. We can be outraged at the ease with which the murderer was able to purchase a weapon and so many rounds of ammo and carry out his crimes. But we need to also look at this murderer and see him, really see him. We won't like it. We will be horrified, disgusted, outraged. Sickened. But we dare not look away. We cannot heal or prevent what we refuse to acknowledge.

 

[Derec]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

 

[Toni]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

If the murderer were Muslim, do you think the story would have been reported differently?

If the murdered had been black, do you think you would have been quick to post about it?

Serious questions.

 

[ronburgundy]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

Because the victims were from a small racial minority, making it highly probable they were targeted for their race, and the shooter being a different race is directly relevant to that hypothesis. In fact, the nature of the crime means it is beyond reasonable doubt that people at Asian massage parlors were targeted. That pretty much leaves three non-exclusive possibilities that: 1) he targeted Asians, 2) he targeted massage parlors, or 3) both. Since 2 of those 3 (Asians and both) involve racist motives, that makes the influence of racism more likely than not until proven otherwise.

Information about his sex addiction does drastically change that unless one holds the racist belief all Asian massage parlors and only Asian sex parlors are prostitution houses. In fact, since that would imply he held that belief, that would itself mean his racism played a role.

Even if the primary motive was an idea to kill sex workers, a lack of empathy toward non-whites could have played a role in willingness carry out the plan to the extent he did.

The probability that racism played some role in his actions is further increased by the fact that he's a white male in GA, that fact that most white males in GA are Trump supporters, the fact that Trump support is heavily based in racism and xenophobia, and the fact that COVID and Trump's framing of it has lead many white conservatives to direct racist hate toward Asians.

 

[Trausti]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

Because the victims were from a small racial minority, making it highly probable they were targeted for their race, and the shooter being a different race is directly relevant to that hypothesis. In fact, the nature of the crime means it is beyond reasonable doubt that people at Asian massage parlors were targeted. That pretty much leaves three non-exclusive possibilities that: 1) he targeted Asians, 2) he targeted massage parlors, or 3) both. Since 2 of those 3 (Asians and both) involve racist motives, that makes the influence of racism more likely than not until proven otherwise.

Information about his sex addiction does drastically change that unless one holds the racist belief all Asian massage parlors and only Asian sex parlors are prostitution houses. In fact, since that would imply he held that belief, that would itself mean his racism played a role.

Even if the primary motive was an idea to kill sex workers, a lack of empathy toward non-whites could have played a role in willingness carry out the plan to the extent he did.

The probability that racism played some role in his actions is further increased by the fact that he's a white male in GA, that fact that most white males in GA are Trump supporters, the fact that Trump support is heavily based in racism and xenophobia, and the fact that COVID and Trump's framing of it has lead many white conservatives to direct racist hate toward Asians.

Are all interracial murders due to racism, or just those that fit the narrative?

 

[blastula]

Racist motive hasn't been proven, much more apparent is misogyny.

now playing

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg[/YOUTUBE]

first

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

Because had he not been white, the whole "bad day" thing would likely never been uttered. How many mass killers get that aside from the Police?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

We've all been there. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or just have a bunch of sequential things burn you, and you are now not in the greatest state of mind. Quite ready to snap at someone for saying something innocuous like "ABACAB is Genesis's best album". Bad days are a part of life. Like when a Police Spokesperson notes the stone cold murderer of 8 people had a "bad day" which led to the senseless killings of 8 people and additional shooting victims (I wonder if he thought the victims had a bad day too?). That was likely the start of that Spokesperson's bad day the following day.

link

A photo allegedly posted by Capt. Jay Baker, a public information officer at the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office, shows shirts with a racist and anti-Asian message about Covid-19.

"Covid 19 imported virus from Chy-na," the racist shirt in the photo posted April 2, 2020, reads.

"Love my shirt," the photo caption of the shirt reads. It goes on to encourage others to buy their own shirts saying, "get yours while they last." CNN reached out to the store selling the shirts, but did not immediately receive a response.

I'm not certain just how bigoted one must be to wear apparel regarding a pandemic, or possibly being just grossfully partisan is enough. I suppose the good news is the pandemic hadn't claimed 500,000 plus lives yet.

But this might help explain a spokesperson could potentially have a brain that would suggest saying a mass murdering person "had a bad day". Hopefully the spokesperson isn't armed, because we know what he thinks people having bad days are often to do.

And the police release a statement on the spokesperson's statement. Apparently, he indeed also had a bad day in trying to say how bad a tragedy this was. He didn't mean to sound insensitive... he just did.

 

[Toni]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

Because had he not been white, the whole "bad day" thing would likely never been uttered. How many mass killers get that aside from the Police?

For that matter, how many black mass killers are there? Do we think that in Georgia (or anywhere) a black man could have purchased firearms and ammunition same day as d try I I g from business to business to kill eight people?

 

[J842P]

My criticism isn't simply about the "bad day" part. The Bernie Sanders supporter who nearly massacred the GOP at a baseball practice was suffering from a nervous breakdown. That sounds a bit different than having a "bad day". Had a black guy killed eight people in cold blood, the term "bad day" most likely wouldn't have been used by police.

It comes off as 'he isn't a psychopath, he just had a bad day'. That he drove a good distance to target Asian Massage parlors implies that this wasn't simply an act of a person having a bad day. It was premeditated.

Regardless, time will tell if this was a religiously indoctrinated attack, where this guy was beaten over the head to believe that sexual desire was sin and the normal things he was experiencing was actually the devil trying to ruin him... and he had his "bad day", murdering the people he thought were going to ruin him spiritually.

My take is that the officer reported that the murderer 'was having a bad day' as a statement of the murderer's reasoning and also to differentiate these killings from politically motivated targeting of Asians (or massage parlors).

I am a little less outraged than it seems everyone else is by the humanity shown by law enforcement. How else would they be able to talk to this murderer and learn his motivation. Aren't we all a little glad that this does not seem to be part of some white supremacist political assassination plot? Isn't it better that these murders are the actions of a man suffering from acute mental distress of some kind? When I write 'better' I am fully aware that these murders are horrific and terrible and should have been prevented by better gun laws (and a lot of mental health care).

I am NOT getting any sense of victim blaming but of an attempt to help the public understand the irrational thought process of this murderer, who is also a young man who very likely grew up in the same or similar circumstances as most white people in his area. Surely those law enforcement officers looked at him and saw a tiny bit of themselves, their sons, their brothers: Young man raised in the church by god fearing parents who probably love him a great deal. But still had this capacity for evil inside him.

I personally think that it is a profound mistake to label mass murderers as inhuman monsters. Instead, I think we need to look them square in the face and then look in the mirror at our own reflections no matter how much what we see contradicts what we want to believe: These murders are monstrous but they were committed by a very human young man who, like so many of us, was unable to face parts of himself that he did not like, that he was taught to hate.

I believe that we can recognize horror of these murders, fully feel the outrage and disgust at this senseless loss of life by people whose only 'crime' was that they existed in the wrong spot at the wrong time on the wrong day. We can grieve for them and with their friends and family. We can be outraged at the ease with which the murderer was able to purchase a weapon and so many rounds of ammo and carry out his crimes. But we need to also look at this murderer and see him, really see him. We won't like it. We will be horrified, disgusted, outraged. Sickened. But we dare not look away. We cannot heal or prevent what we refuse to acknowledge.

Yes, but this sort of sensible take is impossible in the current climate.

 

[southernhybrid]

Jimmy, why did you feel important to point out that the murderer is white?
He is a piece of shit for sure, but that has nothing to do with his race.

Because had he not been white, the whole "bad day" thing would likely never been uttered. How many mass killers get that aside from the Police?

For that matter, how many black mass killers are there? Do we think that in Georgia (or anywhere) a black man could have purchased firearms and ammunition same day as d try I I g from business to business to kill eight people?

I agree with your first statement, but I assure you that anyone, regardless of race or ethnicity can easily purchase a gun in Georgia. I've attended many gun shows in the distant past, as I'm married to a gun toting liberal. ( actually, he gave up his carry permit several years ago, thank dog ) There are always plenty of Black gun owners at these shows. If the gun is bought from a dealer, a background check is required but there is no waiting period. Long purchased his gun from a dealer. There was a background check. He had no history of any criminal behavior prior to this so he passed the background check. Our gun laws are insane.

I was going to start a thread in the religious section in regards to Long. He is a brainwashed religious fanatic and imo, what he did was more likely due to religion and sexism. While racism may have played a part, since Asian women are often hyper sexualized by many men, I'm not convinced that this was his primary motivation. He frequented the same massage parlors where he committed these crimes. Let me see if I can find some of the numerous articles that I read about this crime and this person to support my claims. In his mind, these women were the temptresses and if he killed them, the temptation would be gone. Another factor might be that his religious nut parents threw him out of the house the day before he went on this killing spree. Sure, he was disturbed, but from all that I've read, religion had a lot to do with his mental status.

There have been a huge number of attacks on Asian Americans, primarily females, ever since Trump started calling COVID, the China flu or Kungflu. So, it's good that more attention has been brought to this disgusting racism against Asian Americans, even if that wasn't what motivated this killer.

 

[southernhybrid]

Here's one of many pieces about Long's religious beliefs, although I don't think it's been proven that his father was a pastor.

https://michaelsavage.com/mass-shooter-idd-in-record-time-robert-aaron-long-white-religious-loved-guns-and-hunting/

1. Long Is the Son of a Pastor & a Former Classmate Said ‘He Wouldn’t Even Cuss’ – Long was described as a religious person by a former classmate at Sequoyah High. The 21-year-old graduated in 2017. His dad was a pastor, and Long seemed “innocent” and “nerdy,” the classmate told The Daily Beast.

“He was very innocent seeming and wouldn’t even cuss,” the classmate said. “He was sorta nerdy and didn’t seem violent from what I remember. He was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor. He was big into religion. He was very innocent seeming and wouldn’t even cuss. He was sorta nerdy and didn’t seem violent from what I remember. He was a hunter and his father was a youth minister or pastor. He was big into religion.”

I will have to do a lot of searching for the numerous articles from WaPo, the NYTimes and the AJC that went into detail about the mans' beliefs, but from what I've read, Long felt guilty about being unable to control his sex drive and he apparently blamed it on the women that worked at some massage parlors where he had been a customer.

There is a lot of sexism in Christianity, especially the more conservative varieties. I also searched several Christian sites to read the complaints from females in leadership positions in various Christian churches complaining about how they were treated by some of the male parishioners. Most of them were female preachers who were frequently met with comments like, "you looked so good today, I could barely pay attention to the sermon."

So, this disturbed man was most likely influenced by the harsh teachings regarding one's sexuality that he learned from his church and parents. His church taught that sex outside of marriage was a terrible sin, this included such harmless things as masturbation. I hope that more emphasis is placed on the negative impact that religion had on this man.

OF course, this doesn't condone his actions or put the full blame on his church, but as we are all products of our genetic and environmental influences, it's very possible that without being subjected to such a harsh, irrational, sexist version of religion, Long might not have committed these heinous crimes.

 

[southernhybrid]

Here's a little bit more that attempts to explain how religion influenced Long.

https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/spa-shooting-suspects-parents-helped-authorities-catch-him/MOL7IHLAIFBNXOC5VNCENBCYVU/

Long, a 2017 graduate of Sequoyah High School who lived near Milton, had no previous criminal record.

He and his parents were active members at Crabapple First Baptist Church, and social media posts, since deleted, show religion played a large role in Long’s life. He was on the youth ministry team at the church and, in 2017, visited Costa Rica on a mission trip. In a statement, church elders said they grieved for all involved; they declined interview requests.

Long had other interests. “Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God,” read a tagline from an Instagram account believed to be Long’s.

“This pretty much sums up my life,” Long explained. ”It’s a pretty good life.”

But in 2018, he spoke of unspecified troubles in a video posted on the church’s Facebook page. He said he was helped by the Biblical story of the prodigal son.

“The son goes off and squanders all that he has and lives completely for himself and then, when he finds he’s wanting to eat pig food, he realized there’s something wrong and he goes back to his father and his father runs back to him and embraces him,” he says on the video. “And by the grace of God I was able to draw the connection there and realize this is a story between what happened with me and God.”

Susan Shaw, a professor of gender studies at Oregon State University, said she was struck by Long’s comments about eliminating temptations. Shaw, who was raised in a Southern Baptist Church in Rome, said his words echo a “purity culture” popular within that denomination.

“If a man is tempted, it’s a woman’s fault,” she said. “There’s a tremendous amount of guilt and shame that comes with that belief set. The purity culture expects people to reject their sexuality.”

 

[Trausti]

For that matter, how many black mass killers are there?

There's a podcast for that.

 

[blastula]

For that matter, how many black mass killers are there?

There's a podcast for that.

Try again.

 

[Trausti]

For that matter, how many black mass killers are there?

There's a podcast for that.

Try again.

Back in 2016, the New York Times reviewed all 358 mass shootings (4 or more casualties) in 2015. Blacks, at 13% of the population, accounted for over 70% of the suspected mass shooters:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/us/americas-overlooked-gun-violence.html

 

[laughing dog]

Would someone please give citation for what constitutes a mass shooting?

 

[Trausti]

Would someone please give citation for what constitutes a mass shooting?

The NYT used more than 4; but certainly more than 1.

 

[ZiprHead]

We've all been there. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or just have a bunch of sequential things burn you, and you are now not in the greatest state of mind. Quite ready to snap at someone for saying something innocuous like "ABACAB is Genesis's best album". Bad days are a part of life. Like when a Police Spokesperson notes the stone cold murderer of 8 people had a "bad day" which led to the senseless killings of 8 people and additional shooting victims (I wonder if he thought the victims had a bad day too?). That was likely the start of that Spokesperson's bad day the following day.

link

A photo allegedly posted by Capt. Jay Baker, a public information officer at the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff's Office, shows shirts with a racist and anti-Asian message about Covid-19.

"Covid 19 imported virus from Chy-na," the racist shirt in the photo posted April 2, 2020, reads.

"Love my shirt," the photo caption of the shirt reads. It goes on to encourage others to buy their own shirts saying, "get yours while they last." CNN reached out to the store selling the shirts, but did not immediately receive a response.

I'm not certain just how bigoted one must be to wear apparel regarding a pandemic, or possibly being just grossfully partisan is enough. I suppose the good news is the pandemic hadn't claimed 500,000 plus lives yet.

But this might help explain a spokesperson could potentially have a brain that would suggest saying a mass murdering person "had a bad day". Hopefully the spokesperson isn't armed, because we know what he thinks people having bad days are often to do.

And the police release a statement on the spokesperson's statement. Apparently, he indeed also had a bad day in trying to say how bad a tragedy this was. He didn't mean to sound insensitive... he just did.

Talk about white privilege.