“the ultimate evil behind sexuality is the human female.” He added that they “think like beasts” and “should not have the right to choose who to mate and breed with.”

Six Absolutely Shocking Details From Suspected Santa Barbara Shooter’s 141-Page Manifesto

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/05/24/six-absolutely-stunning-details-from-suspected-santa-barbara-shooters-141-page-manifesto/

I think that he was a deeply troubled gentleman, I feel sorry for people, men and women alike who cannot cope with their lives situations.......

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140524/us-college-community-shooting-0be4e750d6.html

Yeah I read a lot of his so called manifesto today...its beyond disturbing. I haven't the words to even begin to express how mentally ill this man was. I mean...he calls it "My Twisted World", so I guess he at least knew he was a little messed up...which almost begs the question if the writings are serious, or some twisted work of fiction. I guess I'd like to think that they are fiction, because it scares me that someone who really believes the stuff he wrote was out there...and that means there are likely others.

Great post Lia. I just don't know what to say. At a gut level that manifesto is as disturbing as the deaths of those students.

Yes, he was mentally disturbed, but there's a bigger societal issue that creates the animus in such a disturbed person that corrals their anger and hatred toward women. At some point, growing up in our society, he obtained the notion that women exist to please him, and failure to do so meant his failure as a person. There's a streak of misogyny that runs through many modern societies that shapes views like his. It's a sense of entitlement -- that physical and emotional pleasure is what women are for -- that causes a lot of the problems that lead to thinks like this at the extremes. At the lesser extremes, you have things like domestic abuse and sexual assaults and the like.

Basically, what I'm saying is that by dismissing this as just some "mentally disturbed guy" you're missing a big part of the story and the one for which society as a whole is most culpable.

Quote:

Originally posted by EricLindros

Yes, he was mentally disturbed, but there's a bigger societal issue that creates the animus in such a disturbed person that corrals their anger and hatred toward women. At some point, growing up in our society, he obtained the notion that women exist to please him, and failure to do so meant his failure as a person. There's a streak of misogyny that runs through many modern societies that shapes views like his. It's a sense of entitlement -- that physical and emotional pleasure is what women are for -- that causes a lot of the problems that lead to thinks like this at the extremes. At the lesser extremes, you have things like domestic abuse and sexual assaults and the like.

Basically, what I'm saying is that by dismissing this as just some "mentally disturbed guy" you're missing a big part of the story and the one for which society as a whole is most culpable.

This is part of what I was trying to get at when I said that there might be more like him out there.

Quote:

Originally posted by Sugarpie

...

This is part of what I was trying to get at when I said that there might be more like him out there.

There is more like him out there for sure.. this is just one sign that mankind is going to destroy itself..

Too bad he didn't just stick to writing.

We don't (or at least I don't) have the words to describe how sad, sick and horrible this situation is. Or other situations like it. They have always been present in societies, but we still haven't figured out any good ways to prevent them. The usual single solution interventions don't add up to a real solution. We don't know much about this kid's situation, but the media are reporting a few more details. It seems that most women had the good sense to stay away from him, but that only fueled his psychosis. Although I'm not offering a diagnosis based on limited facts --NB. Plenty of talk heads and pundits will try to do that, but it will be inadequate.

The family called the police to intervene early, but they didn't (and generally cannot) do much beyond an initial visit. They aren't trained for this, although maybe they should be. Maybe more people should be trained in earlier intervention approaches with these kind of really vague and scary people threatening us. There are mechanisms for court-ordered diagnosis and treatment, but this one never got that far. There is a program called Mental Health First Aid, that parallels Red Cross First Aid. It is very basic, but if more people were trained, maybe we could catch these folks and intervene earlier. Most of the time, there are very vague symptoms and signs that appear before someone like this goes wild. But, sometimes there are more explicit warnings. This kid put out a bunch of explicit warnings, but didn't get the intervention needed.

EL is right, we need some serious reflection on how we create the situations that lead to these explosions. This kid (and others) didn't come out of nowhere. Some complicated mix of pre-existing mental health problems, learning history, and social dynamics led to it. We cannot predict the next ones, but we might be able to come up with earlier interventions that could prevent some of them.

Quote:

Originally posted by Lia

Six Absolutely Shocking Details From Suspected Santa Barbara Shooter’s 141-Page Manifesto

[Link]

And this is partly why you get more and more shooting in the US : describing every little details about murderers (clothes, state of mind, course of actions during the shooting) pictures them as some kind of anti-hero. Later, someone else who's also mentally impaired will take this as an occasion for him to bring more attention and here you go again. This has been brought up by several psychiatric experts already but the medias don't care, they just want more stories to tell instead of just telling "x people killed in a shooting at y area" and that's it.

I still agree with EL statement about how describing the misogynistic thoughts as "mad" can make people think it's something really rare while it's not though.

Quote:

Originally posted by Althalus

Too bad he didn't just stick to writing.

True enough. He's articulate, and it's readable. He has good punctuation and vocabulary. It ain't the Grapes of Wrath, but it's not bad for a kid either.

As Sugarpie noted above, I kind of wondered to myself as I read it whether or not he was serious. Parts of it seemed so absurd it almost had to be satirical. Perhaps it started out that way and he, being unstable, got caught up in his satirical fictional dream.

A rich, 22 year old not-too-bad-looking student who can't get laid at this beach side UC campus....and perennial candidate for best party school in the US ?
This is beyond comprehension for any SoCal native and the sheer incongruity blows my mind.

This young man must really be a freak.

The chances of meeting someone like him has always scared me. Even knowing my Martial Arts I would hesitate at the idea of using them against another person. I can do a lot of things but I am not bulletproof, if some person had been watching me they would know bout my capabilities, and without the element of surprise I would be in danger. The biggest part that scares me is that if there was one, how many more could there be.

I agree with you Lia. Very scary indeed. It's a terrible thing to always have to be on alert and prepared, but for the sake of our friends and families, we have to be. Or, at least, I feel I have to be. It's how I was raised, but now is a real commitment to those around me.

Ohhhhh...obviously!! He's gay and fighting off his real feelings. It all makes sense now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/25/fox-news-elliot-rodger-homosexual_n_5389279.html?utm_hp_[Blacklisted]canada&ir=Canada

Quote:

Originally posted by Sugarpie

Ohhhhh...obviously!! He's gay and fighting off his real feelings. It all makes sense now.

[Link]

Oh, he's gay? Okay, then I get it. Case closed. The homos did it. Preparing for the end times now. [/sarcasm]

If he didn't have easy access to guns he couldn't done so much harm so easily.

Guys like him sure as hell scare the hell out of me.

Quote:

Originally posted by Southernboy10

If he didn't have easy access to guns he couldn't done so much harm so easily.

He also stabbed several people, what does that have to do with guns.

The chances of surviving a stabbing are significantly higher than surviving a gunshot. You also aren't immediately rendered unconscious. Others also have a chance to engage in melee defense, instead of ranged defense. One also has a decent chance of outrunning a person with a knife, while that isn't true of someone with a gun.

I do agree that the gun debate is a bit of a tangent, but I think almost all of us would rather have to defend ourselves from a knife than a gun.

He (Elliot) probably couldn't have killed himself with a knife once he hit the cop car the way he did with a gun.

in this case, the presence of a gun unquestionably contributed to the harm he was able to inflict to others, as well as himself.

There really isn't an argument to be had about it, actually. Not just because it's off-topic, but because it's as obvious of a statement as "the moon is more visible at night."