Why did seven people die in Santa Barbara last night? It would be wrong to pin the crime on Internet forums that indulge in self-hatred, then project it on to everyone else. But they’re certainly not the solution. Misogyny and violence against women is a social problem as well as an individual one. The fact that these men see “game” as the remedy to all personal and social ills is perhaps the greatest indictment of the way they view the world.
The fact that anyone sees violence as a remedy to all personal and social ills is a problem, but how many times a day do we hear about somebody keeping the white man down? It’s always the chicks who aren’t sleeping with you, the minorities taking your college scholarships, the foreigners taking your jobs. It’s always somebody else’s fault you’re not where you thought you’d be with who you thought you’d be with, and that someone else is always somebody just a little bit poorer, a little bit smaller, a little bit less powerful than you.
The greatest trick our Republican politicians ever pulled was convincing us they didn’t exist.
So don’t look at the people who really keeping you down, keeping you poor, keeping you back. Don’t ask why the rich are getting richer if there are no jobs for you. Don’t ask why college is more expensive than ever when the administrators’ pay has never been higher. Don’t ask why you can’t be happier, why life can’t be easier, if you did everything right. Don’t ask why your mortgage is underwater and there are unfixable potholes in your street.
Just get mad, preferably at somebody less than you, and pick up a gun.
A.