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.
“The fact that anyone sees violence as a remedy to all personal and social ills is a problem.” I might also add “national” to the list of ills. Our national religion isn’t some form of Christianity or deism or anything else you want to name. Our national religion, and our faith is based in nothing less than the redemptive power of violence. From the tiniest micro to the biggest macro, we use violence as a first, last, and every resort in between. If violence doesn’t get what we want, we apply more violence. Violence can’t fail; only our nerve fails violence, when we’re too squeamish or too cowardly to lay on the violence in the requisite measure.