Shooter Blames Women for His Virginity

[Cheetah]

Feel free to move this or merge.. I did a quick look and didn't see a thread on this yet but could have missed it.

Last night a gunman shot up a crowd at Isla Vista, the suburb of Santa Barbara where UCSB is located. Seven people including the shooter died, and 7 more were injured. The shooter was Elliott Rodgers, son of an assistant director of the Hunger Games movie.

It's topical for us because his motive was that he was a 22 year old virgin who couldn't get the kind of women he was attracted to to date him, and made several YouTube rants about how unfair this all was.

Here's a link to an article about the shooting:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rbara.html

From that article, a quote from one of his videos:

'I'm 22 years old and I'm still a virgin. I've never even kissed a girl,' he says in the video.

'College is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure. But in those years I've had to rot in loneliness. It's not fair. You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me. But I will punish you all for it,' he says in the video, which runs to almost seven minutes.

He repeatedly promises to 'punish' women and lays out his plan for 'retribution.'

'I'm going to enter the hottest sorority house of UCSB and I will slaughter every single spoilt, stuck-up, blonde s**t that I see inside there. All those girls that I've desired so much, they would've all rejected me and looked down on me as an inferior man if I ever made a sexual advance towards them,' he says.

'I'll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one. The true alpha male,' he laughs like a maniacal movie villain. 'Yes... After I have annihilated every single girl in the sorority house I will take to the streets of Isla Vista and slay every single person I see there. All those popular kids who live such lives of hedonistic pleasure...'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z32ewNo54m

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook'

Also, this video is very chilling but really explains his (mentally ill) thought process:

Clearly this guy was over that fine line between truly mentally ill and just close to it... but he was a member of an online misogynist community (puah? ).

[GolightlyGrrl]

I just saw the video at Huff Po, and it has me chilled to my tailbone. I can't even fully comprehend this horrible situation and this young man's mentality. Yet, I'm sure the MRA crowd and people like Judgy Bitch will memorialize this man and his horrific act like he's Martin Luther King, Jr.

[roddma]

This is so sad. The shooter, believed to be the son of the assistant director of "Hunger Games', blamed women on him still being a virgin.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rbara.html

[samurai_sarah]

I am so very sorry for the victims, and their families and friends. His misogyny had nothing to do with them, neither did his virginity. The victims lost their lives for a selfish act of nothing, and my condolences go to the victims' loved ones.

[Stephanie66]

Apparently, his family was very anti-gun, and they turned him in to the police a few weeks ago when the youtube video was released. The police did nothing and found him to be a "kind" person.

The only name released thus far was a male.

Just another day in America.

[roddma]

Oops this was already posted in another thread

[Chowder Head]

Something tells me that even if he lost his virginity he would still blame woman for losing it.

[ViolaSebastian]

They also just announced at the press conference that he stabbed his three roommates to death, too.

I saw the video as well--is it just me projecting or are his mannerisms and clothing style eerily similar to Patrick Bateman's character in American Psycho?

MRA activists are going to have to do some pretty fancy footwork to explain away this one. Here are some quotes from his diatribe that he released to the press before the shootings:

"The ultimate evil behind sexuality is the human female. They are the main instigators of sex. They control which men get it and which men don't. ...They think like beasts, and in truth, they are beasts...women should not have the right to choose who to mate and breed with. That decision should be made by rational men of intelligence..."

He also goes on and on about killing off women and concentration camps and only keeping them for select breeding purposes. Deeply disturbing stuff right there.

"In order to completely abolish sex, women themselves would have to be abolished. All women must be quarantined like the plague they are, so that they can be used in a manner that actually benefits a civilized society. In order carry this out, there must exist a new and powerful type of government, under the control of one divine ruler, such as myself. The ruler that establishes this new order would have complete control over every aspect of society, in order to direct it towards a good and pure place. At the disposal of this government, there needs to be a highly trained army of fanatically loyal troops, in order to enforce such revolutionary laws. The first strike against women will be to quarantine all of them in concentration camps. At these camps, the vast majority of the female population will be deliberately starved to death. That would be an efficient and fitting way to kill them all off. I would take great pleasure and satisfaction in condemning every single woman on earth to starve to death. I would have an enormous tower built just for myself, where I can oversee the entire concentration camp and gleefully watch them all die.

As so common in these psychopaths, he of course should be the one fit to be the divine ruler. :?

A few women would be spared, however, for the sake of reproduction. These women would be kept and bred in secret labs. There, they will be artificially inseminated with sperm samples in order to produce offspring. Their depraved nature will slowly be bred out of them in time. Future generations of men would be oblivious to these remaining women's existence, and that is for the best. If a man grows up without knowing of the existence of women, there will be no desire for sex. Sexuality will completely cease to exist. Love will cease to exist. There will no longer be any imprint of such concepts in the human psyche. It is the only way to purify the world."

I really don't think that destroying all the wimmins is going to erase billions of years of the need to sexually reproduce.

[bea]

He's obviously mentally ill - I read in one news article that his parents were so disturbed by his recent statements that they warned the police. But I also think this kind of misogynistic, pick up artist, MRA community that hangs around on message boards and Reddit gave him a place to validate his rage, gave him a focus - hell, even a vocabulary for his anger - and I'd love to see that discussed in the media. All these men who are convinced that they're owed sex, a date, even a conversation, and that it's WOMEN that are the issue. Not them and their sense of entitlement.

Sooner or later, this was going to happen. I was reading an article today about one of these message boards, where a guy was going off because a girl who'd turned him down for a date the previous year was now pregnant. That should have been HIM, see, but she rejected his offspring because women are eugenicists and she wanted the children of someone more attractive. And the other men in the thread just fed this guy's delusion, that somehow this woman - who he'd never even dated - had done him grevious harm by......having a baby with someone she presumably found attractive.

Whip enough people into an angry frenzy, convince them they are the victim of an enemy, and you don't get to be surprised when someone starts taking out the people you've framed as the bad guys. In this case, women. Those poor girls in that sorority, dead because they were pretty and he was convinced their existence without dating him was an attack.

[RosyDaisy]

This is so tragic. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the victims. This guy isn't you're typical MRA, he is very mentally disturbed. The fact that his parents warned police gives credence to that.

I'm sure the MRA bloggers will have a field day with this. So, here's a pre-emptive FUCK YOU MRAs.

[antares]

This is so tragic. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the victims. This guy isn't you're typical MRA, he is very mentally disturbed. The fact that his parents warned police gives credence to that.

I'm sure the MRA bloggers will have a field day with this. So, here's a pre-emptive FUCK YOU MRAs.

And fuck this guy too(though he's popular with MRAs)

http://api.url2png.com/v6/P4DE5D1C99D8E ... _width=550

[debrand]

I do wish that the news would address this issue but the American media has become very shallow and terrified of real making their viewers angry.

Sometimes I avoid articles written by women about motherhood or injustices to women because of the angry, vitriol that comes from many male respondents.

[GeoBQn]

I remember after the shootings at a Lane Bryant and a women's fitness center, Dan Savage wrote a column about how women should basically "take one for the team" and go out with the occasional "loser" to prevent these anti-women motivated mass shootings from happening. It was such a misguided, horrible suggestion. These men don't "snap" because women won't date them. It's probably the opposite--women don't date them because they can sense that something is very wrong with these men. To tell women to go out with them anyway is to tell women to ignore their gut instincts, their own sense of safety.

[RachelB]

I remember after the shootings at a Lane Bryant and a women's fitness center, Dan Savage wrote a column about how women should basically "take one for the team" and go out with the occasional "loser" to prevent these anti-women motivated mass shootings from happening. It was such a misguided, horrible suggestion. These men don't "snap" because women won't date them. It's probably the opposite--women don't date them because they can sense that something is very wrong with these men. To tell women to go out with them anyway is to tell women to ignore their gut instincts, their own sense of safety.

Right on.

I don't even with Savage. If an MRA sees women not as fellow human beings but as acceptable outlets for rage and aggression, pairing that MRA up with a woman is a recipe for domestic violence. I am not willing to treat domestic violence as a necessary cost of avoiding mass shootings, and I'm disgusted that Savage apparently is.

[doggie]

Savage should bend over and take one for the team.

[PennySycamore]

A friend of mine posted a great diary about this on DailyKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/25/1301858/-All-I-am-Going-to-Say-about-the-Mass-Murder-in-Santa-Barbara-Warning-A-Rant

[doggie]

Great write up. Even the bible agrees treat others as you would treated.

[spud]

http://www.businessinsider.com/ucsb-sho ... cts-2014-5 (link not broken as news site)

Apparently he posted on an MRA message board called PUAHate and now the other posters are scared they'll be prosecuted for incitement.

[AnAgnostic]

While I agree that this creep most likely suffered from mental illness, let's not blame mental illness entirely. I read his "manifesto" and while it's filled with an incredible amount of narcissistic rage and entitlement, suggesting that he suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder among other things, I don't think that mental illness should be the sole culprit here. Most mentally ill people are more harmful to themselves than they are to others. It was also alleged that he was diagnosed with Aspergers. I hope this is not true as people with autism disorders get enough crap as it is. Misogny had a just about everything to do with his actions. If he were a Neo-Nazi that open fired in a synagogue, people would make the connection between his beliefs and his actions.

[Savoring Samsara]

Anybody who uses Twitter should make sure to check out #YesAllWomen which is aggregating a lot of really thought provoking commentary related to feminist reactions to this terrible tragedy (and also some MRA trolling, naturally).

[Antimony]

I've read the large majority of the manifesto (it is a year by year play of his entire life and I skipped over early childhood). It was a very strange read. Here is a list of things that jumped out at me:

-He was randomly violent at people in public and admitted such. He threw his coffee at a couple for, well, being a couple and used a SuperSoaker to assault a couple at the beach for the same.

-He didn't seem to have interests. He lists exactly two interest, A Song of Ice and Fire books and World of Warcraft. Outside of this, I can't tell. He was going to college but only told us he was taking "history" or "math" or "sociology". He never mentioned a specific course (such as "Calculus" or "Developmental Psych") yet everything else about his life is described in incredible detail.

-He used a lot of what I would call "SAT Words". They seem to be trademarks of his writing but he never changes expression for context, etc. Things are "magnificent" or "fabulous" and people "deign" to do things. The word count for these words alone must be incredible.

-He never mentioned anything other than "hot, tall blondes". He doesn't have any concern for their personalities.

-He would drop classes because the girls in the class weren't pay any attention to him, and he would drop classes if there was a couple in the class.

The entire thing just reads very strangely. A lot of people are throwing the word sociopath around, though he completely lacks the trademark charmingness and being good at reading people and manipulating them, clearly.

[chaotic life]

PUAhate appears to be down now. Good riddance. I think his MRA forays has everything to do with what he did and his Asperger's has far less except that it made it hard for him to figure out women in the first place.

[Jilli]

I've never seen someone so narcissistic that wasn't fictional before. I've known lots of people with Asperger's and many of them were upset, but not violent in trying to understand why people didn't relate to them.

As for #WeAllWomen I am happy we are getting to talk about issues with sexism. It's good to read those stories and realize that many of us aren't alone. It's also interesting to see the levels of acceptance of the movement. There are some who want to shout, #NotAllMen in response, or #WeAllPeople. Lots of men supporting the movement, but there are clearly plenty of men who are not ready for what they are experiencing. The thing is, is this is how they become ready, learning is sometimes unpleasant.

[ViolaSebastian]

While I agree that this creep most likely suffered from mental illness, let's not blame mental illness entirely. I read his "manifesto" and while it's filled with an incredible amount of narcissistic rage and entitlement, suggesting that he suffered from Narcissistic Personality Disorder among other things, I don't think that mental illness should be the sole culprit here. Most mentally ill people are more harmful to themselves than they are to others. It was also alleged that he was diagnosed with Aspergers. I hope this is not true as people with autism disorders get enough crap as it is. Misogny had a just about everything to do with his actions. If he were a Neo-Nazi that open fired in a synagogue, people would make the connection between his beliefs and his actions.

Absolutely. Whenever these mass shootings happen (which feels like about once a week, at this point) people are very quick to jump aboard the 'blame the mental illness' train. Study after study has shown that the mentally ill are far more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of violent crime: http://www.victimsofcrime.org/library/c ... sabilities .

I don't know if this young man was mentally ill. He was being treated by several psychiatrists, so I suspect so. However, these crimes were caused by numerous, numerous psychological, psychiatric, social, and perhaps biological factors of which we're not aware. Being mentally ill doesn't automatically make you want to go on a spree killing--indeed, if everyone who had a mental illness did, there wouldn't be anyone left in America.

What strikes me about this case was how involved the parents were--they knew their son was headed for trouble and had the means to try to get him the help he clearly so desperately needed. They contacted police for a well fair check and were evidently on their way to try to find him when they heard about the killings on the radio. It makes me wonder what more could have possibly been done to stop this, aside from certain gun control legislation.

The statement of Christopher Martinez's (one of the victims) father was absolutely heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.

[Angharad Crewe]

Absolutely. Whenever these mass shootings happen (which feels like about once a week, at this point) people are very quick to jump aboard the 'blame the mental illness' train. Study after study has shown that the mentally ill are far more likely to be the victims, rather than the perpetrators, of violent crime: http://www.victimsofcrime.org/library/c ... sabilities .

I don't know if this young man was mentally ill. He was being treated by several psychiatrists, so I suspect so. However, these crimes were caused by numerous, numerous psychological, psychiatric, social, and perhaps biological factors of which we're not aware. Being mentally ill doesn't automatically make you want to go on a spree killing--indeed, if everyone who had a mental illness did, there wouldn't be anyone left in America.

What strikes me about this case was how involved the parents were--they knew their son was headed for trouble and had the means to try to get him the help he clearly so desperately needed. They contacted police for a well fair check and were evidently on their way to try to find him when they heard about the killings on the radio. It makes me wonder what more could have possibly been done to stop this, aside from certain gun control legislation.

The statement of Christopher Martinez's (one of the victims) father was absolutely heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.

I'm not sure that gun control legislation would have worked in this case. Reading Rodger's statements and watching his videos, it seems like he wanted to kill people using any means possible. (Note that three of his victims were killed by stabbing and others were injured with his car.) At one point he talks about how he would want to round up *all* women into a concentration camp and starve them to death because it would be an "efficient" way to kill them all. Or how he would like to release a virus to kill every man on earth, so he could have the pick of the women. If he didn't have access to guns, it seems like he would have found another way to cause a lot of damage, and he might have even been more destructive than he ended up being.

The whole thing is super creepy and scary to me. I've been following MRA/trad con blogs for a while now, and it's always been annoying and somewhat amusing to hate read asshats like Sunshine Mary, Judgy Bitch, etc. (BTW JB posted about the UCSB shootings on her blog and basically said: "No it wasn't misogyny that motivated him because he killed 4 men and only 2 women!" while completely ignoring the fact that he knocked on a sorority house door for several minutes and the women inside refused to let him in.) I'm hoping that the people who post on the manosphere realize that what they are saying is violent and encouraging of violence, especially towards women, but also towards men. This incident puts the whole "MRM" movement into a much darker light for me. Previously I thought that it was mostly just basement dwellers on the internet and men who had been through rough divorces looking for sympathy. It seems like the most vocal supporters of "men's rights" have just dug in their heels further though, and aren't going to change their tune simply because one of their followers internalized their message and killed a bunch of people.