UCSB Attacker: The best we can offer is scattered nonsense?

For those looking for a possible conspiracy angle on the UC attack, sorry. I do not offer one.

This is a series of observations on the chatter over the issue since it happened. I have read numerous articles and editorials, watched coverage on various news networks, and listened to various talk radio shows. In addition, I have spoken with people I know and garnered their views.

I am sure most have you have done something similar.

There seems to be reoccurring themes parroted regardless where I look or listen. For the life of me, I cannot understand why they exist. They sound eerily familiar. They offer no insight as to why this incident happened. They do not offer a cogent way ahead which seems desperately needed. They do not even offer insight on human nature that bad things happen to good people.

Rather, they seem to use this tragedy as the ‘attention-getter’ to propel any tangential social issue into the spot light. The kid is painted as all that is wrong with the world and if we only fixed “X”, this would not happen. Once you look critically at the supposed causation, it falls apart in all but the most knee-jerk sense.

This is a shame and a dishonor.

Some examples in no particular order:

Theme ‘ER killed these 6 people because he was a misogynist run amuck.’
The evidence does seem to support his misogynist views but were they really the cause of his actions? Why did he kill three males then?
www.rawstory.com...

Theme ‘These 6 innocents were gunned down by another maniac with a gun obsession.’
ER killed three people by stabbing and apparently killed another with his car. He killed two by shooting. How come he is not portrayed as a maniac with a knife obsession? Or a car obsession?
bigstory.ap.org...

Theme ‘This was a terrorist act.’
The definition of terrorism fits just about anything we don’t like it seems. Why not now? All bad things can be combated?
www.thedailybeast.com... ons-is-terrorism.html

Theme ‘They need to do more for those who need mental health help.’
Mental health problems cover a BROAD spectrum. Some are incredibly difficult to predict future actions. Who are “they”? Congress and the administration? The same folks who brought you the ACA website and VA oversight?
www.theatlantic.com...

It sounds like everyone involved in this young man’s life leading up to his actions did everything we are told they should do. The right laws were in place. The right experts were engaged. Yet it still happened.

I do not imply we cannot improve on any human construct. We should try. However (as this is the Rant Forum) I find it depressing the best we can do as a collective is sound like panicking chickens.

a reply to: ABNARTY

What I want to understand is how was this guy able to stab to death three full-grown men.

a reply to: ABNARTY

For those looking for a possible conspiracy angle on the UC attack, sorry. I do not offer one.

That's okay.

I started to grow my goatee back. It pokes my wife ... and she doesn't like that. I also don't think she likes the way it looks on my face.

I agree with most of what you say, but since I work in mental health, I can say with certainty that we are horribly underfunded, understaffed, and we cannot service all the people that desperately seek help. At least in Texas, all our state run mental hospitals are full to overflowing and not accepting more patients. As soon as a bed opens up, it's filled.

"They" are the state and federal lackeys who are always cutting back on mental health programs, and then wonder why there are so many suicides, child deaths, and people snapping and killing others. "They" are the legislators who pass budgets that give a bunch of pork to ridiculous, undeserving idiocy that benefits very few, and cuts mental health programs to the bone that benefit a great many people.

As far as this kid goes, maybe it was patently obvious to most that he had a problem.

However, since I still feel that there is something screwy about this whole story, and I feel that the video shows an *actor* and not an angry guy in pain fixing to snap, I cannot say for sure what is the true story here. All I know is, I see a guy who seems to be remembering a script and throwing in a fake menacing laugh from time to time. Had I talked to this young man in a crisis environment, I wouldn't say that he was mentally ill.

So....I make the case for more funding for the truly mentally ill, while at the same time stating that this kid, as far as I can tell from the videos, is a phony, and this story stinks to high heaven. JMOHO, of course.

a reply to: FyreByrd

My thought exactly... I am 6'3" 265 LBS I know most people are not my size but bringing down one grown male with a knife considering the attackers size would be hard let alone three grown males who are all roomates.

I lived in a four bedroom house with three roomates and I could hear everything that went down if they were snoring screwing or being stabbed to death.

Maybe he snuck of on one and killed him quickly but three that way?? IDK i guess we need more info on that. What im getting at with my size is someone like me would not be easily subdued by someone his size let alone three ppl. And none of his roomates cried out for the others or called 911??? Fishy...

Elliot and the three roomates that he killed all lived together at a place that specialized in helping special needs students learn how to live independently.

Rodger was living with roommates at the Independent Living Institute in Santa Barbara, a facility that offers “living skills instruction to help adults with disabilities to live more independently in their communities,” according to the website.

losangeles.cbslocal.com...

All three of his roomates were skinny Asian kids with various disabilities, not unlike Elliot who was half Chinese.

I am not surprised that he was able to kill these poor kids himself.

a reply to: Bybyots

Thanks. After all I have seen on this, first I heard of it. That part makes sense.

a reply to: FissionSurplus

No way am I going to argue about getting more help for those who need it. It's a no brainer.

Obviously, when deciding how to do and analyzing the ways it could wrong is an entirely different discussion.

With all the folks out there in similar circumstances, it is amazing something like this does not happen more often.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Great question. I think Bybots sheds some light on it.

a reply to: ABNARTY
This might sound cruel or bent and I'm sure someone will flame me for this post but...
Knowing that some things are just purely unavoidable, I'm glad that the nutjob in question used a potpourri of tools to do the job he did.
He used a knife, a car and a gun, this imo pushes the gun control issue off the table.
Not one single inanimate object can be blamed as per the norm, which FORCES us (if we are logical thinkers anyway) to look at the root cause of this crime.
The fact is, guns were the minor player in this crime, yet those with an agenda have once again thrust guns up front as if it was the only or major tool used.
Cool thing, they were neither the major or only.
The fact is, sometimes nuts crack and all we can do is contain and cleanup.

I think we have problems when there isn't an answer and somehow we feel like it would be easier to accept and maybe avoid if we only knew why. Most normal people in their every day lives can not ever conceive of doing something like this and 99% of us will never know someone who could. Not having answers makes us feel unsafe, unstable, and a little out of control of the world around us IMHO. That is the only reason so many of us seek a valid answer when things like this happen.

I think that sometimes there just isn't a logical answer to be had. Not one that most of us would understand at any rate. Sometimes people do bad things because they can, because they are bad. Maybe that's all there is to it? I don't know. But I feel like sometimes it fits better than some of the other stuff that gets tossed around.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: ABNARTY

What I want to understand is how was this guy able to stab to death three full-grown men.

Rodgers is ALLEGED to have used a hammer to incapacitate his victims before stabbing them.

So that makes 4 weapons: hammer, knife, car and gun.

a reply to: Psynic

I can understand taking one person unawares, but the second, the third. I just don't see it.

From what I read, Santa Barbara papers, no TV the three roommates were quiet nerdy types, no mention of any disablities at all.

I feel the same way. It can be highly irritating, the media I mean. I've noticed that most people, when they hear something on the news, pay attention. Almost like whatever is said is the truth, like they cannot or would not tell a lie. But when you take a step back, and listen to various related news reports, you start noticing some of what you mentioned. I think the use of buzzwords like "terrorism" and "guns" is designed both to instil a sense of fear as well as divide the people in some way.

What I do not know is why the corporate media does this. I can completely buy that there is a connection between media and certain people within the government, and this has been proven to a certain extent, and in the past there was even documentation to show a government attempt to control the media to some degree. I do not think it has been proven in modern times that the government actually controls what gets on the air, but those who own and run these corporate networks are the ones who control it, and of course they have have a huge conflict of interest when it comes to either presenting the news or promoting an ideology.

So I would guess that there are multiple reasons for this, but I would not go so far to say that there is some huge government conspiracy. My guess is that it has to do with money.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: Psynic

I can understand taking one person unawares, but the second, the third. I just don't see it.

From what I read, Santa Barbara papers, no TV the three roommates were quiet nerdy types, no mention of any disablities at all.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

If he used a hammer to knock the victims unconscious, and then did something with a knife, how do we know the cause of death.

I'm sorry, this is just too morbid to think about.

What a complicated and strange way to murder people.

Simply running victims over with your bimmer or dispatching them with a pistol isn't even close to as gory as the ALLEGED murders of the three room mates.

And how does the murdering of his three nerdy room mates fit in to his Alpha male/misogynist manifesto?

It just doesn't.

a reply to: Psynic

And how does the murdering of his three nerdy room mates fit in to his Alpha male/misogynist manifesto?

Brutally murdering three young men just like himself doesn't make sense?

a reply to: g146541

In many places you indeed read about the six shootings. Never mind the facts there never were six shootings. Kinda' what I am trying to get at. Those reporting/printing/televising/etc that totally prostitute the event.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Good observation. I agree. Many have a hard time accepting life as-is. Not as cool as the movie version.

a reply to: JiggyPotamus

Thanks Jiggy. I am glad I am not the only one

Hard to put my finger on it. Maybe if there were no emotional triggers, people would not pay attention? IDK

originally posted by: Bybyots
a reply to: Psynic

And how does the murdering of his three nerdy room mates fit in to his Alpha male/misogynist manifesto?

Brutally murdering three young men just like himself doesn't make sense?

Maybe it does to you.