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We’ll probably never know exactly what toxic mixture of emotions and beliefs led Jared Loughner to gun down Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, killing six; there is obviously a lot going on in that shaved head of his. But did misogyny play a role in his choice of target?
It’s an important question. But it’s one the media has by and large chosen to ignore, despite a number of clues that seem pretty clearly to confirm that Loughner, the attempted assassin of a female politician, held deeply misogynist views.
As I pointed out in a previous post, Loughner made seemingly misogynist comments online, as the Wall Street Journal noted, and investigators reportedly found the phrase “Die Bitch” scrawled in Loughner’s handwriting on a letter Giffords’ office sent to him. Now, buried near the end of a long profile of Loughner in the New York Times, we hear about the impression Loughner made on the employees of a local bank:
At a small local branch of a major bank, for example, the tellers would have their fingers on the alarm button whenever they saw him approaching.
It was not just his appearance — the pale shaved head and eyebrows — that unnerved them. It was also the aggressive, often sexist things that he said, including asserting that women should not be allowed to hold positions of power or authority.
One individual with knowledge of the situation said Mr. Loughner once got into a dispute with a female branch employee after she told him that a request of his would violate bank policy. He brusquely challenged the woman, telling her that she should not have any power.
“He was considered to be short-tempered and made people at the bank very uncomfortable,” said the individual, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter.
Emphasis added.
If this report is true, and Loughner really feels that women should not be in positions of power, it’s hard to see how these beliefs could not have influenced his seeming obsession with a female politician, an obsession which ended in mass murder.
So why is this issue not at the center of discussion of Loughner’s actions? So far, only a handful of commenters, most notably Amanda Marcotte, have even taken up the issue. (For more on this, see Jezebel’s discussion of the misogyny discussion.)
In Slate, Tom Scocca notes the evidence suggesting that Loughner is a misogynist, and asks, quite reasonably:
Suppose the story said that Loughner “grew contemptuous of Jews” and went around “asserting that Jews should not be allowed to hold positions of power or authority,” even blurting anti-Semitic remarks to strangers. And then he went out and shot Giffords, a Jewish congressperson. Would his motives have seemed quite so incomprehensible? …
Yet as it is, there are only glancing and scattered references to Loughner’s burning hatred of the kind of person he would allegedly choose to try to assassinate.
As I’ve said before, misogyny has consequences. Unfortunately, too few in the media seem to want to even admit it’s part of the story.
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>They don't want misogyny to get a bad name.
>Everyone knows women are not a legal class, Scalia said so.
>This is just a lame excuse to try and give feminuts more power. You'll claim the killing was based on misogyny. Then you'll advocate for more laws against "hate speech" all the while retaining your right to insult and degrade anyone who disagrees with you. You claim that hatred of women drove him to kill. I hate the subset of women that are feminists. I haven't harmed any feminst or woman. Maybe feminists like Giffords should look in a mirror and see how awful their actions are instead of blaming others. Random Brother
>Apparently, not many here care that he shot (and killed) men as well. Feminists don't worry about that. Teh menz don't count—except as stats.
>Well, as a Chomskyan myself, there's not a chance I would advocate action against hate speech, because the enforcement of regulations of that flavor are typically government dissidents and anti-war activists. I heard a live interview with Chomsky just days ago in which he gave current examples of this sort of thing happening "patriot act" type nonsense, and gave a stern warning about regulations against free speech. The rest of your statements, Richard make no sense at all. You say, "You claim hatred of women drove him to kill.", and then you say, "I haven't killed any feminist or woman." Well, first of all, thank you, but second of all, there are many more haters on this planet than murderers, we all know that. Then you said something really bizarre. "maybe feminists like Giffords should look in a mirror and see how awful their actions are instead of blaming others."What was wrong with Giffords, first of all? And I'm going to assume you mean blaming others for why they are hated, and not murdered. If someone murders me, I can guarantee you that they are to blame. If you hate someone for a stupid reason that's akin to racism, that someone is not to blame. But what did Giffords do? Hatred of her is not rational for feminist reasons. Also I was told that she advocated NO restrictions on gun laws ie ones that would keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people. Now, the second amendment says a "well regulated" militia so we are failing in the regulations department, failing the constitution and the founding fathers for sure. There is no reason to sell the type of clip that Jared used. Gun laws could definitely stand some review. When people brought up hate speech in the media they were referring to the honor system, and self regulated ethics. Feminists haven't done anything to hurt anyone, that's a delusion. When people have delusions, it's scary. Especially when they are delusions about minority groups that the ruling class feel entitled to own, control, subjugate, objectify, and terrorize by any legal or acceptable means available.
>Wytch, of course we care he killed others, both male and female. The point is that his intended target was a female politician. That's who he was trying to kill. The others were killed because of his attempt to kill her. That's why his misogyny is relevant when trying to understand why he did what he did.
>Yes Richard, it is all about you. It is not about a man trying to kill a politician or a woman (who you have not shown to be a feminist, nor have I ever seen her advocate such positions.) It is about how your life has been made slightly difficult by having to read blogs that you actually have to read. Why does no one think of Richard?!Oh and Gabby cannot look in the mirror at the moment. She is still trying to recover from being shot in the head.
>Obviously Jared is the one that considered men expendable, not any of us here. I'm still waiting to be shown even one news report where someone pro-feminist massacred after being motivated by feminist ideas.
>*commit massacre (maybe that's obvious, but I'm tired, I apologize)…
>It does not matter if she was a feminist or not…shooting politicians is not an acceptable behavior. That said, few MRAs would back the shooting. They may, however seek to find if there were underlying circumstances which may have contributed to the problem. Sort of like it is never acceptable to shoot one's husband, yet if he was beating her we may understand that there were extenuating circumstances which contributed, even though the woman had other non-violent options available to her. She is still guilty, yet we seek to understand. In this case I do not think it was anything other than a very troubled young man who had a mental illness.
>@ ElizabethThis reminds me of the movie Das Boot. Are you familiar with the film? It's about a bunch of Nazi submariners who during the war have their sub disabled and have to try and get back to their home. It's a really well done movie, the characters should come off as sympathetic, but all the time watching it I kept thinking "But, they're fucking Nazi's!"This is how I feel about feminists.I just can no longer feel much, if any, sympathy with a movement and or the people who tacitly support said movement. There was a time long ago when I'm sure I would have had some sympathy, but now, I mean how far does political correctness go that I have to feel sorry for a political system and it's people that pass laws and taxes that I hate? A system that does damage to me? I simply can't muster up much of anything save contempt. I just can't. I'm not going to sit here and root for her to recover so that she can come back and tow the feminst party line that disenfranchises me. I just can't.Random Brother
>@ booboonationbooboonation said: "The rest of your statements, Richard make no sense at all. You say, "You claim hatred of women drove him to kill.", and then you say, "I haven't killed any feminist or woman." By this I meant that the feminists will claim misogyny made this man kill and then use it to attack anyone who says anything they don't like. I forgot which politician said it but to parapharse: Never let a tragedy go to waste. This is what it seems David and feminists of this type are trying to do.booboonation said: "Feminists haven't done anything to hurt anyone, that's a delusion."Claiming that only 2% of women falsely accuse men of rape in order to wrongly imprison more men doesn't hurt anyone? Trying to get rape quotas will not hurt anyone? Forcing businesses to hire women who are not qualified in order to reach a quota will not hurt businesses nor the men who might own them? Pushing for debtors prisons for men who cannot afford to pay exorbitant child support doesn't hurt anyone? Refusing to allow laws that punish false rape accusers, therefore encouraging women to falsely accuse men or rape, doesn't hurt anyone?I think you should reevaluate the harm that feminism causes. Random Brother
>Richard,Even your Das Boot analogy is flawed. If you had paid attention to the dialogue, you would have remembered that the only Nazi (i.e., actual member of the party) on the crew was the 1st officer, and he was generally ridiculed by the rest of the crew, including the captain. As for the rest of what you write, it appears to be similarly pulled out of your ass. I'm going to have to call one big "Citation needed."
>Richard-again, all about you. It must be so hard having to waste your energy to type so much stuff about how difficult your life has been made by someone who has worked on children and military issues while in the Arizona State Legislature and the US Congress.And that bill on the cowboys? That was low indeed for her to make any effort for all those women…oh wait, cowboys means males who work with cows. Your bad.You know zero about Gabby, you have made zero effort to see what type of person she is and you are basically mad at her for being defended by feminists which of course in your decidedly twisted logic means she must be a feminist!So poor poor Richard, having to muster up the energy to despise someone who has done nothing to earn it.
>@ captain bathrobeThey were fighting for Hitler. If you can't understand that, I can't help you. I mean, should I have been rooting for them to win? Jesus.Random Brother
>@ ElizabethI'm simply not going to speak on this with you anymore as you seem too personally involved.Random Brother
>Of course not Richard-after all, you cannot possibly admit to a mere female that you are wrong.
>Richard"This is how I feel about feminists."I couldn't agree more. Feminism is a victim cult these days. The victim cult will make up any type of BS by twisting things around in a faulty premise to claim the said victim status.For example, the "Die Bitch" remark does not indicate misogyny. But in a feminist view it can as any type of name calling towards women will be deemed as misogyny. However, if a woman makes a remark saying "die bastard" towards a man, I strongly doubt that such a remark would be deemed as misandry.Especially when we are talking about feminists. They believe the word dickhead is not sexist but yet the C word is. Oh well, you gotta laugh at these people. Many to most feminists are as dumb as dog shit
>"Feminism is a victim cult these days."Pot, meet kettle.
>Sam -Two can play at that game of wits! "It takes one to know one."
>No, Richard, I think the purpose was to feel empathy for people in their situation…oh, Jesus, why even try? Subtly of thought doesn't appear to be your strong suit. Please, go back to doing…whatever it is you do.
>@ Captain BathrobeI don't feel empathy for people who engage in or support evil. I guess that is the difference between decent human beings like me and you.Random Brother
>@ nicko81mI agree. I've said far worse things than die bitch. Hell I've said far worse things to my friends, but for David and his kind to claim that they know for a fact that this killing was motivated by misogyny, is an incredible stretch, which they'll use to push the fucked up laws they wanted to push anyway. Random Brother