Police in Lafayette, Louisiana are evidently struggling to understand why the outspokenly misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic John Russell “Rusty” Houser murdered two women and wounded 9 other moviegoers at a showing of “Trainwreck,” a film written by and starring Amy Schumer, a feminist comedian with a Jewish father, known for joking frankly about sex.
[For more, see my latest post on Houser: “Did right-wing attacks on “Trainwreck” inspire John Russell Houser’s shooting rampage?”]
Col. Michael D. Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, wondered aloud about Houser’s motives at a press conference:
Why did he come here? Why did he do that? … We may not find a motive.
It seems to me that Houser’s likely motive is staring them in the face.
Because it turns out that Houser was pretty well-known, at least to regular viewers of one local TV talk show in Columbus, GA, as an angry right-wing fanatic who hated women. As one former host of the show recalled,
He was anti-abortion. … Rusty had an issue with feminine rights. He was opposed to women having a say in anything.
Houser evidently appeared on the live show dozens of times as a “gadfly” whose appearances “would generate calls.”
When Houser’s career as a loudmouthed crank on local TV apparently came to an end years ago, he moved to another medium, leaving a long trail of hateful comments on assorted websites, many of them openly praising Hitler and talking ominously about the future of what he saw as a deeply “immoral” culture.”
In the comments on a news article about an 60-year-old man who’d been murdered, Houser wrote
I am sincerely sorry for the loss of this fellow in the deer processing business. Most people over 50 in certain businesses are just as their parents were,rock solid morally.
I am also sorry for what is to come for the other very few moral souls left in the entire US.
I am not sorry for the 90% immoral population which will be meeting the same fate.
Filth is rampant.That none have stood against it causes me to take rest in the worse than MAD MAX near future which approaches.
In Trainwreck, Amy Schumer plays a New York journalist “riding the cock carousel” — as the odious men I regularly write about on this website like to put it — who eventually falls in love.
It seems highly unlikely that Houser was someone “who just happened to be in this theater,” as the police superintendent put it.
It seems highly likely that a woman-hating neo-Nazi ended up in a theater showing Trainwreck on purpose.
When a religious fanatic blows themselves up at a cafe frequented by members of a rival religious sect, we have no trouble calling this terrorism.
When an outspoken white racist murders nine black churchgoers in Charleston, SC, well, some people (including virtually all of the Republican presidential hopefuls) have trouble calling it terrorism. But most people can see it for what it is.
When misogynists murder women, almost no one calls it terrorism.
Elliot Rodger, who left behind an assortment of misogynistic videos and a book-length diatribe, was a terrorist.
“Rusty” Houser — who left behind no manifesto but who was well-known for his odiously anti-woman and neo-Nazi views — was almost certainly a terrorist as well.
NOTE: According to court filings, Houser had “a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder.” (Which are actually the same thing.) While this could certainly have had an effect on his state of mind, it says nothing about his motives. Bipolar disorder does not cause people to become misogynistic neo-Nazis who murder women.
EDIT: Added the note above, made tweaks to wording.
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Please read the newly revised COMMENTS POLICY before commenting.
^this. Once seen, can’t be unseen. I basically stopped having male friends in part because of this, many years ago.
@Robjec:
You point out that when people are faced with uncomfortable truths, they will back away and avoid acknowledging them. This is true. However, this is not a reason for not telling them these truths: in fact, it makes it even more important.
My therapist told me that when I back away from something and avoid acknowledging it, it’s normally because I know it anyway and am avoiding the cognitive dissonance headache. But cognitive dissonance is something that has to be faced up to, otherwise we never heal.
America today is a country where white people commit terrorist attacks against black people, and men commit terrorist attacks against women. The fact that white men may have trouble acknowledging this, as you point out, in fact makes it even more vital that we keep on shouting it until they have no place to hide and must acknowledge it.
I’ve been looking at the other news coverage of this tragedy and the comments, no mention of misogyny anywhere, just the usual arguments about gun control and lazy thinking about mental illness.
Apparently when Houser got evicted from a house a few years back he trashed and booby trapped the place. Clearly a history of violence and toxic entitlement going on there.
I’m sure someone over on Return of Kings will hold this guy up as an example of how feminism is driving such men to acts of violence. Because in their collective hive mind such entitlement must be pandered to, or else.
I’m so glad there is a blog calling this massacre what it is. A person with diagnosed mental health issues can also be a misogynist or racist etc. The two issues have nothing to do with the other. This guy planned it, hoped to get away and was aware of what he was doing. Each person is many things and not every move they make is tied to mental health issues. Behaviours can also be tied to someone just being a total asshole. Asshole is not a mental health issue, it’s the persons behaviour pattern and belief system that informs their behaviour.
There’s no correlation between mental health and kindness or cruelty.
And Jim “The Stupidest Man on the Internet” Hoft is trying to paint the shooter as an Obama supporter: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/07/figures-lafayette-shooter-was-obama-supporter-i-was-for-his-re-election-i-liked-his-spending/
When I first heard about the shooting, I was flummoxed by the movie choice. And I shouldn’t have been! I was just talking about this issue with someone on Monday. People — in general, men — have this visceral hate for Amy Schumer. It’s really disturbing to me, actually. So then we find out more about this guy, and of course this is yet another misogynist targeting women, and of course the public is going to ignore it yet again.
I feel like just noping away from humanity…
http://orig11.deviantart.net/a971/f/2015/204/8/0/loki_nope_by_mali_chan-d92gj11.jpg
Case of the police being blind to sexist terrorism. Well said!
“He told me if I wanted to play games with him I’d better watch out because he always wins,” (his ex-wife) wrote in a (divorce) court filing.
Those words are chilling.
He also apparently was barred from his mother’s retirement home, and his adult daughter took out a restraining order against him.
http://news.yahoo.com/theater-gunman-built-reputation-angry-provocateur-064509522.html
Thank you Alan for explaining the difference between hate crimes and terrorism, that’s quite interesting.
@Anarchonist
Allowed as in you (well law enforcement at least) can’t discuss evidence in the news that may say a latter trial, for instance if they were looking to investigate for accomplices they couldn’t mention the websights and hate groups he was a member of, because it could sway public opion.
And I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it because it makes people uncomfortable, I’m saying they won’t because it’s not the big attention getting headline they want. It’s fucked up but they news stations all compete with each other. And calling someone crazy brings in more veiws. I didn’t say that’s the way I like things. I said that’s how they are, and to try to abscibe different motives to it is wrong, since you can’t cute something by fighting the wrong symptoms.
I never once said it was ok that the story is treated this way. And yes not all cops are good guys, but most are.
Listen I’m not trying to say that we should ignore these issues. All I’m saying is you guys seem shocked that a group which is paid to get as many viewers as possible isn’t doing something that will upset their view base. AR the end of the day if they want to change anything they will do it very slowly and carefuly. You shouldn’t expect a for profit business to fight a fight which will damage them. All that will end in is the reporters losing their jobs.
It’s our job to change people’s minds and have this discussion. In the end non profit groups or grassroots groups have to start the dialog on this and keep fighting for it to be the norm until it is. You shouldn’t be suprised that people aren’t going to risk their jobs to help you make a statment, espessialy if they just see it as a useless gesture. They will place their own before any of us, even if that view is short sided.
If you want to change this go have a discussion about it outside of here. Tell people why it happened and warn them of the dangers ignoring it will lead to. In the end it will have to have a basic understanding amount society before you can expect the media to cover it properly.
So instead of siting here and saying Damm it’s so disappointing that CNN is just focusing on this one aspect go and have a conversation with someone who will listen and speed your veiws.
WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FEMINIST. THAT MEANS WE ARE ACTIVIST. DON’T SIT AROUND AND SAY WHY WON’T THESE PEOPLE SEE THE LIGHT, SHOW THEM. It’s not their job. It’s ours. The fact that it should be their job doesn’t change the fact that it isn’t.
Um, losing his bread and butter is “what he wants”? Somehow, I doubt that.
And as for the screamers, let ’em scream. Our right to live trumps their Freeze Fucking Peach.
Robjec, I would suggest that different perps are treated differently when it comes to news coverage and what might sway people’s opinions. For example speculation that someone might have behaved badly when they were extrajudicially executed by police seems to be ok. Even unconfirmed reports that someone might have stolen something or made a wrong move are ok.
In this case, there is nobody to prosecute. So everything about the person can be published.
As far as saying “most cops are” good guys, that’s very gracious and probably a healthy attitude indeed! But we don’t know that for sure. One thing to keep in mind is that they have an incredible amount of power so that it’s really difficult to call in to question their actions. They continually get the benefit of the doubt, no matter how egregious their actions. So continually reiterating how most cops are good is just something we don’t need right now. One, because even if people became wary of police because they painted them all with one brush not much bad would happen to them. Another point is that people that usually care about these issues do not paint anyone with the same brush, it’s just not in our programming. We just can’t wrap our minds around doing that, that’s why we’re liberal or progressive. People worried about others painting all with the same brush usually do it themselves, that’s why they can see it, and worry about it. Me, I can’t see it.
I am scared of police because I’ve had to deal with them in domestic violence situations.
Why? They’re like a box of chocolates, Here is something from wiki
“Several studies in the U.S. have found that domestic violence is significantly more common in the families of police officers than in other families, which is very problematic, since police officers must play a key role in responding to incidents of DV.[22][23][24]”
I worry about my son, even though he is white, he works in a place with lots of poor people of color and he drives them places a lot because they have no vehicles. On one occasion he had a few people of color in his vehicle and was pulled over for basically no reason. Then the officer asked for everyone’s ID who was in the car. I have never in my life had an officer ID everyone in a car on a stop before. So my son is more personally aware of racism now, although he’s just learning the ropes (he doesn’t understand the “racist” comments his black and Native friends make, or he didn’t, we had a discussion). So yeah I worry about him now when he leaves the house.
Long enough comment, done.
Also…
http://nationalreport.net/wit-study-finds-fox-news-demographic-dangerous-isis/
@marinerachel,–that is exactly what I meant. Sorry if it didn’t sound that way. I meant a murderous asshole is just that, a murderous asshole. Mental health diagnosis doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with someone’s behavior.
…”Houser suffered from mental illness that appeared to grow worse in r
ecent years, and his family had struggled to get him to stay on his medications, according to a friend of his daughter, Kirbey Houser. The Associated Press reported Friday that court documents from 2008 say Houser’s own family petitioned to have him involuntarily committed “because he was a danger to himself and others.”…
While his shooting at the movie theater may or may not have been directly linked to an episode or symptoms of his illness, he considered the world an immoral place, wasn’t a fan of taxes and hated all things remotely feminist – from the accounts he thought women shouldn’t have a say in anything – I’m not sure I’d agree his illness and inadequate treatment of this by the mental health care system have nothing to do with his decision to shoot two fatally, randomly fire in the theater, ultimately shooting himself. Misogyny and mental illness are two separate issues but in my perspective they *both* factor into his actions. Just because someone is mentally ill does not prevent them from being highly intelligent or mean an individual would be incapable of planning a crime involving multiple steps along with various preparations (which they hope to get away with but doesn’t always work out that way).
** He’s not automatically mentally ill because he’s white, misogynist, and decided to shoot two women in the head at the movies, fired indiscriminately at others and finally shot himself fatally because his getaway was blocked.
rather, it’s that…
** He shot the two women, fired at others, an0d then killed himself, happens to have a previous criminal record, a diagnosis with mental illness was connected to these court and police records, birth certificate/DL race listed as white, and was known to have frequently expressed misogynistic beliefs/opinions.
And our mental health care system is desperately in need of major improvements to quality as well as access people have to services. I may be inclined to wish that this aspect be part of the overall conversation because this particular shooter did have mental health issues serious enough for his family to petition a court for inv-com. – if not for the utter crappity crap effort in creating a community based system to address the needs of multiple levels of patient diagnosis/care to replace the many institutions funded by states and/or federal agencies tasked with oversight, regulation, and licensing, this particular asshole shooter could be quite easily removed from being in a position to commit these crimes if committed to a facility by the courts. With regular and frequent appointments seeing a particularly skillful psychiatrist who specializes in the conditions that were diagnosed, he could have even become fully compliant with all medications prescribed treatment;”
@Flint
[blockquote] As much as this guy sounds like a total dumbass, trying to get him off the air, if not successfully pulling him off, is basically giving this piece of shit what he wants, and the rest of the MRA community for that matter. And if he is pulled off the air, he’ll just go around the various parts of the internet screaming “The feminazis came and took muh freedoms!” [/blockquote]
I believe you mistook who people were talking about here. They’re not wanting to get the perpetrator off the air, he did that himself, he is already dead and gone. The people you were responding to meant the host of the show who had showcased this misogynist shitsack before any of this happened. He was giving a voice and platform to someone terrible for the sake of ratings and HE should be taken off the air.
Darn it, I didn’t even get mammothed, just formatted badly. Hopefully it’s still understandable.
Erm… Why are you assuming that we don’t? It’s entirely possible to be an activist or volunteer offline and a Mammotheer online at the same time.
@Robjec
Oh, I didn’t know activists weren’t allowed to talk among themselves in activist spaces. Yes, thanks, we *know* what feminism is.
But thank you *so* much for telling us how to do our activism. /s
For everyone else, some brain bleach.
http://www.thatcutesite.com/uploads/2010/02/snail_on_turtle.jpg
It just occurred to me that the media’s insistence on spreading the lie that online progressives are all “Slacktivists” looking for “Internet points,” never IRL activists/volunteers or people who would be activists/volunteers if they had the time and money, is just another way for the right-wingers in power to stop us from being taken seriously and therefore hold us back. I feel dumb for not realising it sooner.
@msexceptiontotherule–Very well put. Mental health issues often don’t manifest in the way lay people think. People are intelligent if they are intelligent, that has nothing to do with a mental health diagnosis. And you are so right, the mental health treatment system needs a major overhaul. I don’t say mental illness as most do, I prefer mental health issue. And as a person with a mental health issue (PTSD), I know the language is moving away from “illness”. But I realize this blog still says illness. Oh well. Yes, I think this could have been prevented, as many of these type of incidents could have as there are usually warning signs but you can’t just have someone put in hospital for beliefs they have or the hatred they spout. That hatred usually has nothing to do with mental health issues or diagnoses. As you say, a mental health issue can exacerbate things, can be connected but may not be. It is very tricky and complex and I don’t have the answers. But I think part of the answer is being vocal and active about the culture of misogyny and how it can create these hateful beliefs in people.
Can we talk?
I am getting increasingly pissed off with the countless leftist sites I follow for news making misogyny LAST on the list of this guy’s profile, if it makes he list at all. Sick of it. The political agenda of saying look this guy was a tea partier is making them horny and once again women get marginalized. Sick of it.