By David Futrelle
In the wake of every mass shooting, we hear the inevitable cries from NRA types not to “politicize” the tragedy by pointing out the obvious fact that stricter gun laws would make such tragedies less likely in the future. We watch the trolls and shitlords of the alt-right flood the internet with disinformation and conspiracy theories. These reactions are now as predictable as the reappearance of the sun on the horizon every morning.
The internet’s incels — the bitter fringe-dwellers who consider their “involuntary celibacy” to be a crime against their humanity — have their own predictable responses to such tragedies: they mock the victims as “normies” deserving death — and try as best as they can to adopt the latest mass killer as one of their own.
In the case of last night’s horrific mass shooting in Las Vegas — a massacre that at last count left 59 dead and more than 500 injured — Reddit’s incels did not disappoint on this front. In a number of different threads devoted to the murders, regulars on the Incels subreddit celebrated the death of “normies” and “chads” and even tried to claim that mass killer Stephen Paddock — a man with a girlfriend, and thus decidedly not an incel — was “a depressed and delusional former Chad turned to oldcel.”
For many in the subreddit, the news of the mass shooting was something of an inspiration. In a thread offering faux condolences for the dozens of “normies [who] just got fragged in Las Vegas,” several commenters had similar ideas:
Those calling for basic human decency got an earful from their fellow incels.
![lonelyrommel1998 32 points 3 hours ago RIP . Please my brothers, be civil during this time of tragedy. I know you guys hate anyone that isnt you, but they are human beings nonetheless permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]novalueinvictimhoodhttps://goo.gl/2yvNyj 2 points 44 minutes ago they are human beings So? Being a modern human being is the greatest crime you can commit. permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]wandercampEmbracing the sublime terror of incel existance -3 points an hour ago Fuck off normie I fapped to that video permalinkembedsaveparentgive gold [–]fuck-women-everyday23 KV Approachcel Hopecel Knowledgecel -2 points an hour ago Las Vegas is normie heaven. People go there for drinks, socializing, one night stands, and gambling. Incels will never experience that.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm3.png?resize=580%2C636&ssl=1)
In another thread, Reddit’s incels lashed out at the “normies” expressing sympathy for the victims on social media — and at the alleged “degeneracy” of Las Vegas.
![BlackPill4831yo bald manlet escortcel 卐 'Self improvement is masturbation' 10 points 3 hours ago I hate all this 'competitive grief' on social media. They don't give a fuck about the homeless, jobless and sexless. permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]Bojack101 6 points 3 hours ago The degenerate las vegas city deserved it](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm6.png?resize=517%2C459&ssl=1)
![BlackPillRevolutionWeAreRevolting | Copernicus | ?NormiesCanAllBurn?| Hate 5 points 3 hours ago All virtue-signalling and posting it all over instawhore or fakebook to show how much they "care" just to fit in the rest of the conformitard sheep who do the same thing permalinkembedsavegive gold [–]touchbutt2Women can't be lonely. women can't be depressed. can't be incel 4 points 4 hours ago Exactly. they can call us evil all they want but at least we are honest. The entire degenrate city of las vegas and everyone in it could die and it wouldn't affect my day in any way](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/inm4.png?resize=517%2C724&ssl=1)
The subreddit’s regulars found it much easier to identify with the shooter.
Still, it’s unlikely that Paddock, a 64-year-old retiree who apparently lived with a girlfriend, will be embraced by incels as another Elliot Rodger, the incel mass murderer celebrated as a “saint” and “supreme gentleman” by this despicable crowd. But that didn’t stop some from trying to posthumously recruit Paddock to inceldom, none more ingeniously than this fellow.
It’s a bit of a reach, given that pretty much the only things we seem to know for sure about Paddock is that he was neither a former Chad nor an incel. I guess the Incels subreddit regulars are a little hard up for, er, “heroes” these days.
Way off topic but the Minnesota Lynx just won the WNBA championship and I’m excited!
Apparently the Las Vegas shooter fired on aviation fuel tanks visible from his hotel room before opening fire on concert goers.
https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/the-strip/las-vegas-strip-shooter-targeted-aviation-fuel-tanks-source-says/
We already knew he were a fool. Now we can add “doesn’t watch Mythbusters” to his profile.
Whew! It’s been almost 24 hours since I asked Skeptic how he knows that the average 4channer is not a rapist.
Lots of insightful responses from Mammotheers; Skeptic’s responses were about what I expected.
If I learned anything from my domestic violence counselors , it’s this: When a person threatens you, take the threat seriously.
Does that mean that the person will definitely follow through on the threat? Nope.
But you still need to take the threat seriously.
I also learned, to my amazement, that a batterer might spend many years emotionally battering a woman but not lay a finger on her — and then one day hit her.
Similarly, a batterer might threaten and threaten and not follow through — and then one day he does.
4channers: They’re vile. They’re disgusting. Don’t turn your back on them.
4channers are, I’m sure, super proud that their hero is so smart!
The president’s remarks about himself contain some unintentional humor.
Gunman’s secret life thwarts investigators’ hunt for motive
We had a mod team on WHTM for a short period of time. I think it must have been year or two back. It eventually evaporated; I’m not sure what happened to it. I think this was around the time that we had Threads of Doom happening, so maybe the mod team was among those who left the site?
Anyway, I suppose my point is that there has been an infrastructure set up for mods before (though I believe before the mass site migration, so it may no longer be in place), but the system didn’t work out. If the factors that caused the mods to vanish last time can be avoided or mitigated, it might be worth having a mod team to help spread the load.
Here’s the link to “Gunman’s secret life”:
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20171004/0c37765f-19e9-47e8-a9e5-19318f8741fb
“Threads of Doom”?
Threads of Doom?
Mass Exodus?
What is this history I know not of
So who wants to set up the betting pool that this was an official terrorist act? Like, planned, bought, and paid for by an official terrorist group instead of the usual ‘mentally ill lone wolf’ thing that always gets trotted out for when this stuff happens.
Because if the link Kat posted is the truth, then this wasn’t a case of ‘rejected guy goes on deadly rampage’, since the girlfriend evidently wasn’t leaving him anytime soon. It may be closer to the Oklahoma City bombing in motive instead. ‘I hate this country enough to blow it up!’
And I’m not sure if that possible motive scares me more than ‘reject rampage’ does, tbh.
@Redsilkphoenix
Depends who you mean by terrorist group.
Evidence at the moment is it’s highly unlikely (though not completely impossible) that it were a jihadi terrorist group behind this shooting. The guy’s pretty much kryptonite from a recruiting point of view since there’s no real handle for them to use on him. He wasn’t political. He wasn’t religious. Wasn’t even particularly gregarious, by all accounts so far. Nothing to attract a recruiter’s attention to him or give them confidence in his ability to pull off an action either on his own or after prodding. Also too old – folks like ISIS or AQ prefer younger recruits. They’re easier to bend.
There’s a higher (though still very low) chance he was helped/encouraged/pushed into acting by a right wing terrorist group, simply by virtue of chance of contact. Gun nuts talk to gun nuts, after all. I know absolutely nothing about right wing American groups other than the very basic demographics though (not my area) so …. take that assessment with a pinch of salt.
According to the police, he went on a bit of a weapon buying spree starting October last, and carried on through this year, so it weren’t only pre-election nerves that caused that.
The shooter was into high stakes gambling, which suggests he enjoyed an adrenaline rush. That might be part of it, but it can’t possibly be all of it. Most people who love adrenaline turn to skydiving or something, not mass murder.
I suspect it’s something that law enforcement doesn’t want to see, like maybe right wing, Bundy-type terrorism. Remember the guy who used to call his local talk radio to rant about women, had an ex-wife, daughter and elderly mother with protection orders against him, went into a cinema showing a feminist film and shot mostly women? The sheriff (I think it was the sheriff) said they might never know his motive. I don’t think he was lying – I think he couldn’t see because he was desperate not to see.
Well, he apparently did live near the Bundys…
@Sheila
I don’t think he was lying – I think he couldn’t see because he was desperate not to see.
There is no doubt about it, investigator blind spots are a known problem – especially in high emotion events like that one or this one. I call it blind spots rather than bias as bias is only a subset of the problem.
One of the valuable and normal tools used to get around that blindness (either willful or subconcious) to a certain extent is to use investigators who are at at least one remove from the event. Unfortunately, elected sherriffs absolutely detest doing this – it looks bad on them come re-election time. 🙁
What on Earth do people need explosives for when target shooting?
Tannerite? They don’t. (Admission – it is fun once though, in a completely mindless, Michael Bay sort of way)
I’m wondering more and more – why’d the guy bother with shooting in the first place?
He had tannerite.
He had a plane.
Anyone can make ANFO.
He knew he was going to die anyways – sending his girlfriend money to buy a house beforehand shows that (and conflicts horribly with the reports of his abusive character we’ve had, but people’s inconsistancies stopped surprising me years ago).
If he was out to make a “statement”, dropping a plane filled with explosives on the crowd, or on the avgas tanks he allegedly tried to shoot first, would have made a bigger one.
This gets more and more confusing.
Why unsuccessfull virgins call themselves incels is beyond me. Why would you wear something you dont like about yourself and make it at badge of honour?
The guy sending his girlfriend money to buy a house is actually consistent with his statements about ‘buying/paying for her” and he was still abusive. Believing that the payment was settling up on a debt may be different from what my abusive ex preferred (You could never EVER mention the money he owed you if you wanted to be paid back in your lifetime. Even if you were depending on that money being there to cover the electric bill and he knew service would be shut off without payment on a specific day, asking for him to repay you would result in no payment and getting yelled at not only for asking but ALSO for the electricity being cut off when it inevitably was.) but that doesn’t make either the Vegas shooter or my ex any less of abusive asshats.
It’s no excuse for abusive behavior nor does it make the abuse go away/forgive it to send money.
There were (iirc) two threads that came up within a few weeks of each other, in which some tensions that had been simmering for months blew up. The triggering comments were relatively benign, so for some people it seemed to come out of nowhere. In the environment of heightened emotion, a couple of regulars made plain some really ugly sentiments, mainly anti-trans animus. One of them was a mod. Nobody came off looking very good.
Several regulars left the site, or stopped commenting at least, in the aftermath. The mod system fell apart in the process, and while David didn’t say anything about it, I would have felt pretty burned if that had happened on my site. In any event, no mention of mods has come up since then.
I’m sure someone else can provide links to the threads in question, but there is backstory behind the tension that exploded in those threads that doesn’t necessarily come out in the threads themselves. Just reading the threads in a vacuum doesn’t convey how it came to a knock-down-drag-out like it did.
Note that someone can be abusive *and* loving. It’s two different things ; he can well abuse and use his girlfriend as a chew toy, and yet have romantic gesture about her future anyway.
(of course, that’s with the supposition he actually did that out of love, which is a pretty big assumption. The point is more that regardless of his motive for that house, he can be an abusive asshole anyway)
It’s no excuse for abusive behavior nor does it make the abuse go away/forgive it to send money.
No. It doesn’t, at all. My apologies for not being clear on that in the first place, and for any crap I stirred up for you through my carelessness.
“Generosity” can really just be one more tool in an abuser’s toolbox. They shower their target with “gifts”, which means that their target owes them and has to be grateful. How can you complain about them treating you poorly? Look at everything they’ve done for you! You’re being ungrateful and selfish and you should feel awful for ever questioning your benefactor.
I’m not sure what the exact motive is for giving a “gift” when you won’t be around to capitalize on the recipient’s gratitude/guilt, but it’s entirely possible that the goal is “now you owe me forever and can never pay it back and can never forget me”.
I’m glad I wasn’t around for that.
Nailed it.
I can’t find the link now, but I read a few days ago that he had some problem (health?) with his pilots licence that would have raised red flags if he had tried to fly
I was going to say something like this. Also, while it doesn’t apply (anymore at least) to this particular case, abusers like their victims financially dependent on them so they can’t leave.
This also explains the seeming inconsistency of MRAs complaining about golddiggers and housewives doing but sitting around eating bonbons and then complaining about women who want to work in high paying and/or usually male dominated fields. Or “ride the cock carousel” instead of marrying young and having babies. They want to hunt the mammoth for us, they want to resent hunting the mammoth for us, and they want us to owe them deference and sex for it.