By David Futrelle
On Gab — the “free speech” social media site that has become something of a haven for the internet’s worst people — some of the regulars have come up with a rather inventive explanation for the Parkland, Florida school shooting yesterday that left 17 dead. It’s all the fault of the Jews.
Never mind that an explicitly fascist group claims the accused shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, as a member, and says he participated in their paramilitary training exercises. As some of the best minds on Gab see it, Cruz is actually the puppet of a vast Jewish conspiracy — and probably a Jew himself.
Their evidence? The fact that Cruz is such a well-known Jewish surname.
Wait, what?
While Cruz isn’t probably the first surname one thinks of when one thinks about Jewish surnames, there were some Spanish Jews who adopted the name to hide their Jewishness from the authorities … during the Spanish Inquisition. 500 years ago.
That of course isn’t proof that Cruz himself was Jewish.
Also, he was adopted.
But more than a few on Gab have something of a vested interest in trying to blame yesterday’s horrific carnage on a Jew or the Jews. See if you can figure out what the hidden agenda is as you scroll through these lightly censored comments from a fellow who calls himself DrGasChamber.
A Gabber called stevec, meanwhile, isn’t completely sure there even was a shooting yesterday. But whatever happened, he’s pretty sure Jews are to blame.
One commenter, the not-so-accurately named @NameTheJew, even made a little meme.
And no, there is no evidence that Elliot Rodger — that’s him on the left — was Jewish either.
Needless to say, not everyone on Gab blames the Jews for whatever they think happened in Parkland Florida yesterday. A fellow called Pho Chan, for example, had a rather different take on the Jewish Question.
Lovely.
For more on Nikolas Cruz, a possible incel who has been hailed by incels online as an Elliot Rodger style hero, see my post yesterday.
Having to write quick, so sorry for any mistakes.
@Valentin
“it only “needs to be adressed” only to say mental illness is not cause of mass shootings”
Kinda my point.
There’s been a lot of speculation that Cruz *isn’t* mentally ill. There’s evidence that he is. It’ll just undercut the “mental illness doesn’t cause shootings” argument if it turns out that Cruz is mentally ill after there was a big stink of people complaining about even discussing the possibility of him being mentally ill, because the mentally ill “aren’t dangerous”.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Let’s discuss it.
“there is nothing to “adressed” mentally ill people are not dangerous”
You’re not doing people with mental illness any favors by placing us on pedestals and acting like being mentally ill makes us above being entitled and dangerous.
I can’t even read your link right now because just the title is so rediculous. Anger causes violence, not mental illness? But many mental illnesses cause anger, soooooo…
And you’re right; the problem is cultural. And mentally ill people are part of the same culture! If we’re cultured to respond to anger with violence, mentally ill people will have that SAME programming.
You’re not mentally ill, but I am, with a personality disorder to boot. I’m villified in the world at large. I’ve even faced abilism on this board , and it’s because people have denied me my individual humanity, and projected whatever bullshit they’ve faced from the Narcissist* in the life onto me. You can talk about mental illnesses in general terms, and in fact, we have to do that if we want to learn about them. But we should never forget that each mentally ill person is an individual, first and foremost.
*sorry to dissapoint but I don’t have NPD you dog whistling assholes.
How do I define mental illness?
You fulfil the diagnostic criteria of the ICD-10.
As it stands we only have evidence that he was treated. We have no idea about what, if any, diagnoses the shooter has.
I’m saying that, until we get concrete information, that speculation either way is absolutely pointless.
I’m mentally ill and on the autism spectrum. I know that the world really sucks for people like me.
I could fill books with all the stupid, misguided and dangerous advice I’ve got over the years.
But the fact remains: Mentally ill people are over represented as the victims of violent crimes and under represented as the perpetrators of violent crimes.
And the fact remains that the vast majority of mass killers has not been mentally ill.
They’d been radicalised, had an over inflated sense of their own importance, and were prime examples of aggrieved entitlement.
Also, the tendency of certain groups to other and dehumanize their targets, lowers the threshold of violence.
After all, women, Jews, Muslims, and other minorities aren’t really human in the eyes of right wingers. So killing them is no big deal.
It’s frighteningly easy to end up at mass murder while being perfectly sane.
I am not ‘putting mentally ill people on a pedestal’. I stated the fact. they say this stereotype about mentally ill people ate dangerous – but real life is opposite.
maybe you don’t want to read the article because title is stupid. okay. but what she written is very clear – often publishers chosen titles.
here is important paragraph:
it is not mentally ill people who cause violent crime. this is the fact. and this is what I meant. simple. it is very unlikely, which means this what you say:
doesn’t make any sense. we can’t say he is mentally ill just in case, in very unlikely situation, he is. because more likely he is not, and mentally ill people get ‘thrown under a bus’ right now, today, befause this discussion happening.
and like i said already – this discussion just distractions from real conversation about guns, we should discuss. also, for info, he bought his gun legally.
I didn’t say this, and I know you don’t want to read the article which is okay, but article also did not say this. article is mainly about which I speak – about statistically it is not usually mentally ill people who caused violence. this is unfair stereotype.
for last part of this, I didn’t make this personal. I obviously speak generally, so I don’t know why you said this. it is not personal attack on you. it is not attack on anyone. I attacking gun people for using mentally ill people to hide from real problem.
of course. I don’t know why you think I don’t know this or that I tried to say this. before you complained about people put words in your mouth, but plenty times you done it to me. I don’t even know what is NPD and I never said anything personal about your mental health or made any “dog whistles”. to be clear, I don’t say that you should not give personal experience, others already done this in this comment section and I believe it is very good, but that you think I attacked you personally with what I said.
@Valentin
Got a quicker and easier response for you, my friend.
As many men as women have mental health problems.
How many women are school shooters? (or cause violent crime?)
It’s quicker and to the point. Also inarguable, which helps 😛
Shadow,
true. but this already is my original arguement. so I just repeated myself anyway. ? maybe better not reply at all.
I understood you 🙂
People do seem a little tetchy these last couple days. Know I have been!
““Violence by those with mental illness is so small that even if you could somehow cure it all, 95 percent of violent crime would still exist.””
Only 4% of of violent crime is caused exclusively by mental illness, and that the other 96% involves other factors. (Doesn’t mean that the person isn’t mentally ill, just that the mental illness wasn’t the exclusive cause of the violence.*
I don’t know why you think it’s so unlikely that this shooter was mentally ill. First off, because it’s tbe opinion of the people who knew him personally, and second, because even statistically speaking, not an insignificant amount of mass killers are mentally ill. For example, in one analysis of 235 mass killings, many of which were carried out with firearms, 22% of the perps were mentally ill.*
Look, let me say it again; I AGREE with you. Entitlement and guns are the problem here, not mental illness. But I want you to tighten up your argument. Fact: people with mental illness are *NOT* less likely to commit violence than the general population.** Fact: people with mental illness fall victim to our toxic culture in the same way that mentally healthy people do.
“I obviously speak generally, so I don’t know why you said this.
And I was speaking generally about things that have happened to me in the past. I wasn’t very clear. Sorry.
@Knitting Cat Lady
“As it stands we only have evidence that he was treated. We have no idea about what, if any, diagnoses the shooter has…I’m saying that, until we get concrete information, that speculation either way is absolutely pointless.”
That’s fair.
*
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/fact-check-parkland-gun-violence-mental-illness.html
**If the NY Times article isn’t good enough for you;
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4211925/#!po=72.8346
It goes not just into the comparisons between the mentally ill and their neighbors but also explains the reasons why we see a moderate difference.
okay, here is tightness of my argument: comment policy.
comment policy said:
1.we must not use slur about mentally health
2. we must not diagnose people on basis of scanty information. – it harms mentally ill people because it connected them with, for example, crimes or bad thoughts such as Nazism and homophobia.
anything else I already said.
*treading lightly*
A big part of the problem with “what role if any does mental illness play in violence/crime?” is that mental illness is a vast and amorphous category (and one that changes over time, at least in official psych terms).
I know, I’m not saying anything that people here don’t already know, but:
1. “mental illness” encompasses so many different conditions;
2. most of these have degrees or a spectrum;
3. people with the same type of condition often experience it differently.
Anecdata time! One of my psychs used to say “depression is anger turned inwards” (well-known, slightly hackneyed, but has some truth to it). My mental health issues usually involve self-harm and self-hatred, but I know other people for whom it’s quite different; their depression manifests outwardly, in anger and sometimes violence.
Circling back to the actual story here, however: as people have already noted, most of us do not go on mass shootings. The courts, and the psych professionals, will have to grapple with the question of whether or not this person is mentally ill, and if the verdict is yes, they won’t have the space or the time to try to work out why he killed, specifically – but this is where something useful may be found, and having said that, I’m off to the databases to see what research has been done here.
*creeps back in*
sorry that turned out so looooong plus I forgot to click on notifications ?
@Valentin
“we must not diagnose people on basis of scanty information. “
This goes both ways. You also can’t say that someone doesn’t have a mental illness; that is also a diagnosis. Maybe we should all stop speculating about his mental health *at all* if the evidence we have is scanty? (Ie. Stop saying that he WASN’T mentally ill as well, so that we don’t look like a bunch of assholes confusing politics with reality if we get proven wrong.)
@Mish check out the article I linked up above
I never said he wasn’t mentally ill, most I said it is better we say he is not to try to avoid this unfair connection of mental illness with mass shooters. what I said is we don’t have evidence and investigation is not yet concluded, so we must not say that he is, because this is harmful and
#1 encouraged untrue stereotype that mental illness causes violence
#2 thus is arguement designed for distraction so that NRA and pro-gun people don’t need to take action.
I missed edit. but yes, exactly – this is my original point. ?
“I never said he wasn’t mentally ill, most I said it is better we say he is not”
Ok, sorry but I’m not following.
In general, let’s not comment on it *at all*. Or if we do comment, we can’t exactly argue against the people who knew him.
“1 encouraged untrue stereotype that mental illness causes violence”
The problem with that stereotype is that correlation is not causation. That goes for you as well. Just because mental illness doesn’t cause violence, doesn’t mean that there’s no relationship.
Valya is just saying that we assume the null hypothesis until the alternate hypothesis has been demonstrated. That’s just good science.
Hate that phrase.
Correlation is not causation. True.
Correlation does not forbid causation. Also true.
It’s a null phrase. Means nothing.
😛 Grumping. Babysitting unexpectedly.
@Shadowplay
It means something when people point to correlation and assume causation.
@kupo
Oh, I know. It just annoys me because I’ve seen it used often as a shut down/shut up as well. Not here, I hasten to add, but it’s a common enough thing.
BTW, been meaning to thank you. You posted something on a gamergate thread years back (it were about how you’d love to go into game development but couldn’t because of the sexism) that shifted the whole feminism sphere in my mind from the abstract (wrong word, but can’t think of the right one. I mean something interesting, right, and important, but not so important I’ll postpone other stuff for it if its not happening in my face or to mine) to the personal.
So, thanks for that. 🙂
@Shadowplay
Ohhh babysitting. Time to arm yourself with crayons and barricade the bathroom!
I’m not sure what is to be gained from discussing a connection between mental illness and mass shootings (or any other violent crime) when this stuff has already been well researched. From what I read, it’s not typically been found to be the major factor in mass shootings when there’s a specific target. That is when it’s got something to with a grievance or when it’s political.
If mental illness were the major factor, you would expect men and women to be much more represented in the population of mass murderers. But it’s almost entirely men and teenaged boys who do it. This pretty clearly points to socialization as the big factor.
At this point it’s a PRATT.
And given that Trump is stacking the courts with people that have similar ideologies to him, it’s especially crucial right now to push back against the idea that mental illness is the cause of this. Because a whole lot of people like to say things like “he have to prevent mentally ill people from having guns.” Not even just “people who tell mental health professionals they would like to commit violent acts” but mentally ill people period. Well, to accomplish this, there would have to be a giant database of everyone who receives a diagnosis. This is a very, very obvious 4th amendment violation. But I don’t trust Trump appointees to protect the constitutional rights of marginalized people at all.
We cannot criminalize mental illness. It would be a disaster. It would also ironically, increase crime rates because if people are afraid to seek treatment for their mental health issues a good portion of them will need to self medicate with narcotics. This is already a big issue in this country because a lot of people either don’t have access to mental health care. It would also of course, increase rates of suicide.
ETA: I just woke up and rereading my post, it’s worded kindly strangely and I don’t think I can rework it in the edit time. I think I at least across my point though?
@mrex
Two of them are messing about with RC cars in the dining room, chasing one of the cats. Three more are drawing at the table and lifting their feet up as needed. Staying close to the food too! 🙂
I’m not exactly sure who two of these kids are though. They just showed up. Ain’t any of mine though! 😛
@WWTH
” But it’s almost entirely men and teenaged boys who do it. This pretty clearly points to socialization as the big factor.”
So what keeps mentally ill boys from getting the same socialization as mentally healthy boys?
I just read Valentin’s article, (and the one beneath it), and while I can agree with parts of both, they keep on saying that it’s anger that causes violence, like there’s some weird seperarion between anger and mental illness.
What seperates the violent from the nonviolent is not the strength, or the amount, of anger that we feel, (FFS, I’m borderline), but how we chose to deal with it.
@Shadowplay
“chasing one of the cats.”
Aww kitty’s first introduction to
monsterssweet sweet beautiful children.ETA:
“I’m not exactly sure who two of these kids are though. They just showed up. Ain’t any of mine though! ?”
O_o
Think you’re doing ‘grumpy old man’ wrong. :p
Also ETA, WWTH, I 100% agree with you about criminalizing mental illness.
Oh, ffs
*like there’s some weird separation between anger and mental illness.
Dunno how I managed to read over *that*.
If Cruz is supposed to be only a Jewish family name, how do they explain Ted Cruz then eh?
I think Kupo and Wwth said what I mean. again I am not always clear, but I believe on this scenario I tried my best ? article I shared is not fully relevant, but it has some helpful information, and it is only small part of support what is said, which I repeated myself 3 times already.
simply i mean, assume ‘null hypothesis’ like kupo said, protect mentally ill people all together and ‘push-back’ against stereotype like wwth said.
i don’t understand this
and this
seems like contradiction.
point is, if it is anger which caused violence, there truly is no connection between mental illness and violence, because authors sources show that mentally ill people under-represented in cases of violent crime. so it is not mean that mental ill people don’t feel angry – but this anger is same amount as for people without mental illness. maybe less.