By David Futrelle
More than a few observers were surprised, as was I, by the news that the “active shooter” on the YouTube campus today was not another young man angry at the world, but a female YouTuber who blamed company policies for a drop in her channels’ views who shot and wounded three others before taking her own life. [Note: This paragraph has been corrected; see bottom of post for more details.]
Naturally, a bunch of Twitter dudes decided to respond to the tragedy with jokes about women being as bad at shooting as misogynistic idiots insist they are at driving.
Can't drive. Can't shoot. 👀
— Chris Redfield (@Gen_Vengence) April 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/AnthonyChannin2/status/981308137549500421
Good thing the YouTube shooter was a lady, or someone might have gotten killed.
— Greg (@gregvegas) April 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/Mason0010/status/981277110831431680
Looks like there's less female shooters for a reason:
Competence Gap! https://t.co/Jg2mS9BPjl
— Edwardo Deendrow (@elderindro) April 3, 2018
Others made inane “ironic” jokes about glass ceilings being broken, welcoming the female shooter, whose name has not yet been released, to the boys club.
I'm hearing rumors the Youtube shooter is a girl. If so, congratulations, ladies. You've proven once again you can do anything a man can do. #girlpower
— THE KING OF NIHILISM (@amazingatheist) April 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/WeWuzVikings/status/981308119904083969
Hey! Latest shooter is a female! Way to break that glass ceiling ladies!#Equality
— Nerd Jared (@Knighticus) April 3, 2018
Others made jokes about sandwiches and how this means women should stay in the home lol lmao #AmiriteFellas?
https://twitter.com/sinndustries/status/981303664160706560
https://twitter.com/bk5950/status/981306476147937280
https://twitter.com/pvrgist2/status/981296657655529473
Then there were these dudes:
This female shooter has clearly perverted the peaceful teachings of the Holy Book of Womon and isn't a real womon. And before all you womonophobes jump in, the passage about 'kill all men wherever you find them' is taken out of context and is actually a peaceful message.
— Arthur Pewbglount QC (@Tigzy_J) April 3, 2018
Congratulations, fellas! Amazing work all around. Really doing your gender proud.
NOTE: This post has been corrected. The initial news reports suggested the shooting may have been related to a domestic dispute, and I said something to that effect in the first paragraph. The police later released the name of the shooter, Nasim Aghdam, a YouTube creator. NBC is now reporting that she was angry with YouTube for allegedly discriminating against her and filtering her channel in such a way that she lost a lot of her audience.
Knitting Cat Lady:
A majority of drivers over-estimate their own driving ability. See the wikipedia page on “illusory superiority” for some figures. Perhaps there are gender differences in this?
@ knitting cat lady
In the UK women report more accidents to insurers than men. But they tend to be stuff that can be fixed with a bit of T-Cut; whereas men’s accidents are the “the motorway will remain closed for the next three days” type.
Consequently women’s car insurance was much cheaper. However under EU equality laws that had to change (you can’t differentiate cost of services on gender grounds). So, thanks for the subsidy I guess.
Thing is she didn’t miss. Macho idiots always ignore the injuries and go straight for the kill count.
Uggh. In case anybody else was thinking “This is fucking horrific, but at least the shooter wasn’t yet another Nazi who grabbed their gun in the name of Trumpism”…
… It’s now looking like she was. -_-
@ Tree Person
When I hear that, I have to wonder… why does these people’s comedy always have to be offensive to be “funny”??
@ Z & T
It’s not for nothing that Joe Lucas was called the Prince of Darkness
@Shadowplay
It depends. It’s not a “canonical” text of second-wave feminism, and Solanis was never really a part of that movement, for most people anyway.
As an historical ‘moment’, and also so that you can be fully informed while laughing at people who think SCUM = feminism, sure. It’s definitely not boring.
On the other hand, I definitely do not appreciate the contemporary idea that Solanis was mentally ill, therefore she can’t be taken seriously. As for whether SCUM was serious, or meant as satire, the jury is still out for most of us.
That’s down to video games, pure and simple. In real combat situations, you WANT to wound! A corpse can be ignored, screaming wounded takes at least two out of the fight and rattles the rest.
Edit to add:
Thank you, Mish. I’ll probably have a look at it then. See what the fuss is about. 😛
Shadowplay yes it shows a basic disconnect from reality.
The shooter obviously needs help and I hope she does get it
Good at no one died, nothing to joke about.
Shows that no one is immune from mental health problems, as humans we are capable of anything unfortunately
Not sure any of them would recognise reality if it passed them in the street anymore. 🙁
They’re depressing buggers to think on. I mean, absolutely everyone can and will perform acts of self deception at times, that is part of being a functional human, but these dolts have raised it to an art form AND made it contagious. It’d be impressive if it weren’t so dangerous.
More like willfull ignorance to me. The fantasy of “kill the bad guy and everything will work out” would not survive that kind of reasonment, so they are weeded out.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: gamification of body counts is the inevitable trend and here we have it on display once more.
Insert relevant Bojack Horseman clip (if it actually shows up):
Just as an aside, I see a couple familiar facepalmingly-awful personalities represented in David’s selection. The Amazing Atheist is one of those guys I see going to jail for any flavour of petty larceny if YouTube ever kicks him to the curb. And June/Shoe0nHead actually somehow infuriates me even more because while TJ Kirk revels in his awfulness and probably sees his future incarceration on the horizon, June is one of those dime-a-dozen YouTube “cultural commentators” who is desperately protective of her innocence regarding any of the societal ills around her. As YouTuber @Gwen_No_Fear pointed out on her recent stream, June gets really upset whenever she’s called out for saying something racist/sexist/transphobic, always falling back on “Why you picking on me, I’m just a funny haha YouTube girl! It was just jokes!” I’ve seen multiple people explain to her why BLM exists and isn’t racist, why the terms “tr@**y” and “tr@p” are transphobic and why being friends with Lauren Southern might raise some hackles with… well, everyone. People have patiently explained this stuff to her and yet she’s still somehow surprised that she gets the flak that she does.
Much like she did in that tweet about the shooting. Was she also surprised that there was gambling going on at Rick’s place? Sorry, June, we’re wayyyy past WTF moments when it comes to active shooter incidents.
It takes effort to maintain the innocence (read: ignorance) that preserves that simple of a worldview. Most people find a propaganda outlet like Fox or Breitbart and burrow themselves in like ticks, explaining away contrary data as “fake news” or some globalist conspiracy or somesuch, but she seems genuinely confused that people aren’t big into mocking social movements meant to ameliorate inequality and being buddy-buddies with straight-up white supremacists. I suppose that’s one point in her favour… sort of.
Ali Dawah seems to be sending up Lauren Southern’s stance on Islamist terror attacks. Pretty good job too.
I guess they also miss the fact that since she hand just a single hand gun and not an AR-15 she was able to do a lot less damage.
If all the mass shootings we have in this country from now on are similar to this one, it would be an improvement.
Ugh.
Shooting happens, these asshats’ only reaction is to make jokes about it. Stay drunk, America.
@Kat
Bet these very same people will then proceed to cry about alimony and child support. Not very bright, are they?
@Zaunfink
I am so tired.
UGH! These people are going to have a field day with all this and now that they figured out she’s Middle Eastern, I can already hear the comments from them in my head, diversity, cultural marxism, feminine empowerment, immigrants. I keep wondering if there is some sort cruel joke being played on us, between them and Trump, the world seems so bleak.
@ Katamount, re: June/Shoe0nHead;
again, why does these people’s comedy always have to be offensive to be “funny”??
not just “offensive”, but always offensive to those who are most vulnerable to violence….
@ PeeVee the Tired
me, too… so fucking tired
More “women should stay at home” jokes. But I guarantee that soon enough they’ll return to whining that there aren’t enough women in dangerous heavy labour jobs (“but 99.99999999% of workplace deaths are maaaaale why don’t feminists want equaliteeeeee wah”) even though the small percentage of women who have entered the construction industry report high levels of harassment from their male peers. Source: https://nwlc.org/press-releases/women-make-only-2-6-percent-construction-workers-and-experience-high-levels-sexual-harassment-new-report-shows/
Picked up the Evening Standard when I went to collect my partner (they give it away free at the tube station).
Sure enough – a “former friend” has trotted out the “she was mentally disturbed, very angry always” thing in the article.
It’s like clockwork.
Edit: A key is sticking.
She fucking killed herself.
Offfffff-topic… way off-topic…
Read this piece on 5 diners in the south with strong ties to civil rights. One, of course, is the Woolworth’s on 5th Street in Nashville, site of sit-ins. The others are diners which ignored Jim Crow, which civil rights organizers dined and organized at, others had side/upstairs offices where planning and organization took place.
here is the Mitochondrial Eve of lunch counter sit-ins, Dockum Drugs, Wichita, Kansas, July, 19 – August, 11, 1958
Carol Parks-Haun, 3rd from right
@ AJ from GA
Ah, thanks for that. Makes a lot more sense now,
@Weird Eddie
I have some theories on that. For one, the current crop of people coming of age were raised during the era of South Park, Family Guy and Zombie Simpsons as the mainstays of animated comedy, where everyone and everything is considered “fair game”. For another, the internet has only become more commodified and reactionary since its inception.
It is strange to think about, but when I was 12 and South Park was brand new, it was the “adult” show. Shown late on cable, freaked out the elders. It certainly made Comedy Central’s bones in the early years. But at the time, it was one show; we still had sitcoms like Friends, Seinfeld and good Simpsons where we could find a softer touch and a little heart. But with South Park‘s success, everyone began imitating them. Adult Swim was rife with South Park-like shows and that’s what a lot of teens found their comedy footing on.
As for the Internet, we’ve gone from the days of AOL Instant Messenger on dial-up to Netflix and YouTube. When I was a kid, going on SomethingAwful or Maddox felt edgy when all TV had was Seinfeld. But now you can customize your entire Internet experience to the point that you get nothing but Maddox 24/7. And if that’s what makes you laugh, the customer is always right.
Kinda scary now that I think about that.