I hesitate to put forward what I think is the root of the problem. Because then I step out of my subject matter expert office and throw out a wild ass guess with everyone else.
But fuck it, it's my page.
For years now, one word has been in the back of my mind.
Despair.
A lot of people in a lot of demographics are convinced that as a society and a species, we're fucked. And this goes across generational lines. We see it in baby boomers finding the safety net they've paid into their entire lives has huge rips and is spread over a concrete floor. We see it in Gen X'ers laid off, told to go back to school and getting out to find they've been replaced by a cheaper millenial. We find millenials sold a serious bill of goods, smart enough to discover exactly how they're getting fucked by the man and finding a dozen or more clever ways to fuck back.
Our suicide rate has gone up 35% since the late 90's, according to the national institute of mental health.
And a tiny strain of cishet dudes seem determined to take a few with them when they go.
And one in a million choosing to go out in a hail of antiheroism is still 320 of them running around the country at any given moment.
And I have no idea, culturally, how to change or stop that.
The patriarchy, toxic masculinity, critical race theory... shit. I can see why so many parents are pissed off. Take a single demographic of kids and let them know from kindergarten on up that people like them are why the world is shit, and you get confused when they get pissed off and insist otherwise? Or have shitty self-esteem and can't talk among themselves except to egg on each other's hatred?
Is is any wonder why we got parents who believe transgenderism is an agenda being pushed instead of a state of being finally being allowed to openly flourish? If you teach a kid all their life that there's nothing worse than being a cishet white dude, then point out that there are other options, are you really surprised that some are going to fuck up the math in that equation?
I don't think these folks are right. Not even close.
But I can see where they're coming from.
We can laugh and joke about "carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white dude." But seriously, where did you think he would go? What did you think he would do?
Did you really think they would all just wander off somewhere else to die where you wouldn't have to look at or think about them?
Are we seriously surprised that white supremacy is on the rise? Or the ctrl-left and their vicious mobs? Show people a place where they'll be treated like people instead of garbage and they'll go along with a lot.
Show them nowhere to go, and where will they?
And that's without getting into the loads of spin and counter-spin happening with every shooting that actually makes the news. It used to be I'd wait the first 48, then 72 hours, to say a damn thing. Because all the bleeders are leaders folk would fuck up their facts all over the place in the first day.
Only now everyone's got their own facts. If I wasn't retired, I'd be spending the first 24 hours screencapping and downloading as fast as possible because motherfuckers are not shy about lying, deleting, and banning to fit the narrative they want. Even as out of the loop as I was, there's some serious shit in the buffalo shooters manifesto that does not fit the narrative at all, and that's where I'll stop.
I got no solutions.
I wish I fucking did.
All I got are stoppers.
People smarter than me are out their busting their brains trying to figure out the hows and whys of those who take the step to do this without running into "best indicator of present behavior is past behavior" and I don't have any magic gunman cheat code to help there or any other kind of prevention.
All I know is what treatments work when it begins.
Along with a prayer it doesn't happen again.
And another that it's stopped swiftly by someones who know what I know.
The speed bumps and the patch ups.
Take care of yourselves out there.
But fuck it, it's my page.
For years now, one word has been in the back of my mind.
Despair.
A lot of people in a lot of demographics are convinced that as a society and a species, we're fucked. And this goes across generational lines. We see it in baby boomers finding the safety net they've paid into their entire lives has huge rips and is spread over a concrete floor. We see it in Gen X'ers laid off, told to go back to school and getting out to find they've been replaced by a cheaper millenial. We find millenials sold a serious bill of goods, smart enough to discover exactly how they're getting fucked by the man and finding a dozen or more clever ways to fuck back.
Our suicide rate has gone up 35% since the late 90's, according to the national institute of mental health.
And a tiny strain of cishet dudes seem determined to take a few with them when they go.
And one in a million choosing to go out in a hail of antiheroism is still 320 of them running around the country at any given moment.
And I have no idea, culturally, how to change or stop that.
The patriarchy, toxic masculinity, critical race theory... shit. I can see why so many parents are pissed off. Take a single demographic of kids and let them know from kindergarten on up that people like them are why the world is shit, and you get confused when they get pissed off and insist otherwise? Or have shitty self-esteem and can't talk among themselves except to egg on each other's hatred?
Is is any wonder why we got parents who believe transgenderism is an agenda being pushed instead of a state of being finally being allowed to openly flourish? If you teach a kid all their life that there's nothing worse than being a cishet white dude, then point out that there are other options, are you really surprised that some are going to fuck up the math in that equation?
I don't think these folks are right. Not even close.
But I can see where they're coming from.
We can laugh and joke about "carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white dude." But seriously, where did you think he would go? What did you think he would do?
Did you really think they would all just wander off somewhere else to die where you wouldn't have to look at or think about them?
Are we seriously surprised that white supremacy is on the rise? Or the ctrl-left and their vicious mobs? Show people a place where they'll be treated like people instead of garbage and they'll go along with a lot.
Show them nowhere to go, and where will they?
And that's without getting into the loads of spin and counter-spin happening with every shooting that actually makes the news. It used to be I'd wait the first 48, then 72 hours, to say a damn thing. Because all the bleeders are leaders folk would fuck up their facts all over the place in the first day.
Only now everyone's got their own facts. If I wasn't retired, I'd be spending the first 24 hours screencapping and downloading as fast as possible because motherfuckers are not shy about lying, deleting, and banning to fit the narrative they want. Even as out of the loop as I was, there's some serious shit in the buffalo shooters manifesto that does not fit the narrative at all, and that's where I'll stop.
I got no solutions.
I wish I fucking did.
All I got are stoppers.
People smarter than me are out their busting their brains trying to figure out the hows and whys of those who take the step to do this without running into "best indicator of present behavior is past behavior" and I don't have any magic gunman cheat code to help there or any other kind of prevention.
All I know is what treatments work when it begins.
Along with a prayer it doesn't happen again.
And another that it's stopped swiftly by someones who know what I know.
The speed bumps and the patch ups.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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