When I first heard about Elliot Rodger, I had very mixed feelings, and honestly I still do. I condemn what he did, but people often ignore the long chain of isolation, humiliation, mental deterioration, and social failure that can lead someone into such a dark mindset.
I didn't think much of him, until I read his manifesto 3x over, and strongly empathised with his circumstances, and felt bad for him. Society will hear about his retribution, but disregard everything else. It's like a kid shooting up a school - what is the cause behind the effect? They will blame the victim, yet encourage the bully. You don't kick a scared cat, and be angry when it scratches you. To stop people from doing such an act, you have to fix society first.
A lot of people only focus on the final act, but rarely ask what creates a person who reaches that point in the first place. Bullying, ostracism, untreated mental health issues, and social alienation can seriously distort someone over time.
But I will also add, Elliot did not bring us into good light onto our community at all. His actions popularised the "incel" term to relate to terrorism - making people resent our community. But wouldn't matter anyways as the media would have portrayed us in a negative light some other way regardless. But that aside, I cannot empathise with him more, reading his manifesto can be a spitting image of myself at times.
I memory of him marking the 12th year since his death, I made 2 of his favourite vanilla latte's, and did a 2 hour stream of .is ER posting/reading - whilst listening to his favourite songs and playlist.
I didn't think much of him, until I read his manifesto 3x over, and strongly empathised with his circumstances, and felt bad for him. Society will hear about his retribution, but disregard everything else. It's like a kid shooting up a school - what is the cause behind the effect? They will blame the victim, yet encourage the bully. You don't kick a scared cat, and be angry when it scratches you. To stop people from doing such an act, you have to fix society first.
A lot of people only focus on the final act, but rarely ask what creates a person who reaches that point in the first place. Bullying, ostracism, untreated mental health issues, and social alienation can seriously distort someone over time.
But I will also add, Elliot did not bring us into good light onto our community at all. His actions popularised the "incel" term to relate to terrorism - making people resent our community. But wouldn't matter anyways as the media would have portrayed us in a negative light some other way regardless. But that aside, I cannot empathise with him more, reading his manifesto can be a spitting image of myself at times.
I memory of him marking the 12th year since his death, I made 2 of his favourite vanilla latte's, and did a 2 hour stream of .is ER posting/reading - whilst listening to his favourite songs and playlist.
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