A Brief Reflection on Two Kinds of “Political” Violence

I realize few people have the patience for this kind of nuance, but I think there’s an important difference between truly-political violence (think Luigi Mangione) and these other mass shooters who kill themselves in the act.

The former is trying to make a statement or change the world or incite a movement. They publish a manifesto and often align themselves with some existing (even if nebulous) brand. These types have always been around and they have, often, played center-stage in shaping world events. Think Ted Kaczynski or Gavrilo Princip.

The latter are mentally deranged nihilists who literally don’t want to see any fruits of their violent work. They want to take the world down with them and, obviously, have no regard for the future, their friends, their families, or their ideological allies, even if they express political sentiments (usually alongside other obvious signs of psychic instability). Think Robin Westman or Nikolas Cruz.

Call me nit-picky, but I think differentiating between these two motivations is an important part of slowing this violent trend. I also think it’s part of being a humane and solutions-focused society.

We can suppress political extremism all we want (defund ANTIFA, or something?), and it might help. But dealing with suicidal people who hate whatever, to them, seems like the opposite of the chaos in their heads really has no root in partisan politics. These people are no different than 15 year-old school shooters or the guy who, an hour south of my home, shot a random police officer in the head 24 times last week.

The ICE shooter in Dallas today was clearly one of these people. He had logged more than 10,000 hours playing video games over the past few years. Ken Klippenstein reported today that Josh’s friends said he “was an edgelord who wanted someone to get blamed. I think he tried his best to write something goofy … to rile people up. He was into politics only in the 4chan sense – contrarian, provocative, boundary-pushing for laughs, not conviction.”

It’s one thing to hate (and kill) the “other side” for ideological reasons. It’s another thing to hate (and kill) the political and social powers that be during an act of suicide. Trying to prevent these things from happening probably entails different approaches, and lumping them together needlessly enflames anxiety, anger, and all-around chaos, and probably directs a lot of energy toward actions that won’t help as much as other things would.

At the very least, I hope we can all admit that taking the alleged “politics” of suicidal, porn- and video game-addicted teens seriously only drags us all down into the muck and lets these people literally control our society.