The Texas Mall Shooter's Radicalization Is No Surprise

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-mall-shooters-radicalization-is-no-surprise

No paywall
https://archive.is/RF5n3

On the evening of Jan. 29, 2017, a 27-year old opened fire in a mosque in Quebec City, killing six people and injuring 19. The shooter was apprehended rather than being killed, allowing a rare glimpse into the potential motivation for such a senseless and racially charged mass killing.

After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was going to allow more refugees in the country, fueled by a fear and hatred of Muslims poured on him by right-wing pundits like Tucker Carlson and ex-Klansman David Duke, the shooter took matters into his own hands and committed an unspeakable hate crime.

Although he previously had a few traffic violations, he had no meaningful criminal record and wasn’t known to the police. But investigations revealed the shooter was a white nationalist who had been heavily radicalized online by multiple far-right figures. The commentator he most searched for was Ben Shapiro, a hugely popular right-wing podcaster who previously tweeted statements such as “Israelis like to build. Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage.”

This past Saturday, May 6, a gunman opened fire outside of a mall in Texas, slaughtering eight people, including children. (The shooter was killed by police at the scene.) The sheer brutality of this massacre was captured profoundly in the statement of a witness who tried to find a pulse on a little girl—only to turn her over and reveal that she had no face.

*snip*

[sanatanadharma]

1. Mass murders are not caused by radicalization

American mass murders are not caused by radicalization. Mass murder is the result of "normalizing" gun use.

Mass murder is America is defended as the 'normal' we must accept. That idea is radical!

[malaise]

2. THIS n/t

[Hortensis]

3. Some mass murders are done for political reasons, and yes

radicalization is normally heavily involved. Radicalization and radicalizing incitement of hate and fear of target groups through social media are being found in most of these cases, both with people with terrorism aims and those who just want to kill.

I doubt, though, that experts in radicalization and extremism would quarrel with your statement that it's radical to claim (the surge in) mass murder is a norm we have to accept. Or at least that the statement is part of the process of radicalizing its intended population.