Let's Call the Isla Vista Killings What They Were: Misogynist Extremism

[niyad]

Let's Call the Isla Vista Killings What They Were: Misogynist Extremism



On Friday night, a young man went on a massacre in Santa Barbara that left six other people dead and seven injured. In the hours before the massacre, the suspect, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, had uploaded a video to YouTube titled “Retribution”. In this, and in a 140-page manifesto published online, Rodger claimed that he was going to prove himself the ultimate “alpha male” and take revenge on all the “sluts” who had sexually rejected him:
"Tomorrow is the day of retribution, the day in which I will have my revenge . . . you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it. I’ll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you. You will finally see that I am in truth the superior one, the true alpha male.”

This is not the first time that women and unlucky male bystanders have been massacred by men claiming sexual frustration as justification for their violence. In 1989, 25-year-old Marc Lépine shot 28 people at the École Polytechnique in Quebec, Canada, claiming he was "fighting feminism". Fourteen women died. In 2009, a 48-year-old man called George Sodini walked into a gym in the Pittsburgh area and shot 13 women, three of whom died. His digital manifesto was a lengthier version of Rodger’s, vowing vengeance against the female sex for refusing to provide him with pleasure and comfort. Online misogynists approved.

“When men kill women, the underlying reason is almost always an unfulfilled psychosexual need . . . to men celibacy is walking death, and anything is justified in avoiding that miserable fate,” wrote “Roissy in DC” of the Pittsburgh killing, as reported by Jezebel in 2009. “At least it is implied that feminism is to blame and he is taking a last stand,” said another. “I had been waiting for this (almost thinking I had to do it myself) and I am impressed. Kudos."

The ideology behind these attacks - and there is ideology - is simple. Women owe men. Women, as a class, as a sex, owe men sex, love, attention, “adoration”, in Rodger’s words. We owe them respect and obedience, and our refusal to give it to them is to blame for their anger, their violence - stupid sluts get what they deserve. Most of all, there is an overpowering sense of rage and entitlement: the conviction that men have been denied a birthright of easy power.

. . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/26-4

[Hekate]

1. Kick Rec

[AgingAmerican]

2. If you read the 'manifesto'

you will find it goes a lot deeper and weirder than that. The guy was obviously cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

[Liberal Veteran]

14. Yep. Misogyny was a symptom. It wasn't the totality of his disease.

Everyone would like an easy answer, but I'm not sure we can make sense out of an extremely mentally ill thought process.

[Bonx]

21. But it's fun to apply easy answers and pat ourselves on the back

[dilby]

3. Ugh, so the 3 roommates were just unlucky bystanders.

Kid was crazy and had a lot of hate, it was not just towards women. He stabbed to death 3 men before he went off and shot 2 women and another man. The 3 men stabbed to death were not unlucky bystanders, to knife someone is to make it very personal.

[Uncle Joe]

41. I imagine that in his mind, kiling the men would make him an "alpha male." n/t

[bullwinkle428]

4. Will those who counter with "WASN'T MISOGYNIST CUZ 3 GUYS DIED" also

state that the recent killing at the Jewish center in K.C wasn't actually a hate crime based in anti-Semitism, as the three who died were not Jewish?

K&R.

[IronLionZion]

23. It is possible to have hatred for more than just one demographic. nt

[Jamastiene]

33. He was misogynist AND misandrist,

which means, he was still misogynist. That fact doesn't change.

[IronLionZion]

36. He seemed to hate everyone

all types of people. He was a deeply disturbed person to go on a killing spree like that. He even ran over random people with his car for no reason.

[Jamastiene]

39. He mentioned wanting to do that a long time before in his manifesto.

He wanted to run them down because they were "happy couples." He was completely obsessed with couples. If he saw a couple in his college classes, he would brood over it and then he would cancel the class. His parents even put him in an all boys' school, at his request, specifically because he could not stand being around girls even at a younger age. He kept up with each person he knew, at what age they lost their virginity, and obsessed over it. If they were younger than him and lost their virginity already, he would go into a rage over it. He even talked about killing his younger half brother that he actually liked, because his younger brother was popular and well adjusted and might end up getting a girlfriend in his teen years. He resented that he never lost his virginity in his teen years. So, he had planned to kill his younger half brother and his stepmother too. I wonder why he changed his mind on that. Maybe I shouldn't wonder. Trying to get into the mind of a person who thought fascism was good and wanted to ban all sex, make men sexless workers and put all women in a concentration camp and let them all starve while he watched, if he ever got to power to make his own government, is probably not a good idea. The dude was a young Hitler in the making, from what I saw of his manifesto. How he saw the world was very sadistic.

[redqueen]

5. ...

But if you think for one second, for one solitary second, that demanding tolerance for men as a group, that dismissing the reality of violence against women because not all men kill, not all men rape, if you think that’s more important than demanding justice for those who have been brutalised and murdered by those not all men, then you are part of the problem. You may not have pulled the trigger. You may not have raised your hand to a woman in your life. But you are part of the problem.

[niyad]

42. according to some, that statement is just plain wrong (no explanation as to why, but

we understand).

[SaltyBro]

6. White privilege played a major role as well.

[dilby]

10. Kid did not look white and is half Asian.

I don't think white privilege played any role, maybe wealth privilege.

[Bonx]

22. Well of course it did. That goes without saying in just about any situation.

Anywhere, anytime.

[mwrguy]

35. A huge role

You can't get away from it.

[KitSileya]

7. Not having had time to read the article -

just a drive-by comment from me.

What keeps going round and round in my mind is this: When the parents got the manifesto in their email in-boxes, they raced to try to stop him. He had been spewing his opinions on the internet for quite some time. I read that he had been active on several forums. He cannot have hidden his opinions so well that he passed for a normal young man with normal opinions on women. He sought out places where his opinions did not cause alarm. There are websites, many websites, frequented by people, many people (mostly men, I assume) where his opinions on women, his rampant misogyny, his dreams of killing women, of putting down "beta males," of believing women owed him sex are normal. Were not cause to start thinking about alerting the police.

There are plenty of men who agree with him. We've seen posters on DU excuse his action by saying it is understandable that he went insane if he didn't get sex. Those posters haven't been banned. That is blowing my mind right now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. It's impossible to know when to take internet postings seriously

DU takes things more seriously than most, I think. DU2 mods would, for instance, lock any thread which they thought might indicate someone would self harm, giving a number for a help line. This occasionally pissed people off, who would say "I can't believe you took that as anything like suicidal". And we also delete threats to harm people. But you find all kinds of bigoted, power-crazed opinions on many other forums, and the vast majority will be people who think they're being tough, but never do anything with their wild ideas. Alerting the police means the site administrators have to give up personal details, which they may well say the police would need a court order for. The police would have to take it pretty seriously to go to that length.

[1000words]

8. I think I'll wait for a proper psychological assessment ...

You know, from a qualified professional.

[Squinch]

28. Did you get a professional assessment before you formed an opinion about what motivated

Tiller's killer? Did you get a professional assessment before you formed an opinion about Zimmerman?

[RobertEarl]

9. War is misogyny

The sooner we change society's warmongering the sooner misogyny will be cured.

[redqueen]

12. War is a side effect of patriarchy.

The "necessity" of war is inextricably bound with the idea of men as protectors. It's a lie used to convince people to protect the interests of those at the top of the hierarchy.

Men who suggest negotiation are seen as less manly than those whose first response is violence.

The connections between patriarchy and war, and between patriarchy and misogyny, have been the written about by many.

Maybe someday more people will see the value in dismantling the patriarchy.

[Louisiana1976]

26. Well said.

[redqueen]

31. Thanks. I really hope the discussion moves forward from here.

It's more than just one mass murderer.

[uponit7771]

11. Some of the pick up sites should be hate sites IMHO. They think women or morally lower than man

... could ever be.

They degrade women of color because their "game" doesn't work on them mostly because they don't hold them in the same value level woc of do for themselves.

It's like a kkk site that's antagonistic against women

[redqueen]

13. Agreed. nt

[Scout]

17. perhaps you need glasses? n/t

[geek tragedy]

20. Perhaps you have been here before? nt

[Squinch]

29. Either that or he just doesn't know what the words mean.

[yuiyoshida]

18. K & R nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. Put that together with sociopathic narcissism and a gun...

you get a lot of dead people, a bunch of excuses, and even more explanations. Not to mention "should haves".

[JDPriestly]

24. If it was strictly misogynist, why did he stab and kill his roomates?

Does anyone know?

http://hollywoodlife.com/2014/05/25/elliot-rodger-roommates-names-police-identify/

I think he was just generally angry. If he had only been angry at women, surely he would not have killed his roommates.

He was angry at women, but he just wanted to kill. That is my take on this.

[redqueen]

30. Did you miss the part where he said women were the source of all unfairness in the world and they

should be exterminated?

[Jamastiene]

34. He killed the men because he thought he should be entitled to the girlfriends

and sex that they had. His hate was directed at women, but men were also part of his hatred, because they got to go out with and have sex with the women he could not. Most of his hatred was for women, but some of it was for the men who got to have sex. He only hated men who had had sex and not men who had not had sex. He hated all women, except his mother. At the end of his manifesto, though, his attitude toward her changed too and he even hated her too.

[JDPriestly]

37. So he was angry, hateful and his excuse was that he had no sexual relationship or girlfriend.

The anger is the key. He could have focused his anger on anything he couldn't have or anything that made his life less perfect than he though he should have it.

[Jamastiene]

40. He was absolutely obsessed with blonde girls and kept up with all his friends

If a friend lost their virginity and was younger than him, he went into a long brooding spell over it, then went into a rage over it. He kept up with each person who lost their virginity around him while he was growing up (I don't think he grew up emotionally at all, but physically) and hated them for it. He would hate anyone who had sex who was younger than him. If they were the same age, he was still pissed off about it. He was pissed off because he said women should notice him and come to him. He wouldn't approach a girl. So, how he ever expected to get a date is beyond my understanding. He seemed to think they should notice him and come to him. He could barely even say hi to a girl without running away afterward.

He wanted to rise to power and ban sex. He thought fascist government was a good idea. He was a Hitler in the making, from what I saw in his manifesto. He actually said he wanted to put most women in a concentration camp and personally watch them starve to death, put men to work building and inventing things, and he would ban sex entirely for anyone, and only reproduce the human species through artificial insemination, with a few women he would keep alive for breeding purposes. The rest of the women, he would starve to death in his concentration camp he wanted to have. Throughout his manifesto, he alternated between sounding like a new Hitler in the making or some Republicans in his less extreme phase, but the same ideology. He was very conservative, sadistic, obsessed with everyone else's virginity and his own, and refused to be around girls any more than he absolutely had to. Yet, he could not figure out why he could not get a date, have a girlfriend, or have sex.

[TheFrenchRazor]

25. seems like a pretty good description. nt

[Louisiana1976]

27. Excellent post. K&R

[Jamastiene]

32. K&R

[noiretextatique]

38. terrorism

Is the appropriate description: misogynistic terrorism.