The Sick and The Twisted

Medical intervention being a scarcer commodity than your everyday weaponry: the most recent mass murder.

Unhindered access to lethal technology makes it so easy for a very sick person to enact the drama in his head; the real monsters are the twisted profiteers.

Mass murderers don't kill people would have as much logic as the NRA's intimidation slogan. For that matter, the amount of firepower available is rather odd, considering how Obama has been grabbed all the guns.

Charles Pierce: "It's Memorial Day And The Country Is At War With Itself"

... This is a country in which citizens make war on each other because that's what they are being encouraged to do. Someone finds it more profitable to maintain the war than they do to stop it.

It is a guerrilla war, fought on darkened streets against children in hoodies brandishing Skittles, against children in cars who play their music too loudly, against evanescent fears and the ghosts born of ancient prejudice and cultivated dread. Its battles are sudden but, sadly, no longer surprising. The whole country is the battleground now because cynical people have made it so. ...

Along with their own efforts, the profiteers have the benefit of a culture adept at riling up the unstable. While the source of blame is "culture," or any other distraction the Right pounces upon, there are many things awry in the realm of culture and worth discussion.

Steve M: here—

Pickup artist culture describes the way men and women relate to one another the way Fox News depicts the interaction of political forces in America. In each case, Both PUA culture and Fox News tell their followers that there's no place for compromise and negotiation, because the enemy (women for PUA, liberals and Democrats for Fox) are embodiments of pure evil who have all the power because they've rigged the game. In each case, the enemy can't be reasoned with -- it must be conquered. ...

And here—

... this hold-on-to-your-dream, anyone-can-have-it-all, all-it-takes-is-one-person idea pervades American culture, in a lot of different forms. It feed the cult of the entrepreneur. It feeds the gun culture, because every politicized gunner thinks he has the potential to be a lone-wolf hero thwarting a crime or overthrowing a tyrannical government.

I don't believe there's a direct connection between the killings and any fictional work -- Rodger, in his writings and videos, doesn't seem to invoke movies or books. But the pickup artist subculture Rodger became fixated on has something in common with a lot of the works I've mentioned. The notion of PUA culture is that with enough hard work (what the PUA people call "game"), you can fulfill your dreams. That's classic power-of-positive-thinking Americanism. It's also similar to the libertarian dream -- it's not just that there are ubermenschen in the world, it's that whoever has sufficient will can become one, and at that point you're entitled to whatever you get.

A bereaved father's bravery, in comparing his loss to that of Sandy Hook parents—

Those parents lost little kids. It's bad enough I lost my 20 year old. I had 20 years with my son. That's all I'll ever have. Those people lost their little 6- and 7-year-olds. How do you think they feel? And who's talking to them now? Who's doing anything for them now?

Cue instant attack on this victim.