Wednesday, January 2, 2013

A Conversation with Professor Ann Little About the Newtown Massacre, Adam Lanza, America's Gun Culture, and the Puzzle of White Masculinity

I hope that the New Year was restful and celebratory. Before Christmas, there was a momentary "national conversation" about gun violence in the aftermath of the Newtown Massacre. Curiously, but not surprising, said moment of introspection about how America's gun culture eats it youth has fallen off of the national radar as the pundit classes have moved on to other matters. There will be other mass shootings; we will have said "national conversation" again; nothing will be done given the NRA's murder hold on the American people.

As I explored in a series of posts, the central question regarding the Gun Right is how these mass shootings do not lead to any serious exploration of the intersection(s) of Whiteness, White Masculinity, and mass gun violence. White men commit an overwhelming amount of the mass shootings in the United States. Yet, except for a few outliers, there is no sustained effort to engage the obvious puzzle: if white men are killing people, often by the dozens--in murders where they are the offenders at twice their rate in the general population--why are so many in the news media afraid and hostile to basic questions about "white crime?"

In my effort to explore this question, I reached out to two great scholars of American history and culture. Both kindly agreed to participate in WARN's podcast series.

Our first guest is Professor Ann Little, author of the book Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England, who writes over at the great website Historiann. In our podcast, she does a wonderful job of setting up our conversation by offering a wonderful, rich, and insightful perspective on the Newtown Massacre and the colonial era roots of the United States' (near pathological) love of guns in the present

Dr. Little was so very generous with her time. We covered a great amount of material in this conversation and offered up a necessary, and to this point, very much lacking historical context for the Newtown Massacre, and the fear by many in the pundit classes to even discuss white masculinity and gun violence.

This was a real treat. I was so glad to be able to bring this dialogue to the readers of We Are Respectable Negroes and those who follow our podcast series.

I do hope you enjoy the conversation.



Hosted by Kiwi6 file hosting.

 Download mp3 - Free Music Hosting.


2:59 As a historian and scholar of America and gun culture, what were your first thoughts about the Newtown Massacre?
6:18 How do we begin to think broadly about masculinity and gun culture in the United States, and how it helps us to understand Adam Lanza's murder spree?
11:22 The gun and white male citizenship in colonial America and the Founding
15:00 Is the magical thinking of Conservatives typified by the gun control debate? What are some of the regional differences in regards to gun culture in the United States? How is this surprising (or not)?
23:55 An open letter to white men. Beginning to think about White masculinity, Whiteness and gun violence
29:25 How do people respond to conversations where whiteness and masculinity are interrogated and challenged?
34:40 Is White Masculinity a story of historical continuity or change? Is White Heterosexual Masculinity static?
48:27 More context for avoiding a critical interrogation of Whiteness and gun violence: White Mediocrity and the subsidization of Whiteness vs. the myth of American Meritocracy
56:14 Historical myopia, the luxury of being white and historical memory, and the allure of believing the "White Lies" of American history
62:14 What is your "blogging story?" How does blogging fit into your academic career?
64:03 The failure of academics to be able to effectively communicate with "regular" folks who are also smart like them
69:20 Academic writing's impact vs the audience and impact of blogging

38 comments:

Marc McKenzie said...

Hope your New Year was a good one, Chauncey, and all the best for 2013. Downloaded the interview, and will make sure to listen to it during the day.

"Curiously, but not surprising, said moment of introspection about how America's gun culture eats it youth has fallen off of the national radar as the pundit classes have moved on to other matters."

Sad, but so very, very true.

Invisible Man said...

Brilliant podcast! And it's interesting to see how deeply white male supremacists Chicago is. From the whole disco sucks movement to Gay Pride. I use to have to attend this parade as part of my civil service job and I hated it. Although it's suppose to be about progressive gender identity it it was about celebrating gay white men. My friends who think I was a closet homophobe because it was only years later that I could put my finger on it, why that parade was worse than the Irish parade. Now we have the whole teamster mustache and Beard culture and then retro mad men. These in my mind are all asserting while male supremacy.

CNu said...

why are so many in the news media afraid and hostile to basic questions about "white crime?"

Because the very minute a neglected and improperly medicated black boy with access to firearms goes on a shooting spree, the absurdity of the premise will be made simply and abundantly clear?

chaunceydevega said...

@Marc. Hope your year is good. Tell me what you think of the convo.

@IM. Our culture is hybridized and mulatto in fact. Funny, many are upset by that fact.

@Cnu. when that happens it will be a national conversation about black male criminality--actually, not a new conversation just continuing the one that has been going on for centuries.

Black Sage said...

Make no mistake about it, the establishment of the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution is thoroughly grounded in racism and what was then perceived as a threat to the status quo, (e.g. rich White slave holders), just like it is today, (White technocrats/Wall Street criminals/Banksta-Gangstas)). When Whites indentured servants completed their term of forced labor, they were free, but still without political, social or financial power. Free Whites and Native Americans were the threat of that time period. Therefore, as a buffer of some sort, rich slave holders gave free Whites something to do as a distraction to keep them occupied as opposed to hanging out near the plantations as free people without any thing to do and perhaps to keep them from collaborating with still enslaved Blacks to formulate a rebellion scheme.

Free Whites were then hired as protectors but also to grab a hold of land from the Indians for themselves while in the process as well. Additionally, another job of free Whites was to assist in the capture of escaped slaves. When free Whites went out on the plains, they raped, robbed, stole land and massacred Native Americans with impunity. What made these incidents so easy for Whites to conduct un-impedede was that Native Americans were without firearms. Even firther, There are at least 113 recorded incidents of massacres of American Indians. Only the Man above have knowledge of those un-recorded massacres.

Obviously, the indiscriminate killing of normal people by Europeans has metastasized and therefore become inherent amongst them. The same sickness continues to this very day.

Therefore, when you hear the NRA and other gun-hugging groups speak of the Amerikkkan government as being in the process of confiscating their weapons, it’s nothing but high drama for CNN, Fox and the other cabal controlled television networks. The reality of it is that the sense of imperilment amongst White men in particular is growing. At the forefront, are the perceived lost by Whites of social and political power. This holds true even more so with that brown, halfrican President occupying THEIR White House. The sad thing about all of this is that the vast majority of these recent massacres, Whites have been targeted and therefore the victims most often, even their own children at Newtown.

They’re beginning to turn the gun on themselves. A state of karma at work of sort. Indeed, the sickness continues.

nomad said...

not buying the premise.
that's the program 'they' want to run: beware white berserkers.
and that's cause they see them as an obstacle to the burgeoning police state.

it don't pass the smell test.
just like the killing of Bin Laden and 911.

it stinks of psy-op.

CNu said...

@Cnu. when that happens it will be a national conversation about black male criminality--actually, not a new conversation just continuing the one that has been going on for centuries.

Stupid speculative "counterfactuals" like this only serve to further undermine the value of the term nerd when persistently misused by negroe proxies for feminists.

Ghetto negroe proxy for feminists would be a more accurate description.

CNu said...

that's the program 'they' want to run: beware white berserkers.
and that's cause they see them as an obstacle to the burgeoning police state


even.a.broken.clock.is.right.twice.a.day...,

Black Sage said...

@Nomad, I agree with you. Imperiled White maculinity and crazies like Lanza is our empire's reasoning for more gun control. Yes indeed, this Amerikkkan government is slowly but surely slumbering towards police statism.

nomad said...

I have to throw it out there. Lanza may not have been crazy. Nor the Clackamas shooter. We can not, given the depravity of the shadow government, rule out mind controlled assassins. Or patsies. Sorry. Not buying the official narrative.

We are not in Kansas anymore, folks. 911 was our portal to the Land of Orwell.

CNu said...

lol, nah, you still squarely in Kansas, and don't let the conspiranoid tendencies derail the basic demonstrable gist.

SSRI inhibitors, and a disrupted regimen of the same, reliably and predictably produce violent psychotic breaks.

Everything else is easily marginalized conversation...,

chaunceydevega said...

cnu? stupid counterfactuals? you opened up the idea of a black person committing this type of spree murder. so i don't get the rejection of the premise.

also, do you really believe that the conversation would be identical if a person of color, arab, or muslim had committed this type of murder rampage? if so, the weight of historical evidence about the racialized narratives surrounding crime is not on your side.

@nomad. my butt is itchy is that obama's fault? more seriously: "it stinks of psy-op."

if you see every problem as a nail then your solution will always be a hammer. if you see conspiracies everywhere are they really conspiracies anymore? what is your litmus test of a conspiracy? and is there a secret command bunker somewhere where the nra and the nsa and the illuminati have a calender with all of their events--including neat push pins and twine--all laid out? Inquiring minds want to know.

CNu said...

you opened up the idea of a black person committing this type of spree murder. so i don't get the rejection of the premise.

I opened up the inevitability of a black child with access to firepower being psychologically broken by the misapplication of neurotoxic SSRI's.

It's not an "if", it's a when.

do you really believe that the conversation would be identical if a person of color, arab, or muslim had committed this type of murder rampage?

There is no mainstream conversation concerning the damn near indisputable cause of these rampages. There is, on the other hand, a politically and ideologically motivated propaganda campaign underway whose endgame agenda consists in disarming that % of the population most likely to resist further bankster legal violence, and, most likely to violently enforce popular efforts to hold these parasitic criminals to account for their indisputable criminal misdeeds.

CNu said...

CDV, which part of the Icelandic model of democratic resistance to banksterish clampdown don't you understand?

Which part of Stephen Obama's complicity in implementing IMF style clampdown on the taxpaying electorate to serve the expected interest extractions of the banksters don't you understand?

nomad said...

back later, but let me just say that if u guys think that we're still in Kansas (not you, CD) and that conspiracy has not been the gummint's MO since Pearl Harbor, the Wizard is doing a fine job.

Historiann said...

Thanks for the interview and the link, Chauncey--it was great talking to you.

nomad said...

As a 'conspiracy theorist'(gtfo) I'm in good company. Ike warned us about the shadow government and its covert acts. And so did this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYgLLahHv8

nomad said...

"also, do you really believe that the conversation would be identical if a person of color, arab, or muslim had committed this type of murder rampage?"

errr...guys?...this already happened:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_sniper_attacks

CNu said...

Twice..., and in the other instance, the motive was very explictly "kill all the white people"

nomad said...

Well, as you know, CNu, black racism is rampant: "The racial double standard and mounting anger of black liberals should be a wake-up call for whites. This administration wants to tax and strip whites of their wealth, repeal Second Amendment rights and trample on free speech. White Americans are the only group standing between the rising tide of hate and the destruction of this great country.

Black racism will only get worse as people like Jamie Foxx are emboldened by their “lord and savior.” It’s time for whites to speak out against racists of all stripes while the freedom to do so still exists!"

Racial polarization goes before the engineered conflagration. New World Order out of racial chaos.

PS: Bet you thought that was written by a white guy. BWWAAAHAHAHAHA...
http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_32724.php

chaunceydevega said...

@historiann. thank you for participating. please do share it on your site too and with folks who will be interested. it is making its rounds. along with the 2nd part of the interview I think we did some good stuff here that folks will learn from.

CNu said...

Almost forgot about this brotha and his comparatively recent mass shooting close to home...,

chaunceydevega said...

@nomad. did you take a bath after reading jessie lee patterson's effort to channel steven from django unchained?

CNu said...

cnu? stupid counterfactuals? you opened up the idea of a black person committing this type of spree murder. so i don't get the rejection of the premise.

also, do you really believe that the conversation would be identical if a person of color, arab, or muslim had committed this type of murder rampage? if so, the weight of historical evidence about the racialized narratives surrounding crime is not on your side.


The weight of the three most recent black mass killings, (and there may be others I've forgotten because they were dramatically under reported) is quite clearly on my side, not only that, but the explicitly racist motivations for the killings were under reported to the extent that they don't even stand out in recollection as racially motivated black on white mass killings.

Not only was my gut reaction to your premise about white masculinity and mass killings correct, my proposed causal basis for the same phenomenon correct, i.e., SSRI induced psychotic breaks, and my response to your supposition about how black racially motivated mass killings of white folks HAS BEEN treated entirely correct.

I think the technical term for this is CHECKMATE CDV.

Time to discard the "proxy for perennially aggrieved white feminists steeze" and step up to the steely-eyed, masculine black nerd steeze instead.

That garrison state political programme NEVER serves its agents and executors well in the long run.

CNu said...

WWTMOBTD?

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. checkmate? no. not playing that game.

i do think you raise some interesting points. in regards to the cases you mentioned are they substantively different than the ones with white shooters in terms of victim profile, timing, where they occurred, etc.?

also, to my central premise, if black men were twice their percentage relative to the population among those who commit mass murder, do you think the response would be different? could this be a function of black killers who kill other black people are simply part of a culture where black life is undervalued so who cares?

you are making some interesting claims, but they cannot overcome what we know about racialized crime narratives in the U.S. or in how crime coverage is racialized. there is a ton of empirics on those realities. you may be onto something with the drug use issue. absolutely. but be careful of seeking out monocausal explanations for complex social issues. it is alluring, but usually incomplete.

CNu said...

also, to my central premise, if black men were twice their percentage relative to the population among those who commit mass murder, do you think the response would be different?

The more interesting and onto question revolves down to "how many racially motivated mass murders can you pin on white boys over the past two decades"?

Because I find your central premise re "white masculinity" patently absurd, there's no need to entertain the supposition.

Let's try and stick to facts, shall we?

Young white males, who predominate among mass shooters, have been disproportionately targetted for medicalization and pharmaceutical ablation of behaviors deemed parentally and institutionally unmanageable.

Should young black males become the targets of pharmaceutical lobotomy, you'll find corresponding mass murder percentages. You can take that to the bank!

you are making some interesting claims, but they cannot overcome what we know about racialized crime narratives in the U.S. or in how crime coverage is racialized.

lol, your handwaving under challenge is worse than Cobb's.

I've given you two of the three most recent examples of which I'm aware, all of which were racially motivated (Staymad dropped the DC sniper example)

The facts of how these events were covered are self-evident. The racial angle was not only not emphasized, it was profoundly underemphasized. Not suppositions, matters of fact.

but be careful of seeking out monocausal explanations for complex social issues. it is alluring, but usually incomplete.

lol, the only thing conspicuously incomplete at this juncture is your preposterous correlation and even more tortured causation for mass killing that you've assigned to whiteness and maleness.

Shake off the identity politics and elevate your game brah...,

chaunceydevega said...

@Cnu. I am not Cobb, I actually appeal to the facts and research. I think you are onto something. But again, to the empirics of crime coverage and how blacks are overrepresented in news coverage as criminals, the weight of the evidence does not coalesce--yet--in support of your claims of "equal coverage."

There is a great book called the black image in the white mind that does some great work on context analysis in this regard.

Again, you may be right, especially with psychologizing of white criminals and white people generally--Foucault does as you like to say "yoeman's work" there i thinking about the social context of questions of sanity and insanity. A real classic.

Just because you are arguing against the standing data, i.e. that black mass shooters are somehow not subject to racialized crime narratives and/or are a special class of black criminals not subject to moral panics, does not mean that you are wrong per se.

We need to work through the puzzle with more data. Why would black people be subjected to discriminatory and incorrect representations of crime and violence in the mass media, and in this one particular type of crime, race is underemphasized. Very interesting puzzle.

There is nothing "absurd" about asking basic questions about whiteness and masculinity in regards to the obvious re: white men and mass shootings. Given your very basic expectations of human culture and interpersonal violence--and how it is legitimated--I would think you would be very sympathetic to such an obvious claim.

CNu said...

Just because you are arguing against the standing data, i.e. that black mass shooters are somehow not subject to racialized crime narratives and/or are a special class of black criminals not subject to moral panics, does not mean that you are wrong per se.

Having been the only one to present any data wrt mass killings, black, white, or otherwise, thus far..., on what basis do you purport that my arguments run contrary to "standing data"?

Why would black people be subjected to discriminatory and incorrect representations of crime and violence in the mass media, and in this one particular type of crime, race is underemphasized.

Um..., unless you're referring to early 20th century giant negroe stories, I'm not at all sure what you're talking about wrt discriminatory and incorrect representations of crime and violence in the mass media. Your little ignant cousins in Chicago still routinely going homicidally buckwild. As for the narrative underemphasis in the mass murders I've called out, why would I have to characterize it any differently than you've characterized the underemphasis on "white masculinity" in the white on white mass murders?

Mass murders are deemed acts of insanity, psychotic breaks, and narratively - dealt with sans ideological freighting.

There is nothing "absurd" about asking basic questions about whiteness and masculinity in regards to the obvious re: white men and mass shootings.

Sure there is.

Given the mass media treatment of racially motivated black on white mass killings in the past 20 years, it doesn't even rise to the level of racist quid pro quo, rather, it's a bit of tasteless, unproductive, pre-emptive racist one-upsmanship, period.

Given your very basic expectations of human culture and interpersonal violence--and how it is legitimated--I would think you would be very sympathetic to such an obvious claim.

To the contrary.

1. I accept that we live in a culture of violence

2. America has always been a culture of violence.

3. Training and practice in the armed and unarmed combat arts are necessary.

4. Mastery goes a long way toward making you free.

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. there is nothing tasteless at all about asking basic questions about identity and violence. it is called being intellectually honest.

the univ of michigan and others have done research on crime and racial representation on the evening news. they have repeatedly found that blacks are more likely to be shown as criminals in the news--more so than the actual percentage of black defendants, whites are much less likely to be shown in a statistically representative ways, i.e. whites are under-represented in terms of their actual percentage of criminals in the general population, blacks are much more likely to be shown doing perp walks (whites are much more likely to be shown in suits or in "neutral" photos. etc. etc. etc.

These representations are a product of a society that is deeply racist and reinforces racial biases against all black people. As I said there are some pretty good books that document the subject.

Black "masculinity" is one of the most misunderstood concepts in American culture. American popular culture is based on the long fantasy of white negroes channeling some type of misunderstood and often grotesque version of blackness and black masculinity.

Again, given your habit of direct engagement, why run away from the obvious fact that white men commit twice as many mass shootings relative to their population? As I said before, this is one hell of a puzzle. Why have contempt for the black poor and underclass but a type of defensiveness or deflection for whiteness and white masculinity? What is your investment in defending the latter?

And as I said before, how can you explain racial undercounting in one case, but over exposure in another re: racialized crime narratives? Puzzles are good things. Let's try to work through some hypotheses and how we would go about testing them.

Social phenomenon are complex; they usually are not fully explained by monocausal arguments, be it ssi's, lead in water, violent video games, a bad economy, space aliens, microwave ovens, family structures, etc.

IF those ign'ts are my "cousins" they are yours too given I have little tolerance for their behavior.

CNu said...

there is nothing tasteless at all about asking basic questions about identity and violence. it is called being intellectually honest.

Double-standard much?

This is the type of thinly disguised drag that Rushton and the racial realists were always quick to don.

Why have contempt for the black poor and underclass but a type of defensiveness or deflection for whiteness and white masculinity? What is your investment in defending the latter?

lol, nice try.

I'm not defending anything. I'm pointing out your clumsy, unscientific attempt at causation/correlation - which clumsy attempt you find highly objectionable when done to black folk.

I've handed you the cause/correlation data, (SSRI induced psychotic breaks) do with it what you will, but stop pretending that your premise holds water as a serious line of questioning, rather than the simple tit-for-tat it was always intended to be.

Now, if your whole point was to suggest that media coverage is inherently biased, and that the pursuit of racial angles on mass killings is improper, then I believe that the three black-on-white mass killings put to rest the notion that the media pursues racial angles on mass killings. It appears that the media has performed better than you've asserted. Which leaves the reality-based crowd just looking at you, making something up out of whole cloth and running hither thither when your feet are held to the fire and that cloth you've woven is shown to be nakedly transparent.

Anonymous said...

The media may or may not pursue racial angles on mass killings, but it certainly pursues racial angles on crime overall- the point I think Chauncey was making overall. Because crime in inner cities is often made racial (FOX News anyone?), why not do the same for crimes overwhelming committed in white places? I find this unconstructive, but I see where Chauncey is going with this.

BTW Chauncey, what happened to your white criminal of the week post? I honestly felt that it was more constructive because everyone knew it was meant to be a parody.

CNu said...

The media may or may not pursue racial angles on mass killings, but it certainly pursues racial angles on crime overall- the point I think Chauncey was making overall.

To that contrary, the mass media appears in largest measure to have adopted an unwritten policy of comparative neutrality in its reporting of crime.

Because crime in inner cities is often made racial (FOX News anyone?), why not do the same for crimes overwhelming committed in white places?

1. Fox News is NOT the mass media, it is a comparatively lone voice in the backdrop of a much larger and far more homogeneous media establishment.

2. Crime in the inner cities, and more specifically, homicide in the inner cities, IS most often racial.

3. The homogeneous media establishment turns a comparatively blind eye toward this fact and consequently substantially suppresses the culture of shame, and broad moral and cultural opprobrium which should attend to the ridiculously disproportionate rate at which young black men are gunning down other young black men.

One might argue that the media's lack of racial emphasis in these stories serves to aid and abet the continuing devastation being wrought in the inner cities, which devastation doesn't merely effect non-civilian enemy combatants, but which also exerts a powerfully harmful and disruptive influence on public education which is constantly beset by racialized gang/crime drama on a day-to-day basis.

There are two stories that richly deserve to be blown up and put under a collective media microscope;

1. Nationwide biker-gang drug distribution networks as a predominantly white and extremely violent manifestation of organized crime reaching from coast to coast and from our southern border well up into Canada.

2. Mexican street and prison gang violence with ties to Mexican drug cartels and involvement in the ongoing civil war raging in the nearly collapsed nationstate on our southern border.

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. again, i agree with much of what you say. but again, the facts regarding how stories are framed, the emphasis on certain types of crime over others, and how blacks are over-represented in crime coverage has been clearly demonstrated over and over again by those who study the news media, framing, crime, and race. as I said, check out some of the research in the area. It complements some of what you are saying and problematizes other aspects.

chaunceydevega said...

@cnu. "I'm not defending anything. I'm pointing out your clumsy, unscientific attempt at causation/correlation - which clumsy attempt you find highly objectionable when done to black folk."

Again, white masculinity is real. Whiteness is real. White men are vastly over-represented among a certain type of killer. Why the anxiety about discussing it?

2. "I've handed you the cause/correlation data, (SSRI induced psychotic breaks) do with it what you will, but stop pretending that your premise holds water as a serious line of questioning, rather than the simple tit-for-tat it was always intended to be."

I think that is interesting. Again, I am immediately weary of single variable explanations. Just a methodological prior.

"there is nothing tasteless at all about asking basic questions about identity and violence. it is called being intellectually honest.

Double-standard much?

"This is the type of thinly disguised drag that Rushton and the racial realists were always quick to don"

Come no. Please be serious. I have never had any issue with asking hard questions about race and public policy. Those folks follow a type of path dependence which is intellectually dishonest and reasons backwards. Blacks are savage subhumans so all information has to be misrepresented to fit that conclusion. You may disagree with me, but that is not a game I have every played. I ask hard questions about lots of issues. I do not engage in games or reasoning backwards from the dependent variable to come up with a logic I find agreeable.

I think you are spot on in much of what you are observing in regards to crime and drugs. But, you want a simple answer that isn't there. You are also very weary of asking hard questions about white masculinity and gun violence. We all have our respective priors and commitments. We can simply agree to disagree. As I said above, do check out some of what we actually know, empirically, about race and media coverage of crime.

nomad said...

Back to the psy-op aspect. Where would you go to find actors to participate?. Who u gon call?

http://crisisactors.org/

CNu said...

Those folks follow a type of path dependence which is intellectually dishonest and reasons backwards. Blacks are savage subhumans so all information has to be misrepresented to fit that conclusion.

Hmm..., that's not what I've observed them to do, that's not for controversial example, what I ever observed the late David Mills trying to do.

Whether that's what they believe, and I suspect that it IS what most of them believe along with penis envy and a bunch of other neurotic drivel, they're actually a far sight more sophisticated than that. Their denials of ill motivation and claims of intellectual honesty and intrepid investigation for the public good are very entertaining to follow.

All of it hinges on the meaning of IQ tests and their newfangled rehash of Vril termed simply "G".

I do not engage in games or reasoning backwards from the dependent variable to come up with a logic I find agreeable.

Hmm..., I ain't know about that, the link between mass shootings and heteronormative white masculinity seems downright Rushtonian in many regards.

I think you are spot on in much of what you are observing in regards to crime and drugs. But, you want a simple answer that isn't there. You are also very weary of asking hard questions about white masculinity and gun violence.

lol, I want the correct answer to the specific question, which in this case is mass killings.

As for the general topic, I have no questions about masculinity and violence, period.

To me, the more interesting question, the question not being asked in the mass media is, how much has lethal shooting increased in states with lax concealed carry programs like florida, how much wild, wild west, Florentine duelist culture is now creeping back into vogue - but is being terminologically concealed.

White on white concealed carry shootouts are taking place in increasing numbers, but they're not classified as homicides, rather, under the existing laws in places like Florida, (stand your ground) they're instances of self-defence bordering on wild west "fair fight" standards - talk about some King Schultz unchained...,

CNu said...

Again, white masculinity is real. Whiteness is real. White men are vastly over-represented among a certain type of killer. Why the anxiety about discussing it?

Umm..., because real nerds look for real root causes and eschew path dependencies which are intellectually dishonest and reason backwards.

Experts often suggest that crime resembles an epidemic. But what kind? Karl Smith, a professor of public economics and government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a good rule of thumb for categorizing epidemics: If it spreads along lines of communication, he says, the cause is information. Think Bieber Fever. If it travels along major transportation routes, the cause is microbial. Think influenza. If it spreads out like a fan, the cause is an insect. Think malaria. But if it's everywhere, all at once—as both the rise of crime in the '60s and '70s and the fall of crime in the '90s seemed to be—the cause is a molecule.

A molecule? That sounds crazy. What molecule could be responsible for a steep and sudden decline in violent crime?

Well, here's one possibility: Pb(CH2CH3)4.


Oh, and about those white wild wild west CCW shootouts, those are on the increase, think "road rage while packing heat", despite the reduction in overall environmental lead contamination and consequent diminishment of generalized levels of male violence.