Apparently, one of Infowars' contributors does not like my suggestion that a crisis in whiteness and white masculinity is related to mass shootings and the recent violence committed by Elliot Rodger. As I often say, if I am a cog in some great liberal conspiracy that is doing the work of the Global Power Elite where the hell is my check? I must be doing something wrong.
An excerpt:
As to be expected, we can find even no shortage of ludicrous political theories on mass murder at Daily Kos, a forum created by a known CIA operative.
Chauncey de Vega (not his real name) wrote over the weekend that “white privilege” is in fact a “white pathology” endangering society. “Like Adam Lanza, this would appear to be a case of aggrieved white male entitlement syndrome, one which has led to a murderous and tragic outcome” de Vega explained after the shooting attributed to Elliot Rodger, the son of a Hollywood director.
After Sandy Hook, the anonymous purveyor of the We Are Respectable Negroes blog expanded his racial distillation on violence, which is essentially a modified Marxian theory on class:
Once more the luxury of being white in the United States is the freedom to have your violent deeds be a reflection of a personal failing, as opposed to a cultural or racial one. On a practical level, White privilege is a set of taken for granted and unearned advantages in life. On an abstract level, white privilege also removes certain questions from consideration regarding such matters as social deviancy and crime. As we saw with James Holmes, and now today with Adam Lanza, an unwillingness to ask those hard questions about gun violence, white masculinity, and crime will only continue to hurt all of us across the colorline.
In order to maintain the current level of demagoguery and push a political agenda predicated on race and gender, the left is compelled to exploit isolated instances of societal violence. Connecting mass shooting incidents to mental illness – obvious in the case of Elliot Rodger and, from the small amount of information at our disposal, Adam Lanza – is unacceptable for the left because it undermines its ideological approach to societal issues.
Chauncey de Vega dismisses the mental illness explanation because it is counterproductive to the theory that most social problems are the result of racism and sexism and the illusory claim skin color affords privilege as it did when W. E. B. Du Bois made his argument in 1935. Minus this outdated or similar predicate, the left is unable to call for further government intervention in social affairs and the creation of preferred classes of people who receive transferred wealth through confiscation at gunpoint.A person can chew bubblegum and walk at the same time. We should be talking about inequality, Austerity, neoliberalism, and the Global Power Elite as the context for a crisis in white masculinity and as integral to a global system of White Supremacy. Not difficult.
What is the most bizarre, wrong, myopic, or just piss poor and under-theorized claim(s) that you have seen about the Elliot Rodger murder spree?
15 comments:
I don't know most bizarre. It seems people are trying to avoid talking/thinking about him. "He was crazy." "this was tragic." not real good stuff.
Aggrieved white male entitlement is pretty spot on.
Reading 12 Years a Slave, Northup's master Tibeats wanted to kill him for making him look like a fool.
Duels by pistol were also common in the US, Hamilton was killed this way. Lynchings over winking at a white woman, killing pregnant women who were the husband of a man accused of a crime.
East St. Louis riots where they set homes on fire and killed people as they were fleeing.
American masculinity demands satisfying the male ego when it is damaged through violence.
Lots of dismissal, especially in regards to gender and violence. Never mind race. Critical self-reflection is difficult. Asking a whole society--or at least half of it--to think about masculinity as a type of hegemonic power? Good luck.
the folk in that infowars comment thread are UNHINGED.
Bad publicity is still good publicity right? You said Fox News brought up your name?
The whole site is unhinged. Better CD wading through that than me.
With each AWM mass murder the pathology of the right is writ large in the media. Its frustrating to Jones et. al. that they can't bury the connection between racism, misogyny, and gun violence beneath a mountain of propaganda.
Perhaps slightly OT, but your last line reminds me of a story that I think just came out yesterday, about the motivation for Aaron Hernandez allegedly killing two guys was that one of them had bumped his drink in the club.
I think Info Wars's reaction to your post illustrates the saying that you can know a person by the enemies he or she makes.
They do not realize it, but they compliment you and validate your point.
So let me get this straight:
The global elite satan worshiping mind manipulating new world order conspiracy insiders will commit any act of evil to seize control of the world...except racism. Masturbate while covered in the blood of children in front of an obelisk, sure. But, racist no way. Apparently there's none of those old evils in a new world order.
racism, hell no!
white folks cured themselves of racism when they killed Martin Luther King... I mean passed the Civil Rights Act in 1968.
I worked at a bar in my undergrad that very much encouraged college students, especially fraternities. They had a college night on wednesdays and saturdays were also a huge night.
fights. all the time. People thrown through windows. fighting in the street. boys will be boys.
I don't think this is a bizarre theory, but I'm getting tired of white feminists talking ONLY about gender violence. Three of Elliot Rodgers victims were Asian MEN and one was a Hispanic male. Why do they only focus on the white women who were killed? Those feminists unknowingly reinforce your theories about racism.
My 2 cents.
I am commenting here kind of late, but I have been reading all your posts and some other blogs. It is causing an unusual amount of comment even for a mass shooting and I have just been pondering some of the things. I basically don't watch or read "mainstream" news coverage, so I'm not sure what aspects they have or have not been discussing, but I can easily believe they are ignoring the things you are talking about just the way you said. I read some feminist blogs and they are definitely talking about the misogyny aspect and objecting to dismissing Rodger as "merely" mentally ill.
As to your question above about what the most bizarre, etc. theory or explanation out there is, there is one that hasn't been mentioned much, except on Fox "News" and some even less reputable type venues that I would like to touch on.
First, I will say that I think you are completely correct about how this fits into white supremacy and privilege and white racist models of masculinity. The factor I am thinking of would be in addition to, not instead of, everything you have mentioned. I'm afraid it's going to sound kind of "out there" and I've hesitated to post on it anywhere else. It brings to mind your question, "what reasonable person would not want to excommunicate them from
their community and affinity group?" I guess I'm going to speculate about the possibility that he belonged to one of mine.
To put it somewhat crudely, Elliot Rodger pinged my gaydar (not really in a positive way). This came from the second I watched a bit of his "final" video from your link. I was so put off that I didn't watch it all then, but I went back and watched the whole thing and then watched some of his other, earlier, videos. Of course, as my screen name indicates, I am a rather old polar bear, and my gaydar is rusty and a lot of things have changed, socially and culturally, since I was involved in my own struggles with sexual orientation going on 40 years ago.
Now, it's true that gay men do not all have certain mannerisms, speech patterns, etc. as it is also true that not all men who exhibit such patterns are gay. But seriously -- to me, it comes off as really strong here. I'm pretty sure he actually uses the word "fabulous" to describe himself at one point. He says several times that "I desire girls, blonde white girls," etc. What straight guy says stuff like that? I'm not convinced that he actually wanted sex with white, or any other kind, of women. I think he just wanted to want it.
So, I think it might be one more element to add to an already toxic stew. I've read bits, but not the whole of his 140-page "manifesto" -- although I am kind of tempted to, it sounds like a long slog -- so there's probably a lot I'm missing. Some commenters have indicated that he displayed sociopathic tendencies from early on, and there are theories that people can be born with those essentially hardwired into the brain. If you start with that, add in the divorce and father abandonment, the racial identity issue, and possible self-loathing homophobia and then stir all of that to simmer in our racist, white supremacist, misogynistic cultural programming, you get an explosion waiting to happen.
If this is too far out or outrageous, feel free to redact it and I won't be upset. This is an aspect that nobody much has mentioned, other than the Fox News "analyst." It's kind of been bugging me, and I thought this might be a receptive place to put it out there.
I think the argument that he was gay is reaching. I haven't seen much evidence of that in his writings. It's not as though he spoke out about gay men being disgusting to him or became a Republican politician.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for white adolescents, second only to accidents. This sort of thing is like revenge-suicide. I know as a teen getting through problems with self-image and self-hating, alienation, and other emotions like depression and anger was difficult.
Elliot Rodger's personal misogyny, racism, self-image problems and the type of life he wanted for himself, but couldn't obtain (yet, dude, just chill out and wait and don't be such a fuck head, it can always get better) was just overwhelming in his mind. He, like so many others, just wanted to show the world what he was made of.
He was truly narcissistic. I think. and tapped into that bitterness as a remedy for his own short comings.
Oh Chauncey.
You just pick at their sores. They can't stand it that you can read them for filth with your words.
Now that is some real talk...
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