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Las Vegas: Worst Mass Shooting in US History

Sad but kind of true:
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I must be talking to different white people than I am. I hear dramatically different things.

For example I have heard the NYC, Vegas and TX shooters described as both terrorists and mentally ill (usually not mutually exclusive ) . Thoughts and prayers sent out to all three shootings. It’s not so divided based on the ethnicity or religion of the shooter as often portrayed.

Sure the above problem exists but it’s not one I hear regularly and I live in a fairly conservative area of the US.
 
To be clear I think all of these things, or at least the vast majority, have their roots in some form of mental illness, regardless of race, gender identity, religion, whatever. I do not harbor any delusions that if we had better mental health care we would avoid literally every single one, but to ignore the root cause, which lies most often in mental issues, is to cut off our noses to spite our faces. We can harp on controlling guns and everything else but we are doing ourselves as a society a grave disservice if we do nothing to address the looming mental health crisis in this country. Just my 2 cents.
 
Stoked said:
I must be talking to different white people than I am. I hear dramatically different things.

For example I have heard the NYC, Vegas and TX shooters described as both terrorists and mentally ill (usually not mutually exclusive ) . Thoughts and prayers sent out to all three shootings. It’s not so divided based on the ethnicity or religion of the shooter as often portrayed.

Sure the above problem exists but it’s not one I hear regularly and I live in a fairly conservative area of the US.
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I can't remember a single case of a non-white murderer that people excused for having mental illness. Similarly, I don't recall a single white shooter who apparently didn't have mental illness.
 
Siro said:
I can't remember a single case of a non-white murderer that people excused for having mental illness. Similarly, I don't recall a single white shooter who apparently didn't have mental illness.
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Micah Xavier Johnson, Omar Mateen and Spencer Hight to name the ones off the top of my head.
 
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Siro said:
I can't remember a single case of a non-white murderer that people excused for having mental illness. Similarly, I don't recall a single white shooter who apparently didn't have mental illness.
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I hear them condemned that way regularly. Oh well.

**** all of them and **** their reasons for murdering.
 
Archie Moses said:
Micah Xavier Johnson and Spencer Hight.
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Don't know them, and I was being rhetorical. What I'm saying is, whenever we have a mass shooting or some such act by a white person, people will automatically jump to the mental illness conclusion. And that's justified most of the time. People don't view similar crimes by non-whites the same way. It's always the ideology, violent culture, or maybe it's how these people are. That's why the Muslim guy in NYC is just an animal, while this new shooting shows the importance of mental health.

Even in cases where mental illness is clearly present, like the guy who shot up the gay bar, people still found it more comfortable to establish an ideological link.
 
Siro said:
Don't know them, and I was being rhetorical. What I'm saying is, whenever we have a mass shooting or some such act by a white person, people will automatically jump to the mental illness conclusion. And that's justified most of the time. People don't view similar crimes by non-whites the same way. It's always the ideology, violent culture, or maybe it's how these people are. That's why the Muslim guy in NYC is just an animal, while this new shooting shows the importance of mental health.

Even in cases where mental illness is clearly present, like the guy who shot up the gay bar, people still found it more comfortable to establish an ideological link.
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After mass shootings, I think people want to know why they did it, and will something like this happen again so we can prevent it. That's why, again for me, the focus turns to religion, nationality, mental illness, medication, guns, etc.
I personally don't see people just saying **** like thoughts and prayers outside of Facebook posts (I don't judge those who say that either and I'm not religious.) In real life, I hear people disgusted, angry, worried and saddened - regardless of who the shooter was. They just want answers and I think that's fair.
The media, however, will politicize and click-bait the **** out of it. Almost like their job or bias depended on it.
 
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