After I’d read that the Trump shooter had looked at photos of Trump and Biden and their upcoming speech locations and the fact that the shooter was a lone wolf and bullied at school, I read part of the Wikipedia page about the Uvalde shooting . The Uvalde shooter also was a lone wolf and also used an AR-15. My thoughts right now are like this :

  • The lone wolfs probably have suffered badly from an inferior complex due to bullying and alienation
    and wanted to do something which made them feel historically “significant” instead of feeling completely"useless".

  • The US appears to have a pretty dominant machismo culture (Think about GOP with their MAGA, it is humiliating for women and minority groups) and so-called snowflakes are looked down upon. This is very bad for everyone involved.

  • Cops are afraid of citizens having an AR-15 on them.

What can be done ?

  • Should vote with our wallets ? Like stop using exTwitter now that Elon Musk has publicly shown support for Trump ? (On Mastodon I’ve seen many comments about people that did cancel their subscription to the New York Times and that seemed to have some effect. Finally the NYT is posting more critical articles about Trump and Project 2025.)

  • Should people talk more often to each other and avoid alienation ? In books of Gabor Maté he talks about the fact that most people in society look down on hard drug addicts but these junkies are still human beings. And the same goes for homeless people and refugees of course. They are still human beings. No need to automatically view them as inferior beings, right ?

  • Should we limit our screen time on mobile phones ? Are we silently producing a sort of zombies that cannot think for themselves anymore ? Should tech companies be obliged to make phone apps less addictive ?

  • Should mobile phone usage during class in school be forbidden ?

  • Should we promote exchange projects as part of cultural improvement ? Like say 50 people from Congo Republic in Africa swap places with 50 people from California for 1 year, and then after swapping back talk about the experiences.

  • Should we in our education system or during leisure time educate people more on what happened in World War II and what we can still learn from that ? For example the book by Umberto Eco about how to recognize a fascist ( Ur-Fascism ) could be used.

    • Should bullying at school be pro-actively approached and make victims and bullies talk to each other under professional supervision ?
    • piefedderatedd@piefed.socialOP
      1·
      4 months ago

      Hell, no. Don’t put the responsibility on victims to help their bullies/abusers.

      I see. In Europe things are different.
      Here is an example of a school which has anti-bullying policy :
      https://www.eeb3.eu/app/uploads/2022/03/B3-Anti-bullying-Policy-EN.pdf

      • Our Anti-Bullying Policy is based on the principles that:
      • Each individual must be treated with respect
      • Bullying is never an individual problem, as it degrades the atmosphere at school.
      • Bullying is a problem that can be addressed.
      • All members of the school community (school staff, parents and pupils) are called upon to prevent and
        react against all forms of bullying.
      • All members of the school community must have the opportunity to be listened to, respected and
        supported.

      Also, it’s not always a clear cut bully/victim dynamic. My school had a loner gun-loving asocial student. He probably thought he was bullied. In reality he made people, especially the girls, super uncomfortable and he was avoided. No one really made fun of him, never physically attacked him, never pulled pranks on him, just avoided him. Not inviting his friendship is not bullying. He needed professional help.

      Forcing me, for example, to talk to him and pretend to be his friend would have been bad for both of us. He needed counseling/therapy, which I was not and still am not qualified to provide, and I needed safe friends I could trust.

      Okay. That is a lone wolf example, it is not about active bullying.

      I consider bullying to be violent in general.
      Even words can be damaging for some people.
      The whole “boys don’t cry” is a tragedy in my opinion and has done a lot of emotional damage already.

      And reading this today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_L._Trump#Personal_life I would not be at all
      surprised if Donald Trump would benefit from long time therapy.

  • dandelion
    2·
    4 months ago

    Most classrooms already have policies about not using your mobile phone, as in general students are supposed to be paying attention to lectures. Students are already sneaking their phone usage during class. I don’t see the connection between mobile phone use and violence, though. I don’t think the Trump or Uvalde shootings have anything to do with phones, social media, etc.

    I think it makes sense to cancel subscriptions to NYT and to likewise boycott Twitter, but I think that’s just about being a critical consumer in general. It requires collective action and mass movements to make a difference with something like that.

    Alienation is a problem in the U.S. and maybe the West in general. Obviously junkies, the unhoused, and refugees are not inferior people, they are merely unfortunate people. Our society does stigmatize and dehumanize them, however. Random and unprovoked violence against all three of those groups are more common. But this is also true for women, racial minorities, sexual minorities, etc. Did you have thoughts on how to repair the alienation, dehumanization, etc.?

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    Many of us including me had as hard a time as those two assassins, but you don’t see any of us taking it out on world leaders.