So another mass shooting by some screwed-up white man who decided the answer to his personal problems was to kill women, preferably Asian women. Another Tuesday in America.
With the caveat that anything I say about Robert Aaron Long, the alleged Atlanta spa killer, is speculation on my part — misogyny and racism certainly seem apparent in his actions. I have also read today about the way conservative evangelicalism foments a “purity culture” that could have driven Long to want to kill Asian women who work at massage parlors. (See this analysis at Religion Dispatches.) According to this theory, Long’s extremely screwed up notions about sex and sexuality led him to see himself as a victim of his own desires, and in his mind he was justified in killing women who were the objects of those desires. Because heaven forbid he should take any responsibility for himself.
But, as I said, that’s all speculation. The more important question right now is how are we responding to the Atlanta mass shooting?
Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Department, showed us What Not to Do. “While hedging a bit, Baker told reporters there was no immediate reason to think that the White shooter had a racial motivation,” writes Margaret Sullivan at WaPo. “Why not? Well, because that’s what the suspect told police, Baker said at a news conference Wednesday.”
This was followed by The Words That Will Live in Infamy: “He was pretty much fed up and at the end of his rope, and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Baker said. We learned later that Baker had a history of posting anti-Asian imagery on Facebook.
Let us be clear: Screwed-up individuals are always the last people in the world to recognize and understand their own screwiness. For this reason, they don’t get to decide what their deeper motivations are. That’s up to courts and maybe some consulting psychologists. And this applies to both Long and Baker.
For another profile in WTF?, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) spoke today at a House hearing on on violence and discrimination against Asian-Americans. His words are an exercise in stepping in every cow pie in the pasture. He began well enough — “Victims of race-based violence and their families deserve justice,” he said. And then he should have stopped. But he didn’t.
“I would also suggest that the victims of cartels moving illegal aliens deserve justice. The American citizens in south Texas, they are getting absolutely decimated by what’s happening at the southern border deserve justice.”
The conservative congressman continued: “The victims of rioting and looting in the street… last summer deserve justice. We believe in justice.”
And then came an admiring reference to lynchings, a violent and public form of vigilante action that most often targeted people of color: “There’s an old saying in Texas about ‘find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree.’ You know, we take justice very seriously. And we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That’s what we believe.”
So, in other words, in a hearing about violence against Asian-Americans we can’t just stay focused on Asian-Americans and why they might be suffering from a spike in violence against them. This is a common way to dismiss the victimization of particular groups, by reminding us that a lot of other people get victimized. And all lives matter. Ending on a ode to lynching was an especially insensitive touch.
Meanwhile, we still don’t know the identities of all the victims. Those we do know: Delaina Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Atlanta; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; and Daoyou Feng, 44. One man, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, survived.
See also Atlanta spa killings stir even more fear among Asian Americans at Axios.
Capt. Jay Baker of the Cherokee County, Georgia, Sheriff’s Department is an alumni of Erik Prince's Blackwater. I am guessing that Cherokee County considers a few years as a mercenary is good training to become one of their officers.
Capt. Baker is also a businessman. He has/had a business selling racist t-shirts with Chinese as one of the targets.
Dog knows I've had some really, really, no good, bad, horribly terribly wrong days is my life. As I'm sure we've all had.
But you know what thought never occurred to me during those times? Yes, I had thoughts of just running away and disappearing. And yes, a couple of times I even thought for a second or two of self-elimination. But depriving the world of my presence seemed like a cruel thing to do to the rest of you. 😉
Now understand, this was all back in the day when my hormones ran hotter, and things seemed more… I don't know… More serious and precarious – if that makes any sense.
But the one thing that never occurred to me, was to blame my problems with certain young women on all women.
And as a result, the thought of killing random women never entered my brain. Hell, the thought of killing a certain woman never crossed my mind either. Or of killing anyone, male or female. Hell, I don't even like killing bugs! Even spiders, if I can relocate them instead of squishing them!
I blamed myself for a breakup, or screw-up.
The fact that the cop and the congressman said the stupid and vulgar things they said tells you everything you need to know about systemic racism.
Yes, Officer, the kid had a bad day. But it's telling that your first thought was to feel some degree of sympathy for the killer, and not the victims.
And you, Congressman Chip Roy (just his name alone makes me thinks he's a XXXXXLT asshole), going for a rope reference, is a look that's also quite revealing.
My thoughts go out to the people killed, and their family and friends.
Now, can we pass some common sense (or, uncommon sense for KKKonservatives!) gun laws?!?!?
I'm less concerned about Long, or his defenders: the wingnuts in the police, or even the wingnuts in Congress.
All of this came from a leader whose words gave permission and encouraged somebody to act out – the stochastic terrorist. If not Aaron Long then Joe Blow in some other town, USA. It doesn't matter who. What matters is the source.
Sorting out any of these lesser characters' psychology + circumstances is like dealing with effects, not causes.
Oh, and maha, glad to hear you're ok.
And yeah, I hear what you're saying. I sometimes feel kinda burned-out and logy.
I also feel like I was held hostage for four years by an inept and stupid Bond villain and his bumble-fuck minions.
Oy…
Re: the evangelicals, and noisy Christians (please remember, there are a lot of good Christians who are quietly trying to do good), I remember getting puzzled by something.
I saw the notion that "an attractive woman is a stumbling block" – that is, something that might tempt a man into sin – was attacked as misogynistic. I naively wondered why. I mean, for *me*, if I feel a sexual attraction, if that's anyone's problem, it's my problem. If I, for some reason, said that I found attractive women to be a stumbling block, it would be like an alcoholic admitting that he *really* likes a bit of whiskey after sex (or after supper, for that matter), and wow, it's really hard to have to skip that, but, of course, it has to be done, he can't stop with a single drink after a romp in the sheets. It means something like "show me a touch of sympathy – not too much, not like slipping up is okay – but affirm that I have this challenge, and help me feel a bit better for having to fight it, and win, each and every time."
It didn't even occur to me that it meant any woman who is seen as attractive can be shamed for being a "stumbling block" for these men… but in retrospect, I feel like a fool for not realizing it immediately. I keep forgetting that the noisy Christians are generally not the ones who try to follow the teachings of the man they profess to be their messiah, but oh, do many of them like mammon!
“Simply Stunning.” This is how a Secretary of the Interior is supposed to look
Americans are obsessed with sex and strange religions. Well that is hearsay, At least for me. Someone said it to me years ago attributing this notion to a nameless European. This spate of shootings, as have many other oddities, brings this saying back into my mind. This is one of those, only in America, kind of news events. We have some unique good things that are only in America or with roots in America we pride ourselves in, and then we have this other perverted, heinous, immoral stuff too.
I would go with this problem being related to our cultural obsession with sex and strange religions, and might even add a pinch of gun obsession and certainly a recent obsession with white supremacy notions and just plain xenophobia and hate. A little time, effort, and resources toward a saner nation seems much in order. A lot is just plain broken.