[silkepus]

This is an important conversation I think no society on earth should avoid.

I think it is so very important that people start to recognize these kinds of attacks as terrorist attacks. Like those who kidnap girls beause they want an education, or throw acid on women who reject them or commid mass murder because women "gave themselves" to other men, and all the people who are quick to dismiss them as one offs, rape prevention being about how girls dress and act rather than who rapes, this all feeds into the same pattern and the same culture. Terrorist attacks are designed to control your behaviour through fear. Maybe the reason people focus so much on how women act to prevent violence rather than why men commit these violent acts is because they dont want us (even on a subconsious level) to dress a certain way, do certain things or go to certain places?

And I agree on the mental health part too. People with mental health issues are not more violent than others. Its true that certain kinds of mental illnesses, if left untreated, can lead to psychotic incidents that can lead to serious violence, this is not the case here. This was premeditated, it was planned and it was planned by someone who had great access to mental health treatment and care. He was on medication and was recieving therapy.

What he also had was deeply misogynistic and racists views. I remember something from studying psychology in high school, and I wish I could find it, but basically it talked about how people commit mass murder against certain people (for example WW2). Step one is objectify and take away their individuality, view them as something to gain and take from (example slavery). Second step is to dehuminaze them, for example give them animalistic traits or consider them less evolved, until eventually it ends in violent acts. If you consider some people less than human it is easier to commit violence towards them.
And there is a huge subculture of men (and sadly also some women) who think like this about women (google mra and pua if you dare but I recommend that you dont), and it is also in lesser ways part of our mainstream culture. It may not seem like a big deal to objectify and dehuminaze women, but it is poisenous. It may not make anyone who doesnt want to kill someone, kill someone, but it will fuel people who have that potential and give them a place and support to grow these dangerous thoughts. If you read comments on his videoes and on twitter, many people excuse his behaviour or even defend him. We should never underestimate the danger of ideologies who dehumanise one group of people.


But I think there is a brightspot, namely the YesAllWomen tags. I think people are finally waking up to this and starting to connect the dots. The most uplifting part of reading through the yesallwomen hashtag has been reading all the people who say they finally get it.