January 14, 2011

"This is my genocide school."

A Jared Loughner video.
If the student is unable to locate the external universe, the student is unable to locate the internal universe....
Insane? Or manufacturing evidence of insanity?

MORE: From WaPo:
Far from the undisciplined, semi-delusional dropout described by friends, Jared Loughner appeared to be a young man with laser focus when it came to planning and carrying out a shooting spree outside a strip-mall Safeway last week, local law enforcement authorities alleged Friday....

38 comments:

David said...

manufacturing. classic manipulative sociopath.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Execute him soon after a trial.

Anonymous said...

Poll: Obama defeats Palin in landslide, 56-30. http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978923444

Keep writing those pro-Palin posts to wake up all of America to this tremendous woman, Ann! Rofl.

Revenant said...

Far from the undisciplined, semi-delusional dropout described by friends, Jared Loughner appeared to be a young man with laser focus when it came to planning and carrying out a shooting

Delusions don't prevent rational thought. They just cause rational thought to yield bizarre results, because the person involved is reasoning based on what amounts to faulty data.

Revenant said...

Poll: Obama defeats Palin in landslide, 56-30.

Er, did Palin win the Republican nomination when I wasn't looking?

I'm Full of Soup said...

Akeitay:

It is delusional to think Althouse's posting here is about Obama vs. Palin. Please report to your nearest FBI office for questioning.

Penny said...

Loughner...

One step over the line...

Wince said...

Did anyone else hear the police have still photos he left off at Walmart for processing the night before the shooting.

Picures of him posing in a red g-string with his pistol pointing at his bare ass.

I think he's nuts but not legally insane; he knew the consequences of his actions.

Gabriel Hanna said...

Ignore the troll...

Back to the topic, crazy people can be quite rational, if what you really mean is LOGICAL. Perfect logic with nonsensical premises yields craziness--this is what Lewis Carroll's books were about.

He planned logically to do something evil for purposes that make no sense.


Did we forget his syllogisms on YouTube? I didn't check them all but they seemed to be valid. The reason they sound crazy is because he clearly thought they meant something profound, when they are trivial.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

You really are obsessed with this item, aren't you?

I guess that's a lawyer's way of pretending the shame away.

Check out the vibrant "free speech" of which Lady Althouse is so enamored! Must be those "Second Amendment Remedies" at work.

What a wonderful republic.

Keep on defending the indefensible.

Peano said...

Far from the undisciplined, semi-delusional dropout described by friends, Jared Loughner appeared to be a young man with laser focus when it came to planning and carrying out a shooting spree outside a strip-mall ....

The writers assume that a crazy person isn't capable of forming a coherent plan and carrying it out. They're mistaken.

For nearly two years (while in grad school) I was on the clinical staff in the intensive treatment unit of a psychiatric hospital (the hub of the psychiatry program at an Ivy League medical school).

I recall one patient who escaped by diverting staff attention and climbing into the small dumbwaiter that hoisted meals from the kitchen to the unit. He rode the dumbwaiter to the basement, got out, triggered a fire alarm to further divert attention, then calmly walked out of the hospital and into the woods.

Judging by his ability to devise and carry out such a plan, one might suppose he was sane. But he did it because "the voices" told him to. Therein lay his craziness.

I saw other patients carry out similarly rational plans -- because they were under orders as secret agents of the CIA (a favorite among schizophrenics), or because the people on television were watching them and planning to kill them, so they had to escape, etc., etc.

Was Loughner crazy? I don't know. But I do know that you can't answer that question by his ability to carry out an intricate plan to kill people.

Unknown said...

The kid is far enough out there. Most would-be assassins fixate on their target. One can be a complete slob to the exclusion of almost everything, but be meticulous on his/her obsession.

OCD types, f'rinstance.

The Crack Emcee said...

Revenant nailed it:

Delusions don't prevent rational thought. They just cause rational thought to yield bizarre results, because the person involved is reasoning based on what amounts to faulty data.

Which NewAge is. And this:

If the student is unable to locate the external universe, the student is unable to locate the internal universe....

...is definitely NewAge. It's not "crazy" in the sense everyone's describing it (skitzo) but as Revenant, his girlfriend, and I am. The man's acting from faulty information.

The tragedy, to me, is the almost willful desire to ignore the truth of this, in favor of political or therapeutic talk. Like Oprah talking to Rielle Hunter, and few acknowledging it was the pot calling the kettle black (since it was Oprah's philosophy of "make your own truth" that Rielle was using) the same mental slight of hand is being worked here, making almost everyone discussing this look crazy in the same manner as the shooter:

They're all working from faulty data.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Does this mean the death nail of MySpace?

maybe that's a question for another time.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There goes Crack being judgemental again..

I'm just kidding Crack..

Hey Crack if you ever in the NYC area to play let us/me know.. love to come and see you.

Calypso Facto said...

"a young man with laser focus when it came to planning and carrying out a shooting spree" ...

...while he wandered from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart looking for ammo...

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Guys, I have a great idea. Let's say the most outrageous, violent directives possible, in the hopes that someone crazy enough will carry them out!

And then afterwards, let's gravedance all over the bodies and grievously injured as a way to help make our freedoms feel more cherished!

Won't that be wonderful?

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

So sorry I missed the hundreds of comments earlier re: the right to be violent. Sounds like a hoot.

This is the part where the right officially jumped the shark.

Pastafarian said...

Gravedance? You mean like using a dead man's image as your avatar, while ridiculing the appearance of his teeth with your shitty snark screen name? (Which, by the way, on my display, runs into the avatar, rendering it only semi-legible...)

Calypso Facto said...

Oh we ALL loved the freedom to hate during the Bush years, C4DH!!!!
Followed by the push to televise the return of coffins from Iraq, so we could gloat! F'n awesome, man. That's what you meant, right?

Penny said...

"Was Loughner crazy? I don't know."

Doesn't matter if he was crazy.

What matters is that Loughner went one step over the line.

Anonymous said...

Conservatives 4 whatevs:

You sound panicky. Your narrative coming apart. Shame.

Randy said...

Delusions don't prevent rational thought. They just cause rational thought to yield bizarre results, because the person involved is reasoning based on what amounts to faulty data.

Bears repeating. Thanks, Revenant!

Pastafarian said...

Penny, I think the song goes "One toke over the line."

DADvocate said...

Excuse me. How much planning did it take to carry out that shooting.

Buy a gun.

Drive to the shopping center.

Start shooting.

Wow. That's about as much planning as it takes to go to the bathroom.

Pastafarian said...

Dadvocate -- yeah, he's a criminal mastermind. A regular Professor Moriarty. You left out the rest -- wound primary target, kill non-targets indiscriminately, get captured, pose for perhaps the most embarrassing mug shot of all time.

The Crack Emcee said...

Lem,

Hey Crack if you ever in the NYC area to play let us/me know.. love to come and see you.

What are you talking about? You're on the list already.

The Crack Emcee said...

Pasta,

Gravedance? You mean like using a dead man's image as your avatar, while ridiculing the appearance of his teeth with your shitty snark screen name? (Which, by the way, on my display, runs into the avatar, rendering it only semi-legible...)

That's how it looks on mine, too - the name running into the avatar, I mean. he can ridicule Buckley all he wants:

The memory of WFB can take it.

Unknown said...

I agree with David. I'm beginning to smell a rat.

His parents and his home are weird, according to his friends. This usually does not cause schizophrenia but psychopaths, I think.

His behavior is all a little too classic, don't you think?

Harry said...

Pastafarian said...pose for perhaps the most embarrassing mug shot of all time.

I think that mugshot came off exactly the way he wanted it to. He imprinted his image on our minds as the quintessential psycho. He reminds me of the Yellow Bastard character in "Sin City.

Is there any information on when and why he shaved his hair and eyebrows? It seems he wanted to maximize the whacko look. Bob Geldorf did something similar in "The Wall."

DADvocate said...

yeah, he's a criminal mastermind. A regular Professor Moriarty.

Sorry. I over-simplified, barely.

Loughner was/is quite delusional. The WaPo seems to think if your delusional, you can't function. They're wrong. He was laser focused, obsessed even, on acting on his delusions. The "plan" was about as simple as a plan gets.

Jon said...

Poll: Obama defeats Palin in landslide, 56-30. http://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978923444

That poll is junk: It also shows Obama beating Romney 51-38 and Huckabee 50-38. In a Dem wave year, Obama beat McCain by only 7 points, he is not going to win by 12 points or more in 2012.

TMink said...

Insanity and stupidity are not related. Many schizophrenics are very organized and cogent, they just respond to imaginary sensory inputs or base their choices on flawed assumptions.

Trey

TMink said...

Jeremy has another psuedonym. Joy.

Trey

paul a'barge said...

... a young man with laser focus when it came to planning and carrying out a shooting spree ...

In which case all that suggested gun control is going to do ... what?

Remind me again.

madAsHell said...

I don't think we can make sense of any of his actions.

I mean....who in the hell has wherewithal to compose a YouTube video (equipment, time, money), but sends his Kodachrome to WalGreens?

I don't think there is a connect-the-dots motive here.

DADvocate said...

Insanity and stupidity are not related.

Quite right. The first paranoid schizo I worked with had a tested IQ of 145. I think that put him in the top 1/2 of 1 percent of the population.

Anonymous said...

Was Loughner crazy? I don't know. But I do know that you can't answer that question by his ability to carry out an intricate plan to kill people.

This.

wv: ashis All fall down!