• @electrodynamica@mander.xyz
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      132 years ago

      Just to be clear, the reason this kind of stuff happens in USA is because over half of our citizens can’t afford rent and food even when working full time, but our media gaslights our citizens by painting this rosy picture and making it seem like it must be your fault if you can’t make ends meet. It makes people go insane, violently insane.

      We are a collapsed empire.

      • comfy
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        52 years ago

        Yes and no.

        Yes, those horrible conditions aggravate this kind of thing, but the shooter’s manifesto (with entire sections copied and pasted verbatim from the Christchurch shooter’s manifesto) makes their own motivations clear. This was an intentional, premeditated, (poorly) targeted attack. They weren’t doing this because they didn’t make ends meet, they were doing this to attack other racial groups who they thought to be ‘committing genocide’ against ‘white’ people by reproducing faster.

        In this case, some more primary issues are a lack of critical thinking skill, misinformation campaigns and online echo chambers (which they named when describing their radicalization process). Other factors obviously matter and more importantly can lead to these primary issues I mentioned (such as the education system and social factors preventing or encouraging this).

        A relevant video to this incident: “The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor leads to violence.” peertube / youtube and its sequel

      • @gabor@lemmy.ml
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        52 years ago

        Oh no I completely agree with you guys. However, the easier access to guns increases the body count significantly when such attacks happen. I do understand your point that it shouldn’t distract from some other issues as you mention. However, for me living in DE in Europe, US gun laws are completely insane. As I would imagine Germany having no speed limit on the Motorway is for the rest of the world 🤷‍♂️

        • @pingveno@lemmy.ml
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          32 years ago

          Speaking of Germany, you recently had a mass attack on a train. Difference was this was a knife attack and six people were stabbed, no fatalities. Attacks are just so much harder when you can’t easily acquire a highly lethal weapon, but here in the US there is a huge group that sees the possession massive arsenal as a vital right that must be prioritized when voting. Individual states can’t even really provide effective increases in prohibitions because a shooter can just driver over state lines like this guy did.

        • @angarabebesi@lemmy.ml
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          82 years ago

          I don’t think it’s just the guns. It’s the combination of guns with a society that produces a lot of sad people.

          • @electrodynamica@mander.xyz
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            72 years ago

            Exactly. Guns are everywhere in most of the world (especially countries with dysfunctional governments and economies, like USA). The USA media would like you to believe the guns are the problem so you don’t focus on the dysfunctional government and economy.

            • @Zerush@lemmy.ml
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              32 years ago

              Everywhere in the world people can buy guns, even in the EU, but the difference is, in the EU to buy a weapon, you must acquire a license and you only get this with a prior psychological examination, background check, proof of the need to carry a weapon (hunters, security personnel, etc.) In the US any subnormal can get a gun by presenting their ID at the store, or buy it somewhere on the street without any control.