The Mess

The two pieces below - from the Huffington Post, admittedly conservative - give
a broad picture of the conditions and thinking that are making events like the
Texas killings last week-end, possible. The underlying issues they raise are
central to political discourse in the US: the freedom to buy arms, the freedom
of a platform such as 8chan to exist, the freedom to express outrageous poitical
views about population and the environment. But it is also true that population
pressure and environmental degradation go hand in hand, and that the US is
becoming a heaven for climate refugees. Indeed, that border wall the courts are
currently 'enabling' is starting to look like a preventive measure for the future.

As youth activist Greta Thunberg once put it: 'Why don't you just do something!'
Perhaps a useful thing to do at the moment would be to reassure the young that
everyone is aware of the situation, but working through a complex of ideas
and institution mired in history and interest groups. We are both in the mess
and out of it at the same time ie we are capable of dialogue. And putting different
time frames on things might be how we move forward...

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/what-to-know-about-8chan-the-extremist-forum-where-mass-killers-find-an-audience_n_5d476ff5e4b0acb57fce642b

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/el-paso-shooting-manifesto_n_5d470564e4b0aca3411f60e6

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The internet and social media have created a form of
communication space that is utterly unique, at once
both private and public but really neither because anonymous.
It allows for a lot of fun, but also makes one and all potential objects
of derision.

So a school gossip group sharing a joke about
Mary's weight, or Monica's amours, turns into harassement
as a internet phenomena. And those girls are party to it
and might well feel devastated.  Because this is fun, and why
not keep the joke going, the harassement doesn't end until the
victim breaks.

Politically, things also take a turn. Teen-aged Bob might make a
not-so-polite remark about Hispanics over dinner, but in that context
a parent might advise to keep that to himself, and pick up the remark to
turn it into a joke that also illustrates it is a cultural difference. The child is
not chastised for the truth in what he expessed, but helped over it.
Expressing himself on the internet, and misparented by other adolescents,
Bob will turn into a right-wing militant. There is no catharsis, but
amplification.

The internet removes limits; it is a sure source of intant intimacy.
The theory and pratice on that has yet to emerge and no public
regulation or reconversion of laws on hate speech can be adequate
to the situation.