I wrote about people who identify as “fans” of school shooters for Tablet. This piece was really hard to write and deeply disturbing to me and I don’t think a simple description will do it justice. Read it here.
I dunno how you do it. You gotta have some kinda emotional hazmat suit, like ... Do you like, go into a trance, pretend you're someone you're not, like an actor, and just "what's my motivation?" your way into diving into one of these hell holes just to do some research? I seriously admire your ability to do this and retain any sanity. And your ability to sort of chameleon your way in, AND be reasonably objective when you report back. You're seriously a character, and covering a very niche but... probably long term important subject matter, of online community dynamics. Like fuck sociology, this shit is real, and really affects things IRL, not like pretend racism statistics.
If there's a theme that I am picking up, is it romance? Not lovey-dovey, of course. But an infatuation with mass shooters? Kind of like the whole rebel-without-a-cause James Dean thing, but taken to a horrible extreme? Make your mark, die young, stay pretty? Be known for something, even if it's evil or awful?
If so, it's really old wine distilled into a strong, toxic, and combustible form.
The common trope about young people and risk is that they think they are immortal, so we have to bubble-wrap them in safetyist restrictions. I've often wondered if the real problem is that young people instead don't think their life is worth that much, and if it kills them, big whoop. As Suicidal Tendencies(!) sang at the end of "Institutionalized" from 40 years ago, "It doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyway..."
Some of these artists seem sick--not in the sense of disgusting/twisted, but in the sense of some unaddressed mental illness. And they undoubtedly want more than a Pepsi, and we're not giving it to them.
A big part of me wants to find out what makes these mass shooters "tick", not just so that we can prevent future mass shootings and not unnecessarily restrict personal liberty in the name of "doing something", but to do something about this mental illness--or the lack of mental hygiene that causes it.
I posted on another Substack that thanks to social media, we've all become posers of some sort as we curate our online persona as if it were a consumer product, complete with the requisite marketing and marketeering, and hope to hell we don't get cancelled and lose our shelf space and market share. Social media is no longer a highlight reel--it's an infomercial. In this regard, we're no longer people, or even robots. We're a damn six-pack of beer.
If our lives are reduced to bits and bytes and words on a screen, that's not good. That's not healthy. But it seems to feed a certain warped desire for "immortality".
This was brilliant and devastating to read in equal measures. Pretty sure this article is going to haunt me for a couple of weeks while I acclimatise to the idea of these online communities.
I dunno how you do it. You gotta have some kinda emotional hazmat suit, like ... Do you like, go into a trance, pretend you're someone you're not, like an actor, and just "what's my motivation?" your way into diving into one of these hell holes just to do some research? I seriously admire your ability to do this and retain any sanity. And your ability to sort of chameleon your way in, AND be reasonably objective when you report back. You're seriously a character, and covering a very niche but... probably long term important subject matter, of online community dynamics. Like fuck sociology, this shit is real, and really affects things IRL, not like pretend racism statistics.
Thank you. I don’t actually know how good at it I am, reviews are often mixed. And I am definitely not unaffected. This one was tough.
If there's a theme that I am picking up, is it romance? Not lovey-dovey, of course. But an infatuation with mass shooters? Kind of like the whole rebel-without-a-cause James Dean thing, but taken to a horrible extreme? Make your mark, die young, stay pretty? Be known for something, even if it's evil or awful?
If so, it's really old wine distilled into a strong, toxic, and combustible form.
The common trope about young people and risk is that they think they are immortal, so we have to bubble-wrap them in safetyist restrictions. I've often wondered if the real problem is that young people instead don't think their life is worth that much, and if it kills them, big whoop. As Suicidal Tendencies(!) sang at the end of "Institutionalized" from 40 years ago, "It doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyway..."
Some of these artists seem sick--not in the sense of disgusting/twisted, but in the sense of some unaddressed mental illness. And they undoubtedly want more than a Pepsi, and we're not giving it to them.
A big part of me wants to find out what makes these mass shooters "tick", not just so that we can prevent future mass shootings and not unnecessarily restrict personal liberty in the name of "doing something", but to do something about this mental illness--or the lack of mental hygiene that causes it.
I posted on another Substack that thanks to social media, we've all become posers of some sort as we curate our online persona as if it were a consumer product, complete with the requisite marketing and marketeering, and hope to hell we don't get cancelled and lose our shelf space and market share. Social media is no longer a highlight reel--it's an infomercial. In this regard, we're no longer people, or even robots. We're a damn six-pack of beer.
If our lives are reduced to bits and bytes and words on a screen, that's not good. That's not healthy. But it seems to feed a certain warped desire for "immortality".
Beautifully researched and written, Katherine.
Thank you
This was brilliant and devastating to read in equal measures. Pretty sure this article is going to haunt me for a couple of weeks while I acclimatise to the idea of these online communities.
Thank you for reading it