Julie Goldberg
I am reminded that we never found out the motive of the murderer who massacred 58 people in Las Vegas in 2017. Six years afterward, there was a suggestion that he might have been angry at the casino, but they still don't know for sure and will never know. Only in fiction do murderers always have a clear idea of who they want dead and why. When I think about local murders, the "motive" is usually that someone was drunk, high, or psychotic, and angry at a friend or relative.
Jul 15, 2024 at 1:20amWeb
Show threadJulie GoldbergJul 20, 2024

It looks like there wasn’t really a #motive in any way we understand that word for what #ThomasCrooks did. He seems to have had an impulse and a ready means to act on it.
If not for his easy access to a gun, he might have just gone to work last Saturday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/19/us/gunman-thomas-crooks-trump-shooting.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8k0.ktdd.AT7mTYKM4rAN&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Who Is Thomas Crooks? From Honor Student to Gunman Who Tried to Kill Trump

Thomas Crooks was a brainy and quiet young man who built computers and won honors at school, impressing his teachers. Then he became a would-be assassin.

The New York Times
Show threadJulie GoldbergJul 20, 2024

The Washington Post reminds us that a motiveless shooting, while deeply unsettling, is more common than we think.
“…FBI officials who study mass shootings [say] that roughly 20% of the time, a gunman doesn’t want anyone to know their motive or reasons.”
…
“It’s very unsatisfying, psychologically, to say, ‘Stuff happens and we don’t know why.’”

https://wapo.st/3SftN94

Lack of motive in Trump attack frustrates public, but fits a pattern

Terrorism analysts say Trump’s would-be assassin is among a string of high-profile assailants with unknown or murky reasons for turning violent

The Washington Post
Show threadPirateRoJul 20, 2024
@Julie it’s much easier when the shooter is dead and declared a “lone wolf”. You can’t deeply question or study him/her and the spheres of influence are safe to trigger someone else. It’s a repeating pattern.
Show threadLauraJul 20, 2024
@Julie Sounds like his motive was suicide.
Show threadJulie GoldbergJul 20, 2024
@laescude Yes. That seems right.
Show threadMelissaJul 15, 2024
@Julie a student spent most of the day in our library that day...a family member was there and was OK but it took some time to find out from the hospital. Unpleasant colleague wanted to send student back to class. I said no.
Show threadJulie GoldbergJul 15, 2024
@mtechman What is wrong with some people?!
Show threadPirateRoJul 15, 2024

@Julie the problem is that the shooter is always killed, labeled a lone wolf and the whole thing shoved under a carpet. Who were his spheres of influence? Who paid to provide extremist views?

This event is not the action of a single person. The shooter is merely the gun at the top of a pyramid of supporting actions.

Show threadJulie GoldbergJul 15, 2024
@piratero When someone leaves behind a manifesto, a medical record, a school disciplinary file, a rap sheet, or a long online history of consuming or producing extremist content, then we can trace that line. We don’t yet know about this person. So far, all we can say for sure is that he had access to weapons of war that nobody should, and that is a money and ideology trail anybody can trace right through the Capitol and the Supreme Court.
Show threadPirateRoJul 17, 2024

@Julie it’s not enough. Intellectualizing a thing is not the thing itself, in all its inconsistency, double-dealing, miscommunications, misinterpretations and just plain ignorance.

I’m not saying we should put down these things to construct a model, but the model is useless without empirical testing with that person. I’m also not suggesting that such a model won’t be he,Paul, quite the reverse, in identifying others.

But we have a different type of learning with a live subject.