Do you think there's a connection between white privilege and mass murders?

When stuff like mass murder happens we always want a scapegoat. Sometimes, collectively, we even need a scapegoat so we can sleep easier at night.. Unfortunately batshit crazy is just plain old batshit crazy.

Seems like the experts are idiots.

No, I don’t buy that. I’m no psychologist, so my observations may be totally wrong, but it seems like mass murderers (and serial killers, which is another related genre) are sick in some biological/chemical way that we don’t yet understand.

But I doubt that has anything to do with socio-economic circumstances. There’s no cause-and-effect that I have ever read about. Maybe the shrinks would like it to be true, because then they can increase their consulting practices, but I don’t see it.

One of the reasons I think it is biological is because (on a racial/genetic basis) you don’t have blacks or asians doing mass murders, by and large. (Yes, there are exceptions, like the kid at Virginia Tech).

But the real problem is that the sample is too small. There aren’t enough mass murderers and not enough mass murders to build a statistically significant sample. (and no, I am not suggesting that there be more).

I seem to remember the Kurds (Mid East) being systematically exterminated at one point, but I don’t remember the details.

And mass murderers in Africa (wiping out whole villiages).

Yes, I think there is a connection. The theory that I have seen is that the mass murders stem from the fact that whites are on the verge of becoming a minority in the U.S. The privilege that people expect by virtue of being white is diminishing. That increases the pain of those who are on the fringe. It is worth noting that not only are the mass murderers disproportionately white, but they also tend to come from small conservative towns like Columbine and Newtown. Another factor may be the general decline in religion. Add it all up and the picture that is emerging is that conservative white Christians are declining in number and therefore in influence.

There is an interesting theory that I have seen that says that the forms that mental illness takes is a reflection of what is going on in society. Those who are mentally ill are like canaries in a coal mine. The way they crack is an indication of the stresses in society at large.

Mass murders also correlate with the rising of the sun.

Correlation does not imply causation.

@LostInParadise Most of these murderers are male, and many of them had difficult times with others within their peer circle. Some of them were bullied too. What about high masculine expectations on males in a culture where being masculine is seen as a positive thing, while being feminine is looked down upon?

Wouldn’t high masculine expectations by default place a bullseye on those males who don’t live up to them standards? From looking at many of these mass murderer cases, including learning about the murderers themselves, it appears that I may be on to something here.

You make a good point. Modify what I said to be white Christian conservative males. Age is also a factor. People tend to mellow out as they get older. So what we have are white Christian conservative males between the ages of 16 and 35. For those into racial profiling, you may have something to go on here.

Oh crap, I’m all of those things, everyone better watch out it’s only a matter of time before I start killing.

Wait a minute, I’m lower middle class, it’s okay people you’re all safe, just know that you all dodged a bullet this time.

In all honesty I don’t find this funny, and the fact that christian was added to the list sort of offends me, unfortunately I’m not enough of an expert on mass murderers and the psycology behind them to actually know whether it is a contributing factor or not. I will point out that being raised christian does not a christian make, and neither does going to church, at least not how I was taught anyway it doesn’t.

No, I think that is ridiculous.

The statistics speak for themselves.

@LostInParadise wrote “The statistics speak for themselves.”

That’s wrong. Statistics without context are just numbers. They are meaningless.

Okay, here is some context

Where are the stats? In the last 30 years from my memory (I am 45, so I wouldn’t be very aware of mass murders when I was very little) I am sure the majority of the perpetrators have been white, but I can think of a couple Asians, Hispanics, and a black person, and I can think of an Italian guy if you want to consider him ethnic rather than Protestant caucasian. Only one woman comes to my mind. But, in the last 30 years the majority of the country’s population is white, so statiscally, more mass murderers should (should is a horrible word there) be white. Only recently has the “white” population of the US really started to get smaller percentage wise. In the small towns where some of these horrible mass shooting have occured they still are very white. In Littleton, Colorado my guess is it is very white. Newtown probably the same. I would bet both are over 90% white and I don’t think they are feeling the minorities encroaching on their territory. I am sure you can find examples of mass murders where the percentages are not like that, but I have hard time accepting the mass shooting are somehow race related. Oklahoma, he was angry at the government I think? The recent theatre shooting in Colorado I don’t know why he did it.

Delusional, narcissistic sociopaths have no class boundaries.
Happens everywhere, all the time, always has, always will.
From Hitler to Jim Jones. Pick your poison.

This article puts it much more elegantly than I can. It is, of course, only a conjecture, but I think it makes a lot of sense. When you are white and bullied and mentally off balance, it is convenient to be able to look at minorities and think, “well at least I am better than they are.” These thoughts do not have to be explicit. It is going on in the subconscious. It is not the only factor, but it is enough to tip the balance in favor of mass murders being committed primarily by young white males in suburban “refuges” from the inner city.

The article assigns white privilege to blame because, as it states, there are other explanations for mass murderers of color. It’s actually a subtle form of racism in that whites need a special explanation that doesn’t pertain to other people.

I only skimmed the article. It seems to me that this article is about people who live in the USA. Is that right?

@LostInParadise That article seems to be talking about lower class dysfunctional men. I am in no way stating in any way shape or form that lower class people are dysfunctional, only that the men seem to be poor and dysfunctional. I don’t think it is white privilege, but rather a cultural problem among the men the author of that article describes. I think it is more an economic problem than race related problem. Plus, I don’t think all mass murderers are lower class, in fact I believe the first article, maybe I am confusing things, said they are middle class. Also, again, Newtown and Columbine were not poor white men with pregnant girlfriends.

When we see boys snap because they were bullied, and men killing people because they feel unable to meet the expectation they have for themselves or expectations of others as men, it is all basically the same thing isn’t it?

I am not sure if it is even worth trying to figure it out since mass murders are pretty rare, as scary and horrific as they are. We should address poverty, teenage parents, education, fair wages, respect for others, and bullying, and hopefully there will also be a few less mass shootings. But, even more importantly maybe society will improve overall.

One article brought up the psychiatrist at Fort Hood. He was educated, grew up in a middle class place in a very very diverse city. He knew he was having trouble and the Army ignored his pleas for transfer. They contributed to what happened as far as I am concerned. I am not saying the military is culpable, but I hope they took a hard look at the pressures he was under and what they were asking him to do. His scenerio had nothing to do with white privilege slipping away.

Evil chooses no race and no gender to use people as instruments to commit genocide or to be mass murderers. In Africa where the UN turns a blind eye because here is no oil in most countries you will find presidents like Mogabe from Zimbabwe killing thousands in the most sadistic ways imaginable and yet nobody is doing nothing. In South Africa Jacob Zuma simply ignores the plight of white farmers to be protected because up to four thousand farmers were murdered since the ANC took over in 1994. He made a remark last year saying that whites should be wiped out and they don’t deserve protection. Not to mention the ethnic cleansing that took place a few years ago in the Congo. They killed more people in six months than what Hitler killed in four years. It’s estimated since the year 2000 that more than 500 000 people were killed in African conflicts because of ethnic cleansing, political and different religious viewpoints. Look at Ethiopia that war has been going on for 25 years. In Asia it’s the same, but name your continent or country or name any time in history. Mass murderers had been around since the dawn of man and will be around until the end of man. We as humans regardless what race, color or gender it’s in our nature to destroy and to kill.

@antimatter I was trying to narrow mass murder cases down to the specific scenerio I’d mentioned above though, mass murders committed by white males living in normal everyday America (and perhaps some other countries).

I agree with you however in that not all mass murders occur for the same reasons. I look at the Manson family, Jonestown, the Oklahoma City bombing, terrorists, etc and obviously there are different reasons why people committ these acts.

@LostInParadise Sometimes I feel that experience is much more valuable than stats or expert testimony. I based my response to you above on the fact that many of the things that I’d learnt about from reading the biography and lives of these young murderers seemed to resemble what many kids that I knew from school would do and say. These were kids, who like the mass murderers, were bullied and had problems with the general social circle. I’d hardly consider some of these kids ‘privileged’ either.

It does appear that many progressive minds like to blame white male privilege for many of society’s woes without considering other factors. My latter point seems to be true for other issues outside of mass murders too in my opinion. That article you gave me still didn’t convince me that I may be wrong concerning my points about high masculine standards still being kept in check for guys despite progressive agenda increasing its stronghold in many western countries.

Reading most of the comments, I feel like a lot of us aren’t reading the same article. They’re not saying that white privilege causes mass murder; but that there is some correlation between the two.

Put simply, they did what they did because of an individual sickness—but they did it where they did it in part because of white privilege.

It’s a theory worth exploring. Yes, there are crazies of every race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic blah blah blah. But there is probably some correlation to their background and how that crazy plays out.

My thinking follows the canaries in a coal mine theory that @LostInParadise brought up. There’s always going to be that raw potential for mental illness. What we see bubble to the surface can give us clues to the underlying issues and stressors in society.

Are we going to count killing sprees? Supposedly the Australian athlete killed yesterday was the first of what was going to be many, but the police caught the kids. I have no idea if the kids were white or some other race. Maybe privilege is the actual problem? That they feel privilieged ever. Maybe once people stop feeling privileged, superior, and in general more worthy than other human beings we will finally stop having things like this happen. If I was a parent of one of those murderous kids I would probably kill myself.

@Nimis I’m not claiming that you meant me personally, but speaking for myself I was aware of correlation being brought up. My biggest concern is that we don’t go down the wrong track in trying to prevent future mass murders/violence due to political correctness.