At this writing, there was a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas yesterday, and another in Dayton, Ohio overnight. I am saddened by the shootings and disgusted by the public response. In this post, I am going to point out where so many people who think that they care are really showing that they don’t care at all. Some of you will be offended, some of you will see the light, and others will go about their day in the unimpeded bliss of ignorance. Be forewarned that there is some unavoidable profanity here, I didn’t name some of the behaviors that will be discussed, I just call it what it is known as, don’t kill the messenger.

Another mass shooting happens, in El Paso Texas this time. Immediately there are people painting the murderer as belonging to their opposing political party. Nevermind that people are dead, others are severely injured and might not make it. Not a thought is given to the suffering of the families of those injured or killed. The is a rush to paint the incident as being caused by the wrongheadedness of the opposite side of the aisle. Overnight, there is another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Repeat the same process.

Here come the social media profile picture overlays to show that you are sad/heartbroken/outraged by what happened. You feel good about yourself, and maybe you make a social media post to show your friends that you are right-headed and truly care about things. Maybe you call for gun control, or maybe you shout that gun control is not the solution. For most people on social media, they are preaching to the choir, virtue-signaling for their own tribe.

These people want to care, want people to think that they care, and perhaps even feel that they should care. But they don’t. Not really.

See, I know that the anger, outrage, and wanting to solve the problem is not real because of one simple thing – they only care about the issues that are put in front of their face by the news media. Where are the cries for justice over the murders in Chicago on the same day? Where are the social media profile picture overlays for the people gunned down in Baltimore? You won’t find the outrage over this because it doesn’t exist.

Here is what you are not ever going to be told on your chosen news source because to them everything has a political basis. Some of these murderers are killing people because they are freaking nuts. Our society has reached too far in trying to avoid stigmatizing mental illness that we cannot bring ourselves to say that there are some people who should not be moving freely in society. We spend so much time preaching about some perfect world that doesn’t exist and talking about how poorly our world compares with this imagined perfect world, that we forget that the perfect world does not exist. We made it up.

Do you want the hard truth?

Here it is:

There are several categories of mass casualty attacks in our time.

Political Terrorism

These are what our news media try to categorize all mass casualty events as being. The news media people are completely blind to the fact that political terrorism actually has specific targets and outcomes in mind. Their targets are chosen for a reason. Yes, the political terrorist is still insane, as there are innumerable better options. But not all terrorist attacks are political. The guy that took a gun and shot at Republican lawmakers as they played softball was political terrorism. The 9-11 hijackers were political terrorists. It is insane, it is stupid, but it is politically motivated.

Simply insane

Then we have the attacks by people who are just absolutely insane. The Sandy Hook murderer was insane. I doubt the guy can put two coherent thoughts together. He is just out of his mind. No rational thought, no reason. These people should have been locked away a long time before they committed their murder spree, but we are not allowed to talk about that.

The attention seeker

There is a phenomenon in our time called shitposting. This is where people make social media posts that really are no reflection of their own thoughts or feelings, but are more about causing controversy. This is why we had the ice cream lickers and the vegetable wallowers. The murderer in Christchurch New Zealand live-streamed his murder spree, knowing that people would be watching, and talking.

I believe that the El Paso shooter falls into this category, and the Dayton shooter possibly does as well. The El Paso attacker left a manifesto, although I am not 100% convinced that he wrote it. The manifesto, if you read the entire thing, is rambling, disjointed, and seems very much to be a product of someone trying to stir up crap on a chan board. Another factor about him that screams shitposter is that he allowed himself to be taken alive. He wanted to be around to see the result of his action, the anger, confusion, hate, and rush from both political sides of the great divide to paint him as belonging to the other side. If you only saw the fragments of the manifesto spoon-fed to you by your chosen news source, you are probably convinced he belongs strictly to the other side. It was written to provide precisely that opportunity.

So, here are some facts for you to consider. In America, there are more privately owned guns than there are people, and more privately owned ammunition than there are people on the planet. The problem isn’t and never has been guns. Instead of looking where the media and politicians tell you to look. If you really care, look at mental health. Have conversations about mental health. CARE about mental health. And for the love of God, please stop using murder victims to further your political agenda. If you really care, show it. People are dying while others play the game of outward displays of care that are simply not felt inwardly at all.