Im not fully grasping how the mind of those “copycats” works. People who are obsessed with Columbine for example, and want to do a mass shooting. That is their thought process? Is there some study I can read exploring what’s on their minds?

  • qooqie@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Most are in desperate situations and are truly hurting. So they see someone do that and they tend to think “that would teach the people I view as hurting me a lesson”. They then commit the act and realize it was absolutely not what they wanted and a stark realization of what they did and what their life will become dawns on them. And so they commit suicide.

    This is not a blanket statement, but in general this appears to be what’s going on

  • Vilian@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    almost all mass shooters are bullies, so the question can be why they are assholes like that?

    • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
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      9 months ago

      Well, in a nation where bullying is glorified as a necessary rite of passage, why should it be surprising that so many bullied people end bullying others?

  • roguetrick@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Alienation and depression. Suicidal ideation can create a general devaluation in other lives as well. That sort of mindset can create a justification in wasting your own life with a splash. The mental calculus is already fundamentally incomprehensible to most folks because of that.

  • Pratai@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    You mean conservatism? Just Google “GOP.” That should tell you all you really need to know about it.

  • knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
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    9 months ago

    I think this reflects more on the psychology and honestly sociopathy of society rather than specific individuals.

    Western society alienates us from the things we do every day to survive. If you’re constantly on the knife edge of having the needs to survive, and at the same time you labour to produce insane wealth for others, and this labour is wrapped in a puritan mythos of virtue and “good,” people will eventually snap. When access to weapons is easy and a culture of violence and glorifying violence is also involved, it’s not surprising that some people snap in a violent way.

    • ristoril_zip@lemmy.zipEnglish
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      9 months ago

      I dunno it seems like there’s a pretty solid “type” for mass shooters - young, white, male - that means something is left out of your evaluation. Economic oppression (by the owner class) and easy access to guns (enabled by the owner class!) makes it easy for these disaffected people to commit mass violence on the rest of us.

      I’m sure if people had more economic security there would be fewer shootings but I don’t expect they’d go away. But a lot of these shooters talk about feeling alienated or disrespected. In my estimation that comes from expectations not being met. Probably unrealistic expectations.

      (Yes I know “not every shooter is a young white male”)

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 months ago

    Copycats are motivated by the same thing as the originals, I guess, and just see someone who did it “successfully”. (My source is I made it the fuck up)

    I’ve heard it convincingly argued mass shooters are people that a few decades ago would have become serial killers. This is just a new, easier way to kill a bunch of people and feel powerful.

    • Elise@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      Don’t know if it’s true but I saw this docu arguing that serial killers can have or typically have multiple personality disorder. It’s like they have their innocent self which is unaware of the crazy one that protects them but it also acts out what they experienced growing up.

      Or maybe they are just dicks but this is something that I can at least understand.

  • MrBubbles96@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    It really depends. A lot of them are hurt in some way shape or form and in a desperate situation like qooqie mentions and get pushed back into a corner over and over until they violently lash out, and a lot of others have a genuine disdain for other people or a warped personality/prespective on something (like Elliot Rogers and his entitlement to a girlfriend/sex) and rather than try and quell it or get help, they let it fester until they eventuallty also lash out.

    The end result is the same. Either they get inspired to do heinous actions because there’s no other option in their head to stop whatever they precieve as a problem, or they look at someone else that did them before and think “they had the right idea” and emulate them.