The guy who tried to burn down the house of the Governor of Pennsylvania is as beyond politics as the Moldovan kid who murdered his mom. People politicize this needlessly. Both criminals should absolutely be in jail but trying to figure out what their politics was is a waste of time. They are both clearly in the grip of something that utterly apolitical in nature.
7 responses to “The Shapiro Arson”
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“Both criminals should absolutely be in jail but trying to figure out what their politics was is a waste of time.”
Well, after they’re arrested, you have to talk to them to determine whether they’re legally sane or psychotic. If sane, you take them to jail. If they’re psychotic, you commit them to the looney bin.
Dreidel
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In practice, this is remarkably difficult.
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” trying to figure out what their politics was is a waste of time “
In the last two posts, we heard about two men who were planning political acts of violence. Why are you telling us not to think about their politics? Are you just saying that these two individuals are too crazy for their political thought to be meaningful or important? Are you suggesting that most acts of terror, assassination, etc should be viewed as psychopathological rather than political? Is there a dangerous trend to treat the politics of psychotics as noteworthy? I feel like I am missing something.
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Because the core element is that they are crazy people. Crazy people attach to all sorts of things– politicians, movie stars, brand names… when someone has a schizoid perseveration about Gilligan’s Island, or the Chrysler Eagle, we don’t assume it actually has anything to do with the TV show, or Chrysler.
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There’s a whole subculture of Eastern European women trying to sell themselves to Western men. For a teenage boy, observing his mom in the grip of this process is already deeply painful. It can mess badly with a young brain. Add to this the trauma of immigration, being separated from the actual father, and what is probably a highly invasive mother – and it won’t take much to kick him over the edge.
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There’s no need to extrapolate these two specific situations onto most acts of terror. A boy who kills his mom and stepfather is invariably a case of abuse. And the Shapiro arsonist, look at his photos and social media posts. This is a deeply unwell person.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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