Elliot Rodgers' 'manifesto': WARNING: potentially disturbing content/trigger

[Castel]

I suppose that is the one thing where he could actually have made something of himself, if he had the patience to take some time and actually make the effort to better himself.

And the ability to not (at best) verbally abuse and dunk in coffee any editor who dared to question his magnificence.

Perhaps a different Elliot Rodger. The one I saw in those videos seems to fundamentally lack the ability to self-correct.

It's actually a bit fascinating, to see someone in that deep. It seems like a performance at times , but his actions certainly spoke loud enough.

Paying for sex was naturally beneath his gentlemanly magnificence.

I saw a quote or screenshot where he said that sex wasn't about sex but the validation of being wanted. I assume that it was a response to exactly this sort of statement.

[Batbob45]

Elliot Rodger is a Douche. He was petty and probably thought that all girls should love him. He also has a history of beating women. I hope he get life but I doubt since he dad works in Hollywood.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Elliot Rodger is a Douche. He was petty and probably thought that all girls should love him. He also has a history of beating women. I hope he get life but I doubt since he dad works in Hollywood.

He's dead. He killed himself after killing 6 others and wounding 13.

ETA: On the subject as a whole, I think that this is more complicated than just that he hated women (though I absolutely believe that he did). I've seen good (and awful) commentary about his general sense of entitlement and his possible internalised racism, as well as his overwhelming misogyny. I don't want to write anything pithier at work, so if I comment, it will have to be when I am home. However, I am not sure I am going to read his whole manifesto, either.

[The onion wight]

Perhaps a different Elliot Rodger. The one I saw in those videos seems to fundamentally lack the ability to self-correct.

It's actually a bit fascinating, to see someone in that deep. It seems like a performance at times , but his actions certainly spoke loud enough.

I saw a quote or screenshot where he said that sex wasn't about sex but the validation of being wanted. I assume that it was a response to exactly this sort of statement.

I caught some grabs of his you tube videos and my gaydar was pinging ten to the dozen....so deep in the closet he didn't know it himself maybe. Combine with the fact he'd probably been medicated most of his life leads to the obvious that he was one sick puppy. When are we going to stop putting kids on SSRIs? With all the evidence available we know developing brains should not be exposed to these drugs. Not saying he was but I'm thinking it's very likely what with the family talking about his mental health issues etc.

[Suttree]

Oh. No, it's nothing like that. Rather a point by point analysis of the tragic lack of parental interest over many years that allowed a clearly damaged child to progressively deteriorate and become someone like Elliot Rodger.

So I did a quick search on the guy who made the video.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Stefan_Molyneux

Apparently he is part of the movement and spits out gems such as this:

The evil that women are capable of and the evil that women do — not all women — but the evil that women do is generally invisible to society which is why there’s so much violence in society.

So yeah, I may get to the video but I think this guy's agenda needs to be taken into account and one can see how he would likely approach the topic from a skewed perspective.

[Batbob45]

I thought he turn himself in.

[Rorshach]

Paying for sex was naturally beneath his gentlemanly magnificence.

Also, it's quite clear that his hatred of all womankind was due to a small subset of womankind (i.e. blonde, very attractive white 20-somethings) not effortlessly falling into his lap. Particularly when he was sitting. RIGHT! THERE!

Hmmmm.... they didn't fall into my lap either. And I still ended up married with two kids. (And no, my wife isn't blonde, if anyone should ask).

I really can't be bothered to read that "manifesto" - I'm neither a lawyer nor a psychiatrist, and I feel I have better things to do than reading 141 pages of misogyni, racism and self-pity. I do think, as polish noted upthread, that people who feel compelled to write that much about themselves before killing people shouldn't be expected to make sense, or be coherent.

[sologdin]

is invisible evil really more evil than visible evil? and if it is invisible evil, how is that the "so much violence in society" is not also invisible--unless the "so much violence" is not itself evil?

and why evil? why are these greasers so theological about all this?

[Bennis of the Brown Shield]

I thought he turn himself in.

He did. As a corpse.

He clearly had serious mental health issues though. Combine that with weird anti-woman ideology from the internet and anything can happen.

[Free Northman Reborn]

So I did a quick search on the guy who made the video. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Stefan_Molyneux Apparently he is part of the movement and spits out gems such as this: So yeah, I may get to the video but I think this guy's agenda needs to be taken into account and one can see how he would likely approach the topic from a skewed perspective.

Interesting. I did not get that vibe. If anything, he seemed to place most of the blame on the father.

But I have no knowledge of the guy's political affiliations, so will go with your take on it.

[Castel]

I caught some grabs of his you tube videos and my gaydar was pinging ten to the dozen....so deep in the closet he didn't know it himself maybe. Combine with the fact he'd probably been medicated most of his life leads to the obvious that he was one sick puppy. When are we going to stop putting kids on SSRIs? With all the evidence available we know developing brains should not be exposed to these drugs. Not saying he was but I'm thinking it's very likely what with the family talking about his mental health issues etc.

This raises another question for me: this is not the first time I've seen this comment and I don't see why people seem to want him to be gay. I mean, going off what we know this dude was pathologically concerned with female attention, possibly(almost certainly) as a measure of his status but also for personal validation. Sure, he COULD be gay but why would we go to that and ignore the obvious answer?

I don't know what's so compelling about that view. Does it make him more tortured? Does it add a layer of separation? Make him more pathetic?

[The onion wight]

is invisible evil really more evil than visible evil? and if it is invisible evil, how is that the "so much violence in society" is not also invisible--unless the "so much violence" is not itself evil?

and why evil? why are these greasers so theological about all this?

Depends if he was genuinely mentally ill or not I guess. If he was suffering a psychotic episode with paranoid delusions then it would explain a lot. If he was just a sociopath with a narcissistic personality disorder then his complaints of rejection by women would maybe relate more to his inability to dominate and control. I doubt either way that this had very much to do with sex, or the lack thereof.

[Roose Seal]

There's nothing anywhere that would indicate that this kid was gay. Nothing in his 140 page manifesto suggests otherwise. Not once does he talk about men in terms other than their relations to women.

While it's possible that he was gay (who knows) implying that his being gay is a factor in his extreme hatred of women is gross and homophobic. (not that gay men can't be misogynistic, but careful when you throw these kind of things around)

I read the manifesto up until the college phase and all I saw was a boy who grew up in a very privileged environment, who was never taught the meaning of the word "no" and who just had to "throw a tantrum" (to use his words) to get what he wanted, especially from his mother.

His childhood, in spite of his heavy-handed attempts at making it sound tragic, was by all accounts very normal but he got everything handed to him from a very young age and when he suddenly had to work to get things (attention, girls or money), he couldn't deal because he felt he was entitled to just acquire those things instead of having to work for them.

[Batbob45]

He was a coward in life and he took the coward way out.

[MerenthaClone]

Yeah, I mean, I believe that had he not gotten involved with the toxic MRA community, he would likely have gotten involved in another toxic community and we would be mourning someone else and wondering why he loathed African-Americans, or Muslims, or what-have-you. That still doesn't change that the group he did get involved with had an effect on him, his worldview, and his actions, including his final ones.

Onion Knight: "probably" medicated his whole life? He was seeing for therapy and went off of his meds against medical advice, iirc, which is possibly part of the problem here. Your rant about SSRIs is way off base, as is your "oh yeah, must have been gay" thing.

[Robin Of House Hill]

In its own way, that was like reading Hannibal Lecter's diary or Mein Kampf. The toxicity of feelings of inadequacy and blaming others for it, cannot be underestimated.

[Roose Seal]

Yeah, I mean, I believe that had he not gotten involved with the toxic MRA community, he would likely have gotten involved in another toxic community and we would be mourning someone else and wondering why he loathed African-Americans, or Muslims, or what-have-you. That still doesn't change that the group he did get involved with had an effect on him, his worldview, and his actions, including his final ones.

I disagree. He clearly loathed women from the start and he got involved with those communities precisely because they aligned with his worldview.

Whatever he got from the MRA or PUA communities wasn't something he hadn't already acquired on his own.

Not saying that those communities aren't toxic (I think they are), but his hate was, from the start, directed towards women and I doubt it could've been "diverted" on to another target.

Implying that he got those ideas from those communities is a slippery slope, as it implies one cannot pick up those ideas from everyday life and society... which is exactly what happened here.

And actually he did hate Black people too as he mentions a few times.

[Stannisaurus]

I will have a look at his manifesto at some time, it should be an interesting read.

I would also make a comment on people who feel "validated" about their opinions because of what happened but I'll skip that for thread's sake.

[KAH]

His most defining character seems to be an extreme obsession with personal status.

If there was no status involved with the prospect of getting a sexual partner, it is not impossible that he would have transferred his seething hatred and envy and sense of entitlement towards something else status-related (for instance, having a lot of money).

As it is, his craving for money has to be mostly viewed as a means to attract women (as well as to avoid work that he feels is beneath him, which is oddly selective), which he at some point during his school years subconsciously defines as the status symbol worth having.

[Yagathai]

Status issues aside, Rodgers' rampage was a classic, almost textbook case of amok.