Dear Blamemongers:
For those few of you who were not previously aware, a senseless tragedy occurred today, here in Tucson, when a young man opened fire on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others, placing Giffords in critical condition and killing multiple, including Federal Judge John Roll, a US Marshall, and a 9 year old girl.
Since this attack, the shooter Jared Loughner has been ascribed many (and often conflicting) motives, but since one of the people shot was a Congresswoman, naturally, people on both sides of the political line have been fighting with one another, trying to figure out where on the line he falls.
First of all, provided that the YouTube videos that are being blared out across the Internet are accurate, I would say he's undeniably crazy. Some of the words are conservative, some anarchist, a few liberal, and all of it melded into a virtually nonsensical polyglot of hysteria. I think the most apt clinical term would be "schizophrenia with acute paranoid tendencies", though not being a psychologist myself, my thoughts on this are as a layman, not as a professional.
Second, if everything shown about him is accurate, he listed several books amongst his favorites, including Mein Kampf (the quintessential fascist handbook, as written by Hitler) and the Communist Manifesto (Marx, anyone). The fact that those two could even be liked by the same person speaks volumes, since the two are so completely opposite as cause some serious concern. It's possible to dislike both, obviously; many people prefer a middle ground between absolute fascism and absolute communism, and in most functioning societies, such a "middle ground" can be found. But to like both would seem impossible for an individual with a healthy mind.
Third, just because the person who fired the gun attacked a well-known (and well-loved within her own party, if not universally) politician, among others, does not place him in the opposing party. (Yes, even I need to dampen my urges to blame conservatives and/or the Tea Party for this... his actions don't necessarily mean he belongs to the "other side".) If he truly is, as I posited above, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, he may have reacted to any sort of stimuli as "they're out to get me" and "I must get them first", or similar. He might've viewed the death of Giffords (or another possible target there, who knows?) as the start of whatever "revolution" he sought... or to protect himself.
In other words, to nutshell, let's let all the FACTS fall where they may before we create such a poisoning and hostile environment as to make it impossible to ever find peace again. We, the entire human race, should consider this a saddening event, join together in wishing survival for Giffords and all others fighting for life, wish a positive (insert your afterlike beliefs here) on those who lost that fight, and hope that we can find out what happened and prevent it from EVER happening again.
Since this attack, the shooter Jared Loughner has been ascribed many (and often conflicting) motives, but since one of the people shot was a Congresswoman, naturally, people on both sides of the political line have been fighting with one another, trying to figure out where on the line he falls.
First of all, provided that the YouTube videos that are being blared out across the Internet are accurate, I would say he's undeniably crazy. Some of the words are conservative, some anarchist, a few liberal, and all of it melded into a virtually nonsensical polyglot of hysteria. I think the most apt clinical term would be "schizophrenia with acute paranoid tendencies", though not being a psychologist myself, my thoughts on this are as a layman, not as a professional.
Second, if everything shown about him is accurate, he listed several books amongst his favorites, including Mein Kampf (the quintessential fascist handbook, as written by Hitler) and the Communist Manifesto (Marx, anyone). The fact that those two could even be liked by the same person speaks volumes, since the two are so completely opposite as cause some serious concern. It's possible to dislike both, obviously; many people prefer a middle ground between absolute fascism and absolute communism, and in most functioning societies, such a "middle ground" can be found. But to like both would seem impossible for an individual with a healthy mind.
Third, just because the person who fired the gun attacked a well-known (and well-loved within her own party, if not universally) politician, among others, does not place him in the opposing party. (Yes, even I need to dampen my urges to blame conservatives and/or the Tea Party for this... his actions don't necessarily mean he belongs to the "other side".) If he truly is, as I posited above, suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, he may have reacted to any sort of stimuli as "they're out to get me" and "I must get them first", or similar. He might've viewed the death of Giffords (or another possible target there, who knows?) as the start of whatever "revolution" he sought... or to protect himself.
In other words, to nutshell, let's let all the FACTS fall where they may before we create such a poisoning and hostile environment as to make it impossible to ever find peace again. We, the entire human race, should consider this a saddening event, join together in wishing survival for Giffords and all others fighting for life, wish a positive (insert your afterlike beliefs here) on those who lost that fight, and hope that we can find out what happened and prevent it from EVER happening again.