Tag Archives: Copycat effect

Copycat killers use knives, where guns are scarce

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Consumerism doesn't work for everyone. Photo: Ernie/Flickr CC

The latest attacks suggest that middle-aged men are struggling to cope in capitalist China. — MB

Loren Coleman suspects the wave of school killings by older males that horrified the Chinese in April, hasn’t ended:

“I have pointed out that in China and Japan, due to their strict firearms laws, such countries tend to manifest their ‘copycat school violence’ in terms of ‘stabbing’ series. Will this current stabbing spree spread to Japan or other Asian nations?”

The attacks, as Coleman suggests (noting what precipitated the attacks, and how they ended), probably reflect an increase suicidal behavior amongst Chinese men, many of whom are struggling to get ahead within their new, ruthless, economy.

Japan and South Korea already lead much of the world in suicides.

Alas, the most recent World Health Organization data for China is 11 years old.

In 1999, the suicide rate for men over 65 was four-to-five times higher than for their middle-aged cohorts. My bet is that the 40-something set has been closing that gap.

via Twilight Language: 3 Days, 3 Attacks.

Pittsburgh paper links mass killer to Alex Jones, Neo-Nazis

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Alex Jones. Image: CC/Hippy Jon

Alex Jones. Image: CC/Hippy Jon

A leftie blogger flips over a Pittsburgh paper’s slipshod report, about one of last week’s mass murderers:

Believing most media were covering up important events, Mr. Poplawski turned to a far-right conspiracy Web site run by Alex Jones, a self-described documentarian with roots going back to the extremist militia movement of the early 1990s.

via the joshua blog: Pennsylvania cop killer obsessed with Glenn Beck-hyped conspiracy theories.

The original, poorly-headlined Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article says the Pennsylvania cop killer, Richard Andrew Poplawski was “into conspiracy theories”–as if that should be considered a warning sign for potential mass shooters.

Excerpts, below, from the original article:

“Poplawski was a young man convinced the nation was secretly controlled by a cabal that would eradicate freedom of speech, take away his guns and use the military to enslave the citizenry,” reads the breathless lead of the story–as if any of these fears are unjustified.

Real quick, need I remind anyone: Government plans to take over the news media, and the rest, are a matter of record.

Even worse, the Pittsburgh paper lumps patriot radio broadcaster Alex Jones in with the Neo-Nazi Website, Stormfront, implying that Poplawski’s interest in either one should be seen as troubling:

Around the same time, he joined Florida-based Stormfront, which has long been a clearinghouse Web site for far-right groups. He posted photographs of his tattoo, an eagle spread across his chest.