The Online Ramblings of Jared Lee Loughner

[jtown1123]

From the Wall Street Journal:

Postings of a Troubled Mind

Accused Shooter Wrote on Gaming Site of His Job Woes, Rejection by Women.Article Video Slideshow Interactive Graphics

By ALEXANDRA BERZON, JOHN R. EMSHWILLER And ROBERT A. GUTH

Last May 9, at two in the morning, Jared Lee Loughner typed a question to a group of about 50 online gamers located around the world: "Does anyone have aggression 24/7?"

He was back at his keyboard the following night. "If you went to prison right now...What would you be thinking?" he asked.


Online postings last year by accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner.
A trove of 131 online-forum postings written between April and June 2010, which were viewed by The Wall Street Journal, provides insight into Mr. Loughner's mind-set in the year leading up to Saturday's shootings in Tucson, Ariz. He stands accused of killing six people, gravely wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.) and injuring 13 others.

The online postings paint a picture of a disturbed young man trying to impress his peers and struggling to find a purpose to his life. They range from prosaic chatter about weight lifting to nonsensical philosophical ramblings that left some of the gamers who read them wondering whether he was using drugs or had a mental disability.



http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791904576075851892478080.html

[mdmc]

1. interesting

..

[jtown1123]

2. Sucks to have to link to a WSJ article, but they are the only ones with all the info

[Common Sense Party]

3. It's amazing in retrospect how delusional he seemed in these rantings

and no one connected the dots.

So far, I've seen exactly zero evidence that he was motivated by anything political. He was lonely, frustrated, repressed, and his head was full of bizarre ideas that made no sense to anyone.

How tragic.

[sam kane]

6. Except for trying to kill a politician.

And killing a judge.

[Common Sense Party]

8. How is that political?

Especially when the judge is Republican and the politician a Democrat?

[Imajika]

9. It becomes increasingly obvious...

...that all the connections people were trying to make were complete nonsense.

I've thought from the beginning that Laughner's assassination/killing spree had precisely zero to do with anything political, the "tone of the debate", the right or left, or anything else we could actually fully understand. He is all the things you mention (lonely, frustrated, etc) and very likely suffering from untreated paranoid schizophrenia.

This good that might come out of this is a push to get mental health assistance to those who need it. Society should be on the look out for the Laughner's of the world. Properly treated, he might not have wasted his life and destroyed so many others.

[The2ndWheel]

12. Connect the dots with what? How?

Loughner was just a nobody private citizen prior to everyone knowing his name over the weekend, just like most of the rest of us. Just a random person on various message boards. Conversing with other people, but other people with their own stuff to do. They might read something he wrote and say that guy is crazy, but it is the internet, and what more would/could anyone do?

I don't find it all that amazing nobody connected anything. Like you said, in retrospect, it all makes sense. The outbursts in class, the message board posts, the drugs and alcohol, the failed this and that, the town hall question and subsequent letter from Giffords, etc, etc. We're all learning about all of it now, but there was only one person involved with all of those things at the same time as they were happening; Loughner. To everyone else, it was just this, or just that, or maybe even a couple things, depending on who the person was. There wasn't an ability to connect dots. Loughner was the only one with a complete(or as close to complete) cumulative history of his life. If Saturday didn't happen, what would be different?

[Common Sense Party]

13. I'm thinking more on the lines of friends, family, local law enforcement

Outbursts. Substance abuse. Delusional rantings. Vandalism. Guns. Isolation. Depression. Mood swings.

I'm not saying that anyone from the outside could have picked up on it. But if friends had talked with parents, if parents had talked with LEO and school administrators, if anyone had talked with Loughner...perhaps someone would have realized, "This kid has problems. Maybe we need to get him some professional help."

Yes, I'm fully cognizant that hindsight is 20/20/. I'm simply saying there were clues along the way, and with more communication between the parties who knew him, this may have been averted.

[The2ndWheel]

14. So was I

"Yes, I'm fully cognizant that hindsight is 20/20/. I'm simply saying there were clues along the way, and with more communication between the parties who knew him, this may have been averted."

I didn't mean for it to sound like you weren't cognizant of that. There are always clues, but they're usually isolated. Even with the clues, there is only so far you can connect those dots. I agree with Jon Stewart and people that say you can't really predict crazy. Despite what Loughner believes, our society isn't that integrated yet. Maybe one day the outbursts, substance abuse, delusional rantings, vandalism, guns, isolation, depression, mood swings, online posts, work and relationship failures, letters and what might be scribbled on them, even unsaid thoughts, and whatever else makes up a person will be in some accessible central database where computers can figure out what you'll do tomorrow.

Would communication between parties help? Sure. But who knows why that communication didn't in this case, and it ended up with what happened Saturday. Who knows why communication hasn't happened in some other case, and nothing like Saturday ever came close to happening. Who knows why communication did happen in another case, and something like Saturday happened, but in a much lower profile scenario. Who knows why communication did happen in yet another case, and everything was fine.

[randr]

4. How long before he becomes a cult figure

and like minded nut cases start to adulate his ramblings?

[Toucano]

5. Some gamers do retreat into that "community" because they lack social skills.

It may be more symptomatic than causative, but a link often exists.

[Broderick]

7. hmmmm

people retreat to many communities, maybe even here. I don't think gamers are any different and social interaction with like minded individuals with similar interest is all a form of tribalism in way, imo, and internet tribalism is no different.

[Toucano]

10. True. Internet addiction can be harmful to anyone.

But I seem to recall a couple of studies that suggested there's something powerful about the lure of video games to the adolescent male.

[Broderick]

11. In my days it was Atari

And I guess I was drawn to it in a way. There was no online experience at that time so us boys would meet at each other's house to kick each other's ass in baseball or frogger or whatever the hip game at the time was. LOL. The lure for me, was competition.