Schools in New York State were shut down for COVID-19 during the week of March 16, 2020. Students did not return for the rest of the school year or repeatedly had closures which was the case throughout the country.
On May 5th, I wrote about how the mental health crisis had pushed us into dangerous social circles like social media.
An 18-year-old in Buffalo, New York set fire in a supermarket in an overwhelmingly African neighborhood. It’s possible that the attack was planned and executed according to plan.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul may have some merit in blaming social networks and their influence, but it is mostly superficial. She demands law enforcement investigate all hate speech cases.
Letitia Jones, the NY State Attorney general, encouraged people to forget about their anger and to move forward with love.
Governor Kathy Hochul agreed with this approach and said they should investigate “social media algorithms” to identify hate speech. Hochul stated, “they would meet with social media companies in order to find out if they are doing enough to prevent hate speech. ”
The problem with hate speech and social media isn’t “social media” or “hate speech”. While these are very common, it is difficult to change policy due to current emotions.
Most children don’t have to go online to find acceptance.
They are using sexual behavior and identity changes to gain acceptance. It is possible for children to develop mental illness.
A source within the government claims that a school official stated that the troubled youth made statements suggesting he wanted to have a shooting at graduation ceremonies.
Gendron was referred for a mental health evaluation after the investigation by police. His classmates claimed that he was strange and promoted extremist views.
A former student remembers Gendron wearing a hazmat suit to school last academic year. While she thought it was to protect him against the coronavirus and to make jokes about it, she didn’t rule out the possibility that he might have been having fun.
An ex-classmate requested anonymity and said it was “it was the most extra thing I’ve ever witnessed him do.”
There were other signs of Gendron’s mental fragility.
During a class exercise in the political class in which the students created their own countries with the government of their choice, Gendron’s pick was an autocratic regime that the classmate described as ‘Hitler-esque.’
The student said that his views were extreme. He stated that he could choose any government that he liked, but that he preferred a totalitarian.
The kid appears to be a child who fell through the cracks and is not a political extremist. He is only 18 so he was a kid when the pandemic began whose life was turned completely upside down. Especially when it comes to social and emotional health and learning.
It is possible to assume that he was radicalized if he has any online affiliations. There may be some users looking for recruits as there isn’t much moderation.
It’s interesting to notice that the Left’s rush for Tucker Carlson, Fox News, and the GOP to blame the shooting was premature. His manifesto disapproved of conservatism.
When I was 12 I was deep into communist ideology, talk to anyone from my old high school and ask about me and you will hear that. From age 15 to 18 however, I consistently moved farther to the right. On the political compass, I fall in the mild-moderate authoritarian left category, and I would prefer to be called a populist.
I prefer being called a populist.
He even attacked figures to the right.
The killer’s manifesto attacks Fox News but feel free to continue exploiting people being murdered for some likes and retweets https://t.co/7n27fdlxfw pic.twitter.com/JOKCga9w6R
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) May 14, 2022
This man is not a radical conservative.
Someone like the victim of the supermarket shooting, who clearly has mental issues, is easy to convert from martyr to online cause because they cannot relate to mainstream social groups. Or they feel excluded by society.
This was the act of a mentally ill child who was forced to join social circles that he may not have otherwise. He was then influenced by people with horribly offensive views and did the unthinkable.
Politics isn’t the problem. It was a child who had obvious problems and he fell through the cracks.
