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Breaking: Yet Another Mass Shooting, in Florida This Time

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The Ghost of a Flea2/14/2018 4:36:40 pm PST

Bullying might be worse these days, but I’m not sure that explains these kinds of shootings.

There’s no correlation of actual bullying that occurred to violent response.

I know I pound a very specific drum, but it’s relevant: there are people with less empathy, less impulse control, who perceive themselves as harmed by things like rejection, not being the center of attention, not receiving compliance from others. And of that set there are some who choose to use lethal force; and of that set, there are those that choose to lash out in general, or in a broad swath. It’s about enjoying the exercise of total power.

That’s what’s the same. The idea that there’s deep, explainable motives—a profile, and most particularly a compose in which someone is driven to the act by the actions of others—tends to overlook the simplest driver: it is gratifying.

If there are myriad people that are bullied and only a few become spree shooters, but there are other spree shooters that weren’t bullied…and that is exactly where we are in terms of sampling…then it’s not part of the equation.

This is the same error that has affected understanding of serial killers for years. Deep profiling failed because it was never about distant mommies or cross-dressing or whatever. The only elements that have remained useful are a pattern of not displaying empathy. Same applies here.