In which I engage in mindless, irresponsible speculation about recent tragedy

[elfs]

Okay, there's this huge rush to judgement about what Major Malik Nidal Hasan to commit mass murder on the Army base at Fort Hood. So let me add another element of speculation:

Hasan's imam has been quoted as saying that Hasan, at age 39, had tried hard to locate a wife in the United States and, then, via the Internet. He rejected all of them. There's also a report that in the last weeks prior to his rampage, Hasan frequented a strip club three times in the month prior to his shooting, was a very nice guy, never groped or tried to convince the women to come home with him, and compared to most of the customers tipped very well. Omaha and I have seen that kind of behavior before. It led us to the same speculation:

Was Malik Nidal Hasan gay?

It would add a ton to the pressure already on him. Between his religion and his profession, never mind how his religion made his profession itself so much harder (and vice versa), maybe it was just one more thing that broke him.

Comments

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

"The man who goes out and kills people is just as much a victim as those he kills..."

I have no other reply to this comment than "You are tweaked. Seek help."

A man who goes out and kills people is a cold blooded murderer and needs to be condemned for his acts, not made into a victim, nor any attempts made to justify his acts. The act is wrong, and the perpetrator deserves no compassion.

[alohawolf.livejournal.com]

Murder does not happen in a vacuum, to assume otherwise is foolish.

People for the most part are not BORN Murderers, they are taught to hate, or ignored by society, or suffer from some form of mental illness. There are Psychopaths, but I do not believe that these people are the majority.

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

People who become murderers are not usually exposed to any more or fewer stressors in their life than other people (the majority of mankind) who are able to cope with those same stressors in a more rational manner.

Some people commit suicide. Some people join cults. And yes, some people when faced with stressors become murderers.

It's not the environment that creates them, it's the mechanism they've chosen to deal with the environment and there's not much of ANYTHING that you or society can (or should) be able to do about it.

Some people are simply unable to cope, and take to violence instead of reason.

So, yes, murderers can be people who are born with the inability to cope with stressors other than acting out violently.

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

Secondary analogy that might hit closer to home for you: If some people are not "Born Murderers" then that means that some people are not "Born Gay" either.

Sure, some people are "born gay" (there are those who argue that all homosexuals are born that way), and others are influenced toward homosexuality by their surroundings. The same is true of murderers. Some murderers are born unable to cope with stressors without resorting to violence, others are influenced by their surroundings into resorting to violence.

Saying that they all murderers were influenced into it by societal issues doesn't hold water any more than claiming that all homosexuals can choose their sexual preference.

Sticks and stones...

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

You know, namecalling and misstating my argument are not ways to make a counterpoint.

I did not "compare Homosexuality to Murder". I used both as examples of behaviors that may or may not be genetically or memetically influenced. I created an analogy that I thought could be grasped by the readers of elfs' journal.

My point is simply that some murderers are born that way. Failure to accept that is converse with accepting that homosexuals might be born that way.

This is not comparing one to the other... it's using an analogy to show the underlying truth that behaviors are in some cases not simply choices.

I could have used the analogy that some people are born alcoholics... or that some people are born with exceptional parenting skills... or that some people are born with better athletic ability... or that some people are born with uncanny mathematical ability... but none of those analogies would have rung home as closely as the one I used.

Do you want to debate the underlying point, or just continue to call me names and dismiss the argument with an off-color mistatement of my point?