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Well, just from a bare instinct of self-preservation: if nobody cares about you, why should you care about anybody? You get enough people together about whom n
by at_a_remove 6y ago
Well, just from a bare instinct of self-preservation: if nobody cares about you, why should you care about anybody? You get enough people together about whom nobody cared and ... what do you think might happen?
It's like long-term bullying at school. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the "worst" that happens is that someone is broken and their self-esteem is permanently damaged and everyone else moves on with their lives. But then there is that one percent (or whatever fraction you choose) who snaps and you get some serious carnage out of it.
And nobody cared until the lowest-ranked monkey killed a few other monkeys. Then, suddenly, caring.
- guskel 6y agoScott Alexander was thinking along the same lines here when he wrote "Radicalizing the Romanceless"... almost 6 years ago. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/31/radicalizing-the-romanceless/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/31/radicalizing-the-roman...
- watwut 6y agoWhich one of those who snapped and killed people was otherwise normal just lonely guy without girlfriend? The answer is: not a single one. Literally all of them, if your read their stories in detail, have history of serious mental health and behavioral issues, have history of violence. The have either history of inability to communicate with anyone (as in avoiding people and not talking - and not because they were bullied) or history of mistreating people who try. The nice bullied lonely guy suddenly snapping into carnage is a myth. It does not happen. The nice bullied lonely guy may end up with ptsd and low self esteem and issues, but they don't end up suddenly killing bunch of people.
- at_a_remove 6y agoI spoke from experience, at my junior high school, a kid who was bullied mercilessly shot two of his tormentors and then himself. The administration overlooked the bullying issue at our school and has, ever since, worked very hard to pretend that such a thing never happened, despite the kid getting "swirlies" in toilets that had yet to be flushed. I heard the shots, watched the news crew vans pull up (our first clue that something had gone down), and so forth. It's not a myth.