How the MSM is framing the Nashville shooting
…[T]he new narrative must be maintained. A woman who shot to death six people including three children in cold blood must be recast as a victim of society. We must respect “his” pronouns even as we report “his” murders. We must blame those who truly cause pain in the world: those who disagree with the thought leaders in our legacy media, who know better than all the common sense, biology and tradition in the world.
Recall that the MSM initially cast the Columbine killers as victims of bullying, driven to murder by the torment they had endured from mean classmates. Although that was far from the truth, it was said so often and so early that many people still believe it to have been the case. I have written extensively about the Columbine killers’ actual motivations – as best we can ascertain them – here as well as here.
The media wasn’t motivated so much by politics in writing about Columbine; certainly not directly. I think what was going on with the MSM back then was that bullying was a topic du jour and reporters wanted an easy explanation for Columbine that fit in with that topic and also cast the killers as victims of it. Of course, victim culture – and the denial of something that used to be called “evil” – is part of the leftist ethos, so there was a more subtle leftism operating in the way the media initially framed the Columbine mass murderer narrative.
The leftist orientation of the media has increased exponentially in recent years. As we can easily see in the MSM’s coverage of the Nashville shooting, politics – in particular, identity politics plus leftist antagonism towards believing Christians – shapes the story in the media. This leftist political perspective is typical of the MSM’s coverage of all mass shootings and all killings these days. As Ben Shapiro writes:
The legacy media have a preset narrative machine when it comes to mass shootings. That narrative machine takes into account the identities of the shooter and the victims, and then churns out an explanation for the shooting. White shooter, black victims: systemic racism. Black shooter, white victims: alienation caused by systemic racism. Muslim shooter, gay victims: Christian homophobia.
The moment the news of Columbine started coming out one significant news media type speculated that the shooters were Tea Partiers. The Tea Party people were the safest, best-behaved protesters in history. They even cleaned up after themselves and left places cleaner than before. Never any incident involving the Tea Party.
Yet, liberals were convinced that they had to be violent because they disagreed with liberals. Nasty stuff. But so revealing. It is the stuff that animates our politics.
Democrat voters don’t care that Joe Biden enables rape and murder on the border. He’s a Democrat. By definition he is not capable of being bad or even wrong.
The Nashville shooter isn’t capable of being a bad person. Evil conservatives forced her to do what she did.
Blacks who rampage through cities and double their already high murder rate can never be at fault. It’s my fault. I don’t vote the approved way.
Trayvon was not at fault for trying to kill George Zimmerman. It was Zimmerman’s fault for getting out of his car. It was the Florida legislature’s fault for permitting self-defense.
Ugly stuff. The moral maturity of small children. But that’s not fair to small kids.
They cannot admit that their viewpoints can possibly produce evil, and they will not look at people as individuals, but only as members of some “community.” The individual who killed six people on Monday in Nashville was a seriously mentally disturbed killer, not a “victim” under any scenario.
It should be completely obvious that there’s absolutely no justification for the outright murdering of defenseless children in cold blood. And anyone who attempts to publically justify such an abhorrent act should never be taken seriously about anything ever again. It wasn’t too long ago that these things were simple, undebatable truths that an overwhelming majority of people agreed with. But over the past few years we’ve descended into a nightmare clownword where utter monsters are victims and helpless victims are monsters. It’s no longer possible to be too cynical.
The pulse shooter they said was self hate (they even dragged an amorphous lover with the shadow image on the local latin station) it turned out his father was an fbi informant, the security guard company he worked for had deep state roots in the uk
I’m still waiting to see the manifesto and wondering how long she thought of her self as “trans.” She still had bows in her hair in her art school days. It seems like a recent development, as if she went through some conversion experience, similar to a religious or political conversion. My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that she felt like an outsider growing up but wasn’t a victim of much more bullying than anyone else was.
She was susceptible to the “revelation” that her “true self” was male, because of her depression and susceptible as well to the idea that acting out would somehow solve her problems. Judging from what we do know, she was suicidal on that day and on other occasions. The media is quick to see everything throw the lens of “identity.” What they miss is that troubled people seize on notions of identity and use that to act out violently.
I wouldn’t drag in the Martin-Zimmerman case, though. There’s enough that was murky about that night that it doesn’t give easy answers.
What you wrote about Columbine “They had the ammunition, but they seemed to run out of killing energy at a certain point.”
___________
You kill three third-graders; and then what. She could have killed more but ultimately didn’t. I could envision killing an adult; I can’t even contemplate shooting a little 9 year old. What happened is unfathomable; 29 year old female murders 3 innocent third-graders.
Well, whaddya know: the Trans Radical Activist Network is going ahead with its planned Trans Day of Vengeance in Washington this coming weekend. In response to critics, the network said, “This protest is about unity, not inciting violence. TRAN does not encourage violence and it is not welcome at this event.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nashville-shooting-trans-day-of-vengeance-protest-will-proceed-in-aftermath-of-covenant-school-killings/ar-AA19ei5R
So what kind of vengeance do they plan? The National Desk (TND) asked TRAN about the term “vengeance,” which is defined by Oxford Dictionary as “punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong,” and how that definition aligns with TRAN’s claim that the event is not about inciting violence. TRAN declined to provide additional comment on that matter.
TRAN’s press release about the event states, “Vengeance means fighting back with vehemence. We are fighting against false narratives, criminalization, and eradication of our existence. It is also a call to our allies to stand up and fight with us to bring down the forces that try to divide and subjugate us all.”
More at this link: https://ktul.com/news/nation-world/trans-day-of-vengeance-protest-continues-as-planned-following-nashville-shooting-trans-radical-activist-network-the-covenant-school
How fitting that Saturday is April Fool’s Day.
Of course no violence by Antifa and the Trans will be done. Any violence will be done by MAGA and Christian Fascist, right. But the Trans are putting up pictures of them with guns. No FBI will be there to arrest them.
I saw a quote from some Trans-activist that this was the only way she could be recognized. It was not in the Babylon Bee.
I mentioned in another thread what I thought were some root causes of this epidemic of senseless violence. Apparently not many agreed; but that is ok. I will now add to the list, the multitude of “activists” groups that stir up discontent–and hate– among those who identify with them.
That phony crowd with their “Trans Day of Vengeance” is a classic example.
The Prez, the DOJ, the National Police Force all focus on groups like the Proud Boys as threats to society. They should, but will not, refocus.
Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Materials I have seen circulating among “trans” activists are filled with violence, and the claim that they, transgenders, are targeted with violence far more than other people. As far as I know, the murder rate of transgender-identified people in this country is actually quite low, and of those, a large number were operating as prostitutes at the time of their murders. Prostitution is a high-risk occupation.
It may be, as a commenter here has said, that there are a bunch of weirdos posting ugly things about “trans” people on the internet. There are a bunch of weirdos posting ugly things about almost anyone who uses social media, or who is in current news stories. This is very ugly, but mostly not real.
Yesterday, after the Nashville shooting, a White House spokesperson said a question like: “I must ask the Republicans in Congress- what do you say to the parents of the shooting victims, about why there aren’t more gun laws?”
I can answer that with a message, like this one: I’ll say-
“If Biden, and Democrat people in Congress, wanted different gun laws, or wanted ways to fortify schools so that people can’t break in to them, well they have had 3 years to work and compromise with the Republicans in Congress, to make- some changes that Biden would like in gun laws, and changes to fortify the schools.
So far, Biden has not tried to make compromises like that, with the Republicans in Congress.”
If Biden wants changes in the nation’s laws, and changes in the nation’s schools, then he has to work with the Republicans in Congress, and he must work with all of the people in Congress, so that the government can make those changes.
Sources
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11912163/Nashville-school-shooter-Audrey-Hales-parents-accept-gay-trans.html?ico=related-replace
Katie Hobbs fired her press secretary today for posting a GIF showing a woman brandishing a gun with the caption “Us when we see transphobes.” Arizona Republicans promptly called on the presstitute to resign. Photo of the offending tweet at the link:
https://nypost.com/2023/03/29/arizona-govs-spox-quits-over-post-shooting-transphobes-tweet/
Stan, the Tea Party did not exist in 1999
An instructive example of the MSM’s framing of the Nashville shooting:
Shortly after news broke Monday of a fatal shooting at a private Christian Nashville elementary school, police said the suspect was transgender. This detail, according to trans people in the state, has poured fuel on an already combustive environment that has led many of them to fear for their safety. . . . “We are terrified for the LGBTQ community here,” Kim Spoon, a trans activist based in Knoxville, Tennessee, said. “More blood’s going to be shed, and it’s not going to be shed in a school.” . . . . [One trans activist] condemned the choice by police to release information about the suspect’s gender identity when they did not appear certain about it. “I think it was unethical and highly suspect that information like that, which they had to have known could cause backlash on the trans community — releasing information like that without it being verified, that’s unconscionable as far as I’m concerned,” Bailey said. She added, “We were already fearing for our lives. Now, it’s even worse.”
More at the link: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/fear-pervades-tennessees-trans-community-focus-nashville-shooters-gend-rcna77066
No surprise that the writers of the article are both alphabet people.
What, it wasn’t Donald Trump’s fault? Waiting for it, 10, 9, …
I could find some mild criticism for the parents who are being savaged by such entities as the Daily Mail. “EXCLUSIVE: Nashville mass school shooter Audrey Hale was rejected by her Christian parents who ‘couldn’t accept’ she was gay and trans – as cops reveal she also planned to shoot relatives.”
She was living with her parents for Christ’s sake ! They took away one gun, because I assume they feared her mental state, but did nothing to warn authorities about her. This is the story of the school shooter in Connecticut, whose mother even bought guns for her mentally ill son.
In the weeks before the killings, Lanza’s mother was considering moving him to another town.[182] She planned to purchase a recreational vehicle for him to stay in so that potential purchasers could see the house without disturbing him.[183] The Report of the Child Advocate stated that:
In the wake of Mrs Lanza’s stated plan to move out of Newtown in 2012, and perhaps stimulated by fears of leaving the “comfort zone” of his home, Adam planned and executed the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.[184] His severe and deteriorating internalized mental health problems were combined with an atypical preoccupation with violence. Combined with access to deadly weapons, this proved a recipe for mass murder”.
She allowed him to have guns and even bought some for him.
Mike K, the parents took away her gun, and she concealed the purchases of others from them. She hid them in her room; she was 28 years old, and I suppose the parents did not go through her room as they would have when she was a child. Why she was unable to live away from home has not been revealed. They knew she was having mental health problems, and that she was receiving treatment. Unless the daughter had psychotic breaks at home, how were they to know she was planning a murder/suicide? Many people receiving mental health treatments are not murderers. This daughter concealed her feelings from her parents, concealed the guns, and planned to murder them, according to reports.
We humans are very susceptible to spiraling into an abyss of hatred and vengeance. There is likely not a human extant who, at some point in their life, have not felt someone or some group were out to get them. Or, had felt so wronged by someone or some group that the person or group needed to be stopped, possibly destroyed.
It’s not good. It’s not healthy. It’s not productive. We all have to work to rise above those urges. Most religions I know of warn against this trap. One can waste one’s life succumbing to such a desire. One can warp one’s soul obsessing on harm and revenge to others.
Far too many institutions, therapists, spiritual leaders, teachers… embrace vilification of others as healthy, warranted and justified and they inculcate and spread hatred.
The moment the news of Columbine started coming out one significant news media type speculated that the shooters were Tea Partiers
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The Columbine atrocity occurred in 1999. The Tea Party was vigorous from 2009 to 2011.
This is the story of the school shooter in Connecticut, whose mother even bought guns for her mentally ill son.
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She owned four guns, which she stored in a gun safe per Connecticut law. His firs act that day was to swipe the key to the gun safe and shoot her in the head.
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She had begun taking steps to have him committed.
I wouldn’t drag in the Martin-Zimmerman case, though. There’s enough that was murky about that night that it doesn’t give easy answers.
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It gave quite easy answers. George Zimmerman shot a youth who’d attacked him, who was on top of him practicing his MMA moves, and who was banging his head into the concrete.
Stan, the Tea Party did not exist in 1999
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I think he’s recalling a mass shooting around Denver about 15 years later, when a local reporter discovered their was a member of a Tea Party organization who had the same name as the perpetrator and broadcast it.
The most revolting thing to me about the news cycle is the rush to get competing narratives out first for political advantage. Once a narrative sets in people’s heads, they filter out inconvenient facts both in real time and in retrospect without even realizing they are doing it. We’re seeing examples on this very comment thread.
Be careful what you let into your head, because you may have trouble getting it out again.
Must see on what appears to be a growing trend:
Terry Schilling: “What did you think would happen?”
https://twitter.com/Schilling1776/status/1641092671933489152
H/T Lee Smith Twitter feed.
Kate said:
“There are a bunch of weirdos posting ugly things about almost anyone who uses social media, or who is in current news stories. This is very ugly, but mostly not real.”
Yes. This. I think this drives a lot of the disfunction in our discourse, and society in general.
Christians are the enemy of the media, of corporate america, and of the commanding heights of the government, burning roman phase anyone,?
and yes there are plenty of weirdoes like the former nuclear material chief brinton, who was a pioneer in this bearded spock universe, of child mutilation, under phony pretexts, the raggety ann press spokesman, of course our beloved vice president, sarc, the erstwhile mayor of chitown and the current one of Gotham,
Trannies are the ones doing the killing lately.
Saturday should be Teach Trannies Not to Kill Day
Oops. Different Colorado shooting.
https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/07/abc-news-apologizes-for-incorrect-tea-party-report-129588
Colorado theater shooting.
Skip– Have you seen Don Surber’s column about the media’s encouragement of gun ownership among transgenders? (Note the pun: “Tranny Get Your Gun”)
CNN’s story mentioned Hale obtained her guns legally. Well, if we are not going to call transsexuality a mental disorder, of course she could get guns. In fact, some in the media encourage it — Tranny Get Your Gun. Four days before the slaughter, Texas Monthly published a story, “Fearing That State Leaders Want Them ‘Eradicated,’ Some Transgender Texans Embrace Firearms.” The story began, “Handling a .50-caliber machine gun atop a Stryker armored fighting vehicle in Iraq and Afghanistan, Josephine became an expert at scanning her surroundings for potential threats. The Army taught her how to absorb a flood of information in a moment. On patrol, she would count the number of passengers inside an approaching vehicle, identify places where she could quickly seek cover if necessary, or commit a patch on someone’s jacket to memory. . . . Last month, NPR encouraged trannies and other LGBT types to arm themselves. It reported, “Meet the queer people who practice shooting to defend themselves from hate groups.”
https://donsurber.substack.com/p/media-downplays-tranny-angle-in-mass
In other news about the Nashville shooter, she was apparently depressed about the death of a female classmate on her basketball team: “Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale was ‘heartbroken’ over the 2022 death of a girl she was ‘infatuated’ with, who had played on the same basketball team in school. Samira Hardcastle told The Post ‘tomboyish’ Hale had been deeply affected by the death of Sydney Sims, who was killed in a vehicle accident in August 2022 . . . . Hardcastle said Hale was a ‘tomboy’ back in school but did not appear to transition until adulthood. She also said she didn’t know of Hale to have had any romantic relationship with Sims. Maria Colomy, a former instructor at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, who taught Hale as an adult, said her transition began around the same time as she was grieving the loss of a romantic partner.”
Photos of Sims at the link: https://nypost.com/2023/03/29/nashville-shooter-audrey-hale-was-heartbroken-over-death-of-crush/
this was around the time of the matrix also the laser focus on the militias, notably we were not laser focused on al queda, because they werent a threat (sarc)
Andy Ngô’s reports on Antifa (including unforgettable mug shot panels) are one of the sources for my impression of a disproportionately high level of violence among transgenders. Many of the riots he reports on are in his home area of Portland. Considering Portland’s lax policing, rioters who managed to get arrested were clearly among the most violent. Andy says that in some episodes, the “gender diverse” were up to 20% of arrestees. With Tucker Carlson last night, he offered additional psychological insight:
Andy Ngô tells Tucker about the ‘extremist trans fringe’
Banned:
That has been an obvious feature of the Antifa fashists for many years. They are so oppressed you see. Violent in their perversity.
A lot of people claiming she was abused at the school.
One notes that none of the people she shot were at the school when she attended.
Getting the narrative right is important. For example, after the Memphis police beat a guy to death, the expectation was that we had another Bad White Cop. Turned out not to be the case and after a bit of flailing, and passing references to police culture, it disappeared. Compare to Floyd, for example.
So it is necessary to have the equivalent in this case, but we don’t have the works. So it goes back a generation to the parents who are slandered without the slightest information.
The actual shooter becomes either a victim or a non-entity. Too embarrassing.
}}} In part IIIb — The mass murder of other people that has been imagined and planned is part of a fantasy that has gone on in the person’s head for a long time, perhaps replayed over and over.
Neo, something occurs to me, perhaps.
Think about how one may construct a sexual fantasy over time. One starts with some seedcorn idea that seems erotic, and builds it up into a fullblown erotic story that tweaks certain of your own sexual peccadilloes and/or perversions.
Now, there may be exceptions, but I would suspect that it is a bad idea to enact such fantasies, because reality never cooperates. And some of the aspects of the fantasy may not impact you the way, in reality, that they did in the fantasy.
Is this kind of revenge/destruction fantasy really all that different from a sexual one? Is it not fairly likely that many, upon trying to execute it, will find it failing to be even a fraction as good in reality as it was as a fantasy?
I suspect a lot of us sense this probability without needing to test it, so we never act on our fantasies… Perhaps certain killers lack the needed mental skillset to recognize this ahead of time…?
OBloody:
I think that’s probably a good analogy.