Here we go again.

As one would expect to happen in the wake of a senseless act of brutality, the modern media beehive is abuzz with talk about this latest incident of that peculiarly American specialty, the mass shooting.

Yes, they happen in other places. But they don’t happen five to six times a year anywhere but the U S of A. And I am very happy that President Obama said so in his official response.

The rest of us in the “advanced world” (gonna steal that) have been saying it, or at least thinking it, for many years. If America was a person, it would be a highly unstable lunatic. The lunatic often means well, but ends up doing more harm than good. And as a rule, is very bad at self-control.

Of course, one of the things up for “debate” in the reality-hating world of right wing conservatism is “if” the crime was racially motivated. The evidence is overwhelming that it was. The dude said “I’m here to kill black people. ”

If that’s not evidence enough for you, then you are clearly operating to preserve belief, not understand the world.

Why do people want to deny the racial element? I think it comes down to not wanting to be part of the problem. The Fox News times went right ahead and adopted an absurd form of victimhood in order to achieve this : it wasn’t racist, it was anti-Christian.

I think that, in the Alzheimer’s demographic of Fox News, there is some seriously magical thinking going on. These people think that if there is no racism any more, they themselves are not racist.

They deeply suspect, in that part of their mind they keep locked away that deal with reality, that they really are racist. In fact, they are sure that they are. But that is clearly viewed as extremely wrong by society, and so they can’t admit to themselves that they are, or that any of their friends are.

So they are willing to deny the entire existence of racism just to escape the truth about themselves. Easier than having to change your mind, I suppose. At their age.

However, I think the fact that this crime is racially motivated tend to lead people in the wrong direction. People want to connect this to racism as a whole in order to make sense of this horror, but the truth is, there is very little connection.

Sure, this person was racist. He was also crazy. Racism is simply the form his insanity took. it could have been anti-semitism, sexism, or a deep belief that some people have flies in their eyes and must be destroyed.

Because of all the racial horror happening recently in the USA, it is extremely tempting to connect the dots. And who knows, maybe that influenced his choice of psychotic modalitity. In another time, he might have decided it was hippies that were responsible for all the evil in the world. Or the Illuminati.

But that doesn’t really say anything about the state of race relations in America. Cops killing unarmed black people is extremely relevant to the issue. One lone nut crossing that mysterious line that separates the one who does from the millions that don’t is not at all relevant.

Remember that line. There are, in the world, probably at least a hundred thousand people with the exact same beliefs as this man. But they don’t shoot up black churches. They never will. This guy did.

And nobody knows why.

All we know is that, for some reason, in any population, there is a chance that someone will really, truly, completely believe the things that people only say they believe because it makes them feel better.

If the extreme racists of the world truly believed what this man did, they would all do what he did. It would be the only thing they could do, from their point of view, to stem the rising black tide.

But they don’t do it, because that would be crazy. You can believe whatever the hell you want if you know, deep down, that you will never ever act on it. You can go around thinking everyone with blue eyes has no soul, or that children are parasites, or that everyone is a robot but you, and if it makes you happy to do so and you know you won’t act on it, who cares?

Once you understand ideology as serving emotional need far more often than any attempt to align one’s beliefs with reality, a lot of extreme ideologies make a lot more sense.

Another perennial topic being attached to this incident as people grope for answers to questions that may have no answers is guns and gun control.

I don’t think that has much to do with it either.

His father bought the gun. Background checks wouldn’t have stopped him, unless we were willing to say that anyone connected with a mentally ill person is banned from buying guns. Waiting periods wouldn’t have stopped him. He was crazy when he asked for the gun and he was still crazy when it got it.

There’s not a lot any law can do to keep a father from giving his son a gun. That would have been just as true up here in Canada as it would be down in the USA.

Better mental health services might have helped, especially if there was an early intervention. It’s less clear if they would have done any good with a more recent intervention, though. The truth is, the system only recognizes the criminally insane after they have committed a crime. Before that, they are just the same as a million other people with loose screws.

The only way to truly cut down on these incidents is to lower the societal pressure level. That means turning down the heat, embracing our mutual humanity, and working hard and making sacrifices in order to strive for moderation.

None of those things are American values.

So I return to my original point :

These things keep happening because America is fucking crazy.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.