Yes, I am now certain this is schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a common reason for mass shootings.
Normally schizophrenia develops in the late teens or twenties, but late-onset schizophrenia is a thing (see my previous post), and there’s no evidence of any other motive that Paddock had (unless you believe the ISIS “news agency”), while evidence of schizophrenia is beginning to emerge (also see my previous post).
If Stephen Paddock had any logical motive like ideology or revenge, we would have known it by now. Furthermore, despite theorizing that as a frequent gambler he could have “snapped” because he lost all of his money, there is (1) no evidence of financial ruin; and (2) no history of other ruined gamblers becoming mass murderers of innocent people (it would be different if he had shot the people at the casino whom he blamed for his gambling losses).
Schizophrenic motives for mass-killing have no logical understandable explanation, because the schizophrenic murderers are perceiving an alternate reality. (It’s an explanation that few people seem to accept, most want to blame someone and punish them.)
I declare this case solved!
* * *
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, also has the same idea. He must have been reading my blog! (My first post on late-onset schizophrenia preceded his tweet.)
Prediction 4: Stephen Paddock's motive will involve mental illness, meds, and a "reason" that only made sense to him.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) October 4, 2017
Except I don’t think it has anything to do with meds. Actually, it’s UNTREATED psychosis which lead to his tragic end.
“If Stephen Paddock had any logical motive like ideology or revenge, we would have known it by now.”
Welllll, if his motive was anti-Trump, the media and deep state would do everything they can to conceal that information.
peterike
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I don’t buy into it. The first-responder cops are mostly Trump supporters. If Paddock had WANTED people to know he was doing it for a reason, he would have found a way to let the world know.
Yeah, conspiracy theories more exciting than schizophrenia, but schizophrenia is real. Sometimes shit just happens becuase it happens.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I’m with Lion. His mind clearly degenerated. The father’s psychosis is indeed the best evidence we’ve had all along. While there might be a motive of some sort, it’s almost certainly a nonsense motive. Maybe he wanted Harrison Ford to fall in love with him. Who knows.
A lot of the paranoia here needs to tone down a notch. Not every action taken by every person is political. Some people just do their damn jobs. Cigarette Man from X-Files isn’t there giving orders and suppressing information at every local PD.
News people, while certainly left-wing biased, LOVE a scoop. Knowing anything substantial about this guy’s motives — and having hard evidence behind it — would be a tremendous scoop at this point in time. The media will push stories from page 2 to page 3 for political reasons, or quit talking about them after 3 days instead of 3 months for political reasons, but when literally all of America is wondering about something, there’s no way they’ll sit on that juicy nugget and risk someone else getting it out first.
Wency
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Could be just Narcissistic personality disorder and anti Social Personality disorder.
I’m not ruling out he could be a Greg Popovich/Steve Kerr/Michael Moore/Stephen King type of old ugly White guy who hates Trump and Trump supporters.
I think a combination of those might be the motive.
Also, Otis why was neogaf crying over Trump’s PR speech?
Rifleman
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Oh I’m not saying I think it’s an anti-Trump thing. I think your schizo idea makes some sense. I’m just saying if it WAS an anti-Trump motive, they would try to hide it.
First responder cops might be Trump supporters, but cops follow orders, and the upper-level people in police forces are very often Progs because they are political appointments or aff ack cases. Or they could even have FBI or someone coming down on them telling them to shut up.
Could be two motives really. (1) Don’t want to encourage more anti-Trump copy cats because of danger to Trump (Secret Service might make a call here) or (2) political reasons, don’t want to make anti-Trumps look bad. Both sides would have their reasons to hush it up.
peterike
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Rifle: it wasn’t really clear to me what exactly Trump said that set them off so bad. I think it is just that his mere existence drives them into psychosis at this stage. They went bezerk over Trump tossing the crowd those paper towels though.
Trump continues to hover at around 39% in the polls. I really feel like 39 is his natural level. Some really good news cycles can push him up to 40 and really bad news cycles can get him down to 37 but 39 seems to be his core support that he always reverts to. During the election he had a favorability of 37 and that was with Crooked Hillary acting as a foil. 39% is fine.
Now if Trump only has a 39% approval rating during the 2020 election, that will be a problem, but as long as it is around 42 or so we should be fine.
Otis the Sweaty
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Typographical errors? Swearing? The lion’s drunkposting today!
driveallnight
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“Oh I’m not saying I think it’s an anti-Trump thing. I think your schizo idea makes some sense. I’m just saying if it WAS an anti-Trump motive, they would try to hide it.”
I agree the media would try to hide it as a general rule, but it’s usually impossible to hide that sort of thing if there was an obvious anti Trump motive. We knew what motivated the Steve Scalise shooter within hours of the shooting. This guys of course has zero social media presence (which is weird enough) but if there is a knowable motive, we’ll eventually know it.
Mike Street Station
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
If his motive was anti-Trump, why attack a country music concert in Las Vegas? Because he thought people who like country music are mostly Trump supporters.
Paddock apparently tried to rent some condo rooms that overlooked the Life is Beautiful Festival, headlined by Chance the Rapper and Lorde on Sept 22-24th. Paddock was not able to rent a condo with a view of the concert.
I think Paddock just had this idea of shooting as many people as he could before committing suicide. He thought a concert would be a good place to find a large crowd.
Mike CA
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
His behavior was far too organized for this to be schizophrenia, in my opinion. My bet is on antisocial personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder, or both, with some sort of motivating grudge. He stockpiled all those weapons, and had cameras, and this and that, to show everyone that he is going to carry out the bestest mass shooting ever.
Freud
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
James Holmes was also pretty organized.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Is James Holmes the one who booby-trapped his apartment?
Lesley Robinson
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
so he did it because the voices told him to? dementia not scz. this can be seen at autopsy unlike scz.
the only test for scz is the opinion of a psychiatrist, and psychiatrists usually disagree.
james holmes, that guy in arizona, and hinkley are the only cases i know of.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Here are some more cases:
* Seung-Hui Cho. As a child, Cho was diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder and placed under treatment. On December 13, 2005, he was found “mentally ill and in need of hospitalization. On April 16, 2007, he killed 32 people and wounded 17 others at a University in Virginia.
* Jiverly Wong. In a letter dated March 18, 2009, Wong expressed his concerns to a local television station that undercover police officers were changing the channels on his television, making the air “unbreathable,” and had figured out a way to play music directly into his ear. On April 3, 2009, Wong walked into the American Civic Association immigration center in Binghamton, New York and killed 13 people, wounding four others.
* Maj. Nidal Hasan. In early 2009, the mental health officials who worked alongside Hasan held a series of meetings where they discussed his bizarre and paranoid behavior. Some openly wondered whether Hasan was psychotic. On November 5, 2009, Hasan opened fire at an army base near Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others.
* Jared Loughner. On September 10, 2010, Loughner was asked to leave Pima Community College in Tucson on mental health grounds – a psychologist who reviewed his journals believes he showed symptoms of schizophrenia. Four months later Loughner unloaded his 9mm Glock pistol into the parking lot of a Tucson shopping mall, killing six and injuring 13.
* James Holmes. Between March 16th and June 11, 2012, the psychiatrist who treated Holmes, Dr. Lynn Fenton, wrote in her notes that Holmes “may be shifting insidiously into a frank psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia.” On July 20, 2012 Holmes walked into an Aurora, Colorado movie theater and killed 12 people, injuring 70 others.
* Aaron Alexis[black guy] On August 4, 2013, naval police were called to Alexis’ hotel at Naval Station Newport and found that he had “taken apart his bed, believing someone was hiding under it, and observed that Alexis had taped a microphone to the ceiling to record the voices of people that were following him.” On September 16, 2013, Alexis fatally shot 12 people and injured three others at the Washington Navy Yard.
http://www.newsweek.com/charleston-massacre-mental-illness-common-thread-mass-shootings-344789
We are constantly told by various mental health advocacy groups that schizophrenic people are no more violent than others but this is clearly not true. There are many cases of schizophrenic people murdering individuals. I’m not saying they are all violent. But a disproportionate number of them are violent. That Chinese immigrant guy who beheaded someone on a Greyhound bus in Canada is schizophrenic. They have let him out–claim he is safe now.
https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/release-of-man-who-beheaded-greyhound-bus-passenger-sparks-criticism/article33992330/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
Changed his name to Will Baker but his real name is Vincent Li.
Rosenmops
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
did any of the others kill themselves?
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Maj. Nidal Hasan was a terrorist. He was motivated by Islam, not mental illness.
Mike Street Station
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Mike street station:
Hasan was motivated by Islam–but that doesn’t mean he isn’t insane too. Sometimes it seems all Muslims are insane. Islamity.
Rosenmops
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
ron burgundy:
I’m not aware that any of the others killed themselves. The Las Vegas sheriff who has been giving the news conferences said today that he believes Paddock had hoped to escape.
Rosenmops
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
A few other mass shooters who were probably schizophrenic or at least delusional and somewhat disconnected from reality come to mind.
The Virginia Tech shooter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho
George Hennard, who held the record for the largest mass murder in US history until Virginia Tech. This guy used to take selfies of himself playing drums in the middle of the desert and mail them to women he barely knew along with letters as if he was a rock star and they were his fans. Not sure if that’s mentioned in here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_shooting
James Huberty, the McDonald’s massacre guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre
Howard Unruh, who committed a mass murder in Camden, NJ in 1949 and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Unruh
Horace Pinker
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
libertarians are delusional, but they’re not schizos. the delusions of schizos are “bizarre”. pretty subjective, but that wong guy above is an example.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Schizophrenia has a significant loss (10%) in the gray matter of the brain due to inflammation. Maybe they’ll see it on autopsy.
JW Bell
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
so do a million other things.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
cho was not schizo. hasan was himself a psychiatrist. i mentioned holmes and loughner. i forgot about the black guy. never heard of wong.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Apparently a lot of psychiatrists are crazy. That’s why they go into the field.
Rosenmops
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
There was a casino shooting earlier this year in the Philippines. ISIS took credit for it at first, but it turns out it was just a disgruntled gambler who had lost a lot of money.
GondwanaMan
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I’m placing my bets – pun intended – on a combo of mental illness and anti-Trump derangement syndrome.
SWPL
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I don’t buy it. Too much long-term, orderly, meticulous planning for someone with schizophrenia. People who he interacted with such as employees of the casinos he frequented and the gun stores where he purchased his weapons would have noticed progressively disordered speech and behavior.
Ripple Earthdevil
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
right. that’s why schizos are usually not dangerous to strangers. they’re too disorganized to do anything even if they want to.
he might’ve had a benign brain tumor like the UT shooter. the modus operandi are identical, firing from a great height.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Fuck yes
IHTG
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I’m very disappointed in Steve Bannon.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Why? Grimm is another awesome weapon to use against the Left.
Renault
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
He’s a guido who threatened to beat up a reporter. Can’t they find someone to run for office to make the alt-right look better?
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
…..to make the alt-right look better?
Can’t look much worse than Steve Bannon. LOL.
He’s a guido who threatened to beat up a reporter.
Trigger warning for you know who.
Rifleman
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
How does threatening to beat up reporters make any republican politician look bad at this point when, for example, the left defends Jimmy Kimmel after he threatens to assault a Fox News personality who disagrees with him over healthcare in one of his opening monologues?
Ideally, we’d all agree that we shouldn’t get into fistfights over political differences, but until the “it’s always ok to punch a Nazi” thing goes away, I say this is all fair game as long as they keep defining Nazis as average Trump supporters.
Horace Pinker
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
No, they can’t find anybody. For the most part, for now, the alt-right will consist primarily of people who are crazy, easily angered, or very impulsive. Why? Because those are the only people who are willing to accept the consequences of publicly stating their anti-left beliefs.
Stealth
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
yes. and it’s more than that. as lion has noted many times, the real reasons people believe what they do often have nothing to do with reason. so sometimes the truth is brightest for the marginalized, those who haven’t or can’t adopt the worldview of the crowd. it is unfortunate, but knowing the truth is often maladaptive, at least in the US. really believing lies is adaptive.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Believing what your group, team, tribe believes is more adaptive than believing the truth.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
IHTG
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
There is a possibility that he wanted to harm the casinos and that this was the best way to cause long term harm to their business. He was a game theory type so its plausible he might have calculated that way.
I think I saw another article about casinos taking losses (ie unrealized income) from this event but I cant find it now. But there is this:
http://www.mystateline.com/news/business/casino-stocks-fall-after-las-vegas-shooting/822709646
Lion o' the Turambar
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
That might be true, but I’m still categorizing that as a nonsense, psychotic reason. Maybe he was a big fan of a human mission to Mars and thought, through a complicated sequence of events, this was the best way to increase its odds of happening. Or maybe he wanted Jodie Foster’s attention.
Wency
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
he had collected guns for a decade at least. had he been a schizo this whole time? that was a rhetorical question. seems more likely he had a fantasy of killing lots of people for a long time. so it wasn’t the voices, it was the evil. if lion wants to believe that mental illness is not a contradiction in terms and is heritable, then that his dad was a diagnosed sociopath splains it. it also splains why he was rich and worked for a defense contractor.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
That seems like the most plausible hypothesis at this point. The main argument against it, besides the general lack of information, is that he he seemed to go about everything in a really competent, rational, and innovative way and manage to hide it from everyone he was in contact with.
Magnavox
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Maybe it was some other kind of mental illness besides schizophrenia?
Magnavox
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
It could be paraphrenia, but it has to be a mental illness involving psychosis.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Did Charles Whitman have psychosis?
Magnavox
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I don’t know anything about Charles Whitman
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“Did Charles Whitman have psychosis?”
He had a brain tumor. There is disagreement if it caused the shooting.
http://brainmind.com/Case5.html
ttgy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Charles Whitman requested to be autopsied after his death so that it could be determined exactly what was wrong with him. He did in fact have a brain tumor. According to Whitman’s Wikipedia entry, the tumor “exhibited a small amount of necrosis.” Perhaps his immune system began attacking healthy brain tissue in an effort to destroy the tumor. It’s possible, I guess; many people undergoing immunotherapy for melanoma develop vitiligo, as their bodies can’t distinguish between melanoma cells and healthy melanocytes.
Stealth
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
but it does NOT have to involve psychosis. the UT shooter was NOT psychotic. but he did have a benign brain tumor.
some guys can’t help themselves. they need to do it with other guys.
some guys can’t help themselves. they need to kill.
thankfully the latter is 1m x rarer than the former.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
the point is where the tumor was in his brain. whitman is not the only case of a killer who has had a brain tumor in a part of the brain associated with anger, rage, violence, etc.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
He was a loner who had contact with very few people.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
But he was in contact with his girlfriend and mother.
Magnavox
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
In contact in the immediate runup. Plus many more people over the months it would have been developing.
Magnavox
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
The girlfriend seems to be a grifter who was just out to get his money.
Rosenmops
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“But he was in contact with his girlfriend and mother.”
So he was in contact with a 90 year old woman who lived on the other side of the country and a “girlfriend” who no speaky good engrish.
destructure
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Charles Whitman had a brain tumor. He tried to get help from doctors before he went on his killing spree.
These were the days before MRI and CT brain scans, so there was no way to diagnose this non-surgically.
Maybe Paddock had a brain tumor too.
Whether they’ll be able to find it in an autopsy after he shot himself in the head remains a question.
“At 6:45 p.m., Whitman began typing his suicide note, a portion of which read:
I do not quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. Perhaps it is to leave some vague reason for the actions I have recently performed. I do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks.[40]”
“…he went on to request an autopsy be performed on his remains after he was dead to determine if there had been a discernible biological contributory cause for his actions and for his continuing and increasingly intense headaches.”
Medical history
“Prescription vials at Whitman’s home.
Investigating officers found that Whitman had visited several University doctors in the year before the shootings; they prescribed various medications for him. Whitman had seen a minimum of five doctors between the fall and winter of 1965, before he visited a psychiatrist from whom he received no prescription. At some other time he was prescribed Valium by Dr. Jan Cochrum, who recommended he visit the campus psychiatrist.[49]
Whitman met with Dr. Maurice Dean Heatly, the staff psychiatrist at the University of Texas Health Center, on March 29, 1966.[50] Whitman referred to his visit with Heatly in his final suicide note, writing, “I talked with a Doctor once for about two hours and tried to convey to him my fears that I felt come [sic] overwhelming violent impulses. After one visit, I never saw the Doctor again, and since then have been fighting my mental turmoil alone, and seemingly to no avail.”[40]
Heatly’s notes on the visit said, “This massive, muscular youth seemed to be oozing with hostility […] that something seemed to be happening to him and that he didn’t seem to be himself.”[51] “He readily admits having overwhelming periods of hostility with a very minimum of provocation. Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to ‘thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people.'”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman#cite_note-lavergne-10
Nedd Ludd
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
that describes the majority of single men, especially if they’re retired. it describes you lion. it’s meaningless.
schizophrenia has dispositive symptoms, none of which were ever exhibited by paddock or by that guy who flew the plane into the mountain. all of the other things which may characterize those suffering from schizophrenia are not dispositive, they may characterize lots of people who’ve never been psychotic and never will be.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
https://www.city-journal.org/html/unanswerable-15472.html
“From the information available so far, he was unlikely to have been schizophrenic. The planning of this act (which resembles that of Anders Breivik in Norway, who killed 77 people in 2011) is beyond the capacities of most people with such a disorder. Paddock’s quietness and almost reclusiveness are compatible with a paranoid personality, or with the possession of a single fixed paranoid delusion; further investigation will perhaps establish whether this was so. But even this would not explain all, for paranoid personalities and delusions are common, but mass killers are few, even if increasing in number.”
Theodore Dalrymple
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Late-onset schizophrenia has fewer negative symptoms. Look it up.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Lion, Theodore Dalrymple is an accomplished psychiatrist and author who writes at Taki’s and who worked for many years as a prison psychiatrist. I assume this commenter is the same man. If so, he qualifies as an expert.
You should be honored that he commented here (unless someone else copy-pasted his article). I assume you didn’t recognize him or you wouldn’t have said “look it up.” I’m sure he has seen many cases of schizophrenia among his patients.
Dan
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Wow, I didn’t notice that Theodore Dalrymple, whose book I partially read, left a comment! If he’s real Dylrymple, who’s a psychiatrist, I guess he knows more than me.
But there’s also the possibility that as a prison psychiatrist, he is basing his knowledge on “normal” mental illness that manifests in prison time, and not the kind of person like Paddock who has never been in prison and has never come in contact with psychiatrists, as far as we know.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Charles Whitman had a massive brain tumor
dried peanuts
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“Wow, I didn’t notice that Theodore Dalrymple, whose book I partially read, left a comment!”
I doubt that the real Theodore Dalrymple would be reading Lion’s blog. However, I’m perplexed that anyone could “partially read” any of Dalrymple’s books. They are too fascinating not to finish. His book “LIfe at the Bottom” is the best look at poverty since Edward Banfield’s 1970 classic “The Unheavenly City.”
maryk
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I partially read a lot of books.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“I partially read a lot of books.”
So do I. But some people are so special as writers/thinkers that you just HAVE TO finish one of their pieces of writing once you start it. I could no more leave a Theodore Dalrymple book unread than I could leave a Lion post unread., This ought to give you a good idea how how highly I regard your blog. I don’t put many people in a category with Theodore Dalrymple (whose real name is Anthony Daniels.)
maryk
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“I partially read a lot of books.”
ADHD?
Curle
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
“I doubt that the real Theodore Dalrymple would be reading Lion’s blog.”
Not necessarily. Derbyshire has mentioned Lion’s blog a couple of times, and Dalrymple probably reads Derbyshire.
Lewis Medlock
October 5, 2017 at EDT pm
Derbyshire reads my blog.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 5, 2017 at EDT pm
Before schizophrenics go on a violent rampage they usually suffer from severe hallucinations.
Was Paddock hallucinating the year or two before he went on a rampage?
The Undiscovered Jew
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
breivik was 100% sane. read his wiki. he saw numerous court appointed psychiatrists, all of whom came up with incompatible diagnoses, until the last one, who seeing this was honest and diagnosed him sane. and court appointed psychiatrists are the worst of the lot. they can’t make it in private practice. and they’ll say whatever they think the judge wants to hear. see The Thin Blue Line and ted k. there was ZERO evidence that ted k was schizo, but that didn’t stop the court psychiatrists from diagnosing him as such.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Well, this is better than your posts about ISIS.
Vince
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Apologies for being off topic, but I was wondering if you had any further thoughts on the way things might be turning out in Spain. There is an article in the Daily Mail which says “Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, the head of the Green grouping in the European Parliament said the crisis in Spain ‘threatened the spirit of European integration, even more than Brexit’. Another story is suggesting that Northern Italy might follow the same path as Catalonia.
The point was made in your previous thread that this situation has developed because the EU has allowed small states the option of seceding in the expectation that their security, defence and diplomacy can be guaranteed by the EU. But if this is the case, and given that most EU (maybe all) EU nations have strong regional identities, then why would ANY region prefer to remain part of the much maligned nation state? If you believe that the EU is here to stay and that Euro nations are bad (colonial guilt, etc) then what is the reason for the continued existence of the nation states in Europe?
It’s an interesting conundrum, because national governments and their representatives in various EU organs of government like the Council of the European Union have of course been the greatest cheerleaders for the EU and European integration. So how would national goverments and their bureaucrats feel about the possibilty that their precious EU might actually create a logic for their own obsolescence? Also, how would the EU itself feel about this situation? On the one hand, it could put them in a position of greater power as a nation of smaller regions would need the EU to suppress any dominant forces within Europe, and to co-ordinate matters of security and defence. These smaller regions would probably be easier to control and have less ability to stand up to the EU than their previous nations. On the other hand, the EU derives its legitimacy from the nation states,and is entirely constituted (EU treaties etc) on the basis of national representation. The EU could not be seen to be undermining the nations it represents without attracting their ire, yet maybe that is what the logic of the EU has been doing all along?
prolier than thou
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
If you believe that the EU is here to stay and that Euro nations are bad (colonial guilt, etc) then what is the reason for the continued existence of the nation states in Europe?
Dissolution of the EU is very worthwhile.
But dissolving Spain doesn’t bring any worthwhile advantages that I can see – especially if Catalonia’s ideal of independence is becoming a ward of the EU junta.
The Undiscovered Jew
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
If you allow a lot if immigration there isn’t much of a point to seceding.
I would like there to be even more break up of regions. France consisted of many separate nations I think and Italy didn’t even become a state until the late 1800’s.
The problem is the demographics are ruining everything in Europe with all the Muslim and African immigrants. Of course, the US is already a disaster demographically.
ttgy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
The Daily Stormer is now in catalonia after iceland threw them out.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“I would like there to be even more break up of regions.”
Jefferson imagined that, through voluntary secession, there might one day be three or more separate republics operating in the current territorial profile of the US. He imagined Atlantic, Mississippian and Pacific Unions, all composed of free states capable of negotiating to enter or leave whichever republic best served their needs and allowed them to avoid the evils of concentrated power and sectional advantage.
Curle
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
The EU is consummately evil. Whatever weakens it is good. Whatever strengthens it is bad. I don’t know what Catalonian independence does either way, but my opinion would based on how it affects the sinister EU.
Peterike
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
and it will die unless the germans agree to fiscal union and lots of welfare for the PIGS. but why would they do that. the whole thing looks like a german plot to take over europe again. maybe that’s not what it is, but it’s the result. and the french are retarded and delusional as usual. the fench elite actually think of themselves as equal to germany and soon to push the germans out of the brussels bureaucracy. unz has a piece today about the frog’s hate speech laws. technically it is now illegal to say that jerry lewis wasn’t funny, because lewis was a member of the legion of honor and insulting members of the legion of honor is a crime in france.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
You are somewhat confused, but you are on to something.
Spain is not a nation state. It is a multi-national kingdom. The Catalans are a nation. An independent Catalonia would be a nation state. “Regionalism” does not exist. All european seperatist movements that I am aware of are based on, ethnic, cultural or linguistic identity, not based on landscape. These are identitarian movements.
Nation states like Sweden or Poland are not obsolete. Multi-national states like Spain, Belgium or the UK are unnecessary within the EU. They are just a useless middle layer. I believe that Italy will stay together, because there is no sharp cultural, ethnic or linguistic border that separates the North from the South.
The Spanish elites believe their own propaganda. They deny that Catalonia is a thing, believe that Catalonians don’t really want to separate and are convinced that Catalonians are better off under their rule for some reason. That is why they did not see the massive contradiction between their enthusiasm for the EU and their confidence that Spain will stay together in its present form.
The EU does not provide defense or diplomacy in any meaningful sense for member states. It is primarily an economic union but it also has strong influence on some aspects of interior politics, like immigration.
EU elites feel unease about this situation because it shows that national identity is strong and that multi-national states like Belgium and Spain were not able to forge a unified identity. So the EU will not achieve the formation of a homogenized european identity either and secessionist movements can always emerge.
Contrarian
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
because there is no sharp cultural, ethnic or linguistic border that separates the North from the South.
was that a joke? italian has dialects too. they are mutually unintelligible. s italy is a third world country. n italy is first world country. n italians also look different. does that count as an ethnic difference? n italians are good looking. s italians look like saudis.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“Vas that a joke? italian has dialects too. they are mutually unintelligible. s italy is a third world country. n italy is first world country. n italians also look different. does that count as an ethnic difference? ”
The north of italy has wanted to break apart from the south for a while.
I read that people in Naples couldn’t even understand the people living in Sicily because of the dialects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Italy
ttgy
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
Average Europeans will try to unify, once the darkies of Sud become a force to be reckon with in the continent, the same way the different of groups of White Americans who never liked one another, band together as a tribe against blacks, Hispanics and Asians.
My speculation is that Euro elites have taken the playbook of our divide and conquer strategy, and it works wonder on the primal and deranged nature of humans.
JS
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
These are good points and I’ve wondered about this for decades (sorry for the additional off topic comment).
For the EU and its predecessors as an institution, a Europe composed as Catalonia style regions, with the EU institutions in Brussels providing the co-ordination to deal with large outside powers, sort of how the USA is supposed to work, makes alot of sense. And there has been interest by regionalist politicians and the EU bureaucracy in this scheme. If it happened, there is no reason to believe it would turn out worse for ordinary people than the USA has turned out.
However, the EU and its predecessors were set up and controlled by the nation-state governments, more like the UN. The only exception is the EU Parliament. The Council of Ministers and Commission are all nation state staffed and controlled. Its arguable that the EU exists mainly as a way for nation state governments to divert blame for their more unpopular policies onto another organization.
Ed
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
” sort of how the USA is supposed to work”
And if at some point in the future a regional faction wants to assert unconditional economic power over another region in a manner beneficial to the former and deliterious to the latter might we anticipate the agitation of a moral panic over whatever social issue is at hand; a panic sufficient to justify raising an army to conquer the ‘progress’ avoidant latter party?
Curle
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
and belgium itself may split. walloons vs flemish.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I just wrote about that today.
https://mikestreetstation.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/should-i-have-an-opinion-on-catalonian-independence/
The irony is that even though the EU opposes all of these secession movements, the existence of the EU makes them more likely.
Mike Street Station
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
yes. the fact that a continent of white people can’t “all just get along” means the US and other new world countries are born losers.
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
More African and Muslim imports will ensure these white people will get along, and lead to mongrelization of the different Euro groups.
JS
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
The thing is, he had to do a ton of things without tipping anyone off.
He built a massive artillery, reserved stuff for days in advance, moved a massive arsenal without ever being noticed, modified guns in a way that takes at least some skill, and participated in something like 45 gun transactions where he had to act normal every time.
And he never got so much as a speeding ticket.
For a guy who is supposed bat-shit-crazy, he managed to act totally normal the whole time.
Dan
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Late-onset schizophrenia has fewer negative symptoms. In other words, the person appears normal to the outside world even though he’s having hallucinations.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I know a man who became schizophrenic in middle age. He could never begin to pull off something like this.
Dan
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Normal to the outside world, like going on a shooting spree?
subjmint
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Psychiatrists employ a medical model, which is highly problematic when diagnosing/interpreting human behavior.
Lewis Medlock
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
“Psychiatrists employ a medical model, which is [utterly useless] when diagnosing/interpreting human behavior.”
FIFY. Traipse through the DSM-IV or DSM-5 and discover that you and everyone you know fulfill the diagnostic criteria for numerous mental health disorders. Psychiatry isn’t science.
hard9bf
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Schizophrenia is not really a meaningful label at all. It amounts to saying “something weird going on with the brain.” This is typical of most psychiatric diagnoses. They are arbitrarily categorizing by symptoms, not actually identifying a disease at all.
There isn’t a meaningful distinction between “schizophrenia” and “alzheimer’s.”
bobbybobbob
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
There’s a huge difference. Schizophrenics have hallucinations. Alzheimers is a deterioration of the brain causing forgetfulness and lower reasoning ability, but not hallucinations.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
This is simply incorrect. Alzheimer’s patients see and hear things that aren’t there all the time.
bobbybobbob
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
The labels and psychologizing are useless. Worse than useless, because they pretend to be an explanation.
Some guys just want to see what it feels like to kill a bunch of people.
Mrs Stitch
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
I think Charles Whitman was suffering from brain tumors.
Del
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Late-onset schizophrenia sounds possible, but wouldn’t some evidence have come out about treatment or meds found in the search warrants.
Anyway, for a guy that supposedly was a self-made millionaire, he held middling short-term jobs.
LA Times, 10/03/17 – Las Vegas gunman was a former IRS agent who ‘preplanned extensively’ for the attack
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-las-vegas-guns-20171003-story.html#nt=oft01a-8gp3
…New details emerged Tuesday about Paddock, who according to federal records held a series of federal jobs over the years. He was a post office letter carrier in the 1970s, and after graduating from Cal State Northridge with a degree in business administration in 1977, he became an agent for the Internal Revenue Service, a job he held from 1978 to 1984. He then was employed as an auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency for a little over a year, federal personnel records showed…
And a couple of years at one of the defense contractors – I think Northrup. A 4-year degree in Business Administration from a middle of the road state school is unimpressive (but I guess back in ’77 it was much more marketable). News reports say Paddock worked as an “accountant” and as an “auditor” yet no evidence of earning the CPA or CIA? And I don’t see any job history after the late ’80s when he worked for the defense contractor; Paddock would have been only 35 y/o in 1990.
E. Rekshun
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
He allegedly got wealthy from real estate rental properties, a business he ran with his brother Eric. As unlikely as that sounds, it’s a lot more likely than his dad left a secret fortune he stole from banks.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Where’d you see the info that he worked at Northrup?
Seth Long
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
After watching the 33-minute interview with his brother, I tend to agree. If this wasn’t schizophrenia, it was some sort of rapid mental degeneration. The shooter might have been an asshole, but he doesn’t sound like a callous psychopath to me anymore. This seems like a tragedy on all ends.
Horace Pinker
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
They say he liked country music:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/10/02/las-vegas-gunman-liked-to-gamble-listened-to-country-music-lived-quiet-retired-life-before-massacre/
Tom
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
The people I met who were schizophrenic were pretty obviously so based on their speech and demeanor. Obviously that is a biased sample but based on my limited knowledge of psychiatry, I am skeptical that someone is schizophrenic enough to go on a spree killing but was organized enough and had good enough social skills to actually pull it off.
On the other hand, if this were politically motivated or a grudge killing, you would think some solid evidence about his motives would have come out by now.
fortaleza84
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Breivik was initially diagnosed as schizophrenic. The diagnosis was later revoked after public outcry.
Breivik did partially live in an alternative reality. You should look into his manifesto. Most of the political stuff was just articles copied from anti-jihadist sites. The manifesto is online. Skip to the later third or so. It is pretty obvious that thy guy was not a fully reality based political actor. He created a fantasy freemasonry organization, complete with uniforms and badges, imaginary leaders, etc. He used computer game inspired metaphors and terminology in his own writing. Much of his own stuff reads like a game manual/FAQ.
3.154 Knights Templar Log
Contrarian
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
police say he planned to escape; may have had an accomplice. not quite schizo?
ryan
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Islamic terrorists are suicidal. Schizophrenics are not usually suicidal. If he was planning to escape, it further debunks the claim by ISIS that he secretly converted to Islam.
Lion of the Blogosphere
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
right. this is why his suicide rather than surrender is evidence for no schizophrenia. or did the voices tell him to kill himself too?
ron burgundy
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Yes, they are. Greater than 50% of people with schizophrenia make at least one suicide attempt, and 5% of them actually complete it. The suicide rate in schizophrenia is greater than the homicide rate.
Also, regarding your late-onset schizophrenia theory, most late-onset schizophrenia cases occur in middle age. It would be extremely rare for a man in his sixties to develop schizophrenia. Most new-onset psychosis in people that age have an “organic” cause, i.e., dementia or a brain tumor. It will be interesting to see if they make his autopsy results public. Psychosis can also be drug-induced, notably by stimulants, like cocaine, PCP, or prescription stimulants. But we don’t have any information yet that he was psychotic.
Hermes
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
Don’t see much evidence of escape planning.
James B. Shearer
October 4, 2017 at EDT pm
SF author explains how his girlfriend became a homicidal maniac due to medication. https://www.facebook.com/notes/john-ringo/a-theory-on-las-vegas/10155111388257055/
Mike Street Station
October 5, 2017 at EDT am
[…] That’s what I said on Wednesday. Three days ahead of ABC’s “sources.” […]
Stephen Paddock investigators must be reading my blog | Lion of the Blogosphere
October 8, 2017 at EDT am