Walter, you managed to take me through the historic perspective of white patriarchy in my own life.
I’ve never considered what that would look like through the eyes of a white male who awakened early to the role that violence, hurting living things, and murdering the innocent was imposing on who he was.
As a child, adults were frightening, my mother was an unreliable and selfish caregiver. My father was raised in a small copper mining town in the Sonoran desert near the southern border of Arizona, 40 miles north of Mexico. I know how he learned to kill, I heard many stories of his childhood and adult life. He was proud of his violence and the enjoyment he got from chasing rabbits from the bed of a pickup truck firing a shotgun and blowing them apart. He wasn’t hunting rabbits, he was slaughtering them. The look on his face when he would tell his stories were like being chased down myself as a child.
He was a cruel, perverse, controlling, violent man. His authority of patriarchy had no limits, no guardrails, no rule about anything applied to him—he was the god of everything that he chose, and it was always clear the power of life or death was his. I had 3 siblings, I was the oldest by 5 years. My mother was a collaborator with my father, the power he wielded benefited her in many ways. The same was not true for their children. One of my brothers spent nearly his whole adult life in prison, he was conscienceless. In a different time, my brother, would have been a very likely candidate to become a school shooter.
America is the most violent place on earth, and according to the white patriarchy who is still in charge, nothing is going to change, because the violence has always been what keeps them in charge. So just live with the school-shootings, say your prayers offer your thoughts, but nothing is going to change.
Thanks Linda. I had a front row seat to much of what you speak of and to think back on those times and how they have tentacles in our present day society makes my head hurt but it makes me full of disgust and shame also. I often say that as a nation of people, We the People need to desperately grow up or mature is a better word. The powerbrokers that promote a depraved society do so by design and purpose part of which is to keep common ordinary citizens at each other's throats. Their plan appears to be working to the advantage of the Mobligarchs. You read that correctly, the blending of the two.
Vote for Democrats. The violence won’t stop under GOP rule, and letting Trump back into power will remove the FEW guardrails we have left. We CAN have a more peaceful culture, if we’re willing to vote for progressives.
Some of your best writing, Walter. This highlights a real problem in rural America that too many want to ignore or they want to excuse. Why is the instance of the "angry white male" mass-shooter a "mental health issue" and if he were a person of color, it would be a race crime statistic? It is a race crime statistic - a white race crime statistic and there is a sick pattern to it.
Sitting here trying not to hurl with no ability to stop crying with astorm inside my heart that won't abate. This was riveting truth. The guts part. Grew up on a farm. Memories flooded back of shooting the cows, pigs in the head so their "fear" wouldn't poison the meat. Wringing chickens by the neck so they would "taste" right. Everything you said was critical and correct. THe vomit of Gun violence smells like perfume to these cruel, violent, perverted beings that have lost humanity. Thank you for this brilliant piece! MY GOD!
The fact that we lose track of how many mass shootings we have in a year tells you how big this problem is. I recall a reporter asking a congressman, who he was interviewing on the steps of the Capitol, about the latest school shooting. The congressman basically said that Congress would do nothing about gun restrictions. He then admitted that it wasn't his concern because his children were home schooled. So, his mentality is "Let everyone else's child get murdered, not my problem. My kids are safely at home."
This is exactly why these people need to be voted out of office. They don't care if someone else's house catch fire. Or that these tragedies continue to happen. It's shameful that people hold their right to own a weapon of war more dear than they do the lives of children. Make it make sense.
New Zealand had on mass shooting. Within two to three months they banned guns. Problem solved. But of course, their President was female. We will have the opportunity to do the same by electing our first female President this November.
I honestly believe that Republicans want middle class kids who go to public schools to get shot. I think we all have to just assume this is what they want, because they're certainly doing everything they can to enable it. Yup, the response of Australia and New Zealand provides evidence that can't be ignored. I hope that when Kamala takes control of the White House she handles this (and I expect she will).
I find the whole thing to be mind boggling. The people who are anti-abortion are the same people who ignore kids being shot down in school. How is that Pro-Life? So a person only deserves to live when their in the womb, but when they're actually living and breathing humans, they're fair game for a turkey shoot?
Yes, America is uniquely distopian in this instance of human rights. The only rights you have are only when you're a fetus. Any other time, all bets are off. How did things get so twisted?
I’m pro-life. I’m also against mass shootings. Don’t lump all pro-life people into the same category as somebody who is a mass shooter or who doesn’t care. We do absolutely care. But the struggle is that bad guys will still have guns. Kamala might be able to enact a bill to “protect” us from ourselves, but the bad guys won’t follow her laws.
On Monday (Labor Day), I was home alone with my eight-year-old. My husband had left to pick up our groceries and some lunch. A man tried to rob us at 12:30 noon. Yes, I had a gun! I definitely defended myself and my child! Did I ever think I’d have to be put in that situation? Absolutely not! But we live out in the middle of nowhere, and the sheriff’s department still didn’t arrive until 20 minutes after I made the 911 call. The man was well out of the area by then. They didn’t find him! I’m not sleeping well now.
But would I have been a statistic had I not had my defense on me? Probably. I’m not giving up my gun! It saved my and my son’s life.
I wrote a comment below first about how at age 10 I had not touched a gun since an incident with my cousin and I playing. That’s a fact. But 2 years ago with the massive influx of illegals coming I decided to purchase a gun for home protection. That was the second time I had handled it since purchasing it in 2022. I took a qualification test on it but hadn’t touched it since. I don’t like guns! They terrify me! But no one is going to tell me I can’t protect myself or my child’s life!
How do babies die under pro-life policies? I’m genuinely confused because I thought “pro-life” was supposed to mean supporting life, living, or at least the ability to live. I don’t understand how babies are dying under this framework.
My cousin faced a heart-wrenching decision several years ago when her sister was giving birth. The doctor told her, "I can either save your sister or the baby—you have to choose." She had to make an impossible choice, to save one life over the other. Is that pro-choice or pro-life?
This was in 2005, while Roe v. Wade was still in effect, before decisions were left to individual states. I’m trying to understand how situations like this play out now, especially with the changes in laws. This happened in New Mexico, which supports the right to choose, but I still wonder—what would have happened today under different state laws.
I am specifically talking about military style weapons, i.e. AK47s and the like, the weapons of choice of all the mass shootings I've heard about. Nobody is saying you shouldn't defend yourself. You are lumping all guns into one category. If the Democratic president was going to come after everybody's guns, why would they wait until the end of his term? It's an illogical argument. A scare tactic use by the Republicans. I'm glad you were able to defend yourself and your child. But the narrative about illegal immigrants is another scare tactic. It makes villains out of people who are fleeing from violence in their own country. How many immigrants have you personally encountered who have taken over your city? It's a shame that people don't see how racist that trope is. Blame it on the brown people. What about the European illegal immigrants? I don't see anybody complaining about them over staying their visas.
There was a bipartisan bill ready to be approved and Trump told the Republicans to kill it because he wanted to run his campaign on immigration. If you are upset about the "open border", you should be upset with Trump. Funny how people don't pay attention to things like that. They want to blame the Democrats for everything.
His kids are home schooled... Well, they go to birthday parties, grocery stores, office buildings, churches, parades, picnics, sports events... All of which have become killing fields on his watch. Sick MF.
I am spreading this essay widely! Your personal history is compelling. Your understanding of the shaping of the American psyche is insightful. Your appeal to the future is pure poetry. Thank you for your art. 🌊🐬
Brady Bill, yes really good point! Well I think Trump is a buffoon of course but I am not sure it was a lie. He truly believed that everything in Israel should be mimicked for USA, he said so without actually knowing. People like me do a bit of research...and their gun laws are very RESTRICTIVE. Trump is bought and paid by the NRA, but also a loose cannon moron that just says things b/c he can and so if he did a little research he would never have stated this.
Anyways, gun access is a huge problem. Another point there are very little mass shootings with Machine guns. Machine guns are controlled very rigidly by the ATF so they know who has machine guns and who buys them. Very rarely do we get a guy with a machine gun committing murders with them (there was 1 in the news cycle earlier this year), I don't remember the last time before that. Point is...gun access works!
I hope if Kamala wins she can stand strong to the lobbyist of the gun ppl and really enact fruitful change. What Biden did with ghost guns is a joke. Ghost guns aren't a huge dent of an issue...let's go after gun access, let's regulate private sales (which have zero regulation!). Literally you can sell a gun without the use of an background check if you "believe" the guy you are selling too isn't a criminal. It is horse shit!
If I am not mistaken, our smaller neighbour to the North has more guns in circulation than the US does - and how many of the mass shootings the US has to endure?
Yes - the US society is to an extreme extent sick, mentally sick, to the bone (and not only in regard to gun violence). And it all stems from the very fact that the only thing that matters is money.
What we are experiencing at this point in time are the endstages of capitalism!
As you have remarked in the past if I recall corectly: "It is darkest before dawn".
Let's keep our fingers crossed that down comes soon - and that we will indeed seize the bright new day - and not waste it!
"Guns in circulation" is a tricky statement because not all guns are created equal. I hope the US starts taking this problem seriously, but the government has been letting it linger on for decades. At this point, we need to recognize that Republicans simply want those kids killed and they're doing everything they can to allow it to happen. Thanks for the comment!
This essay is shocking. Shockingly ignorant of the real pathology infecting rural America. It’s not the patriarchy. It’s the anti patriarchy of internet porn, meth, fentanyl and hopelessness nested in nihilism taught by the elite class of our culture who have eroded faith in self determination and ceded our self worth and abilities to have control over our own lives to the bureaucrats, nanny’s, and busybodies who hate us. The views in this essay are not only pathetic and weak…they are sociopathic and self absorbed.
Andy, you’re trying to convince intelligent, insightful, compassionate human beings that the rural right wing extremism problem is the result of “nihilistic elites” invading the rural heartland, selling porn, opioids, and amphetamines, and fentanyl to the farm boys to turn them into hunting, killing, gun-crazed nihilistic-trained rural addicts. This is a wild theory, I don’t think folks in the midwest are being marginalized by nannies, bureaucrats, elites, and I guess I’m not sure about the cultural damage that busy bodies do in rural America. The patriarchy must be getting their guns together to do some serious attitude adjustment to the elites invading the Midwest.
Well-said , insightful analysis of this horrifying, impossible situation. Thank you! What will it take to make it change? Can it change? The shooting & killing in computer games make it all seem so harmless as well. Thanks!
Now that I can’t agree with. Please explain? Because actually more people don’t go to church now. Especially millennials and Gen-Z. It was a millennial man (still at large) in KY…who is sniping people. The kids at the two other school of course are Gen-Z. But based on the reports about the parents of the first kid, they definitely don’t sound “churched” the moms on meth. The dads abusive. I don’t know much about the second kid. But I can’t see how church has anything to do with it.
Christians protect pedophiles. They indulge in hate crimes and hate rhetoric against the LGBTQ community. They steal from public education to cultivate an impoverished population they can then oppress. It might be the most evil organization in history. It's full of sinners. You need to repent.
Walter, you managed to take me through the historic perspective of white patriarchy in my own life.
I’ve never considered what that would look like through the eyes of a white male who awakened early to the role that violence, hurting living things, and murdering the innocent was imposing on who he was.
As a child, adults were frightening, my mother was an unreliable and selfish caregiver. My father was raised in a small copper mining town in the Sonoran desert near the southern border of Arizona, 40 miles north of Mexico. I know how he learned to kill, I heard many stories of his childhood and adult life. He was proud of his violence and the enjoyment he got from chasing rabbits from the bed of a pickup truck firing a shotgun and blowing them apart. He wasn’t hunting rabbits, he was slaughtering them. The look on his face when he would tell his stories were like being chased down myself as a child.
He was a cruel, perverse, controlling, violent man. His authority of patriarchy had no limits, no guardrails, no rule about anything applied to him—he was the god of everything that he chose, and it was always clear the power of life or death was his. I had 3 siblings, I was the oldest by 5 years. My mother was a collaborator with my father, the power he wielded benefited her in many ways. The same was not true for their children. One of my brothers spent nearly his whole adult life in prison, he was conscienceless. In a different time, my brother, would have been a very likely candidate to become a school shooter.
America is the most violent place on earth, and according to the white patriarchy who is still in charge, nothing is going to change, because the violence has always been what keeps them in charge. So just live with the school-shootings, say your prayers offer your thoughts, but nothing is going to change.
The celebration of cruelty has too long been a part of American ideology. It's costing us everything. Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
Thanks Linda. I had a front row seat to much of what you speak of and to think back on those times and how they have tentacles in our present day society makes my head hurt but it makes me full of disgust and shame also. I often say that as a nation of people, We the People need to desperately grow up or mature is a better word. The powerbrokers that promote a depraved society do so by design and purpose part of which is to keep common ordinary citizens at each other's throats. Their plan appears to be working to the advantage of the Mobligarchs. You read that correctly, the blending of the two.
Yes, the ancient Romans already knew and successfully applied this : divide et impera! (Divide and rule)
Vote for Democrats. The violence won’t stop under GOP rule, and letting Trump back into power will remove the FEW guardrails we have left. We CAN have a more peaceful culture, if we’re willing to vote for progressives.
Thank you for this stunning essay. You connect the dots along an obvious time. I appreciate the reader's responses that contribute to the discission.
Thank you!
Some of your best writing, Walter. This highlights a real problem in rural America that too many want to ignore or they want to excuse. Why is the instance of the "angry white male" mass-shooter a "mental health issue" and if he were a person of color, it would be a race crime statistic? It is a race crime statistic - a white race crime statistic and there is a sick pattern to it.
Thank you Susanne!
Sitting here trying not to hurl with no ability to stop crying with astorm inside my heart that won't abate. This was riveting truth. The guts part. Grew up on a farm. Memories flooded back of shooting the cows, pigs in the head so their "fear" wouldn't poison the meat. Wringing chickens by the neck so they would "taste" right. Everything you said was critical and correct. THe vomit of Gun violence smells like perfume to these cruel, violent, perverted beings that have lost humanity. Thank you for this brilliant piece! MY GOD!
Thank you for that powerful reaction!
The fact that we lose track of how many mass shootings we have in a year tells you how big this problem is. I recall a reporter asking a congressman, who he was interviewing on the steps of the Capitol, about the latest school shooting. The congressman basically said that Congress would do nothing about gun restrictions. He then admitted that it wasn't his concern because his children were home schooled. So, his mentality is "Let everyone else's child get murdered, not my problem. My kids are safely at home."
This is exactly why these people need to be voted out of office. They don't care if someone else's house catch fire. Or that these tragedies continue to happen. It's shameful that people hold their right to own a weapon of war more dear than they do the lives of children. Make it make sense.
New Zealand had on mass shooting. Within two to three months they banned guns. Problem solved. But of course, their President was female. We will have the opportunity to do the same by electing our first female President this November.
I honestly believe that Republicans want middle class kids who go to public schools to get shot. I think we all have to just assume this is what they want, because they're certainly doing everything they can to enable it. Yup, the response of Australia and New Zealand provides evidence that can't be ignored. I hope that when Kamala takes control of the White House she handles this (and I expect she will).
I find the whole thing to be mind boggling. The people who are anti-abortion are the same people who ignore kids being shot down in school. How is that Pro-Life? So a person only deserves to live when their in the womb, but when they're actually living and breathing humans, they're fair game for a turkey shoot?
Yes, America is uniquely distopian in this instance of human rights. The only rights you have are only when you're a fetus. Any other time, all bets are off. How did things get so twisted?
I’m pro-life. I’m also against mass shootings. Don’t lump all pro-life people into the same category as somebody who is a mass shooter or who doesn’t care. We do absolutely care. But the struggle is that bad guys will still have guns. Kamala might be able to enact a bill to “protect” us from ourselves, but the bad guys won’t follow her laws.
On Monday (Labor Day), I was home alone with my eight-year-old. My husband had left to pick up our groceries and some lunch. A man tried to rob us at 12:30 noon. Yes, I had a gun! I definitely defended myself and my child! Did I ever think I’d have to be put in that situation? Absolutely not! But we live out in the middle of nowhere, and the sheriff’s department still didn’t arrive until 20 minutes after I made the 911 call. The man was well out of the area by then. They didn’t find him! I’m not sleeping well now.
But would I have been a statistic had I not had my defense on me? Probably. I’m not giving up my gun! It saved my and my son’s life.
I wrote a comment below first about how at age 10 I had not touched a gun since an incident with my cousin and I playing. That’s a fact. But 2 years ago with the massive influx of illegals coming I decided to purchase a gun for home protection. That was the second time I had handled it since purchasing it in 2022. I took a qualification test on it but hadn’t touched it since. I don’t like guns! They terrify me! But no one is going to tell me I can’t protect myself or my child’s life!
So called “pro-life” people get more people killed than anyone else. Without access to reproductive healthcare, both women and babies die.
How do babies die under pro-life policies? I’m genuinely confused because I thought “pro-life” was supposed to mean supporting life, living, or at least the ability to live. I don’t understand how babies are dying under this framework.
My cousin faced a heart-wrenching decision several years ago when her sister was giving birth. The doctor told her, "I can either save your sister or the baby—you have to choose." She had to make an impossible choice, to save one life over the other. Is that pro-choice or pro-life?
This was in 2005, while Roe v. Wade was still in effect, before decisions were left to individual states. I’m trying to understand how situations like this play out now, especially with the changes in laws. This happened in New Mexico, which supports the right to choose, but I still wonder—what would have happened today under different state laws.
I am specifically talking about military style weapons, i.e. AK47s and the like, the weapons of choice of all the mass shootings I've heard about. Nobody is saying you shouldn't defend yourself. You are lumping all guns into one category. If the Democratic president was going to come after everybody's guns, why would they wait until the end of his term? It's an illogical argument. A scare tactic use by the Republicans. I'm glad you were able to defend yourself and your child. But the narrative about illegal immigrants is another scare tactic. It makes villains out of people who are fleeing from violence in their own country. How many immigrants have you personally encountered who have taken over your city? It's a shame that people don't see how racist that trope is. Blame it on the brown people. What about the European illegal immigrants? I don't see anybody complaining about them over staying their visas.
There was a bipartisan bill ready to be approved and Trump told the Republicans to kill it because he wanted to run his campaign on immigration. If you are upset about the "open border", you should be upset with Trump. Funny how people don't pay attention to things like that. They want to blame the Democrats for everything.
👍🏽👍🏽🙏
His kids are home schooled... Well, they go to birthday parties, grocery stores, office buildings, churches, parades, picnics, sports events... All of which have become killing fields on his watch. Sick MF.
This is incredibly well written and on point. I’m proud to share this. It was like reading a piece of my own life, thank you.
Hi William, thanks for your kind comment!
Same, I was stunned by both the familiarity and the horror, together. Two opposites joining to create this meat grinder culture
Thank you!
I am spreading this essay widely! Your personal history is compelling. Your understanding of the shaping of the American psyche is insightful. Your appeal to the future is pure poetry. Thank you for your art. 🌊🐬
I appreciate your support! Thanks!
You've absolutely nailed America's tragedy here, Walter. Particularly struck by the notion of many living their lives in terror.
Most of the time we lived there we had great, inexpensive healthcare as I worked for a large corporation but as soon as I went freelance...
Thank you!
Brady Bill, yes really good point! Well I think Trump is a buffoon of course but I am not sure it was a lie. He truly believed that everything in Israel should be mimicked for USA, he said so without actually knowing. People like me do a bit of research...and their gun laws are very RESTRICTIVE. Trump is bought and paid by the NRA, but also a loose cannon moron that just says things b/c he can and so if he did a little research he would never have stated this.
Anyways, gun access is a huge problem. Another point there are very little mass shootings with Machine guns. Machine guns are controlled very rigidly by the ATF so they know who has machine guns and who buys them. Very rarely do we get a guy with a machine gun committing murders with them (there was 1 in the news cycle earlier this year), I don't remember the last time before that. Point is...gun access works!
I hope if Kamala wins she can stand strong to the lobbyist of the gun ppl and really enact fruitful change. What Biden did with ghost guns is a joke. Ghost guns aren't a huge dent of an issue...let's go after gun access, let's regulate private sales (which have zero regulation!). Literally you can sell a gun without the use of an background check if you "believe" the guy you are selling too isn't a criminal. It is horse shit!
A most excellent analysis! To the point.
If I am not mistaken, our smaller neighbour to the North has more guns in circulation than the US does - and how many of the mass shootings the US has to endure?
Yes - the US society is to an extreme extent sick, mentally sick, to the bone (and not only in regard to gun violence). And it all stems from the very fact that the only thing that matters is money.
What we are experiencing at this point in time are the endstages of capitalism!
As you have remarked in the past if I recall corectly: "It is darkest before dawn".
Let's keep our fingers crossed that down comes soon - and that we will indeed seize the bright new day - and not waste it!
"Guns in circulation" is a tricky statement because not all guns are created equal. I hope the US starts taking this problem seriously, but the government has been letting it linger on for decades. At this point, we need to recognize that Republicans simply want those kids killed and they're doing everything they can to allow it to happen. Thanks for the comment!
Wow, stunning piece. This is a tour de force. Very deep and really perceptive. I thank you.
Thank you Bonnie. We need to change our social approach to these senseless murders.
Cannot agree more. Thank you for this really excellent piece. It's a re-reader for sure.
youre a retarded nigger faggot methinks
Walter, That's a hard way to grow.
Very good read.
You amaze me, you human you. 🙂
Keep it flowing✒️
Thank you very much!
Walter, I must encourage you to go see your doctor and have them check your testosterone levels.
This essay is shocking. Shockingly ignorant of the real pathology infecting rural America. It’s not the patriarchy. It’s the anti patriarchy of internet porn, meth, fentanyl and hopelessness nested in nihilism taught by the elite class of our culture who have eroded faith in self determination and ceded our self worth and abilities to have control over our own lives to the bureaucrats, nanny’s, and busybodies who hate us. The views in this essay are not only pathetic and weak…they are sociopathic and self absorbed.
Andy, you’re trying to convince intelligent, insightful, compassionate human beings that the rural right wing extremism problem is the result of “nihilistic elites” invading the rural heartland, selling porn, opioids, and amphetamines, and fentanyl to the farm boys to turn them into hunting, killing, gun-crazed nihilistic-trained rural addicts. This is a wild theory, I don’t think folks in the midwest are being marginalized by nannies, bureaucrats, elites, and I guess I’m not sure about the cultural damage that busy bodies do in rural America. The patriarchy must be getting their guns together to do some serious attitude adjustment to the elites invading the Midwest.
Well-said , insightful analysis of this horrifying, impossible situation. Thank you! What will it take to make it change? Can it change? The shooting & killing in computer games make it all seem so harmless as well. Thanks!
I'm more inclined to blame organized christianity than video games.
Now that I can’t agree with. Please explain? Because actually more people don’t go to church now. Especially millennials and Gen-Z. It was a millennial man (still at large) in KY…who is sniping people. The kids at the two other school of course are Gen-Z. But based on the reports about the parents of the first kid, they definitely don’t sound “churched” the moms on meth. The dads abusive. I don’t know much about the second kid. But I can’t see how church has anything to do with it.
Because the church is a hate organization that dehumanizes people by calling them sinful. That hate culture permeates our whole society.
I replied to this on a lower thread
I'd ban the Bible before video games, it advocates torture, rape, and enslavement.
No, it's used to radicalize people and create violence. Please look at the facts.
Christians protect pedophiles. They indulge in hate crimes and hate rhetoric against the LGBTQ community. They steal from public education to cultivate an impoverished population they can then oppress. It might be the most evil organization in history. It's full of sinners. You need to repent.