<p>If this kid lived in an area with more Asians he would have just been mad that they were also having more sex than he was.</p>
<p>3 (?) years ago he requested and was given a job through the California Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) (a state agency that describes itself as “an employment and independent living resource for people with disabilities,” meaning he had to be formally diagnosed with a disability at some point). He was given a job cleaning an office building near LAX (janitorial). It did not last.</p>
<p>Someone asked what he did all day in SB. I have no idea, but when he was living at home (between leaving his alternative HS and ending up in SB - so age 20 or so?), “going to college” at another local CC, he would leave his house (telling his mom he was headed to school), take the bus (he didn’t know how to drive nor did he have a car), and sit in Barnes & Nobles and read books all day. </p>
<p>(This last bit per his ‘manifesto.’)</p>
<p>Elliot Rodger would have found people to envy and hate wherever he lived. By the time of the rampage, his self-loathing and anger was a product of his own thought processes and self-perceptions and had little or nothing to do with the reality around him. </p>
<p>@sevmom,
Agreed. But as other posters have pointed out, being in SB didn’t help. </p>
<p>Also, his father’s hobby of photographing beautiful nude women did not help:
<a href=“http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/05/25/exclusive-hunger-games-killers-dad-sells-art-photos-of-womens-behinds”>http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/05/25/exclusive-hunger-games-killers-dad-sells-art-photos-of-womens-behinds</a>
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<p>Very artful photographs, but no doubt his father’s wealth of access to beautiful naked women only deepened the son’s envy. </p>
<p>Yeah. You guys really need to read the manifesto instead of pretending “if only.” If only SB didn’t have so many blondes, if only there were more Asians, if only he’d had a Toyota instead of a BMW, if only he’d traveled more, blah blah blah. The kid was mentally ill. </p>
<p>Exactly, saintfan, They were having more sex, were not “gentlemen,” were getting the hot girlfriends, were inferior to him, had nothing on him but they were getting it all handed to them, etc. Had nothing to do with Santa Barbara .</p>
<p>I read the manifesto. I think people are missing my point. He was fixated on how people looked. Every single encounter in SB/IV was with the people (blonde, beautiful, tall) he had identified as the cause of his despair. I imagine his parents knew this. Yes, he could have moved to Chinatown in SF and eventually realized that the pretty Chinese girls didn’t want him either. All I am saying is that he didn’t do himself any favors by having the salt rubbed in the wound every day in SB.</p>
<p>And yes, I do realize this is all “if only.” But we wouldn’t be here talking if we weren’t speculating. No one knows, definitively, WHY? </p>
<p>@julliet I agree most mentally ill people are not dangerous, however the link to his 137 page ‘manifesto’ is on this thread. Read it. I am not a psychiatrist but I have no problem at all diagnosing that he is mentally ill since otherwise the term has little meaning. He had NO empathy. NONE. He had also been prescribed an anti-psycotic medication which he refused to take. He had been diagnosed with Aspergers but I think some earlier on this thread were right that that was all people were willing to diagnose him with as a child. I think if he had Aspergers that was the very least of his problems, personally. Honestly, read his manifesto, the guy was NOT mentally well. And from childhood everyone seemed to know it at first meeting.</p>
<p>Also, the three roomates he stabbed repeatedly, to death, were all Asian. UCSB has about 27% Asian student body, and while he was at SBCC (when he actually went to class) he lived in a UCSB dominated area. I’m sure there were plenty of Asians, had he wanted them, but he absolutely did not. Not that a mentally healthy Asian would have been able to tolerate him, either.</p>
<p>In general, though, wherever young people congregate there are going to be scads of beautiful, vivacious, healthy men and women who are interested in flirting and hooking up and falling in love. That just comes with being 20-something. The co-eds at UCSB are beautiful…but so are those at Rice and UIUC and, no doubt, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. And it’s unlikely that they would be any more accepting of someone like Elliot Rodger than the students in Isla Vista were. His mental illness created its own misery.</p>
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<p>Really?
You think there are serial killers who are mentally solid?</p>
<p>Murderers, which by definition, means that they act with pre-meditation, have rationalized the taking of another life and developed a plan to do so. Sorry, I think that means that they are mentally ill.</p>
<p>Violent criminals? Depends. If it was non-premeditated violence and reactive (e.g. attacking someone during a break-in when you thought there was no one home). Probably not mental illness. Otherwise, yes. There is something fundamentally wrong with them.</p>
<p>But this case has nothing to do with a violent criminal or a “mere” murderer. He killed people up close and personal with a knife or similar object, he shot and killed people that he didn’t even plan on killing when he couldn’t get into the sorority and then he tried mowing people down with his car. </p>
<p>The point is not to excuse the actions by saying he is mentally ill, it is to try and understand things.</p>
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<p>You shouldn’t be bothered by calling reality what it is.<br>
You can be bothered by anything because of a slippery slope argument…“but if we do this, then this may happen, then this, then this, then this…”. That is only an excuse for why we should never do anything. </p>
<p>I agree with her statement:
Not all murderers, serial killers, or violent criminals are mentally ill.</p>
<p>I can’t see how anyone would think that a serial killer or murderer has no mental illness.
But sure, they are just normal people, like everyone else.</p>
<p>I’ll give and say killers may be no more ill than the normal person since it can be said that everyone has some kind of “mental illness”. </p>
<p>To me, everything is on a continuum. Not all people are nice. Not all people are compassionate. Not all people are ethical. </p>
<p>Do we think gangbangers are mentally ill? Anti-abortion activists who kill doctors? How about people who rob a convenience store? To many of us, committing ANY crime (except perhaps speeding) is out of the question. I think there ARE many mentally ill people out there–some who are criminals and some who aren’t. But I worry that focusing on the “crazy” label with the IV shooter or anyone else might keep us from making forward progress on reducing the number of incidents like this one. Do I think ER was mentally ill? Yes. But I also think his particuluar circumstances contributed to his shift from a weird, messed-up person into a mass murderer.</p>
<p>Bravo, sally. Exactly what I wanted to say. </p>
<p>All criminals are not mentally ill. Mass murders, probably. This one, clearly. And, I don’t find anything the least bit surprising in his obsession with the superficial given his background. Nothing. His dad is a movie director/naked women photographer and both of his moms are actresses of some sort. Geez, he grew up in Hollywood. </p>
<p>“One reason it bothers me is because I often see it leading to the thinking that mentally ill people are dangerous and therefore need to be denied rights that others have.”</p>
<p>This is precisely why there is not much anyone can do when an adult has mental issues that lead to mayhem and murder. If they don’t want help everyone’s hands are pretty much tied. And, even if they do want help, it doesn’t always help. Unfortunate reality.</p>
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<p>While that’s true, the most critical part of his actions are his clearly exhibited sense of entitlement, anger at not getting what he wanted, and his carefully deliberate planning of a crime he was aware was wrong enough to try concealing from the police when he lied and took down the videos during that police welfare check. </p>
<p>If there is mental illness involved, it’s not the type where he meets the legal definition of insanity as that requires him to not understand the wrongfulness of his actions and/or their negative implications. </p>
<p>The murderer here clearly knew right from wrong as demonstrated when he wrote about being relieved at being able to fool law enforcement, not being searched, and knowing enough to take down his videos during that welfare check. </p>
<p>Sorry, but mental illness…especially of the type he seems to have doesn’t give him a pass on the responsibility he has or the condemnation and anger he deserves. </p>
<p>I’m in agreement with those that the emphasis of the news narrative and discussion of this as a mental health case not only effectively minimizes the criminal responsibility the killer has, but is very likely to stigmatize other sufferers of mental illness by association. </p>
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<p>Also, some mental/personality disorders have a very low cure or even amelioration rate. </p>
<p>No, he doesn’t get an insanity pass. I agree. But, he’s dead. </p>
<p>On the news coverage, I don’t think it’s realistic to ignore the mental health angle in a case where we have a family racing across the state with therapist in tow to try to stop a mass killing. And, a slew of videos online that clearly show a disturbed person. It’s a big factor.</p>
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<p>True, but there’s many people who feel discussing this as a mental health case is a red herring from other critical underlying cultural issues involved…such as excessive feelings of entitlement due to family status, material wealth, connections, being a perceived White male, a bit of internalized racism(Happy about his Asian side not showing), feelings of inadequacy over perceptions of being short for a male, and a “perfect gentleman”. </p>
<p>All taken from his own words, rants, and facebook page.</p>
<p>I also linked to a news story of another incident occurring some hours after this murder spree in which a group of men shot at some women after the women refused their propositions for sex. </p>