206
Suspect in father’s decapitation ‘went off the rails’ in college, those who knew him say
(www.nbcnews.com)
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
206 points (96.4% liked)
News
23387 readers
3184 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.
Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.
7. No duplicate posts.
If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners.
The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I just want to pint out the role parasociality likely plays in all this. You see it to a lessor extent in fandoms like Marvel or Star Wars, but these people have their identity all wrapped up in the things they see and hear, the talking heads and the talking heads problem.
We didn't evolve in a world of screens and taking voices. We only have so much of an ability to contextualize that the people on screens aren't us. So when some one had their entire being wrapped up in a parasocial relationship with Alex Jones or whoever, they lose the ability to distinguish what's happening to the characters or themselves. It's all the same.
Yup. The cries of "identity politics" from the right was just more projection. Because of course it was.
Good point.
But do you think parasocial identity is the cause here?
Because there is no amount of social media that is going to induce anyone I know to decapitate their father. It seems far more likely that this is an underlying mental illness (bipolar or schizophrenia) which will ALWAYS find an outlet, and which can EASILY cause violence in the victim.
That the narrative was parasocial is just a distraction.
If he had played dungeons and dragons in the 80s, he would have been a poster child for the satanic panic.
But none of that matters: we need better mental health education and resources.
No?
The parasocial relationship thing is just fuel to the fire. It may not be the cause, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Angry right wing conspiracy talk is like bait for people with these kinds of mental health concerns. It won't turn just anyone violent, but it obviously has served as the breaking point for a lot of people.
I agree that parasocial influences are a terrible influence on society.
But in cultures without social media (or even more clearly: pre social media) these individuals with severe paranoia or delusions would still find reason that was relevant to their cultural context.
Often it would be religion (also a terrible influence, IMO), but in irreligious societies, it would be delusions of being Luke Skywalker; or Superman.
I'm no social media defender, but spurious associations are easy, and witch hunts are the risk.
It's unlikely that there is a single cause. Human behavior is complex and has many influencing factors. I think we need to be careful about armchair diagnostics but I also did that evaluation (early 20s + extreme behavior shift + paranoia and violence = schizophrenia). The mental illness messes with how you think and react, the parasocial identity focuses and reinforces the thinking and paranoia.
Yes, we absolutely need better mental health education and resources.