In light of the shooting in Atlanta, I keep going back to Felix's commentary from the "Run Hide Fight" review episode.
His basic premise was, our mass shooting culture is a byproduct of our dominant ethos of empire. The idea that you can just kill a bunch of people in a foreign country and most people are okay with it, and if you participated in it, you can even be celebrated. All of it cheapens the value of human life. It's specifically become more of an issue as we've increasingly outsourced our wars and the people who fight in them, rendering the Empire more and more invisible. Just because it's invisible doesn't mean that ethos goes away, but it's actually turned against our own people.
I always though that was a really good explanation, but I would love to hear some of you expand on the idea or hear your own theories.
The media loves the spectacle. They love to see the little people turning against one another. And they love to see all the profit they can make reporting on and glorifying the shooters. It's no surprise that the media themselves are the ones who push these shooters to take up arms with their fearmongering, race baiting, and targeting of those who are at their lowest with rancid hateful lies.
Stochastic terrorism is anything but stochastic. It is highly intentional terror that is no different from the racist police forces that terrorize communities. It's all intentionally utilized to keep the public scared and demoralized while the victims end up dehumanized or dead.
And so, mass shootings keep happening in the US because they are useful for the American establishment and ruling class. And they will keep happening as long as they have said utility.
I think the whole rational consumer myth does distract from how much humans are motivated by a desire for attention