# Fuck this guy (Santa Barbara shooter)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [May 24, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182 "2014-05-24T14:36:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/161 "2014-05-25T19:29:35Z")

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I’m sincerely hoping that the women who are tweeting and posting about how hot they (now) find this guy are some kind of sick joke or false flag operation.

Nope. No hope. Chicks are digging him now that he acted out.

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**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/162 "2014-05-25T19:39:27Z")

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> [@Raygun99](#):
>
> It’s stupid to pretend that there’s nothing at all we can do about it. Drunk driving fatalities, for instance, have more than halved in the last 30 years despite the huge increase in number of drivers and cars - in large part because we as a society decided that this shit wasn’t acceptable anymore. It wasn’t an overnight switch, but the attitude shift happened. There’s no reason we can’t put that same sort of firm, steady pressure on misogynistic attitudes and, if not eliminate it, severely marginalize and delegitimize it.

Was Adam Lanza misogynistic too? Was Anders Brevik? Seung-Hui Cho?

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**Author:** ![fuchsiagroan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fuchsiagroan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuchsiagroan)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/163 "2014-05-25T20:09:46Z")

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> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#):
>
> Yeah, I agree it’s probably not going to go away. It’s just fucked up that he couldn’t have just left it at suicide. I find it hard to accept this whole “going out in a blaze of glory” schtick as an unfortunate side effect of the info age.

I think the revenge of murder was more his point than suicide.

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/164 "2014-05-25T20:18:36Z")

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> [@Belowjob2.0](#):
>
> I’m sincerely hoping that the women who are tweeting and posting about how hot they (now) find this guy are some kind of sick joke or false flag operation.
> 
> Nope. No hope. Chicks are digging him now that he acted out.

Serial killers often have female groupies. He’s just too dead to take advantage of it.

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**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/165 "2014-05-25T20:44:11Z")

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Before we all rush to judgement, I think we should take into account the terrible deprivation he had in his life. Have some empathy - imagine after a first class flight, all expenses paid trip to London, staying in in a top hotel and only being able to afford a single Armani shirt from Harrods…

The poor little lamb…

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**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/166 "2014-05-25T21:16:56Z")

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> [@monstro](#):
>
> Was Adam Lanza misogynistic too? Was Anders Brevik? Seung-Hui Cho?

To some extent, probably (Brevik I’m fairly certain is). But that’s dodging the point. What does their possible lack of misogynistic tendencies have to do with preventing other misogynistic acts and/or improving the culture?

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**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/167 "2014-05-25T21:19:55Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Serial killers often have female groupies. He’s just too dead to take advantage of it.

If he’d only known.

I’m still holding out hope that the research on the greater reproductive success by stone cold killers among the Yanomamo is somehow flawed.

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**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/168 "2014-05-25T21:32:46Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Serial killers often have female groupies. He’s just too dead to take advantage of it.

Looking on the bright side though…

There’s another virgin up in heaven waiting for one of Al Qaeda’s suicide bombers.

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**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/169 "2014-05-25T21:55:38Z")

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Well, I just set down and read the little shit’s entire manifesto. Wow. He really dials the “Entitled Cunt” right up to eleven. It reads like satire.

A huge percentage of it is bitching and moaning about how women have always rejected him and he’ll never have a girlfriend. Never once does he mention even trying to ask one out.

He says “If you cant join them, rise above them, if you can’t rise above them, destroy them”:

His attempts to “join them” amounted to showing up where people are, and just kind of standing around, expecting everyone to just flock to him (I guess because he was such a “magnificent gentleman”).

His attempts “rise above them” (i.e. get rich and lord it over them) involved first trying to pressure his mom into marrying a millionaire (of course being a selfish bitch, she refused). Then, he moved on to kind of thinking about writing a fantasy novel that could be turned into a screenplay and earn him millions. Finally he just started buying a bunch of lotto tickets. Seriously.

After all these exhaustive efforts didn’t pan out, all that was left was to destroy them. It was supposed be an act that would “shake humanity to its core” (or some bullshit like that, I don’t remember his exact words). He was going to lure people to his apartment and torture and behead them. Then kill an entire sorority. At one point he said he was going to kill everyone in Isla Vista. Turns out he completely half-assed this stage, too.

He would unironically go on about how disadvantaged he was and how unfair the world had been to him. He was rich attractive male living in Southern California. He grew up traveling the world and going to exclusive parties. He never had to have job, and his parents gave everything. He was given every possible advantage. He was dropped down mere inches from the finish line, and he just set there brooding about the injustice of world that refused to pick him up and carry him across.

On the other hand, I do agree with him that the last Indiana Jones movie was pretty weak.

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**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/170 "2014-05-25T22:00:34Z")

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> [@mascaroni](#):
>
> Looking on the bright side though…
> 
> There’s another virgin up in heaven waiting for one of Al Qaeda’s suicide bombers.

And some of the Afghan bombbers might be [happy to see him](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/afganistans-dancing-boys-are-invisible-victims/2012/04/04/gIQAyreSwS_story.html).

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**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/171 "2014-05-25T22:07:00Z")

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> [@Raygun99](#):
>
> To some extent, probably (Brevik I’m fairly certain is). But that’s dodging the point. What does their possible lack of misogynistic tendencies have to do with preventing other misogynistic acts and/or improving the culture?

I don’t think we’re more misogynstic now than we used to be. I don’t think we’re more racist now. I don’t think we’re meaner now. And yet it seems (I’m willing to be challenged on this) that these mass shooter guys are turning into a monthly occurrence.

I’m all for fighting misogyny and those other things too, because society can only improve when fewer people are encouraged to have stupid asshole opinions. But I’m not going to delude myself into thinking disillusioned narcissistic young men with violent tendencies aren’t just going to find some other batshit crazy reason to flip out. If it’s not “wah, I can’t get laid”, it will be “wah, I can’t get a job that doesn’t require a hairnet” or “wah, I can’t get into college because everybody hates me!” Or “wah, I’m stuck in my parent’s basement addicted to gaming and I’m tired of everybody calling me a loser!” Until you wipe out self-entitlement and over-sensitive butthurt, we’re not going to see this madness go away any time soon.

At least, that’s what I’m afraid of. But maybe you’re right.

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**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/172 "2014-05-25T22:08:30Z")

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> [@emcee2k](#):
>
> Well, I just set down and read the little shit’s entire manifesto. Wow. He really dials the “Entitled Cunt” right up to eleven. It reads like satire.

It did remind me of an old internet story which was called something like “The loser upstairs”.

> [@](#):
>
> A huge percentage of it is bitching and moaning about how women have always rejected him and he’ll never have a girlfriend. Never once does he mention even trying to ask one out.

I read most of it. He did say “Hi” to a girl once…

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**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/173 "2014-05-25T22:23:36Z")

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I’m not following the story outside this thread and definitely not reading the “manifesto”, but from what I’ve heard so far, I think the gender related stuff is kind of a red herring. I see this guy as exhibiting an extreme version of a pretty common American-immigrant pathology (looks like this guy is at least partly from an immigrant family.) Many immigrant families just aren’t familiar enough with American culture to tell the difference between attainable goals and fantasy, so they feel cheated when they don’t have the exact same experiences they see in dopey TV and movies. This type of thing is satirized in the film “Borat” where it’s Pamela Anderson or bust for the Borat character. You also see this a lot in university admissions, where many immigrant students feel that it’s Harvard or bust.

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**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/174 "2014-05-25T22:44:28Z")

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> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#):
>
> I’m not following the story outside this thread and definitely not reading the “manifesto”, but from what I’ve heard so far, I think the gender related stuff is kind of a red herring. I see this guy as exhibiting an extreme version of a pretty common American-immigrant pathology (looks like this guy is at least partly from an immigrant family.) Many immigrant families just aren’t familiar enough with American culture to tell the difference between attainable goals and fantasy, so they feel cheated when they don’t have the exact same experiences they see in dopey TV and movies. This type of thing is satirized in the film “Borat” where it’s Pamela Anderson or bust for the Borat character. You also see this a lot in university admissions, where many immigrant students feel that it’s Harvard or bust.

That’s why you shouldn’t just go by what you hear.

Although he was born in England, and had an English father, this man was raised in the US from 1st Grade through college. His culture was not at all foreign or immigrant. His culture was the affluent So Cal culture of the film industry, the hills above the San Fernando Valley, and the LA beach towns. This kid wen to upscale private and public schools. He attended movie premieres and parties with the children of Hollywood’s creative elite.

It’s the immigrants that mow these people’s lawns, make meals for them in restaurants, and take care of their kids. These immigrants are under no illusions that they deserve the attentions of life sized Barbies.

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**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/175 "2014-05-25T23:06:39Z")

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There was some bashing of the parents going on earlier. As far as I can tell, they tried to help their son. They even called the police on him. I suspect they wish now that they had him put in an institution before he turned 18.

The father is blaming American gun laws. The shooter’s weapons were purchased legally.

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**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/176 "2014-05-25T23:07:42Z")

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> [@Belowjob2.0](#):
>
> That’s why you shouldn’t just go by what you hear.
> 
> Although he was born in England, and had an English father, this man was raised in the US from 1st Grade through college. His culture was not at all foreign or immigrant. His culture was the affluent So Cal culture of the film industry, the hills above the San Fernando Valley, and the LA beach towns. This kid wen to upscale private and public schools. He attended movie premieres and parties with the children of Hollywood’s creative elite.
> 
> It’s the immigrants that mow these people’s lawns, make meals for them in restaurants, and take care of their kids. These immigrants are under no illusions that they deserve the attentions of life sized Barbies.

Yeah, I get your point, but that doesn’t necessarily contradict my point either. Some of the worst entitled snobs I’ve ever seen were upper-middle class immigrants who were used to being at the top of the totem pole in their home countries. And even if a kid grows up here, he could still be profoundly influenced by the expectations of family members who did not.

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**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/177 "2014-05-25T23:10:12Z")

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> [@monstro](#):
>
> Until you wipe out self-entitlement and over-sensitive butthurt, we’re not going to see this madness go away any time soon.
> 
> At least, that’s what I’m afraid of. But maybe you’re right.

The term “serial killer” has been misused a couple of times in this thread. This was a spree or mass killing.

Also, despite the element of sexual frustration, this kid was more Oswald than Jack the Ripper. Although we’ve always had sexually-motivated serial killers and always will, grandstanding killers are more likely to be politically motivated.

A little over 100 years ago, disaffected loners would have been swept up in the Anarchist movement. (Manifesto, blog: same difference) Overwrought, frustrated men sought meaning in their lives by killing a tsar, a US president, the empress of Austro-Hungary, the king of Italy, etc.

Since then, the social as well as many of the personal problems of women have been addressed through political solutions. So when the entire sex can be (mis)perceived as a political bloc, it attracts killers, much as when the targets wore crowns.

Women as individuals have been the victims of political violence, as evident by Wednesday Addams’ doll collection. But the massacre of unknown women, unaccompanied by rape, is a new phenomenon. (excuse me for not looking up the names and dates, but you may recall): the alienated man who shot up the aerobics class, or the shooter who attacked the university class in Canada yelling “you’re all a bunch of feminists!”

So, if indeed human problems do have political solutions, what is the political solution to this?

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/178 "2014-05-25T23:21:13Z")

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> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#):
>
> As far as I can tell, they tried to help their son. They even called the police on him. I suspect they wish now that they had him put in an institution before he turned 18.

They tried to stop him the night of the killings, but were too late. What kind of institution could they have put him in, and on what grounds? What was he doing that would justify that?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fuchsiagroan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fuchsiagroan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuchsiagroan)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/179 "2014-05-25T23:23:21Z")

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What about his racism? Dude was not ok with being biracial. He hated on non white men with white women. He was glad he didn’t look biracial. The white women he would get would reassure him of being white.  
I have no idea if he learned this from anyone else. This isn’t in any way a realistic goal. If he had the means maybe he’d have gone full on Michael Jackson.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2014, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuck-this-guy-santa-barbara-shooter/689182/180 "2014-05-25T23:28:00Z")

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> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#):
>
> I’m not following the story outside this thread and definitely not reading the “manifesto”, but from what I’ve heard so far, I think the gender related stuff is kind of a red herring. I see this guy as exhibiting an extreme version of a pretty common American-immigrant pathology (looks like this guy is at least partly from an immigrant family.) Many immigrant families just aren’t familiar enough with American culture to tell the difference between attainable goals and fantasy, so they feel cheated when they don’t have the exact same experiences they see in dopey TV and movies. This type of thing is satirized in the film “Borat” where it’s Pamela Anderson or bust for the Borat character. You also see this a lot in university admissions, where many immigrant students feel that it’s Harvard or bust.

Yeah, that’s not it at all.

Having read his manifesto, it’s pretty obvious what happened. He grew up getting everything he could want or need handed to him. He didn’t even have to learn to make friends as his parent arranged his friendship for him through playdates. This was combined with access to exclusive parties and premieres which taught him a cut above the common people. This isn’t isn’t even something you have to infer, he outright says it.

Now I understand not everyone with those circumstances ends up the way he did. But somewhere along the way something got fucked up in his head, and he came to believe that this the way thing were supposed to be. He should have everything he wants with no effort on his part, and anything less was an injustice.

And then he hit puberty and there’s something he wants that isn’t just handed to him. The injustice!

And there’s no subtext here. That’s what make it read like satire. It’s page after page of him acting like an entitled little bitch. Refusing to take jobs in retail because they are low class and beneath him. Complaining that his mother would something so uncivilized as live in an apartment. Calling her selfish, for not enduring unhappiness for his sake, by marrying a millionaire. The awful injustice, of him not winning the Powerball jackpot.

Oh, and the crying. He can’t go three pages without running off to his room to cry. At one point at the age of 19 he finds out some black kid lost his virginity at thirteen. So he runs off to his room to cry, then he calls his mother to cry some more. He literally runs off and cries to his mommy.

Another time in college he shows up at a party drunk and starts trying to push people off a 10 foot wall. As you’d expect, they beat him up and send him home. Oh, but what a great injustice (he likes that word) it was that no attractive female responded to his behavior by bringing him back to his apartment and having sex with him. Woman truly are vile beasts.

And that’s pretty much what much of his manifesto is. Stories of him behaving like an entitled prick, and bitching about the thing he can’t have, but never bothers putting any real effort into getting. And this is presented as proof of the horrible injustice of the world. The whole thing reads like sarcasm, but entirely serious.

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