The media caused Sandy Hook

I'm almost certain that Adam Lanza's fascination with mass shootings began with him seeing a news report on the 2006 Dawson College shooting. As with all autists, this interest was hard for him to 'turn off'. No news reports = no interest = no Sandy Hook.

Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

I was talking with someone about this very subject before and I’ve been feeling absurdly tired and uncreative as of late, so I’m going to quote myself (yikes, I did the same thing two days ago; hope it doesn’t become a habit!)

Quote :

I’m sure not having a spreadsheet of mass shootings or any access to this info at all would not make much of a difference for him, his interests still would have been obsessive and unwholesome.

Quote :

If there would be 100% no notoriety and 100% censorship for everything regarding mass shootings and mass shooters, Adam would most likely just find another homicidal obsession. I’m no expert on mental health issues and I can only speak from personal experience, but my interests were “off” since I was a child and whenever my parents tried to make me stop thinking about murders and ghosts and dolls with bleeding eyes and whatnot, it was absolutely to no avail. Whenever I myself tried to change focus to something wholesome, I would start having intrusive scary thoughts (and being actively interested in scary things was not nearly as scary as this). If those mentally ill people’s obsessions are anything like this but on steroids, then no notoriety is one hundred percent useless instead of like 98% useless.

kind of surprised you didn't trace it back to Columbine. But it's ridiculous to blame anyone but the killer.

What a strange example of the butterfly effect.

morgenroede wrote:

I was talking with someone about this very subject before and I’ve been feeling absurdly tired and uncreative as of late, so I’m going to quote myself (yikes, I did the same thing two days ago; hope it doesn’t become a habit!)

Quote :

I’m sure not having a spreadsheet of mass shootings or any access to this info at all would not make much of a difference for him, his interests still would have been obsessive and unwholesome.

Quote :

If there would be 100% no notoriety and 100% censorship for everything regarding mass shootings and mass shooters, Adam would most likely just find another homicidal obsession. I’m no expert on mental health issues and I can only speak from personal experience, but my interests were “off” since I was a child and whenever my parents tried to make me stop thinking about murders and ghosts and dolls with bleeding eyes and whatnot, it was absolutely to no avail. Whenever I myself tried to change focus to something wholesome, I would start having intrusive scary thoughts (and being actively interested in scary things was not nearly as scary as this). If those mentally ill people’s obsessions are anything like this but on steroids, then no notoriety is one hundred percent useless instead of like 98% useless.

I agree with this.  I don't think if Adam hadn't been aware of the mass shootings he wouldn't have developed the obsession or insane obsession.  Just as he could be obsessed with other homicidal or suicidal themes.  Anyway, I think if Adam had other "healthier" interests he would probably find a way to do something homicidal / suicidal anyway

margaflor wrote:

I agree with this.  I don't think if Adam hadn't been aware of the mass shootings he wouldn't have developed the obsession or insane obsession.  Just as he could be obsessed with other homicidal or suicidal themes.  Anyway, I think if Adam had other "healthier" interests he would probably find a way to do something homicidal / suicidal anyway

He probably still would have been distrustful of mental health professionals and scared of psych meds on top of that.

(Just like me, lol. The difference is I don’t really need them.)

morgenroede wrote:

margaflor wrote:

I agree with this.  I don't think if Adam hadn't been aware of the mass shootings he wouldn't have developed the obsession or insane obsession.  Just as he could be obsessed with other homicidal or suicidal themes.  Anyway, I think if Adam had other "healthier" interests he would probably find a way to do something homicidal / suicidal anyway

He probably still would have been distrustful of mental health professionals and scared of psych meds on top of that.

(Just like me, lol. The difference is I don’t really need them.)

Sure, I think a lot of his suicidal or weird / harmful thoughts wouldn't have gone away if he didn't find out about the mass murder.  Also, there are many people with autism who may enjoy investigating mass murder and are not necessarily going to commit one, far from it.  I think the problem was Adam's mental health and his worldview or harmful thoughts.

Ligeya wrote:

Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

[Deleted]

NoThanks wrote:

Ligeya wrote:

Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

No offense, and I hope this doesn't go against the rules but, this is one of the dumbest posts I've seen on the website.

Don't care. I stand by my opinion.

[REDACTED]

[REDACTED]

Then why didn't he leave any manifesto or just anything in general behind?
He even deleted a lot of forum comments before his massacre.

margaflor wrote:

I think the problem was Adam's mental health and his worldview or harmful thoughts.

I’d say it’s just mental health. His worldview, in theory, should not have been a problem. Aside from the obviously not harmless pedo rights thing, it seemed to be no more harmful - or even significantly less harmful - than most other worldviews, to me at least. I mean, he held onto this delusional idea that there should be a way to fix the world and make everyone happy, and that’s what I personally consider to be the hallmark of a harmful worldview, but the absolute majority of people would disagree and I’m not going to derail this thread by talking about my own irrelevant beliefs, so I’ll leave it at that.

Mr Bubbless wrote:

he already showed signs of violent fantasies from a young age

I wonder if his Big Book of Granny was the first warning sign or just a normal (if only a bit obsessive) story written by a millennial kid who was exposed to media violence from an early age. In hindsight it’s easy to call it a red flag, but tbh I have read it more than once and I fail to see anything particularly disturbing there. When I was 10, my classmates invented similar stories and jokes featuring a lot of grotesque cartoonish violence; so did I, and it absolutely made the adults freak out. Yet none of us grew up to be mass shooters or violent criminals of any kind. There’s also the fact that Adam didn’t write the story alone, and even though his co-author was living in a mental facility as of 2013, it could have been voluntary and most likely had to do with drug/alcohol issues rather than something more sinister (here’s the link in case anyone is wondering what the fuck I’m talking about).

Scowail wrote:

Then why didn't he leave any manifesto or just anything in general behind?
He even deleted a lot of forum comments before his massacre.

Maybe he didn't want to be embarrassed after his death.

[REDACTED]

Mr Bubbless wrote:

I think that being embarrassed would the least of his concerns if he was willing to murder 20 kindergarteners

Logically it shouldn’t have been his concern, but emotions often don’t make sense. It’s possible that he cringed at his own posts after re-reading them like half a year later and was thinking something along the lines of “no way everyone is going to read this shit after I’m dead”.

SaucyJimmy wrote:

I'm almost certain that Adam Lanza's fascination with mass shootings began with him seeing a news report on the 2006 Dawson College shooting. As with all autists, this interest was hard for him to 'turn off'. No news reports = no interest = no Sandy Hook.

Dawson college was the first shooting that happened when I was a part of the forums. I thin k most people at the time were absolutely convinced that there is going to be an epidemic of spree killings and copycats.

The damage was already done, if Dawson would not get the media coverage, then Columbine was already out there.

morgenroede wrote:

Mr Bubbless wrote:

I think that being embarrassed would the least of his concerns if he was willing to murder 20 kindergarteners

Logically it shouldn’t have been his concern, but emotions often don’t make sense. It’s possible that he cringed at his own posts after re-reading them like half a year later and was thinking something along the lines of “no way everyone is going to read this shit after I’m dead”.

Lanza had a bit of an OCD perfectionaist in him. He would delete something, then post a nearly identical thing just phrased slightly differently.

He would start a thread to which nobody replied. Lanza would then post his own replies to his own thread. You would open that thread and see Smiggles as the OP and the following 4 posts would also be all by smiggles. It was bizarre even in comparison with other members of the forums (and boy, did we have some unusual ones).

Sabratha wrote:

Lanza had a bit of an OCD perfectionaist in him. He would delete something, then post a nearly identical thing just phrased slightly differently.

He would start a thread to which nobody replied. Lanza would then post his own replies to his own thread. You would open that thread and see Smiggles as the OP and the following 4 posts would also be all by smiggles. It was bizarre even in comparison with other members of the forums (and boy, did we have some unusual ones).

I was reading the old forum sometime around 2011 and never noticed Smiggles stand out among other posters in terms of weirdness; moreover, I think I never noticed him at all. But as expected of a teenage girl who was mostly there to watch people make fun of other teenage girls for being “in love” with school shooters, and a non-native English speaker at that, it’s not like I was incredibly observant. When I read his SCMRPG/SBB posts later I absolutely saw the bizarre behavior you mentioned. In some threads it looked like Lanza was talking to himself.

The OCD-ish thing is... only moderately weird, though. I also hate my posts and end up editing them over and over, but I guess I have a sort of excuse.

morgenroede wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

Lanza had a bit of an OCD perfectionaist in him. He would delete something, then post a nearly identical thing just phrased slightly differently.

He would start a thread to which nobody replied. Lanza would then post his own replies to his own thread. You would open that thread and see Smiggles as the OP and the following 4 posts would also be all by smiggles. It was bizarre even in comparison with other members of the forums (and boy, did we have some unusual ones).

I was reading the old forum sometime around 2011 and never noticed Smiggles stand out among other posters in terms of weirdness; moreover, I think I never noticed him at all. But as expected of a teenage girl who was mostly there to watch people make fun of other teenage girls for being “in love” with school shooters, and a non-native English speaker at that, it’s not like I was incredibly observant. When I read his SCMRPG/SBB posts later I absolutely saw the bizarre behavior you mentioned. In some threads it looked like Lanza was talking to himself.

We had some weird people, true.

But I'd say Lanza was among the more unusual ones, especially his tendency to reply to his own threads and "virtually talk to himself" was something that was something that stood out and that nobody else did.
Another unusual thing was his excel list of mass murders. Which was really a collection of raw data and numbers clumped together, with no attempt at a synthesis and no attempt an an explanation or trend-analysis. I always found that weird and I think that's the reason why nobody was particularly interested in the thread where he posted it. The impression that I have in memory is that he never really produced any very interesting, insightful or intelligent threads. He was never one of the most prominent posters there. He also didn't stand out to me as someone particularly angry or particularly threatening or violent.

I saw maybe 3 people over the years who really felt like they are in a very dark place and I had some fears that they could commit mass murder. Lanza was not like them. His posts didn't feel dark or particularly depressing. In a sea of angst and angry people on the forums, he seemed rather mellow.
Weird and quirky - sure, but not dangerous. I kind of had a suspicion looking at his posts when he was still alive that he might have aspergers or some mild disorder on the autism spectrum... but I never realized he was suffering from psychotic episodes or depression.

I think he tried hard not to present that sort of image.

For some reason he seemed to like my movie and he would quote me and my posts on the forums even after I stopped being active there.

For a chronological view, the point in time when Lanza was becoming very active on the forums was the exact same time when I was becoming less and less active. We had a short overlap when both me and him were posting daily, but it didn't last long.
I certainly wasn't around anymore during his final bout of activity on the forums and I don't at all remember any of his later posts about the Nintendo games etc.

Sabratha wrote:

We had some weird people, true.

But I'd say Lanza was among the more unusual ones, especially his tendency to reply to his own threads and "virtually talk to himself" was something that was something that stood out and that nobody else did.
Another unusual thing was his excel list of mass murders. Which was really a collection of raw data and numbers clumped together, with no attempt at a synthesis and no attempt an an explanation or trend-analysis. I always found that weird and I think that's the reason why nobody was particularly interested in the thread where he posted it. The impression that I have in memory is that he never really produced any very interesting, insightful or intelligent threads. He was never one of the most prominent posters there. He also didn't stand out to me as someone particularly angry or particularly threatening or violent.

I saw maybe 3 people over the years who really felt like they are in a very dark place and I had some fears that they could commit mass murder. Lanza was not like them. His posts didn't feel dark or particularly depressing. In a sea of angst and angry people on the forums, he seemed rather mellow.
Weird and quirky - sure, but not dangerous. I kind of had a suspicion looking at his posts when he was still alive that he might have aspergers or some mild disorder on the autism spectrum... but I never realized he was suffering from psychotic episodes or depression.

I think he tried hard not to present that sort of image.

For some reason he seemed to like my movie and he would quote me and my posts on the forums even after I stopped being active there.

For a chronological view, the point in time when Lanza was becoming very active on the forums was the exact same time when I was becoming less and less active. We had a short overlap when both me and him were posting daily, but it didn't last long.
I certainly wasn't around anymore during his final bout of activity on the forums and I don't at all remember any of his later posts about the Nintendo games etc.

The same could have been said about this forum only a year ago, but lately it’s like all the weird people have vanished. I’d say it has become... eerily normal shortly before I got more chatty than usual on here. Or maybe that’s just a false impression I have.

Judging from his surviving posts, there was not a single sign that he was angry and potentially dangerous. A bit depressed maybe (depends on your idea of depressed), weird and quirky, yes, but I’d go as far as to say that he appeared completely non-threatening. No one IRL suspected him of being capable of violence either. I doubt he put a lot of effort into trying to appear harmless, more likely it came to him naturally.

Sea of angst and anger is a very accurate description of what it was. This must have been one of the reasons why I hadn’t noticed Lanza when I was browsing the old forum. Even though quite a few of his posts had later proved to fit my definition of interesting (along with his other writings, but here I’m talking solely about his forum presence), they were never particularly eye-catching. I’m usually bored to death by angry people and their angry rants, yet at the same time they generally tend to be more visible. And perhaps I won’t be wrong if I say that most of those on the forum were just regular edgy kids pretending to be angry for attention, while someone who was really disturbed was keeping quiet.

Um, I’ve found out about your movie because of Lanza. Pretty sure it’s not only me but also the universal experience for everyone who is researching Sandy Hook, though.

His final bout of activity coincided with the time I started reading the forum, also I had lost all interest in it roughly at the same time when Lanza stopped posting (funny how Sandy Hook has lead me back into being interested in mass shootings). I actually thought I saw you there too but from your words it looks like those were old threads.

morgenroede wrote:

The same could have been said about this forum only a year ago, but lately it’s like all the weird people have vanished. I’d say it has become... eerily normal shortly before I got more chatty than usual on here. Or maybe that’s just a false impression I have.

Well two of the weird people from this forum did spree murders and then killed themselves some years ago.

I guess I don't get too much of a weird or dangerous vibe from anyone here particularly. Especially not from the newer posters.

I wasn't in the community in the early 2010's but I have read archived versions of Lanza's posts. I guess without further context I'd consider him weirdly obsessed but not dangerous.

myshame wrote:

Well two of the weird people from this forum did spree murders and then killed themselves some years ago.

I guess I don't get too much of a weird or dangerous vibe from anyone here particularly. Especially not from the newer posters.

I wasn't in the community in the early 2010's but I have read archived versions of Lanza's posts. I guess without further context I'd consider him weirdly obsessed but not dangerous.

Btw, those two weird people didn’t really seem weird.

There was someone relatively recently (like 2017, maybe even later) who wrote long posts about mass shooters being martyrs and made red/black drawings of them. This was my first thought. I’m pretty awful at remembering usernames. There were also some Columbiner teens who talked a whole lot about having homicidal/suicidal thoughts, though I guess they were just being edgy.

If I hadn’t seen Lanza talking to himself on the forum I’m not sure if I’d consider him weirdly obsessed.

morgenroede wrote:

I’m usually bored to death by angry people and their angry rants, yet at the same time they generally tend to be more visible. And perhaps I won’t be wrong if I say that most of those on the forum were just regular edgy kids pretending to be angry for attention, while someone who was really disturbed was keeping quiet.

I think Lanza himself sort of picked up on this - and maybe was even a little frustrated over it - because you can see on some of his posts that he makes fun of in-your-face edgelords who pose as more dangerous as they are. I feel like maybe he felt superior to them in a way, because despite all their bluster they would never put their own asses on the line, unlike himself.

morgenroede wrote:

myshame wrote:

Well two of the weird people from this forum did spree murders and then killed themselves some years ago.

I guess I don't get too much of a weird or dangerous vibe from anyone here particularly. Especially not from the newer posters.

I wasn't in the community in the early 2010's but I have read archived versions of Lanza's posts. I guess without further context I'd consider him weirdly obsessed but not dangerous.

Btw, those two weird people didn’t really seem weird.

There was someone relatively recently (like 2017, maybe even later) who wrote long posts about mass shooters being martyrs and made red/black drawings of them. This was my first thought. I’m pretty awful at remembering usernames. There were also some Columbiner teens who talked a whole lot about having homicidal/suicidal thoughts, though I guess they were just being edgy.

If I hadn’t seen Lanza talking to himself on the forum I’m not sure if I’d consider him weirdly obsessed.

Yes, I have seen worrisome comments here, however I do not like to accuse anyone or get into anything.  But I remember users who made some worrisome comments and most of them disappeared. However, it is difficult to tell when someone is serious or is cause for concern.  In randy's comments I didn't see such strange things, but now that we know everything he did it may seem like that.

morgenroede wrote:

Judging from his surviving posts, there was not a single sign that he was angry and potentially dangerous. A bit depressed maybe (depends on your idea of depressed), weird and quirky, yes, but I’d go as far as to say that he appeared completely non-threatening. No one IRL suspected him of being capable of violence either. I doubt he put a lot of effort into trying to appear harmless, more likely it came to him naturally.

Weird, quirky and mellow - that was exactly my impression of him at the time. I think he may have made some post in the guns/weapons type threads, but even they didn't make him sound dangerous or even like a big gun nut/expert.

One more thing I just remembered - I was surprised by Lanza's age once it became public that he and Smiggles were the same person. Adam was active on the forums between the ages of 18 and 20. But when I was reading Smiggles posts back in the day, I had an impression that they are written by a young teen, like 13-15. An articulate young teen, but I certainly did not assume it was someone 18 years old.

morgenroede wrote:

Sea of angst and anger is a very accurate description of what it was. This must have been one of the reasons why I hadn’t noticed Lanza when I was browsing the old forum. Even though quite a few of his posts had later proved to fit my definition of interesting (along with his other writings, but here I’m talking solely about his forum presence), they were never particularly eye-catching. I’m usually bored to death by angry people and their angry rants, yet at the same time they generally tend to be more visible.

I like to think that I was one of the most prominent members in the "psychology" threads and rather active in what can roughly be called evidence/true crime threads at the time. Also in a lot of the pure "columbine case" threads, I chuckle when I read Krabbe's book because I remember all of us talking about the exact things he mentions.

I wasn't really interested in the angst or fangirl/fanboy threads, though I did reach out via PM to some people who felt like they are experiencing clinical depression.

morgenroede wrote:

And perhaps I won’t be wrong if I say that most of those on the forum were just regular edgy kids pretending to be angry for attention, while someone who was really disturbed was keeping quiet.

Most likely, although I never assumed I would always be able to tell the difference.
Example: in 2006-2007 on youtube, there were at least a dozen users who posted exactly the same sort of "Eric/Dylan tribute KMFDM music videos" as he did. His online activity really did not stand out from the columbiner crowd on YT.

morgenroede wrote:

Um, I’ve found out about your movie because of Lanza. Pretty sure it’s not only me but also the universal experience for everyone who is researching Sandy Hook, though.

There are really just 3 groups of people who found out about the movie:
- Warsaw university students in 2007-2008.
- Members of the forums at the time.
- People researching the smiggles&fuckcomments connection.

Also it is worth noting that the movie was first uploaded to YT in polish with no subtitles. The English subtitled version is a later re-upload. The amount of people who seen the movie before the smiggles connection became known was really low.

morgenroede wrote:

His final bout of activity coincided with the time I started reading the forum, also I had lost all interest in it roughly at the same time when Lanza stopped posting (funny how Sandy Hook has lead me back into being interested in mass shootings). I actually thought I saw you there too but from your words it looks like those were old threads.

It is possible you saw me. The time of my greatest activity must have been 2007-2009. By mid 2010 I was not posting daily and by the end of that year I stopped posting regularly.

Which doesn't mean I didn't pop in once every 4 months, post a dozen posts and then go silent for another 5 months. Similar to what my current activity frequency is here.

Sabratha wrote:

One more thing I just remembered - I was surprised by Lanza's age once it became public that he and Smiggles were the same person. Adam was active on the forums between the ages of 18 and 20. But when I was reading Smiggles posts back in the day, I had an impression that they are written by a young teen, like 13-15. An articulate young teen, but I certainly did not assume it was someone 18 years old.

Reading Lanza's Smiggles comments (the ones that are preserved today) doesn't give me that impression at all really. Then again I know what I was doing online at 13 through 15 I guess, as an autistic teen. My personal recollections are that I was more unbalanced than him emotionally. Like I would say things that were weird and made no sense to other people.

Originally I was going to comment that 18 year olds aren't that mature, but I guess now that I think about it I did grow up a lot in my teen years.

But anyways, I didn't get vibes that Adam was a younger teen from his comments.

myshame wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

One more thing I just remembered - I was surprised by Lanza's age once it became public that he and Smiggles were the same person. Adam was active on the forums between the ages of 18 and 20. But when I was reading Smiggles posts back in the day, I had an impression that they are written by a young teen, like 13-15. An articulate young teen, but I certainly did not assume it was someone 18 years old.

Reading Lanza's Smiggles comments (the ones that are preserved today) doesn't give me that impression at all really. Then again I know what I was doing online at 13 through 15 I guess, as an autistic teen. My personal recollections are that I was more unbalanced than him emotionally. Like I would say things that were weird and made no sense to other people.

He kind of did that too on the forums. He would reply with a non-sequitur at times and would reference travis the chimp in places where it didn't seem to be connected at all.

QuestionMark wrote:

I think Lanza himself sort of picked up on this - and maybe was even a little frustrated over it - because you can see on some of his posts that he makes fun of in-your-face edgelords who pose as more dangerous as they are. I feel like maybe he felt superior to them in a way, because despite all their bluster they would never put their own asses on the line, unlike himself.

Yeah, I particularly recall him making fun of someone he called a “local Pekka” or something like that. I can only imagine how Lanza must have felt about all the edgelords bragging on the internet about how they are so deranged and on the brink of committing murder, while in real life most of them would never hurt a fly. For someone like Adam it should have been simultaneously frustrating and entertaining. That’s obviously not to say that no mass shooter ever was overlooked because of being too much of an obnoxious edgelord to be taken seriously.

margaflor wrote:

Yes, I have seen worrisome comments here, however I do not like to accuse anyone or get into anything.  But I remember users who made some worrisome comments and most of them disappeared. However, it is difficult to tell when someone is serious or is cause for concern.  In randy's comments I didn't see such strange things, but now that we know everything he did it may seem like that.

Let’s hope they all just got bored of being edgy and found a nice healthy hobby like cross-stitching or making jewelry. Cross-stitching the freshly flayed skin of the people they killed and making jewelry out of their teeth wtf, I said a nice healthy hobby and not this.

I agree about Randy. His post history is not what I would think of as concerning (if there is even such a thing as a concerning post history, considering that anyone can write anything on the internet) and I was re-reading it only a week or two ago so I remember it fairly well; there was not a single “red flag” there. IIRC same goes for William Atchison, unless excessive shitposting is a warning sign.

Btw, I have found [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. (yep, I misremembered the year, it’s 2018, not 2017)

Sabratha wrote:

Weird, quirky and mellow - that was exactly my impression of him at the time. I think he may have made some post in the guns/weapons type threads, but even they didn't make him sound dangerous or even like a big gun nut/expert.

One more thing I just remembered - I was surprised by Lanza's age once it became public that he and Smiggles were the same person. Adam was active on the forums between the ages of 18 and 20. But when I was reading Smiggles posts back in the day, I had an impression that they are written by a young teen, like 13-15. An articulate young teen, but I certainly did not assume it was someone 18 years old.

He made a few gun posts and yeah they were neither obsessive nor unusual in any other way.

As for his age, if I noticed him at the time (that would have been a very big if), I would have probably guessed it correctly. Maybe like 17-19 instead of 18-20, but still. I’d expect younger teens on a Columbine board to be either more like “You know what I love?!! NATURAL SELECTION!!!” or just whining about school and relationships and other typical teen stuff. Of course there were also pseudo-intellectual teenagers who tried to seem significantly older than their age; one of them would have been me if I had felt brave enough to participate in serious(-ish) discussions on the forum despite the language barrier. Luckily I was not so brave, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be too happy about any of it permanently ending up on Langman’s website.

I didn’t know a lot about mental disorders back then (neither I do now), so I would not have suspected Adam of having one after seeing his posts. More likely, I would have thought that he had some kind of substance abuse issue and talked to himself while high. Or that he just liked to be a little weird on the internet. I say “a little” because some of my online friends at the time seemed weirder than him. I would have approved of his posts regarding antidepressants and marriage lol.

Sabratha wrote:

It is possible you saw me. The time of my greatest activity must have been 2007-2009. By mid 2010 I was not posting daily and by the end of that year I stopped posting regularly.

I discovered the forum in 2011, in 2007-2009 I had no idea about it, or about Columbine, or even about the existence of mass shootings that were not connected to Islamic terrorism. Even though I was interested in true crime since I was a child, I had no internet at home for a long time and my access to information was very limited.

I definitely saw your posts, though, just not sure if those were old or new. Most likely it was in the psychology threads since I used to skip nearly every thread where Eric’s and Dylan’s lives were discussed but was interested to read about things that were linked to Columbine indirectly.

Sabratha wrote:

Which doesn't mean I didn't pop in once every 4 months, post a dozen posts and then go silent for another 5 months. Similar to what my current activity frequency is here.

That’s also what my internet activity in general looks like, only instead of 5 months it can be a year or longer.

morgenroede wrote:

I mean, he held onto this delusional idea that there should be a way to fix the world and make everyone happy

Wait, where was that? I thought he hardly ever cared about anyone except himself.

Maboroshi wrote:

Wait, where was that? I thought he hardly ever cared about anyone except himself.

Well, in his writings he frequently expressed concern for children who get indoctrinated by society (whether it was genuine concern or just selfish projection). That’s why some believe it was a mercy killing, although I personally don’t think so.

i dont think so, thats pretty far-fetched

Im autistic and also interested in true crime but I can guarantee you we aren’t gonna blame autism here just like every other media outlet does. Your statement is kinda a slap to the face considering you are saying media is the cause for school shootings yet you are connecting it to autism just like they always do

incelgnorance wrote:

Im autistic and also interested in true crime but I can guarantee you we aren’t gonna blame autism here just like every other media outlet does. Your statement is kinda a slap to the face considering you are saying media is the cause for school shootings yet you are connecting it to autism just like they always do

I think autism connected with an interest for violence CAN be dangerous. If autistic people especially with "failing" empathy, and a special interest in violence, it definitely can be dangerous.

That doesn't mean that everyone with autism directly is violent. But it definitely can be a factor, especially when combined with a special interest in violence.

Well, I can only add that Lanza was one of the very few people for whom Austism was actually one of his lesser problems.

He suffered from massive social anxiety, lived in his mom's house with garbage bags covering the windows, he never graduated from college or held a real job, he expressed very possible pedophilia-oriented tendencies and admitted to suffering psychotic episodes. He was apparently also depressed and suicidal.

Really... does autism sound that bad in comparison to all of that? I think if he would have had just autism, we wouldn't even be here talking about him.


Autism certainly didn't make things better for him, that's for sure. But there was so much more involved than just autism.

Sabratha wrote:

Well, I can only add that Lanza was one of the very few people for whom Austism was actually one of his lesser problems.

He suffered from massive social anxiety, lived in his mom's house with garbage bags covering the windows, he never graduated from college or held a real job, he expressed very possible pedophilia-oriented tendencies and admitted to suffering psychotic episodes. He was apparently also depressed and suicidal.

Really... does autism sound that bad in comparison to all of that? I think if he would have just autism, we wouldn't even be here talking about him.


Autism certainly didn't make things better for him, that's for sure. But there was so much more involved than just autism.

It depends on what you define as autism. Sure, autism can just be classified as socially awkward maybe disturbances in sense of noise sensitivity etc.
But autism also shows a higher factor for getting schizophrenia. Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

"Three (5%) had first-degree relatives with AS. Nine (19%) had a family history of schizophrenia" from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_autism"

"Furthermore, these studies have shown an overlap between the genetic loci and even alleles that predispose to the different phenotypes." Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

So it isn't really unlikely, that he just had a "strong" autism spectrum disorder. He showed a lot of disorders, and also as I already mentioned in my post, autism is somehow genetically connected with schizophrenia. So it still could be connected with the ASD.

I don't just blame autism on the massacre, I hope that you understand this. I just think it's the mixture of his personality etc.

He always showed some violent thoughts, especially through his writings in school.

gayforwilla wrote:

But autism also shows a higher factor for getting schizophrenia.

That is a very fair point. There is statistically significant comorbidity between the two. Moreover, they share some clinical features.

gayforwilla wrote:

So it isn't really unlikely, that he just had a "strong" autism spectrum disorder. He showed a lot of disorders, and also as I already mentioned in my post, autism is somehow genetically connected with schizophrenia. So it still could be connected with the ASD.

Again, I am forced to repeat one of these tired phrases when it comes to many mental disorders: "The mechanism in question is poorly understood". Perhaps Lanza's autism developed into or "triggered" schizophrenia (or a similar psychotic disorder... again, its not clear if he had schizophrenia proper).

Also, perhaps he was suffering from some disorder that we are yet to discover and properly study - a disorder that shares autism and schizophrenia features.


At this point I can only offer educated speculation on my end: To me it looks like Lanza's mental issues - autism, depression, sexual inclinations and the psychotic disorder - they all played into one another and further spurred Lanza's social isolation and fascination with spree killings. All of this ending with his final choice of the manner in which he decided to die himself.


In one sense Lanza's case is clear - we seem to have almost all existing pieces of the puzzle. It is how these pieces fit together that makes the mystery.

Gayforwilla for president

incelgnorance wrote:

Gayforwilla for president

monke for president

no, I did

The mental gymnastics on display here are truly a sight to behold