Why do you think Adam did it?

Why do you think he did it?

All of the above.

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 8 ) 9) 15)

Infamy

Almost all of the above.

Mental illness, misanthropy, infamy, desire to become a mass shooter and "sperg-out".

In his philosophical point of view, doing that was the only escape for him and mercy for all the soon-to-be culturally raped childrem in Sandy Hook.
I remember once reading that Alvaro Castillo's motivation for murder was fundamentally different from any other mass shooter due to his belief that he was going to save people from the evils of this sinful world by killing them, and he wasn't just "seeking revange".
I think the same can be said about Adam - especially seeing how he had all the care to kill, not just injure, the majority of his victims. He even said that his emotions were irrelevant regarding his actions, if i recall correctly (take with a grain of salt). Death wasn't negative in any way for him, and mass muder could be used as a means to attain his goal of avoiding the rape of civilization. I feel like pain disturbed him very much, in a way, and he was willing to go through the most extreme negative utilitarian route to circumvent it.
In his internal calculation, Adam was the Benevolent World-exploder.

Motive is unknown, but he may have chosen Sandy Hook as having attended and graduated, he would have known the general layout of the school quite well, and perhaps as a message.

I thought he did it because he wanted to save the kids from being in a cruel world or something along those lines. I can't remember where I read that, but that's always been my thought as to why he did the shooting.

I think a lot of his writings show that he hated society. Often times when people hate society it’s because they can’t fit in with it. His life lacked direction. He was too autistic and mentally ill to do something successful with his life. And also, he wanted the infamy that he had seen so many other mass shooters get. He chose the elementary school because he knew the layout since he had attended there, and because the kids were defenseless, and because people would be shocked by elementary kids deaths and willing to talk about it.

I don't know how to feel about the fact that 6% said sperg-out.

I think because of his desire to be a mass shooter, and he knew that those kids can't protect themselves so basically he chose them because they were easier targets than high schoolers

I definitely think they were mercy killings. He was sparing them of growing up and all the suffering associated with that
but he also just seemed like he wanted to kill people

[REDACTED]

it doesnt come off as that complicated to me, if you look into the history of the online personas adam created and take into account philosophies from his writings, one will come to a conclusion that he commited the act behind the pretext of "saving" the children from their indoctrination into the system, as for how lanza said himself;


"Thinking of this society as the default state of existence is the reason why you think that humans would be "not well" for "no reason whatsover". Civilization has not been present for 99% of the existence of hominids, and the only way it's ever sustained is by indoctrinating each new chilld for years on end.

The wellness that you speak of is solely defined by a child's submission to this process and their subsequent capacity to propagate civilization themselves. When civilization exists in a form where all forms of alienation (among many other things) are rampant, as can be seen in the most recent incarnation within the last fifty years, new children will end up "not well" in all sorts of ways.

You don't even have to touch a topic as cryptic as mass murder to see an indication of this: you can look at a single as egregious as the proliferation of antidepressants. And look in your own life. You've said that you're afflicted by unrelenting anxiety and that you're afraid to leave your house. Do you really think that the way you feel is not symptomatic of anything other than your own inexplicable defectiveness?"


while i do not wish to speculate, i personally believe lanza himself resigned with his life due to his outlook on things, hence later in his life he had no aspirations and more so led a reclusive, hedonistic lifestyle. he had given up on being a part of society and presumably did not wish for other children to accept life for what it is, a struggle, that is yet not apparent in children of ages he chose to kill. the attack was his way of going out, while also being "productive" in his own way, by staying true to his philosophy.

Clogerhead wrote:

I definitely think they were mercy killings. He was sparing them of growing up and all the suffering associated with that
but he also just seemed like he wanted to kill people

curieux wrote:

it doesnt come off as that complicated to me, if you look into the history of the online personas adam created and take into account philosophies from his writings, one will come to a conclusion that he commited the act behind the pretext of "saving" the children from their indoctrination into the system,

The thing is I think given his actual actions that day, considering he was filling people's bodies pretty thoroughly full of lead, I don't feel like he viewed it as a mercy killing. Quite the opposite, I think he wanted to attack society in the most visceral way possible and harbored extensive and immense rage towards people who could "make it" when he had failed in every domain as a human being. He mentioned more than once how he hated humanity and wished that he had been born a chimp instead, so taking that level of antipathy for his own species into account, I doubt generosity was foremost on his mind during the planning and execution of his attack.

n/a

Mental Illness, Fame, Infamy, Desire to become a mass shooter, Nihilism

A lot of these on the poll tick off what his motive might be but personally I think we never may know.

I think he had such a hatred for society and the human race that he felt it was necessary to commit such an act against said society and human race.

Many years in social isolation can truly mess with someone's mind...

Scowail wrote:

Many years in social isolation can truly mess with someone’s mind…

True, but in Adam’s case it was more like his mind was messed up to begin with and his social isolation was one of the consequences. I’m not saying that he was predestined to be a killer, but the one thing I absolutely can’t see him doing is socializing the same way as the average person. I wonder if he ever wanted it. His anxiety obviously prevented him from having a social life, but maybe loneliness did not bother him whatsoever.

morgenroede wrote:

Scowail wrote:

Many years in social isolation can truly mess with someone’s mind…

True, but in Adam’s case it was more like his mind was messed up to begin with and his social isolation was one of the consequences. I’m not saying that he was predestined to be a killer, but the one thing I absolutely can’t see him doing is socializing the same way as the average person. I wonder if he ever wanted it. His anxiety obviously prevented him from having a social life, but maybe loneliness did not bother him whatsoever.

Yeah I absolutely agree on that, even though sometimes I assume that he was desperate for companionship, but due to his anxiety, he was never able to fulfill these desires.
His whole views against modern society and for primitive lifestyle makes me think that way. He also socialized a lot online (maybe as an alternative to real life?) and had his one DDR buddy, who suddenly disappeared.

Scowail wrote:

Yeah I absolutely agree on that, even though sometimes I assume that he was desperate for companionship, but due to his anxiety, he was never able to fulfill these desires.
His whole views against modern society and for primitive lifestyle makes me think that way. He also socialized a lot online (maybe as an alternative to real life?) and had his one DDR buddy, who suddenly disappeared.

Some of his writings indicate to me that sometimes he was, but could not handle real life friendships for several reasons (mainly anxiety and lack of emotional intelligence) and was generally fine with being alone. Socializing online can serve as a substitute, though not necessarily so. It might be just a preference. From my own experience, and I don’t have social anxiety, it’s much easier to maintain online friendships (and IRL it too often feels obligatory and outright exhausting), but most people I know, regardless of their level of introversion or extroversion, say it’s the other way around.
If I remember correctly, it’s Adam who suddenly cut contact with the DDR buddy, not vice versa. At times he didn’t talk to him for weeks and eventually stopped hanging out with him altogether. I can recall that they had an argument before that, but I may be imagining things so don’t quote me on this.

I think that mental illness played a huge role. Especially the dreams he was having that involved people viewing Adam incredibly poor. All that he ever learned from those dreams was that he was a bad person, so he should do more things to live up to the name others had labeled him as. I believe his dreams really messed up his perception of himself: "There had been an assembly on how much of a terrible person I am." He had multiple nightmares about things such as school, parents, the police, and the government. Not only in his dreams did he experience others' hatred for him, but he had also been bullied frequently during the time that he was in school. I think his ideology was just like, "What’s the worst thing a "bad person" can do?" I think anyone would say murder or killing another human being. But what’s even worse than just point-blank killing? The killing of children

I really don’t mean to speculate, but I just wanted to shed some light on another theory that I didn’t really see much of in the thread. I’m familiar with his philosophy, and I do agree that it may have played a big role. Honestly, a lot of things could have played a big role. It’s like everything around him from the moment he was born set him up to fail miserably in every aspect of his entire life.

3-5-8

According to him, life is suffering, and that suffering is increased by culture. So in his eyes, what he did was like killing a bleeding out animal on the side of the road.

Taylor Swift commanded him to do it or else the world would end. His final blood sacrifice to TayTay saved us all.

Samson wrote:

Taylor Swift commanded him to do it or else the world would end. His final blood sacrifice to TayTay saved us all.

My fucking sides

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

Guest wrote:

Scowail wrote:

Yeah I absolutely agree on that, even though sometimes I assume that he was desperate for companionship, but due to his anxiety, he was never able to fulfill these desires.
His whole views against modern society and for primitive lifestyle makes me think that way. He also socialized a lot online (maybe as an alternative to real life?) and had his one DDR buddy, who suddenly disappeared.

Some of his writings indicate to me that sometimes he was, but could not handle real life friendships for several reasons (mainly anxiety and lack of emotional intelligence) and was generally fine with being alone. Socializing online can serve as a substitute, though not necessarily so. It might be just a preference. From my own experience, and I don’t have social anxiety, it’s much easier to maintain online friendships (and IRL it too often feels obligatory and outright exhausting), but most people I know, regardless of their level of introversion or extroversion, say it’s the other way around.
If I remember correctly, it’s Adam who suddenly cut contact with the DDR buddy, not vice versa. At times he didn’t talk to him for weeks and eventually stopped hanging out with him altogether. I can recall that they had an argument before that, but I may be imagining things so don’t quote me on this.

Where is this info from? I haven’t heard this before. The last bit about his brief acquaintance.

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

Hard disagree for me that that’s his main motive. Perhaps his mother speaking of moving him spurred on the shooting. However I think it was planned a bit further in advance than that. Police—though they often give biased information I believe in this case—stated that he had been planning it since 2011 or even earlier. From what I know, he shot his mother in the head the night after she returned from a trip, thereby setting in stone the elementary school shooting he was already going to do, and then drove the car to Sandy Hook; he already had all his photos and reputation-work up online. Explaining his ideology in a manner he thought sufficient; at the end of the day I believe he was aware that he would die, and death brought—whatever else—an irrelevance to the events of his life, but he’d likely been considering some sort of suicide or murder-suicide for years before carrying out the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting. Demonstrably/evident from the fact he made the YouTube channel at all. He wanted to explain his thoughts, because he wasn’t too sure how much longer his life was going to last. In the end he put on his sunglasses and hat and the green and black clothes—after or before—shooting his mother in the head. Using a separate rifle to the one used in the shooting, so as to save ammunition. The police statement that he had planned it “meticulously,” is in my view one-hundred percent accurate. He’d been considering it somewhere in his mind from the moment he began researching mass shootings. It’s why he had a spreadsheet, and it’s why he managed to kill 20 children and 7 women despite it likely being a bad, frantic day for him. I can only imagine how the drive to the school must’ve felt for him. Likely numb, but painful. I can imagine him smiling calmly, perhaps even a little happy that it would be over soon. But not just yet for him. He still needed to leave his mark, and stay true to his ideals. He admired people who committed suicide for their ability to detach themselves from culture and society and their understanding that death would free them from any and all concerns, but he himself still wasn’t certain. He was, very much, inspired to do the shooting… because he couldn’t follow through on his own suicide earlier than that. No one massacres children if they don’t want their name known. If they don’t want their message sent. He was sparked on by his own cowardice; inability to kill himself, essentially. Sparked on by his pedophilia, and desire to impact the culture that hurt him. He wanted attention. Like all the rest. He just made it more complicated. In his words, if you didn’t understand what he was saying after all his YouTube videos, then you’d never understand what he was trying to say. Maybe he could show you pro-culturalists in a spiteful last-ditch effort instead… I don’t know. Perhaps I’m too confident in my inconsistent theory.

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

You make some good points too. I forgot to add a few of those.

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

You make some good points too. I forgot to add a few of those.

The fact that he was still talking about living somewhere in the future some point in his teens, provides a bit of a contradiction to what I said. I really don’t think he had an extreme want, to kill people. I also heard somewhere that he had an acquaintance on a Columbine cosplay site, and that he said he “didn’t know if he could hurt/kill people,” (I forget). He had an obsession with death, because that’s what he wanted for the world, but he was confused himself on why he was shooting up the school, and so he left that part a ? for everyone in the communities he was active in. He knew his shooting would make no real impact, but people would know.

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

You make some good points too. I forgot to add a few of those.

The fact that he was still talking about living somewhere in the future some point in his teens, provides a bit of a contradiction to what I said. I really don’t think he had an extreme want, to kill people. I also heard somewhere that he had an acquaintance on a Columbine cosplay site, and that he said he “didn’t know if he could hurt/kill people,” (I forget). He had an obsession with death, because that’s what he wanted for the world, but he was confused himself on why he was shooting up the school, and so he left that part a ? for everyone in the communities he was active in. He knew his shooting would make no real impact, but people would know.

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

You make some good points too. I forgot to add a few of those.

The fact that he was still talking about living somewhere in the future some point in his teens, provides a bit of a contradiction to what I said. I really don’t think he had an extreme want, to kill people. I also heard somewhere that he had an acquaintance on a Columbine cosplay site, and that he said he “didn’t know if he could hurt/kill people,” (I forget). He had an obsession with death, because that’s what he wanted for the world, but he was confused himself on why he was shooting up the school, and so he left that part a ? for everyone in the communities he was active in. He knew his shooting would make no real impact, but people would know.

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

LucienBarminswaAlexander wrote:

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

Variache wrote:

I heard this one theory, I forget where, but it was that he did it because he was paranoid that his mother was moving him to a different zone. This is further supported by the fact that he killed her as well, and (almost) the entire class she was going to work with. He felt she was abandoning him, so he had his "revenge".
The authenticity of this I'm not aware of, and I have little time to do research on the topic due to the time I'm posting this. If anyone can find the article that said this, please lmk.

I have a miserable memory so this may be wrong, but I recall the sheltered storm saying the move was Adam's idea. I couldn't find the exact part I was looking for, but I did find a mention of wanting to move to seattle from one of his sbb pms.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

As for my thoughts on his motive: a combination of nihilism, a hatred of culture, A fixation on mass shooters, a noted lack of empathy (according to the yale evaluation), suicidal ideation, paranoia, possible psychosis, academic struggles, and a constant struggle with sensory issues pushed him to the point he ended up at. I came across the suggestion that he killed Nancy since she was essentially another "hard drive" of information on him, having lived with him his entire life and all. I find that idea pretty compelling. He may have chosen the school since it was where he was first "encultured" and would face minimal resistance since a middle schooler could probably overpower him.

You make some good points too. I forgot to add a few of those.

The fact that he was still talking about living somewhere in the future some point in his teens, provides a bit of a contradiction to what I said. I really don’t think he had an extreme want, to kill people. I also heard somewhere that he had an acquaintance on a Columbine cosplay site, and that he said he “didn’t know if he could hurt/kill people,” (I forget). He had an obsession with death, because that’s what he wanted for the world, but he was confused himself on why he was shooting up the school, and so he left that part a ? for everyone in the communities he was active in. He knew his shooting would make no real impact, but people would know.

I found the article, I'll link it when I can but I can't due to my account's age.
You make great points both for your beliefs, and arguments against mine, and they're very compelling. I'm gonna do more research on the topic when I have time, because I like to have a firm grasp on a concept I've been wrong on before.

I think he wanted to just "save" children in his own words. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
In a part of this document he talks about how children are oppressed and that "a child is incapable of consenting to sexual activity, so any occurrence of it is inherently rape", he also said that "beyond having their associations, location, and every action subject to their parents’ wills, they are denied
their own thoughts, opinions, values, and religion, and instead are coerced into adopting
their parents’."

i remember hearing this somewhere, i dont remember where.. it couldve been a reference to culturalphilistine. adam wanted to commit suicide but was too afraid to do it. he thought he had to do something so horrible that he'd have no other option but to kill himself.

lol autistic hahaha

ggtt5556uu wrote:

lol autistic hahaha

Truly an incredible contribution to the discussion.

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

ggtt5556uu wrote:

lol autistic hahaha

Truly an incredible contribution to the discussion.

is something wrong?

ggtt5556uu wrote:

ParanoidAndroid wrote:

ggtt5556uu wrote:

lol autistic hahaha

Truly an incredible contribution to the discussion.

is something wrong?

Not that I'm aware of.

Tommy QTR wrote:

All of the above.

He loved children, not in the creepy way- Just in the way that a loving adult would.

I believe he committed the crimes partly to express his antinatalist frustrations. Yes, to save the children from being fucked over by society as previous replies have mentioned, but also to vent the anger he had against parents bringing children into modern society.

1v1k wrote:

Tommy QTR wrote:

All of the above.

He loved children, not in the creepy way- Just in the way that a loving adult would.

Incorrect.