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

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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.