Pa. shooter’s blog mixed racism, sexism, despair [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

Pa. shooter’s blog mixed racism, sexism, despair

Author: Susan Webb
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 08/05/09 13:36

The gunman who killed three women and then himself at a Pittsburgh-area fitness club yesterday had a blog in which racist and sexist comments mixed with constant talk of his failure to have relationships with women, and of not having control over his life.

It indicates how sexist and racist ideas promoted so widely by right-wing outlets and politicians can find their way into the toxic thinking of a deeply troubled individual.

The killer, George Sodini, 48, from suburban Scott Township, Pa., worked at a tech job where he was worried about being laid off, and was a member of the health club where he carried out the killings.

Access to his original online blog has been blocked, but the text is available, for now at least, at www.shabooty.com.

In the blog, Sodini writes that he had been planning the shooting for some time, but postponed it until after the November presidential elections. (Note, all quotes below are verbatim from the web site, including spelling.)

<snip>

To what extent did the sexism, male chauvinism, racism and white supremacist ideas purveyed in our society — for example, by today’s white male Republicans posturing against Sonia Sotomayor — play a role in this terrible tragedy? To what extent did the economic insecurity out there play a role? These things are worth pondering.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/16629/