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

[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/

[Raven]

1. I read some of his diary and there was something very strange about it.

I got the feeling that it wasn't real...that whoever wrote it was writing fiction. Something just didn't ring genuine about it...can't put my finger on it. It seemed too smooth, too polished, lacking emotion, almost too detached. Anybody else have that reaction?

[MADem]

2. Sociopathic. That's why it doesn't seem real. Like Ted Bundy talking to himself.

As you noted: Smooth, polished, lacking emotion, detached.

Not bothering to play a role as I imagine he must have in polite society.

That's the thing that was "missing." That's why no woman wanted to touch him with a forty foot pole.

That is was a hosed up guy. Pity he had to ruin other lives as he destroyed his own, the tool.

[BirminghamExaminer]

5. Exactly! detached......

this is what I told my husband last night, "The guy made plenty of money, wasn't terrible looking so there must have been something very wrong with his 'vibe'" I know vibe is a lame word but it's the only thing I can think of to describe what I'm talking about....you know, we've all met someone we just instantly knew was 'off' and avoided them no matter what. If he hadnt had a girlfriend since 1983, he definitely put out the heebee jeebees.

He was obviously very theatrical and self-absorbed...thinking in the future about people reading his sad tale. Except it's not a sad tale, it's a story of madness. He hated his family so he killed women (hoez as he repeatedly refers to women) at the gym. Maybe he hoped they'd make a made for TV movie about him and put it on the Victim network, erm, I mean the Life time network.

[CJCRANE]

3. It reminded me of the novel "American Psycho" nt

[Blue_Tires]

6. I was thinking closer to "Taxi Driver"

[CJCRANE]

7. Yes, he was definitely a Travis Bickle type

personality but in a more upscale setting.

The other one I was reminded of is the Ed Norton character in Fight Club.

It's a shame this guy couldn't have channeled his energies into fiction writing or something creative, he had savings so lack of money obviously wasn't an obstacle to making his life more interesting.

[Blue_Tires]

8. and like Travis

there were definite delusions of grandeur, frustration, repressed anger along with this unfulfilled need for vengeance against being belittled by society/women...

he needed psych help at least a couple of decades ago, before his isolation and resentment became too far entrenched...(or at the bare minimum he should have offed himself instead of taking innocents with him)

[zbdent]

4. but don't expect the "liberal media" to show any of that when it's a

person who follows the "Kill Him" wing of the Sarah Palin party ...