Man stabbed 3 people at major Paris station ( www.nbcnews.com )

captainjaneway , 5 months ago

I'll never understand random acts of violence. In most of these cases, these attackers are mentally unstable; so it makes no sense to look for rationality in their reasoning for the attacks. But people lose their lives in a lot of these incidents and it's hard to not look for a reason.

In the referenced case in December, the attacker was basically a delusional ISIS sympathizer. He murdered a tourist despite himself having no real ties to ISIS (other than his delusional self-interest).

Why can't people just abide by basic tenants of "live and let live", "don't harm others for your own gain", etc.? It seems like some people make their entire existence about imposing their beliefs, problems, or desires onto other people. It's such a waste of energy and effort. It generates so much trauma and fear in our societies. There seems to be no solution that doesn't end in Orwellian dystopia.

I'm not entirely sure that a life of joy, education, empathy, and love would fix these attackers behaviors. I guess we'll never really know. In America, our random attackers often claim mental health problems are the reason for their actions, but people have had access to guns for a century and random shootings were not as commonplace a century ago. I know that copycat behavior and such can influence people as well, but that's a fucking depressing reason to take someone's life: that it was just something you saw someone else do?

I don't know what my point is. I just couldn't sleep and I feel like people are the worst.