What a strange occurrence. I wonder what sent him over the edge. Based on everything said, it makes it sound like this was hastily done in the spur of the moment. Did his wife divorce him? Did he suddenly become disillusioned with Trump?
The article (if you’re past the paywall) does seem to point to that. Except it wouldn’t be the wife, but instead fiance.
What is going on with men that there’s this reverse saved by the prince(ss) narrative happening so much now? Waiting to be saved by a Knight in Shining Armor (from a crappy or mediocre life) was an expectation we had to spend years on breaking in women. And now we’re seeing it in men.
“If I could just find someone…” everything in existence will then be ok. (Or it’ll be mostly the same and you’ll be unreasonably expecting too much of a partner who will then leave you because you failed to work on your personal crap.)
How little is there in your life that you have nothing else to do but to get outwardly violent? How few coping skills are being taught as we grow up that there’s no self rescuing here?
Granted, there’s destruction aimed inward (suicide) and then there’s destruction that wants to take some of life with you when you go. The latter could be seen as an extension of the former, sure. But it’s not an either or thing, many people keep on keeping on without ever going to either.
My theory:
A lot of people are hitting mid-life from the first western generation significantly less well-off than their parents. They grew up with expectations set by their environment which they’re now realizing isn’t realistic at all. It’s not really their fault for having those expectations, it was a reality they witnessed with their own eyes.
I think this fairly nebulous anxiety over the disconnect between expectation and reality is the root cause of a lot of various flavours of anti-social behavior. It’s just a roulette spin of who they end up blaming.
Andrew Tate misogyny, MAGA fascism, Xenophobia, Anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, full-on neo nazis etc etc, I think the surprising uptake of these otherwise fringe ideas are just people subconsciously grasping for explanation of why the world (and by extension their lives) “just isn’t right”.
So yah, layer than onto regular mid-life crises, it’s a powder keg.
And I think this is where so much MAGA support comes from. They heavily lean into acknowledgement that things AREN’T good. They’re BAD. You’re NOT CRAZY for thinking they’re FUCKED, and the urgency you feel is APPROPRIATE.
In the US at least, it’s the right offering radical change. It’s fucking idiotic change guaranteed to blow up in your face before the leopards come to chew it off… but goddamnit it’s radical. It at least matches the energy level of the angst. The Dems are offering piecemeal incremental bland realistic changes that while certainly for the better, they won’t rock the boat too hard.
We were told that if we went and got a college degree, we would have a well-paying, decent (which is to say, doesn’t treat us like crap) job out the door and that the degree would pay for itself within a few years.
We were told this over and over and over again, and that, if you went for any other path, you were a fuckup.
What a scam it was.
Rambo type guy. He hated what the government did to him, and only fought in self defense?
Yeah that struck me, it’s literally the first time I’ve ever heard someone referred to as a “Rambo-type.”
I maybe saw parts of the first Rambo 30 years ago, but I honestly can’t remember. This reference means very little to me other than “jacked mumbling idiot with a big machine gun.”
Watch First Blood again. It’s a classic for a reason.
Will do, I’m curious about it now. Tbh I’ve never found Stallone particularly compelling, but the more I think about it, the more I’m sure I only saw bits and pieces when I was young. Deserves a full watch.
First blood was based on a book. It’s pretty grounded. He’s not disintegrating heads with a machine gun. He’s just a vet walking through town.
First Blood is excellent. It’s not action schlock like the rest. It is absolutely worth your watch as an adult.
First Blood ia really the only one to watch. Maybe the second movie. But First Blood was supposed to end with his suicide. So I like to think all the rest of them are a fever dream.
