Is a lack of success with girls/sexuality a major cause for mass shootings?

[Sir Mohamed]

Not sure whether this belongs here at all or a megathread, but I thought about this for a while: Is one major cause for mass shootings and other brutal acts of violence by young men caused by a lack of sexuality and "success with girls". Most perpetrator of such crimes are young men described as loners who - rightfully or not - feel rejected by society and who have been the target of school bulling etc. It's easy to assume all of them have deep frustration in them as they're usually not the types who do well in "picking up" women. Of course, just a tiny fraction of young men experiencing these problems committ crimes in the end.

Needless to say neither this nor any other cause for frustration is a justification for doing any harm on others. It's unacceptable, period. I'm just asking myself whether it's an explanation.

What do you think?

[beaver2.0]

Perhaps it's a factor, but I doubt it's the primary cause.  Many people have this lack of success but are sane enough to realize that's no reason to go out and murder people.

[Schiff for Senate]

Perhaps it's a factor, but I doubt it's the primary cause.  Many people have this lack of success but are sane enough to realize that's no reason to go out and murder people.

This applies to most of the 'reasons' mass shooters usually have for committing their crimes, though.
For instance, in the 1998 shooting, the two shooters were bullied and isolated. Millions of kids have been bullied and isolated. The vast, vast, vast majority have not then committed mass shootings.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Perhaps it's a factor, but I doubt it's the primary cause.  Many people have this lack of success but are sane enough to realize that's no reason to go out and murder people.

This applies to most of the 'reasons' mass shooters usually have for committing their crimes, though.
For instance, in the 1998 shooting, the two shooters were bullied and isolated. Millions of kids have been bullied and isolated. The vast, vast, vast majority have not then committed mass shootings.

Look at social trust levels. Higher social trust means that generally people feel less need to own guns, and reduces the level of people who are potential mass shooters too.
There's a reason social trust levels declining over the past (40?) years also has paralleled an increase in gun violence.

[beaver2.0]

Perhaps it's a factor, but I doubt it's the primary cause.  Many people have this lack of success but are sane enough to realize that's no reason to go out and murder people.

This applies to most of the 'reasons' mass shooters usually have for committing their crimes, though.
For instance, in the 1998 shooting, the two shooters were bullied and isolated. Millions of kids have been bullied and isolated. The vast, vast, vast majority have not then committed mass shootings.

Indeed, that's kind of the point I was trying to make.  Ultimately there are many small reasons why things happen and in my view, mass shootings occur at the confluence of societal alienation and mental illness and are enabled by easy access to guns.

[Del Tachi]

Mass shootings and “incel”-ism are symptoms of the same disease.  Both of these are very antisocial behaviors

[Ferguson97]

As far as I know nobody on Atlas has ever gone on a shooting spree.

[dead0man]

Look at social trust levels. Higher social trust means that generally people feel less need to own guns, and reduces the level of people who are potential mass shooters too.
There's a reason social trust levels declining over the past (40?) years also has paralleled an increase in gun violence.

but gun violence peaked in the 90s and went way down for most of the next two decades, has "social trust" (whatever the hell that means) been going up since then?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Look at social trust levels. Higher social trust means that generally people feel less need to own guns, and reduces the level of people who are potential mass shooters too.
There's a reason social trust levels declining over the past (40?) years also has paralleled an increase in gun violence.

but gun violence peaked in the 90s and went way down for most of the next two decades, has "social trust" (whatever the hell that means) been going up since then?

Which statistics are you looking at? I'm curious, I had the impression they were going up overall.

[Beet]

Overall crime dropped in the late 90s and for "most of the next two decades" but gun violence dropped less than non-gun crime after the tide turned in favor of gun rights in the early 2000s.

Male privilege and the notion that p*ssy is a basic need like housing and shelter, that every boy is entitled to, and also a conception of masculinity where success is defined by your popularity with women, are major contributors to the problem for sure.

[dead0man]

Look at social trust levels. Higher social trust means that generally people feel less need to own guns, and reduces the level of people who are potential mass shooters too.
There's a reason social trust levels declining over the past (40?) years also has paralleled an increase in gun violence.

but gun violence peaked in the 90s and went way down for most of the next two decades, has "social trust" (whatever the hell that means) been going up since then?

Which statistics are you looking at? I'm curious, I had the impression they were going up overall.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Look at social trust levels. Higher social trust means that generally people feel less need to own guns, and reduces the level of people who are potential mass shooters too.
There's a reason social trust levels declining over the past (40?) years also has paralleled an increase in gun violence.

but gun violence peaked in the 90s and went way down for most of the next two decades, has "social trust" (whatever the hell that means) been going up since then?

Which statistics are you looking at? I'm curious, I had the impression they were going up overall.

Thanks for this graph.
I guess, as it is, gun deaths going down does not necessarily mean higher social trust levels, and gun deaths going up does not necessarily mean social trust is going down. The latter is just one of multiple factors, but it's important as a background factor to a number of phenomena that also add to gun violence.

As for the definition of "social trust", here is what I came across on Google:
"Social trust is the confidence that other people will do what they ought to do most of the time." - Atlantic
"Social trust is a belief in the honesty, integrity and reliability of others – a “faith in people.”"- Pew Research
"Social trust is a perception in the honesty, integrity and reliability of others — a “faith in a human being.” - Medium

I apologize if this is too esoteric or pyschology-sounding. I remember the 538 podcast talking about it in relation to polling responses and all that, affecting how likely someone is likely to respond to a pollster.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Attempting to isolate a cause for mass shootings is a fool's errand because every individual feature of American society, even the extremely high level of gun ownership, is the case in at least a few other countries that don't have this particular problem. It's the whole toxic mix of factors.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Basically none of the demographic are mass shooters but most mass shooters are part of the demographic.

In all seriousness, society teaches straight men some really bad things regarding masculinity that contribute to this.

[PSOL]

The shooting of this sort of type in New York has me convinced that it is due to a lack of attention from the parents, and this is one way to get attention.

[Damocles]

That, but also racism. That one pops up frequently.

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

The shooting of this sort of type in New York has me convinced that it is due to a lack of attention from the parents, and this is one way to get attention.

Everyone: Racism, Sexism, Poverty, etc

PSOL: lol my parents don't pay attention to me so I have to murder 10 people lol

[PSOL]

The shooting of this sort of type in New York has me convinced that it is due to a lack of attention from the parents, and this is one way to get attention.

Everyone: Racism, Sexism, Poverty, etc

PSOL: lol my parents don't pay attention to me so I have to murder 10 people lol

For middle class white kids, apparently yes

[Edu]

Does OP believe that some guys not getting laid just happens in the US?

[Kahane's Grave Is A Gender-Neutral Bathroom]

Does OP believe that some guys not getting laid just happens in the US?

Well minors buying assault weapons only happens in the US.

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

I wish I could find the article now, but I recently read something about how a vast majority of mass shooters have a history of violence against women or other misogynistic behaviors. There's certainly a correlation there, but it seems intuitive that both misogyny and violence could be consequences of antisocial tendencies more broadly, rather than misogyny "causing" the shootings.

[Aurelius]

I genuinely think mass shootings are a horrific sort of meme, in the scientific sense of the term. Columbine brought the idea of shooting up a school into the national consciousness and spawned a hundred copycats. Most of the same deep social problems existent a decade after Columbine were already well underway before Columbine. The Internet, though, definitely plays a role.

Now that this Pandora's box has been opened I really don't know how the Hell it can be closed back up, unless your plan is to both ban the Internet and to have cops go door to door to collect 500 million guns - the same cops who stood there and did nothing while a madman shot up the school (which has happened several times now, for example Parkland).

As much of a free speech absolutist as I am, I would genuinely be open to something regulating how mass media outlets cover mass shootings, which could potentially reduce the memetic factor to some degree.

Basically none of the demographic are mass shooters but most mass shooters are part of the demographic.

In all seriousness, society teaches straight men some really bad things regarding masculinity that contribute to this.

Socialization into masculinity was much, much stronger a couple generations ago than it is today, and there weren't mass shootings.

[TheReckoning]

While I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of these mass shooters are incel types, I doubt it’s the inceldom that’s causing mass shootings. Rather, the kind of men who are prone to massacring people probably aren’t going to be too popular with the ladies.

[Mopsus]

Mass shootings and “incel”-ism are symptoms of the same disease.  Both of these are very antisocial behaviors

Was going to say something along these lines. People who commit acts of mass violence are wired to be seriously at odds with the society around them, and that doesn't translate well into forming good connections with other people (whether that be one's parents, friends, prospective partners or employers, or anything else one can think of).

[Nightcore Nationalist]

Male privilege

"male privilege" (lol) isn't a real thing that actually exists in the West in 2022.