School Shootings Reveal a Dark Side to U.S. Culture.

As unpleasant as it is, questions need to be asked about America's epidemic of mass shootings.

The world looks on in horror and dismay as more American lives are claimed by yet another mass shooting. Another white guy, from another broken home, yet again radicalised online by the far-right, armed himself, went to his university and just started shooting, randomly. He killed two people and injured six.

“He repeatedly espoused white supremacist, alt-right views” NYT

It reminds us all of the repeated school shootings the U.S. keeps suffering. For most of us the mere fact that shooting school kids is even a thing is deeply disturbing and perplexing. What on earth could drive even a homicidal maniac to target innocent schoolchildren?

Political leaders in the U.S. try desperately to avoid the stark reality: the mass shooting of kids is a uniquely U.S. problem. Yes, there are atrocities going on around the world - genocides, child slavery, human trafficking, etc…- and as grotesque as these acts are, none are more perplexing than a man arming himself to the teeth and then walking into a school, opening fire and killing random children. Why, even if homicidal, would anyone choose a school full of children to act out their violent spree?

The answers (at least, what answers we have) are deeply uncomfortable and reveal a sinister mindset that a certain faction of Americans seem particularly vulnerable to.

---

The Evidence

There have been some investigations into the surge in U.S. school shootings that began in the 1960s. Both the FBI and Secret Service have issued reports in an attempt to profile the shooters in question. Equally, there have been other studies and scientific papers that have tried to dissect the motives of the shooters.

The following is my general view on the issue. I draw heavily on the excellent work by Harold Schwartz, “The Mind of The Mass Shooter” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, as well as other publications and the fundamentals of neuroscience.

It’s a Right-Wing Problem

There is no getting around this easily discoverable fact. The vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by shooters who identify with right-wing ideology.

Indeed, a recent report has shown that over the last decade (up to 2022), almost all extremist-related mass shootings were motivated by right-wing ideologies:

“Over the past decade… 96 percent of incidents in which extremists killed someone were committed by people motivated by right-wing ideologies.” Washington Post

It’s a right-wing problem. Whether caused, in part or wholly, by the current right-wing political strategy, or whether a vulnerability merely exploited by the right-wing, it is a right-wing problem.

Therefore, the bulk of the responsibility for addressing the epidemic of school shootings sits with those promoting right-wing ideologies. Even the moderates on the right must speak out and challenge the clearly harmful rhetoric of their more extreme comrades. To fail to do so must be considered complicit.

The first point that must not be forgotten is that school shootings are a right-wing problem.

The Vulnerability of the Radicalised Right-Wing Brain

When we examine the characteristics of the school shooters, the link with current right-wing ideology becomes clearer.

The inability to empathise is a consistent feature for both shooters and those who follow current right-wing ideology.

From a neuroscience perspective, the deficit is in the ability to use the prefrontal cortex to ‘mentalise’ the emotions of other people and then form a ‘Theory of Mind’ - an idea of who someone is and what they are thinking. Empathy is the totality and endpoint of these processes.

Representation of Human Brain showing brain regions involved in empathy (green). Source: Royal Society: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2015.0077).

Numerous studies have shown that those who are inclined towards authoritarian, racist, and fascist belief systems tend to depend more heavily on primitive areas of the brain and less on the prefrontal cortex where mentalising and Theory of Mind occur. We discussed this in previous posts and Episode 1 of the podcast:

Ep 1. The Difference Between Right and Left-Wing Brains

Schwartz summarises this point well:

“ToM [Theory of Mind] and mentalization are what allow us to experience others as real human beings with passions and sorrows, dreams and disappointments, and to empathize. These capacities shape our attachments, forge our connectedness, and bind us together. They are the glue of the group, the building blocks of community. Without them, we experience the other as less real and, absent other constraints, easier to kill.”

Division, Racism, and Dysfunctional Families

The reason that some people fail to properly develop the basic function of empathy is often due to the ‘othering’ that accompanies racist ideology.

In order to be cruel to a fellow human being (for no other reason except the way they look) requires the racist to turn off their ability to see that person as another human being. This means that they have to dial down their empathy and suppress the parts of their brain that deal with mentalising and Theory of Mind.

Given that all relationships depend on the ability to mentalise and empathise, as the individual submits to far-right, racist ideology they effectively surrender their ability to form meaningful relationships with others; they become increasingly alone (even if surrounded by fellow racists).

This relates to and compounds another consistent feature of school shooters: they are socially isolated. A death spiral ensues, in that, if you have limited social connections then you have limited opportunities to ‘practice’ and develop the vital human functions of empathising, mentalising, and Theory of Mind.

The loner actively switches off their empathy as they engage in current right-wing ideology, while passively deconditioning their previously acquired capacity for empathy through the simple disuse that accompanies social isolation. They lose their empathy.

Another very strong factor that binds both school shooters and right-wing zealots is the presence of dysfunctional family lives.

“A ubiquitous condition experienced by almost all mass school shooters, however, is the social isolation produced by dysfunctional families”. Schwartz

The ability to empathise begins as an infant and is informed through engaged parenting. The lack of this emotional connection and time spent with children leads to an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and a failure to mature the social function of empathy.

A Uniquely American Problem

And by American I mean the U.S.

It is stark just how unique this problem is to the U.S.

Of course, globally we have violence, extremism, and a surge in mental health problems. But only in the U.S. does this seem to lead to some (thankfully, a tiny minority) going on a shooting spree in a school full of children.

“At the same time, it is worth noting that whereas other countries with greater access to guns may have high levels of overall gun violence, no other country has an epidemic of mass school shootings.” Schwartz.

It is neither simply the access to guns nor the presence of a primary mental illness that creates this uniquely U.S. problem. Only a small proportion of school shooters have a defined psychosis (i.e. a break from reality); these individuals are not paranoid or hallucinating. Equally, while the ease of access to guns certainly makes it easier to enact such warped ideologies (and therefore the restriction to guns would limit the death and destruction of such actions), it is not merely the availability of guns that can account for men choosing to attack innocent children at school.

Certainly, the level of disconnect between what is morally permissible and what is morally abhorrent seems substantive in certain factions of the U.S. It is this issue, that there exists a real-life vulnerability to one’s child becoming either the perpetrator or the victim of a school shooting, that should take centre-stage in the U.S. political debate. The school shooter problem is likely to be the tip of a deeply troubling iceberg, representing a profound societal failure to develop the future adults of the U.S. The reluctance of some (powerful) sectors of U.S. society to examine this deadly oddity will only allow it to worsen.

The Solution

It begins with acknowledging the extent of the problem. It is deep and pervasive, and while (thankfully) only a minority take to direct violence, millions will be suffering similar breakdowns of the moral mind.

Both the FBI and Secret Service reports suggest similar profiles. They are white (less than 4% of mass shootings were attributed to black males). They are right-wing in their political views (96% of all incidents). As children their parents did not limit or regulate their exposure to the TV or internet - they could, even as children, watch and play whatever they liked. Typically the home is broken in other ways - neglect, abuse,. They become isolated, turning to online platforms for social validation; and there, the far-right trolls are all too ready to radicalise them and help them switch off their humanity. The ease of access to guns then dictates the damage that will be done.

Driving kids to perform well at school is not the answer. Instead, there must be a much deeper focus on developing the basic cognitive skills that have defined humanity for hundreds of thousands of years - cooperation, compassion, empathy, etc… It is far more important - for country and the individual - that our kids are able to relate to one another, to form meaningful bonded relationships with others than it is that they are ‘comfortable’ or financially ‘successful’ or the ‘best’ at something.

Teach compassion to our kids, not because it is a “nice” thing to do, nor because it is a Christian thing to do, but merely because it is an essential thing to do if we are to hold society together.

Reflection

The question remains as to why these horrific attacks on schools are a uniquely U.S. problem. What is it about the U.S. culture and society that allows individuals to even consider attacking a school? What is happening to the psyche that standing facing a child, unarmed, innocent, they can pull the trigger and take their life? These questions need to be examined both to prevent these pointless deaths, but also because whatever is happening is likely pervasive.

Perhaps it is of little surprise that in the country that has the most materialistic, hyper-consumerism society in the developed world - where the country doesn’t even care enough about its citizens to offer access to healthcare when they are ill or disabled; where every aspect of a citizen’s life is reduced to the profit that can be gleaned from it - that there is a deep and growing problem of a severely disconnected youth who don’t care for their fellow citizens. Add to this the desperate attempts of white supremacists to dehumanise their fellow citizens, and the threshold to commit unspeakably cruel acts becomes almost comprehensible.

Just like everywhere else, the vast majority of Americans are decent and civil folk. It is, therefore, hard not to see the American population as, in some way, held captive to a system that is neither designed to serve the people nor easily identifiable to the people. The entire population have been, it seems, the unwilling subjects in some sort of strange experiment, where citizens are reduced to consumers; morals reduced to profit margins; and the ability to manipulate the minds of the population is seen as an acceptable pursuit.

Perhaps it is best summarised as the absence of morality as the principal driver in both state and industry. It is the loss of a value-driven society. Whatever is causing this profound harm to America’s next generation, it must be identified and dealt with as a matter of urgency.

Notes:

https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/115286/documents/HHRG-118-GO00-20230208-SD008.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/17/briefing/right-wing-mass-shootings.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/28/extremism-right-wing-deaths/

https://polisci.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/Emily%20Kramer%20-%20Right-Wing%20Extremism%20and%20Mass%20Shootings%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf