The 27-year-old man who police say shot and killed a California business owner over a Pride flag draped in her store appears to have had a yearslong history of posting disturbing — and often violent — anti-LGBTQ messages on social media.

The suspect, Travis Ikeguchi, gunned down Laura Ann Carleton, 66, on Friday, after confronting her and “yelling many homophobic slurs” over her clothing store’s Pride flag, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference Monday. Shortly after fleeing the store, Mag.Pi, Ikeguchi was killed in a shootout with law enforcement.

  • eatthecake@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    We’ve reached the point in the medicalisation of everything where being an asshole must be a mental health problem because ‘no sane person would think that’. Being irrational and believing lies is not mental illness, it is normal human behaviour. Cruelty is normal human behaviour.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Unless this can be proven, it’s a bold claim to say it’s normal human behaviour to be cruel. Current research suggests the opposite. The majority of humans are born with empathy and the desire to help others and be nice.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Of course they’re assholes, but that’s not the point - they’re brain-broken delusional, and victims of genuinely unhinged conspiracism. They’re not mutually exclusive.

      Believing the transparent, self-contradictory nonsense is absolutely pathological… I assume you think someone that believes they’re Queen Victoria are delusional - where do you draw the line?