Media Schmedia

I normally don't like to talk about contemporary events or politics. In light of recent events, however, I have decided to comment on what all is going down in Arizona right now, because I, for one, am completely shocked and appalled by the media's response to Jared Lee Loughner's actions.

Why on God's green Earth are people giving this paranoid schizophrenic such power?

He was doing this for a specific political agenda!

He's a raging Tea Party advocate!

He's a liberal, leftist, Commie!

He's been brainwashed!!!!

Really, people?

Really? 

Why is it that people are so obsessed with making Jared Lee Loughner out to be this criminal mastermind? Why can't they just accept that he is a paranoid schizophrenic that, at the end of the day, we probably will never fully understand?

But I won't sit here at my desk and deny that fact that I, too, was incredibly intrigued by this young man. What would motivate a human being to do such a terrible, terrible thing? What were his motivations?

So I decided to do a little research of my own. What I found was ... unsettling.

I'm not going to post any links, because I have no desire to further fuel the flames of controversy and rumor, but I am going to talk about some of the things I discovered. If you really want to go out and look for this stuff on your own, feel free. It's pretty easy to find.

Apparently, Loughner was a member of a website dedicated to conspiracy theory and, mere hours before shooting his victims, took part in several online forum topics on the site, most of the threads started by himself. The topics ranged from space exploration conspiracy (i.e. it's all a hoax and never happened) to nonsensical rants involving something he calls the "infinite year" and a "new currency," and all of the posts have the same cryptic writing cadence, little of it making any semblance of sense.

For example:

If the design of the NASA Space Shuttle keeps the black body temperature of −454 °F from the outside orbit then the NASA Space Shuttle is at a temperature for human life.
The NASA Space Shuttle isn’t at a temperature for human life.
Hence, the design of the NASA Space Shuttle doesn’t keep the black body temperature of −454 °F from the outside orbit.

None of his arguments are sound, and, despite requests from other members for him to provide proof for his claims or for a better explanation of his thoughts, he merely responds with more cryptic phrases under the guise of "inductive thinking." Frequently, his writings come off as if they've been written by a person who is not a native English speaker, and the structure of his comments is confusing and unclear.

Clearly, this young man is mentally unstable. From what I've read of his online persona, I would have no qualms in dubbing him a paranoid schizophrenic.

And yet I keep finding articles and other various sources online that are doing nothing but exacerbating an issue that has already gotten out of hand. For one, people have been saying that his comments online are filled with secret codes, which explains the odd grammatical structure. Heck, there are even rumors floating around that he is a victim of Project MK-ULTRA.

Again, I say,  

REALLY??

I understand the public's need to understand. What Loughner has done is senseless, and humans generally like to figure out why awful things happen (i.e. the whole "Why does God let bad things happen to good people" debate). We want resolution. We want there to be a reason for this tragedy.

But I have some bad news.

There probably isn't a reason. There probably will never be resolution.

Sometimes, people are just crazy.

We can only hope that those wounded or killed will either heal or go with God to a better place where things like this don't happen.

What are your thoughts?

Peace.
Stef.