Rampage killer Chris Harper-Mercer was an Aspie

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He sounds very alone, socially withdrawn and as if he feels he doesn't "fit in." That could be due to any number of conditions or even just an off the beaten path personality which it sounds like he was rejected based on. That doesn't have to be ASD but who knows. It could be severe depression due to not feeling as if anyone loves him. It could be social anxiety disorder. It could be generalized anxiety. It could be abuse. It could be anything.

Whatever the cause, it sounds like he felt everyone hated him and the world had rejected him, and it would seem that rejection that made him snap - not being on the spectrum (if he even is). Who knows, perhaps if he had been allowed to be different and if people had been willing to be close to him despite him not fitting the young American male stereotype, this may never have happened. I by no means know this as a fact nor do I even hold it as a firm theory, I'm just putting it out there. I think for many of us here, a huge, huge part of what has caused issues for us was society not accepting us...rather than ASD itself. In other words, my "weirdnesses" don't bother me, they bother other people and the forcing and jeering and rejection and so on caused me problems; if those had been absent I'd have had no problem with being on the spectrum. And I know I'm not the only ASD person who feels this way.

One way or another, there is no way we can armchair diagnose this man based on one article, so I'll just say, what a terrible tragedy, so awfully sad.

Hopefully this won't turn into another "autistic people are dangerous and tend to murder people" media frenzy. Time will tell.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-oregon-college-gunman-torrance-20151001-story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/us/chris-harper-mercer-umpqua-community-college-shooting.html?_r=0

How did they know that the person on the online forum claiming to have an Asperger's kid was Ms. Harper? That sounded a bit mysterious, and very likely unsubstantiated. The press has a big tendency to run with a rumor and present it as fact, and then retract in some very out-of-the-way spot on their site or paper.

Mrs. Harper described as edgy and detailed oriented. Stockpiled weapons out of fear the 2nd amendment will be revoked.
http://businessnewsusa.org/news/nationa ... -1.2384460

Maybe they'll start taking it more seriously as a disability, i dunno

would rather not think about more prejudice against me

f**k right off. Am I alone with not wanting to be associated with f*****g murderers?

He went to a special school for learning disabilities and emotional issues. That's vague and could mean anything. Just because there are some people who happen to be autistic there (could be there because of comorbid(s), I don't know) doesn't make him Asperger's.

Being lonely and not fitting in. You know who else that applies to? f*****g anyone. Anyone has felt like that. Does NOT make him Asperger's.

I can't wait for the press to read this f*****g post and use the description of a damn sociopath and call it Asperger's.

"oh they lack empathy and they don't mind killing people they're heartless robots"

"look him and Adam Lanza there's clearly a connection people with Asperger's are violent"

In case you can't tell, I'm incredibly pissed off. I'm sick of killers being associated with us. The public will listen to the press if they don't know any better, and the press in the US seems like gossip. This is a recipe for disaster for our reputation.

Let's suppose he happens to have Asperger's. It was whatever else he had that caused him to murder several innocent people. If he does have Asperger's, which hasn't been confirmed, I bet he also has some kind of other disorder that's associated with violence.

Nobody in particular, just whoever included the word Asperger's in that article based on one post some random woman in Oregon made who happened to claim to be a nurse and have a son with Asperger's. Doesn't mean it was his mother. It's not confirmed, so why post it on that article? Some ignorant news station is going to go around calling yet another murderer Asperger's.

What are the common factors to nearly all of these mass murderers? The answers are obvious: they are almost invariably males, with chips on their shoulders, easy access to guns and they are American.

Autism is not a common feature to this group. If autism was the common causal factor, we would expect to see the same mass-shooting phenomenon wherever autists live and have access to guns - New Zealand, for example, or Australia, or Switzerland (which has the third highest rate of gun ownership per capita in the world, after the USA and Yemen in first and second places).

But you don't see this happening in Switzerland, New Zealand nor Australia and other countries in the way it happens so frequently in the USA because autism per se is obviously not the "cause" of mass murder. If it were, it would be an international phenomenon.

The American reactionary tendency to quickly scapegoat autists serves a useful purpose, obviously - it quickly diverts the spotlight from where it would reveal something more illuminating about American culture. Scapegoats always serve a useful diversionary purpose when telling the truth is the most radical thing to do, as it seems to be when anyone seriously questions the sanity of the USA gun culture and the wreckage that are the innocent human sacrifices made on the altar of that culture.

If autism causes mass murder, then why aren't we female autists also shooting up schools and churches around the world and in the USA? That's how stupid this scapegoating is, how logically inconsistent it is.

It seems that there is something very specific - and perhaps not just one thing - that American culture has yet to confront before these frequent and ghastly sacrifices end.

^^white also, or wouldn't survive anyway (or been diagnosed itfp)

I doubt somebody knew in advance this guy was going to shoot up a school and therefore in an effort to frame autistic people created a fictitious post claiming to be his mom in advance. If indeed this is the case I am not paranoid enough, am underestimating Autism Speaks and need to escape to some desolate area ASAP.