Mateen’s wife (I think?) reported he consumed steroids. Co-workers report he had phases of intense body building, professing he wanted to get “buff”. Everyone with a degree of intimate contact reported him as prone to emotional swings, fits of rage and anger, bouts of domestic violence. Combine all that with possible closeted homosexuality and the self loathing it must take to keep that secret and deny accepting your sexuality. Add to that a desire to be a policeman, only to settle for the lesser job of security guard. Failed marriage. Failed vocational desires. Failed ability to approach people you have an interest in being romantic and intimate with. Mateen was likely a toxic stew of several pathologies and psychological problems. Labeling his actions as domestic terrorism I guess is apt, but the genesis of his mayhem is probably far off what the politicians are currently claiming. I say they were far more personal than political.
This is what I suspected, and stated the other day. He was a severely messed up closet-case. Who, because he was a Muslim with a some-what-fucked in the head dad who was overtly a anti-gay bigot, had deep issues. This manifested itself in social awkwardness, violence towards his ex-wife, and susptible to using his religion as a channel for eliminationist desires and justification as his final excuse and cover story for his murderous rampage.
In short, homophobia kills (figuratively and literally).
I further posit that most of the pathology in middle-eastern culture stems from sexual repression via religion and it’s intersection with authoritarian rule.
That’s pretty much what I think based on what is reported thus far. This man seems to have taken so too many selfies – and pledged allegiance to Daesh, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah? That’s so awfully jumbled – nearly as clueless as Trump when he can’t tell the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah – it doesn’t seem he seriously cared about religious/political ideologies per se.
Anyone want to rethink the very conclusive conclusion yesterday that the RWNJ conspiracy nut they arrested in LA with assault weapons and a bucket of Tannerite couldn’t possibly have been planning on doing anything bad at the Gay Pride parade because he identified as bisexual now?
“If he was gay, why would he do something like this?”
lets start with internal conflicts, self loathing, unresolved mega-issues, being brought up & adhering to a culture that ultimately dictates that he violently hate himself …internal psychological civil war … and on and on
Without even hearing of this, I thought the attack was less about radical Islam and more about anger at gays and self-loathing as a potential gay man. The fact that he called into 911 and made a point of saying that he supported Daesh but doesn’t appear to have much in the way of ties to an actual radicalized jihadi group made me suspect this all along.
His version of deflection: “It’s not that I’m gay that I’m doing this horrible thing; I’m just a follower of radical Islam. Make sure you get it right.”
All that aside, the most damning aspect of his background is hailing from Northern Kentucky (incorrectly referred to in some circles as Indiana). Hoosiers are a deeply troubled tangle of humanity all their own. NOT being an obese, STD infected opioid addict arouses much suspicion.
Plus, he got drunk. Muslims who are serious about their faith refrain from drinking alchohol. This was one tortured and complex man. Doesn’t excuse what he did, but the simplistic explanations offered by the usual suspects gives little insight into this man’s motivations.
The 911 call was the last and ultimate closet-door to hide behind.
He could have at least had the dignity to claim Bill Belichick told him to do it.
On “To Catch A Predator” they call that an alibi letter.
Add problems with homophobic father.
I agree it is more of very disturbed person and not a political case.
He may have used ISIS as a fig-leaf, but really more a personal problem.
Has there been any reporting about how and why he failed at becoming a cop?
I listened to a young Muslim two spirit man who lives in Toronto talk about being gay and Muslim yesterday on NPR. I could tell from listening to him that it tore him apart every day of his life trying to reconcile within. But he was able to do so after seeking guidance on his question of whether it was a greater sin to kill himself or live his life. Fellow Muslims overwhelmingly told him that to commit suicide would be the greater sin and encouraged him to learn to live his life and find peace from within.
IMHO the shooter had no such peace and felt constrained by his faith from reaching out.
He’s not a member of daesh. Nor Hezbollah which is pretty laughable. He was just another soul troubled by the dogma of religion and the reality of his existence.
Well, at least his father did not say something really telling like his son having been punished for twenty minutes of action.
Yep the people yelling the loudest against some “sin” are the ones having a big internal fight.
Anyone want to take a guess about the pastors that preached after the shooting about how it was a good thing? Like maybe they are trying to distract you from the log in their eye?
Add to it a father who is clearly anti-gay and is himself a bit fucking nuts (claims he is the afghan president in exile) failed marriage, failed desire to be a cop… but yeah, let’s make sure the laws are such that he has unfettered access to a weapons of war. What could go wrong?
“…after college, Omar Mateen’s dreams of becoming a police officer were thwarted when he failed to pass his probationary employment period at Martin County Correctional Institution, a state prison in Indiantown where he worked as a trainee officer for six months until he was let go in 2007. It’s not clear why he was dismissed. The Florida Department of Corrections did not release his employment record on Monday.”
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article83610402.html
The rest of the article paints a picture more troubling than most of what has been widely disseminated by other media sources so far. A good read.Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine instead of being the son of a an anti-gay bigot who thinks he is the Afgan President in exile, is instead the gay son of that preacher who praised the shooting as “eliminating perverts and predators”… or your dad was Fred Phelps.
A lot of things point to him being a conflicted gay man due to his religion. So whattup Trump? What’s next now? Deporting and banning all conflicted gay men and women?
It’s the weapons, idiot.