Some were hoaxes.  It is sort of like a vicious cycle. Angry person commits extraordinarily gruesome act.  Media jump on it like crazy to sell advertising.  Media coverage provides incentive for others who feel desperate or invisible or angry copy their example.  More attempts at gruesome acts.  More media coverage.  More inspiration...

And our popular media glamorise violence, the lone hard-man, the dramatic confrontation, hitting "back", vengeance, expressions of  anger… and it's NEVER anything like that. It's ugly, dispiriting, destructive, pointless, dehumanising and demoralising. 

Depictions of love, compassion, forbearance, forgiveness and restraint are, by comparison, for most of the brainwashed admass, boring. And theere is no greater fault than to be "boring"… it has immediate repercussions: at the box office, in the ratings…

So we say, "Television? How could television and the media influence people's behaviour and encourage violence? It's just 'entertainment'." 

If that's our idea of critical or analytical thinking, it's no wonder we see ourselves surrounded by so many complicated, busy, unsatisfying lives.

So we had a guy arrested with a gun at one of the shopping malls on the 21st of December.