There were two mass shootings in Cali perpetrated by elderly Asian men within a span of two days. This is highly unusual, not only because of the short time frame and their age, but because Asian-Americans very rarely carry out mass shootings. In 2022, “Asians” accounted for only 1% of all mass shootings and that percentage includes anyone from the Asian continent. It’s fair to presume that Japanese-, Chinese-, Vietnamese-, and Korean-American people almost certainly make up a lot less than that 1% figure. So why did Zhao Chunli and Huu Can Tran do what they did? It’s hard to know. Work appears to be a factor in both incidents and work-related stress can make some people snap. Loneliness may have played a role as well. Huu Can Tran was apparently very lonely. He was divorced and visibly “unhappy” according to people who knew him. Extreme loneliness, especially in old age, can cause men to snap. I’m also willing to bet that Zhao Chunli is either divorced or unmarried and doesn’t have children.
These violent outbursts really are a symptom of the disease that is modern American "culture" and modernity in general. There really is nothing inherently healthy about the American way of life. Before the pandemic and the lockdowns, a large percentage of people were already depressed, unhappy, and extremely isolated from others. Tens of millions of Americans are taking anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications on a daily basis. Feminism has ruined intersexual dynamics between American women and men, and more American men are becoming anti-social incels with a nihilistic view of life. Millions of young college graduates are in massive amounts of financial debt and can't even dream of buying a home. Horrific school shootings, frequent homicides in predominantly black ghettos, and other forms of gratuitous violence are commonplace in America and it's not getting any better. It's important to realize that the unhelpful policies of the Covid-era did nothing but exacerbate all of those aforementioned social pathologies. Even though everyday life has mostly returned to normal at the moment, the negative impact of the terrible Covid policies will be felt for a long time.
Violence in America has surged since 2020, in part because of the lack of adequate policing and law enforcement, but also in part because people are just getting more angry and more desperate. A struggling economy, an awful education system, extreme political division, a looming global war, and a sick culture filled with cartoonish decadence and foolishness like drag queens “reading books” in public to kids will push some people to the brink. There were 365 mass shootings in all of 2022. In the first month of 2023, there have already been 40 mass shootings, which surpasses any total in January ever recorded by the Gun Violence Archive.
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