Police in Lafayette, Louisiana are evidently struggling to understand why the outspokenly misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic John Russell “Rusty” Houser murdered two women and wounded 9 other moviegoers at a showing of “Trainwreck,” a film written by and starring Amy Schumer, a feminist comedian with a Jewish father, known for joking frankly about sex.
[For more, see my latest post on Houser: “Did right-wing attacks on “Trainwreck” inspire John Russell Houser’s shooting rampage?”]
Col. Michael D. Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, wondered aloud about Houser’s motives at a press conference:
Why did he come here? Why did he do that? … We may not find a motive.
It seems to me that Houser’s likely motive is staring them in the face.
Because it turns out that Houser was pretty well-known, at least to regular viewers of one local TV talk show in Columbus, GA, as an angry right-wing fanatic who hated women. As one former host of the show recalled,
He was anti-abortion. … Rusty had an issue with feminine rights. He was opposed to women having a say in anything.
Houser evidently appeared on the live show dozens of times as a “gadfly” whose appearances “would generate calls.”
When Houser’s career as a loudmouthed crank on local TV apparently came to an end years ago, he moved to another medium, leaving a long trail of hateful comments on assorted websites, many of them openly praising Hitler and talking ominously about the future of what he saw as a deeply “immoral” culture.”
In the comments on a news article about an 60-year-old man who’d been murdered, Houser wrote
I am sincerely sorry for the loss of this fellow in the deer processing business. Most people over 50 in certain businesses are just as their parents were,rock solid morally.
I am also sorry for what is to come for the other very few moral souls left in the entire US.
I am not sorry for the 90% immoral population which will be meeting the same fate.
Filth is rampant.That none have stood against it causes me to take rest in the worse than MAD MAX near future which approaches.
In Trainwreck, Amy Schumer plays a New York journalist “riding the cock carousel” — as the odious men I regularly write about on this website like to put it — who eventually falls in love.
It seems highly unlikely that Houser was someone “who just happened to be in this theater,” as the police superintendent put it.
It seems highly likely that a woman-hating neo-Nazi ended up in a theater showing Trainwreck on purpose.
When a religious fanatic blows themselves up at a cafe frequented by members of a rival religious sect, we have no trouble calling this terrorism.
When an outspoken white racist murders nine black churchgoers in Charleston, SC, well, some people (including virtually all of the Republican presidential hopefuls) have trouble calling it terrorism. But most people can see it for what it is.
When misogynists murder women, almost no one calls it terrorism.
Elliot Rodger, who left behind an assortment of misogynistic videos and a book-length diatribe, was a terrorist.
“Rusty” Houser — who left behind no manifesto but who was well-known for his odiously anti-woman and neo-Nazi views — was almost certainly a terrorist as well.
NOTE: According to court filings, Houser had “a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder.” (Which are actually the same thing.) While this could certainly have had an effect on his state of mind, it says nothing about his motives. Bipolar disorder does not cause people to become misogynistic neo-Nazis who murder women.
EDIT: Added the note above, made tweaks to wording.
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Bazia, this story mentions two of the injured victims (and names one) in Lafayette:
http://wtkr.com/2015/07/23/shooter-victims-in-louisiana-theater-shooting-identified/
One is a woman; the other was the boyfriend of one of the slain women.
I’d be careful about assuming there’s some kind of organized blackout, though. It often takes several days for truly reliable information to come out, including basic details (such as who was involved, etc.). Many outlets choose to focus specifically on what they can confirm, and it can be hard to figure out who was injured due to medical confidentiality laws.
As far as Elliott Rodger goes – that information’s trivial to find; you can start at Wikipedia, where each of the people Rodger killed and injured is named.
You and me both, Bazia. I’ve been checking for that info frequently. I do think that they’ll release the information, but not soon enough for me. FYI, NOLA.com reports that a male WWII vet (in his 80s) and his wife were among the wounded. So now we know about 6 victims: the 2 dead women, the 2 wounded female teachers, and these 2 elderly wounded people, a woman and a man. What about the rest?
I’m very touched by the story of the teachers, one of whom saved her friend and one of whom rang the fire alarm. I think that teachers are prepared for anything!
Reblogged this on iheariseeilearn.
It’s pretty plain what his motive was, I’m just wondering why he killed people in Louisiana when he’s from ALABAMA. And why Lafayette? I’m from that area; Lafayette is one parish over from where a huge chunk of my family lives. It’s smack dab in the middle of the state. Dude had to cross state lines *twice* to get there and then drive some more. THAT is what I am mad curious about. Of course the obnoxious f?!ker couldn’t see clear to leave an explanation behind.
Hi Mewens, I’ve checked everything I can on Wiki. There is nothing on the sex of Rodger’s injured victims. And I can’t find out about Houser’s victims.Please help somebody?
Those teachers made me think of that school shooting where the misogynists were all “if there were more dudes at the school, they would have stopped it!”
Npr had someone from USA today on the other morning talking about mass shootings by the numbers:http://www.npr.org/2015/07/24/425834197/mass-shootings-in-america-by-the-numbers
Go figure, the over whelming victims are women and the perps? Men.
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On those numbers: the reasons they provide are usually of men whose lives have suddenly turned bad on them, which they responded to with violence e.g. losing jobs, relationships, money etc. It reminds me of this story I read about rather recently of the mysterious death of an entire family within a heavily guarded gated community.
It turned out that they had all been poisoned by the father, a wealthy banker, who had apparently decided that the world was not worth living in after he heard that, wait for it… he would not be receiving his severance payment. My mind just broke when I read that; how much fucking privilege did this man enjoy that he felt destroyed by a minor setback to his massive wealth?
I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps Delilah isn’t the song I’m thinking about that starts with “Hey There Delilah” which seems to be about a guy trying to get his foot in the door in the music industry and the woman he’s having a long distance relationship with.
@baroncognito
That’s the Plain White Ts’ “Hey There Delilah”, which is admittedly the first song I thought of when I saw “Delilah” too.
And no doubt he was mad because none of the sluts who saw him ever felt compelled to take a ride on his banana hammock. Betcha.
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker,
Oh right. The fake geek girls are all hypergamous for the gamers who have the highest scores. Or maybe not. I’m not sure how hypergamy is supposed to be working this week.
@baroncognito,
It’s “Delilah” by Tom Jones.
I’m not great at parsing lyrics, so I was beginning to wonder if that song went dark places after the chorus.
@baroncognito
It doesn’t, which was why Iwas confused at first.
Oh, a song that starts with klaxons, no thank you. I think I’ll stick with “Who’s Making Love?” as my ‘cheating woman’ song.
Here’s my favorite “cheating woman” song:
That is a good one Bina.
Norah Jones has the dark and creepy “Miriam,” but it has a more appropriate dark and haunting tone for a song about a woman getting revenge on her husband and his lover.
Of course, the song still primarily blames the woman for the affair…
This Tori Amos cover of Eminem always creeps me out.
https://youtu.be/W0u8KeII-Io
… Err, have I misread the hell out of this post or were they obliquely accusing David of threatening murder?
Amy Shumer is like a dog whistle for woman-haters isn’t she? Like I never thought about it until recently, but my boyfriend thinks she’s awesome and actually wanted to tell me all about her. Single women should take note, maybe screen potential mates by playing a bit of Shumer.
Oh yeah and he also loves the heck out of some Melissa McCarthy. I knew he was a keeper a long time ago, but some things just make me want to brag. Sorry about that. 🙂
Regarding “Delilah” by Tom Jones, my Spanish teacher had a story about the song.
When the song was a hit decades ago, it seemed to be everywhere.
When he was at home, the song would play on the radio: “My, my, MY Delilah.”
When he was grocery shopping, it would play over the loudspeaker: “Why, why, WHY, Delilah.”
In the elevator: “I could see that girl was no good for me…”
So he was very happy to be taking his annual summer vacation in Spain: no more “Delilah,” right?
Wrong! At the airport in Spain: “But I was lost like a slave that no man could free.”
FWIW, I always thought of the man in the song as an unreliable narrator.