The stupidest article I've ever read

I've read some crazy, nonsensical, and just plain rock-stupid commentary on the Virginia Tech tragedy. This, however, tops them all. I can just imagine what was going through the minds of the Sunday Times' editors when they chose to publish this tripe. "Let's see--the news media has spilled lots and lots of ink on this story. They've examined American gun laws. They've interviewed his professors and classmates. They've discussed his mental state. They've aired his demented video. They've even promised to stop airing the demented video. We need a new angle here, people. We've heard his classmates and ex-professors. We need a new angle. Say--let's frame this as a gender issue! He was a man in a feminized culture! Yeah! That's new!"

Ahem. Let's try to manage the difficult task of reading this thing without spewing one's beverage all over the keyboard, shall we? The author is Sarah Baxter, and the article is titled "American Psycho."

Just before 5am on Monday, April 16, Cho Seung-hui got out of bed and walked to his computer. Perhaps he fiddled with his rambling 1,800-word self-portrait of a killer as the insults and grievances that he had been nursing for years coursed through his head.

High on his list were his classmates from Westfield high school, who jeered at him to “go back to China” without bothering to check his nationality.

In other words, Ms. Baxter, racism played a major role in his alienation, right? Doesn't sound like feminization of anything to me.

Then there were the college girls who reported him to the police for stalking and got him carted off to mental hospital after he sent them shy love messages full of yearning.

Oops, guess I spoke too soon.

Let's go back to the details of these stalking charges, shall we?

Police first investigated Cho in November 2005 after a student complained about him calling her and contacting her in person, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said....

Cho was sent to the university's Office of Judicial Affairs, which handled the complaint, the outcome of which is confidential, university officials said.

"The student declined to press charges and referred to Cho's contact with her as annoying," Flinchum said of the November investigation.

Police investigated him again the next month when a female student complained about instant messages Cho sent her, Flinchum said.

"Again, no threat was made against that student. However, she made a complaint to the Virginia Tech Police Department and asked that Cho have no further contact with her," the chief said.

After police spoke to Cho, they received a call from a student concerned that he might be suicidal.

Officers spoke to Cho "at length" then asked him to see a counselor. He agreed to be evaluated by Access Services, an independent mental health facility in Blacksburg, the chief said.

"A temporary detention order was obtained and Cho was taken to a mental health facility" on December 13, 2005, he said.

A student asking to be identified only as Andy said he was the one who told police that Cho was suicidal. Police "took [Cho] away to the counseling center for a night or two," said the student, who used to room with Cho.

In other words, Sarah Baxter has no way of knowing what Cho said or did to creep out those girls. The fact is, they were creeped out enough to report him, which suggests that these notes weren't just expressions of puppy love.

But you know these uppity young women today. A nice man holds the door open for them and they snarl. A man smiles and they complain of sexual harassment. They don't understand a man's intentions.

But somehow, not only has Sarah Baxter guessed what Cho wrote, but she also has gained insight to his thought processes. Not since Bill Frist started offering diagnosis-by-TV has someone attempted such in-depth diagnosis based only on what she read in the paper and saw on TV.

The dead girl was Emily Hilscher, 19. Perhaps there was something about her that reminded Cho of another girl he had fancied — the one he had sneaked into the women’s dorm to see but, as a roommate recalled, “When he looked into her eyes, he saw promiscuity”.

Was Ryan Clark, 22, her boyfriend? Cho didn’t know but he shot him anyway. Deprived of sex himself, he regarded those who were getting it with malevolence. “All your debaucheries weren’t enough . . . to fulfil your hedonistic needs,” he had ranted on his pre- prepared “martyrdom” video.

For Sarah Baxter, Cho is stunted manhood personified, a 23-year-old adult rebelling against his own inevitable maturity. So, Sarah, you're going to get to your point...when?

WHOOPS! Guess I should be careful what I wish for. Yes, Ms. Baxter has turned to the poster girl for narcissistic personality disorder to help her write her article.

Camille Paglia, professor of humanities and media studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and author of Sexual Personae, believes Cho is emblematic of the crisis of masculinity in America. “Women have difficulty understanding the mix of male sexual aggression with egotism and the ecstasy of self-immolation,” she says....

Pretending it's still the 1990s and she's actually got something worthwhile to say, Paglia goes on to spout about the sorry state of American campuses, with young people having impersonal sex while preparing for boring, empty lives as young professionals.

Cho is a classic example of “someone who felt he was a loser in the cruel social rat race”, Paglia says. The pervasive hook-up culture at college, where girls are prepared to sleep with boys they barely know or fancy, can be a source of seething resentment and alienation for those who are left out.

“Young women now seem to want to behave like men and have sex without commitment. The signals they are giving are very confusing, and rage and humiliation build up in boys who are spurned again and again.”

Ahem. Let's hear Cho Seung-Hui's family speak, shall we?

Soon after arriving in America [Cho] was diagnosed with autism. “He was very quiet and only followed his mother and father around but never showed any feelings or emotions,” his great-aunt said. His parents were too poor and busy trying to scrape a new life together to get specialist help for Cho.

In other words, this guy had a history of abnormal and antisocial behavior. He was like this when he was still a child. He may have had a chemical imbalance in the brain or a personality disorder. All of these things predate his college years. Cram it, Camille.

Meanwhile, another shrink interviewed comments on the misogynist mindset of psycho-killers and jihadists and Francis Fukuyama offers his commentary. None of them really dwell on gender of "feminized" culture. And Sarah Baxter fails to take note of the female professor who tried to get help for Cho. Wonder why?

One professor, Nikki Giovanni, known as the “princess of black poetry”, was the first to raise the alarm about Cho’s writing. It did not feature hardcore violence; but it was weird. “It wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to rip your heart out’,” she said. “It’s that, ‘Your bra is torn and I’m looking at your flesh’.” When female students said they were scared of him, she wanted him out of her class.

Giovanni reported her concerns to Lucinda Roy, a British professor of literature who was then head of the department. She was so disturbed by Cho that she contacted the university police and went on to give him individual lessons — after devising a code word which, if ever used, would be a signal to her assistant to call security.

“You seem so lonely,” she told him. “Do you have any friends?”

“I am lonely,” Cho replied. “I don’t have any friends.”

In all of Baxter and Paglia's flailing attempts at analysis, both of them keep missing the point over and over and over again. This wasn't a gang member, a jihadist, a neo-Nazi, or a member of any organized movement. This was a lone killer. He was isolated, he was mentally ill, he was antisocial, and he had been that way for years. Earth to Sarah! Earth to Camille! Misogyny, racism, and American culture can't affect a person's brain chemistry. The facts don't line up with the shoddy collection of "points" you're trying to make. Maybe you need to read the news more carefully.

(Hat tip to Deb, who suffered through this thing before I did.)