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Can we talk about Rebekah Jones? Should we? I'm honestly incredibly conflicted about these questions. One of the rules of the Motte is that we shouldn't weakman:
Discussing Jones feels like walking a tightrope (called "meaningful cultural and political issues") that has been strung over an open toxic waste pit (called "are my political opponents just mentally ill?"). Out of sheer both-sides-ism I want to say "there are surely equally bizarre figures in right wing politics" but I can't actually find any. The best I can do is to say, suppose you combined Marjorie Taylor Greene's extremism with George Santos' fabulism, then made the resulting chimera guilty of the things Matt Gaetz was only ever rumored to have been guilty of doing--that would get you pretty close to Jones, I think. Except that MTG and Santos and Gaetz aren't darlings of reddit and don't command fawning loyalty from major media outlets, which Jones also does.
As a refresher, I first learned of Jones back in the old subreddit, when someone posted about her COVID activism. I don't remember when I learned of her criminal activities, but to simply quote the Wikipedia:
Jones went on to say she was going to run for office in Maryland (IIRC), but when that didn't pan out for unclear reasons, she returned to Florida. I don't know how much she has received in crowdfunding from the anti-DeSantis crowd at this point, but two early efforts pulled over half a million dollars. Jones has continued to hold herself out as a "whistleblower," specifically against the DeSantis administration in Florida, even though these claims appear pretty thoroughly debunked.
"Aha!" You might say. "PolitiFact leans left, and debunks Jones, so even the Left is willing to disavow this nut!"
Sure, maybe, to some extent. She went on to win the 2022 Democrat primary to challenge Matt Gaetz for his seat in the House of Representatives, so at least 16,000 Democrats still preferred Jones to someone with an actual legal education and genuinely relevant experience. And yes--by this logic, some 50,000 Republicans preferred the candidate who was under investigation for sex trafficking minors! It's baffling, I agree. But this is one of those "meaningful cultural and political issues" I mentioned--the only way I can make sense of any of this is to take a deep breath and remind myself that most people lack anything approaching coherent principles, they don't care about these details--they only care to win.
Anyway, that's all just the background!
This morning I woke up with this in my feeds.
If you don't want to read "WhitePeopleTwitter" (and I wouldn't blame you), it is a tweet from Rebekah Jones, followed by others, which I have partly reproduced here:
Naturally, Jones also provides links to her crowdfunding platforms of choice. The reddit "discussion" is... predictable? Outrage, occasional people (mostly, but not always, downvoted) asking whether this is legit, very few people posting actual information. Well, proles gonna prole I guess. But the headline in the Miami Herald?
So, that sounds bad! But is it really why he was arrested? In fact it is not. He was arrested for posting stuff like this:
As this information was coming out, Jones added to her tweetstorm:
It's not clear when these events are supposed to have occurred; Max Nordau shared video of Jones delivering her son to the police station. Rather, as this tweet suggests, it appears that "Rebekah Jones tried to blame DeSantis and RAISE MONEY off law enforcement stopping a possible school shooting."
I don't know what Jones' problem ultimately is. Narcissism? Paranoia? DeSantis Derangement Syndrome? That she is a habitual fabulist is well-established. That she has profited substantially from vocal opposition to all things DeSantis is a matter of public record. She is a sufficiently shady known quantity that most really big national news outlets seem reluctant to continue signal-boosting her, but the Miami Herald (by circulation, reportedly Florida's seventh-largest paper) still seems happy to run false headlines at her mere behest.
This seems discussion-worthy, and yet part of me wants to just not even post about it because it seems wrong, somehow, to even discuss Rebekah Jones. Giving her any attention at all feels a bit like encouraging a delusional person to persist in their delusions; she clearly wants notoriety, she doesn't seem capable of handling notoriety in a healthy way, surely it would be best to just stop paying attention to her?
But also, this is a kid talking about doing violence at school, with guns or knives. Is narcissism hereditary? Did his home environment contribute to this? [CONTINUED BELOW]
I think that violence is, if not necessarily a good reaction, at least an understandable reaction to being forced by the state to spend eight hours a day at a containment center run by a bunch of glorified babysitters. Of course in practice, many school shooters target not just school staff but also their fellow students, often not even because of any justified personal grievances against them.
I don't understand, explain it to me please. As a person who spent school years in soviet union I have NEVER thought about school in this way.
Before I am tempted to make snarky comments about American schooling vis a vis the Soviet system, would you care to elaborate on what school life was like in those days? I'm curious what the experience was like.
To be quite honest - I forgot. I blame it never being the bad/horrible expirience.
Of course there was always outstanding moments(both good and bad).
I remember the subjects that I loved and teachers that were receptive to my zeal. Damn, history was my jam. Mathematics too, until we got to integrals in the last year(?) and I just couldn't grasp that and that hit me pretty hard with some sort of "imposter syndrome" that only got away in university. Some extracurricular clubs like a radio one that I joined for a year. Participated in a few competitions between schools that my teachers took seriously and we got a lot of knowledge to cram on a short notice.
Some pranks on a teachers, and getting punished in return. Gym class that everyone hated except of few people(like this guy) that thought "hey running 1.5km timed seems like a good idea". Even though you didn't have the time for shower afterwards and wet towel was the only thing saving you for next few lessons.
Overall I would describe my time in school as "busy". There was just enough time before the next thing and after that some activities and bus home took me like 30min, some homework and I spend the rest of the day outside with the neighborhood friends that mostly were going to different schools than me. I remember being absorbed quite frequently with a fantasy book that usually kept me awake till 2am, and then I realize that I can't get back to sleep anyway so might as well read until my eyes will close themselves.
The only regret I guess is that I didn't get a girlfriend during that time, so no romance stories. And then I learned that a few of girls were hitting on me but I was too thick to notice.
Edit: But I guess I'm glossing over your question so let me try to remember and describe my schedule on a weekday.
->waking at 7:30, light breakfast
->travel to school on a bus -30min
->arrive sometime before first lesson, have a chat in classroom with whoever in at the time, grab books/notes for next three lessons and leave the rest as to not drag the heavy backpack around.
->8:30 class start 45min long with 15min break between. Usually chatting amongst the classmates/friends from same age or 1year higher/lower form other classrooms nearby. Or talking to teachers while they are preparing for the lesson.
->11:30 long break for 30min (I think). Replace books/notes for next 2-3 lessons. Can get grub from cafeteria (I usually had sandwich from home for this time). Good time to go outside if weather permits.
->12 another 2-3 lessons in a row.
->about 15 do afterschool stuff if needed. Go to swimming pool for a practice on tue/thu. Or spend around 1 hour talking with friends that live near the school. Occasionally spent near a huge metal contraption that looked like two-story pyramid. Yes....we did have a game to try a knock each other off it.
->17 at home for quick homework and dinner
->18:30 outside time (unsupervised, heh)
->usually at 21 at home doing maybe other homework, reading books, pc time. (mostly because sun is down)
->22-23 go to sleep
I think your response is actually a good way to illustrate why school shooting makes sense in an American context and why it doesn't in a Russian/rest of the world context. Your summary of school is pretty unemotional, including a list of daily routines and focusing on the drudgeries of your daily life. You just mention girls for one line. When Americans are asked about their highschool experience, especially young men online, you're likely to get a lot more of an emotional response, with a more bombastic tone and a litany of perceived injustices that they experienced. Americans generally want to be the most successful and well liked and popular person in the school and they often can't stand accepting their place somewhere else on the totem pole. Young American men are driven to externalizing their problems, blaming the social situation rather than on themselves or something outside of everyone's control, so to punish the externalized enemies is more logical in the American context than in most countries. Any time the weak are able to be armed it's really no surprise that sometimes they will take the opportunity to try to claw back some dignity through violence.
Is that because American high schools are vastly different or is it American culture? The big difference I see between American culture in general is the sense of focus on indignities suffered, things that are lacking, or the bad feelings these things engender.
I think a large measure of violence, especially the spree-shooting type of violence is caused by the way Americans are taught to expect things and to focus on feelings of indignity, failure, and other negatives. There’s a pervading meme of entitlement in America, and as others have said, finding fault with the outside world when the promised good life fails to materialize. If there were a profile of the spree-shooter, it would go something like this:
A child of middle class parents, [shooter] had drifted in life, ending up with very few friends, a low wage job, often had failed out of college or trade school. He/she (most often a he) spent most of his time online, and had very few friends and no significant other. He/she often still lives at home.
The child has a problem of failure to launch or at least successfully launch. He’s been sold on the idea of the American dream, where he’s supposed to have a good job, a girlfriend, lots of friends, and their own place. They have none of that, they’re supposed to, but they don’t. And the other part of this is because of the growth of esteem culture (the idea that everyone is just naturally good and worthy without the need for growth and change), and therapeutic culture (the idea that all feelings are valid and true and you should fully welcome them and dwell on them) creates a toxic stew in people who for various reasons don’t have what they were promised, aren’t ever going to get it, and are doing exactly what society says to do — stew in the negative energy and negative feelings.
Now other cultures have done much better. Confucians believe in enjoying the moment, in looking to self-cultivation, and in fulfilling social obligation. Traditional religions say “this is God’s will”. Stoicism and Buddhism say that clinging to things is bad and makes you miserable. In any other system, the idea is not “rage against the world and the people who have wronged you,” that’s American culture where we see not getting our way less as a common part of the human experience, but as a sign of great injustice that must be fixed. Shooting people, essentially, is the equivalent of the child who throws a tantrum because mom wouldn’t buy him a toy at Walmart.
Yes. I agree with everything you said, but you put it more eloquently than I did. Thank you. The entitlement and immaturity of American people is really shocking after you've spent time away from it for a while, from my experience as an American.
When I was in Europe recently, people kept asking me about Karens in America. I didn't understand why everyone was so hung up on Karens, surely Europeans have Karens too? But then I realized that they really don't have the same culture of entitlement that America has, so they largely don't have Karens either. School shooters are basically operating with the same mindset as Karens but with guns instead of screaming at an Apple store employee. People in Europe also seem more secure in their place in society, it would be ridiculous for a rich Frenchwoman to scream at a clerk for example, it's just not done because people have internalized their own class and status in a way that America has yet to solidify.
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