How did this guy acquire such a hatred of "rich people"?

Surely it couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that he was under the tutelage of the English Department?

I wouldn't put it all on the English department or even the school for that matter. Hatred of the "rich" is so prevalent in our society today it would be difficult to pinpoint where he received most of that sort of influence from.

I really don't think its hatred of the rich. I think its much more a case of envy than hatred.

I'm puzzled. Why would the English Department be any different?

I'm puzzled. Why would the English Department be any different?

Than engineering departments?

Postmodernists and the most extreme Marxists and leftists tend to hang out mostly in English Departments (well, and "Womens" and "Ethnic" Studies). Most Philosophy Departments won't have much to do with them.

Where did *what* come from? Is everyone else seeing a link that I'm not seeing?

The guy was a murderer. Why doubt that he was a liar and con artist, too? Why take his statement of why he did what he did at face value?

I doubt he had a true feeling one way or the other about "the rich." I don't think he killed all those people because of some abstract philosophy about social equality. He did it for some dark highly personal reason, like too many Tidewater gals scornfully declined to be his house pet and love slave. Who knows?

But one thing we do know is that he certainly learned, during his short life, what would resonate in our media and academic culture. So he probably learned that complaining about "the rich" and their supposed pampered arrogance and inhumanity -- wrapping his personal hatreds in the mumbo jumbo of "root causes" -- would get him a much more sympathetic hearing, if not some actual degree of excuse for profoundly antisocial behaviour.

Cho was so addled inside that I don't think any rational interpretation of his irrationality is worth the effort. He was badly wired from day one according to his grandfather.

One has to feel awful for his parents and sister. Immigrants who were trying to achieve the American dream and a sister who just graduated from Princeton. Especially I would think in an East Asian culture that places so much emphasis on assessing the family as a unit rather than the individual. The parents, if I have read this right, still speak very rudimentary English. One wonders whether a more educated, aware parent could have recognized the signs in Cho and acted more forcefully to address these early on, rather than push the kid to perform academically which appears to be the Asian American parental stereotype, an accurate one in my observations.

Make no mistake: if Cho had ranted about gays and racial minorities the way he ranted about rich people (and, in some fragmentary early reports, Christianity), we would be subjected to endless PC rationalizations of how it all fit together and was the inevitable result of hateful right-wing ideology.

I thought we were going to leave the politics in the gun control thread?

I thought we were going to leave the politics in the gun control thread?

And out of the politics thread? Is this a trick question?

I know what did it now...the nut case had to read Beawolf...that tipped him over.

Robert

Rand: "How did this guy acquire such a hatred of "rich people"?"

Convenient object, probably.

Rand: "Surely it couldn't have had anything to do with the fact that he was under the tutelage of the English Department?"

Ah, indeed. The English Department of Virginia Tech is a well-known bastion of Marxist activism, surpassed in Redness only by MIT and Rennselaer. Clearly there is a conspiracy of massive proportions afoot, discovered only due to your inquiring mind and razor-sharp instincts. Shall I alert Homeland Security at once, or would you like to do the honors?

Brian Swiderski wrote:

Ah, indeed. The English Department of Virginia Tech is a well-known bastion of Marxist activism, surpassed in Redness only by MIT and Rennselaer.

That's Rennsalear to you....no, wait, that's Renssalere...Rensalear...That's RPI to you, buddy.

Mike

PS: It's actually "Rensselaer".

Heh, I guess I won't be teaching there any time soon. I even looked it up to get the spelling right, and still wrote it wrong.

"I know what did it now...the nut case had to read Beawolf...that tipped him over.

Robert"

More like the teachings of Bea Authur.

Beowulf