I saw his mother’s facebook page before they locked it, the pictures of the family, the “happy 16th birthday Payton, happy 17th Birthday payton, good luck at college… all the cousins and relatives putting likes and hearts and loves and best wishes from 2 years ago and last year… the little brothers, the mom, the dad, the big extended family, vacations and trips, the driving lesson with dad,
and contrasted a bit of his manifesto; he credits discovering 4chan at 16 and the community there who “opened his eyes” – says he wasn’t raised racist, etc etc – proud of his radicalization and decisions here. His hero the New Zealand mass killer…
…and my stomach twists knowing that so many will instantly go to a “must have been mentally ill” notion, “was probably bullied at school” – and yet all it seems to be here is a nice entitled life full of all the benefits of a two parent upper-middle class home in an almost all white community