Transgender shooter targets Catholic school, killing two children and wounding 17 others.

 

The shooters stash of weapons and magazines. New York Post.

A transgender shooter targeted a Catholic school in Minneapolis Minnesota, killing two children and wounding 17 other people. New York Post. Robin Westman was born Robert Westman but transitioned before he turned 18. He had been a student at the school he targeted, Annunciation Catholic School, and his mother had worked at the school until 2022. Unlike many recent mass shooters, Westman had an extensive manifesto and posted multiple videos that expanded on his ideology. He had written many messages on his firearms on magazines, including threats against President Trump and Elon Musk, and many left wing memes and screeds, including anti-Israel and anti-Christian statements. Westman also seemed to idolize other school shooters, and seems to have been obsessed with Adam Lanza, who killed 20 elementary students at Sandy Hook in 2012. 

My Comment:

When Audrey Hale shot up a school in 2023 I said that I expected more violence from the transgender community as resistance to their ideology increased. Unfortunately I think I was right. This shooter was transgender and it does seem to be a major reason why they committed this crime. It's also another example of violence coming from both the radical left and the anti-Israel communities. It's absolutely not a good sign for the future to say the least. 

This is one of the rare recent cases where we have a very good idea of the ideology and motives of the shooter as for some reason the manifesto and videos he produced were captured by the public before it could be removed by tech sites. This is unlike the Audrey Hale case, where the shooter produced a rather extensive manifesto but it took a series of legal fights and leaks before anyone could confirm her motive. Somehow in this case folks were able to get ahold of it right away. 

Given the materials we have seen it's pretty hard to argue that this was anything other than a radicalized leftist transgender man who attacked the school for political reasons. I know some folks are trying to do just that, but folks aren't going to buy that a male to female transgender who hated Trump, Israel, Jews and Christians is actually a right winger. 

I wrote on X this afternoon that I expect these kinds of attacks specifically from the transgender community for a major reason. Until very recently, the transgender community was the most powerful force in the United States. You could not speak out against them on mainstream websites and if you did it in your personal life you could end up ostracized or even unemployed. This led to the transgender community thinking they were invincible, they were morally correct, and that they would keep their power forever. 

This, of course, didn't happen. There has been a major backlash against the transgender community, mostly because of their behavior. Folks really didn't like it when the general public became aware of efforts to groom children into transgenderism and were very upset about adult men sharing bathrooms with little girls. In a very short period, about a year or two, the transgender community not only lost their power, they have faced withering criticism for their actions, to the point where only die hard activists and members of the community themselves, respect them. 

Given that, it's not surprising there is violence. These folks had all the power in the world and now have lost it. Given how radicalized they are is it any surprise that they are killing people over it? It does not surprise me at all. Of course this isn't helping the perception that transgender folks are violent (which is probably unfair, I don't think being transgender itself is causing the violence, it's the closed echo-chamber so many transgender people live in that's causing this), so it's going to be a feedback loop unless they right the ship and boot the radicals from their community. Will that happen? I doubt it. There are a few examples of non-radical transgender folks, with Caitlyn Jenner being an example, but most of the ones I have seen active on social media aren't that far in terms of rhetoric than Westman. It's a serious problem and I think it's one that will get worse before it gets better. 

Of course the rise and fall of the transgender project isn't the only factor here. Some of it is just fairly standard left wing beliefs. If the reaction to the fall of transgender ideology was a hammer blow to the activist class, the war between Israel and Hamas was an atomic blast. It's also clear that Westman didn't actually care about Gazans, he just hated Israel and wanted to see more dead Jews, as reported in the New York Post article I linked too. Given that, it is surprising that he targeted Catholics but I still think this is a factor. Israel's war has caused a level of derangement on the left I have a hard time understanding, let alone explaining, and this could be another manifestation of that. 

Some of this isn't political though, at least not in the left-right sense. Another major factor in Westman's ideology is the worship of school shooters. He idolized Adam Lanza, James Holmes and Charles Whitman. I haven't reviewed all of the videos he made, but it's clear that he thought that these folks were heroes. 

It's another example of why I think we handle mass shooters the wrong way. We given them huge amounts of attention and build them up into superhuman, bigger than life, villains. This is probably the worst thing you can do as it gives other people something to aspire to. Better to be a villain than a nobody, at least you get remembered that way, right? It's a horrible message to send and it's one that resonates with a lot of disgruntled people at the margins of society. 

Though many folks hate him, I do think that Joshua "Null" Moon of Kiwi Farms infamy was right about these shooters. We shouldn't build these people up, we should tear them down. They aren't heroes or villains but incredibly pathetic people that are killing folks for no reason. Adam Lanza was a creepy weirdo that lived in his mom's basement, a complete failure of a person. Audrey Hale was a deranged "femcel" that was obsessed with a woman who would never date her. And Westman was a freak who was so pathetic he though Lanza and Holmes were cool. These folks shouldn't be idolized or demonized, they should be mocked as the pathetic losers they are.