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Will Bunch on the ugly start to 2025 - he gets it [1]

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Date: 2025-01-05

I highly recommend this op-ed by Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Inquirer: share.inquirer.com/… In it he talks about the root causes of the seemingly random acts of violence that marred the start of 2025 in our country: misogyny and male rage, and their frightening connection to the mental health crises being experienced by many US military veterans. These are issues that have been remarkably absent in media coverage of these incidents, as far as I can tell.

But we should also worry about America’s powerful tendency for avoidance when it comes to the ugly truths about why such a seemingly prosperous nation is also so remarkably violent, the real reasons why mass murder keeps happening, the troubling overlaps with 2020s' U.S. (and world) politics, and what we can do about it. Five days later, it’s clear that the roots of this latest spasm aren’t found in the deserts of Syria but ingrained in the modern demons of American life, in both our excessively militaristic culture and also in the overlapping crisis of male anger and rage that arguably also put Trump back on top in the November election.

Bunch explains that both male perpetrators of these acts had a military background and a pattern of difficult relationships with women, and at least Mr. Livelsberger had very likely been experiencing symptoms of severe PTSD related to his military service. As a former mental health counselor who worked with Veterans, I can personally attest to the difficulty these individuals face in accessing needed services, due to lack of available resources, as well ongoing issues of stigma.



Finally, Mr. Bunch draws the important connection between these incidents and the misogyny and male rage that fueled Trump’s recent electoral win in a way that I believe other media simply haven’t:

Indeed, it feels like if people are truly determined to find the political links to mass murder, it is hiding in plain sight — misogyny, and the role that a long overdue assault on the contradictions and unfairness of modern patriarchy is now playing in the current backlash of right-wing, populist and testosterone-laced political movements, and not just in America.

The whole article (gift link above) is well worth your time. I believe Mr. Bunch is one of our nation’s premier truth-tellers.

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