Las Vegas Trump Towers cybertruck explosion

[hitmouse]

Seems like discussion of this one is split across the New Orleans thread, the Musk thread cos Cybertruck and probably some Trump threads as well, so thought it could probably use a single thread to keep discussion in one place, and not too mixed up with general chat about the other attack, Musk, Trump, etc.

Thought this piece from Vicky Osterweil was excellent on a lot of things, including the Vegas attack:

I Was Promised a More Aesthetically Pleasing Cyberpunk Dystopia

Even the horrors are mid

www.cawshinythings.com

On January first, Green Beret and enthusiastic Trump fan Matthew Livelsberger put an IED into a cybertruck he rented from peer-to-peer car sharing app Turo, parked it in front of the Trump Las Vegas hotel, and shot himself moments before the bomb went off. His apparent devotion to the memetic imagery of using a cybertruck may have saved lives, as the rigid stainless steel sides of the truck– which make it outrageously dangerous to be inside during an accident--means that the bomb failed to do any damage to the hotel.

A "high-tech" grifter car that only endangers its own inhabitants, a Trump and Musk fan showing his devotion by blowing himself up alongside symbols of both, the failure of this trained and experienced murderer to think through the actual material function of his weaponry, welcome to the Years of Lead Paint.

The Years of Lead Paint is what happens when you successfully create the spectacular affective apparatus of fascism from the top down without maintaining a street-level organizational base. Instead, the MAGA movement has been grifted for everything it has, but the absolute fecklessness of the "opposition" in the US means that their absolutely hollow top down structure is once again in power. (A new report showed that Trump's win was extremely narrow except in 'News deserts', places where there is no local reporting or information, where he won by upwards of fifty points.)

If the incredible build up of tension, paranoia, frustration and desire for action created by that spectacular apparatus continues to lack an outlet, it will keep resulting in these frustrated attempts to destroy the object of their obsession. In 2015/6 the rallies and the alt-right offered a more focused and communal organized path for maga– the victory of anti-fascists in smashing their street movement saved innumerable lives--and even Q offered an outlet for their paranoia and their organizing. The task of anti-fascists in the years to come will be to prevent a street movement from reforming or joining forces with the top-down Republican movement.

And some thoughts from Crimethinc:

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers (@[email protected])

Attached: 3 images Content warning: discussion of suicide. *** What's striking about the manifesto left by the Trump supporter who shot himself and set his truck on fire outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas is that the desire to harm others merges with the urge to self-destruction. Arguably...

todon.eu

What's striking about the manifesto left by the Trump supporter who shot himself and set his truck on fire outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas is that the desire to harm others merges with the urge to self-destruction.

Arguably, this characterizes millions of Trump supporters.

It's no coincidence that a man the FBI described as a "heavily decorated combat veteran" would end his life saying "I needed relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Being a killer for hire weighs heavily on the conscience.

These mercenaries are damning themselves to living hell so that billionaires like Trump and Musk can turn a profit.

This sort of tormented anger is common among Trump supporters. On some level, they must sense that the climate disasters smashing their communities are caused by the oil profiteers they defend—that they are more to blame for the problems of this society than undocumented people or trans people. Their self-righteousness masks self-hatred.

Their fantasies of civil war conceal a desire to kill themselves.

Spoiler: alleged manifesto

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

This does sound like a really weird case. I'm not finding a lot on motive here. I was not surprised to find that he was on his second marriage and had deeply misogynist views.

I've heard a lot of people suggest that he had a TBI from his military service. I see no evidence of that, but I suppose it's possible. A lot of violent episodes are elaborate suicides in disguise.

It seems like a lot of people are bending themselves into pretzels to find a reason to excuse this. There's a lot of suggesting that he was killed and placed into the cybertruck and then driven remotely and detonated. Seems unlikely given the video of him stopping at a corner shop an hour before in the cybertruck and conducting some bit of business.

 

[hitmouse]

Is TBI trauma-based illness?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Is TBI trauma-based illness?

Traumatic Brain Injury. There's a lot of veterans who served in Afghanistan who were near enough to bomb blasts that it can cause an injury even if they weren't otherwise injured. The symptoms can be a bit subtle, and the VA hasn't had a good track record in treating them.

 

[NoXion]

I've read that people who've served in the military are particularly prone to suffering from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), due to repeated exposure to explosions, high-G movements, artillery fire, and so on. That would be on top of potential PTSD from extended stress and traumatic situations.

 

[hitmouse]

Some analysis on the military background thing here:

https://www.start.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/local_attachments/PIRUS-Mass%20Casualty%20Extremist%20Offenders%20with%20Military%20Background-Final%20%284%29.pdf

From 1990-2022, 170 individuals with United States military backgrounds plotted 144 unique mass casualty terrorist attacks in the United States. 3 These subjects represent approximately 25% of all individuals who plotted mass casualty extremist crimes during this period.4 The rate of military service in the mass casualty offender population is more than three times that of military service in the general adult population, which is estimated at 8 percent.