A classic case of beta-male rage

The perpetrator, James Eagan Holmes, was a shy and quiet white guy and a neuroscience graduate student. A female classmate told NBC News:

"I always thought that he was a little strange. I could never put my finger on it, but something told me to not get to close to him, female instincts I guess," the female student told NBC News. "I had tons of classes with him and lived across from him in the Honors dorms. He was a very smart guy though. He was a little bit of a weird guy, but we were honors students, so weird people were kind of common."

So she avoided him because he was “a little strange,” but she hinted that she felt the same way about a lot of the male honors students. I guess a guy like him can't get a girlfriend.

This is a classic case of beta-male rage.

Comments

[Tom]

Here's an image of his profile page on "AdultFriendFinder" which is a social network for sex that's filled mostly with beta males desperate for sex. Most people know about the site from all the spam and ads it puts out. On his profile, for "Male Endowment" he put "Short/Average".

(It's safe for work)

http://wstaw.org/m/2012/07/20/fullpage.png

[nebbish]

He was also in the process of dropping out of the neuroscience doctoral program because of failing grades in multiple courses and was noted not to even respond to people in the apartment building who greeted him. Such signs of disengagement and withdrawal accompany the onset of some cases of schizophrenia. He's about the right age for that as well.

[dearieme]

He's 24: it could have been the onset of schizophrenia. I've had to deal with it twice in twenty year olds. They were non-violent, but that was quite chilling enough..

[whiskey]

Yeah, beta male rage. Even lunatics, sleazeballs, and low-lifes can get girlfriends, see Joey Buttafuoco, John Edwards, Charlie Sheen, and Russell Brand before he was famous (but with his drug habit). Or Blake Fielder-Civil.

The guy was nutty as a fruitcake. Ordinary beta males have just tuned out, doing the bare minimum and not giving a damn about anyone (since no one gave one about them, outside maybe their immediate family for most).

This guy dressed up like the Joker, and told cops he was in fact, the Joker.

If he had a girlfriend, he would have still been nuts. But likely, a functioning nutcase that refrained from killing people. On the theory that sex with his girlfriend beat any lunatic notion in his head that being the Joker would get him laid. Or whatever.

The sad thing is, he probably WILL get laid, over the notoriety of killing so many people, while he lives out his life in the nuthouse.

[mikeca]

"So she avoided him because he was “a little strange,” but she hinted that she felt the same way about a lot of the male honors students. I guess a guy like him can't get a girlfriend."

He probably couldn't get a smart, college educated girl friend, but maybe he could get a stupid girl friend.

I remember in college, the first guy to get married amongst my friends was the biggest nerd you have ever seen. All the women I knew were dumb struck when they heard he was getting married. When I met his wife, she was nice looking (not super hot), but boy was she stupid. My description of her was "the perfect doormat".

Problem is college guys like him don't associate much with those kind of women. Maybe today, even those stupid women want more alpha type guys.

[Peter]

Again, why didn't he target an event geared toward Alphas? Or, if his anger was toward women, why didn't he emulate George Sodini or Marc Lepine and target women?

[Peter]

"He was also in the process of dropping out of the neuroscience doctoral program because of failing grades in multiple courses and was noted not to even respond to people in the apartment building who greeted him. Such signs of disengagement and withdrawal accompany the onset of some cases of schizophrenia."

Flunking out of a neuroscience PhD program hardly sounds unusual. It must be a staggeringly difficult course of study, up there with engineering.

[Tom]

"Again, why didn't he target an event geared toward Alphas?"

Alpha events aren't really open to the public. They're private engagements. He wouldn't be allowed into a penthouse or on a yacht or something where there'd be numerous alpha targets. Football games aren't filled with alphas in the stands. They're filled with jock sniffing beta male proles. The alphas are in box seats or private booths with extra security.

[AC]

"He was also in the process of dropping out of the neuroscience doctoral program because of failing grades in multiple courses and was noted not to even respond to people in the apartment building who greeted him."

Certainly not a representative nerd who would do well in school.

[Conquistador]

He also struggled to get a job after graduating from the University of California, Riverside. If you know anything about the UC system only the LA and Berkeley campuses are prestigious in CA and guarantee good employment prospects. He also had a profile on a dating site which the FBI is presently authenticating. So he was a sexless beta without the comfort of a good career. How many lives must be ruined before female hypergamy and the college prestige system is on the national radar?

[AC]

This girl is partially responsible for what happened today by furthering his social isolation. Nobody will ever point out that fact.

[Hugh]

Again, why didn't he target an event geared toward Alphas? Or, if his anger was toward women, why didn't he emulate George Sodini or Marc Lepine and target women?

Posted by: Peter | July 20, 2012 at 08:09 PM

-----------

I always wonder about this. For example, most of the kids killed at Columbine were, like the shooters, low-status students. You'd think they'd have lined up all the jocks and cheerleaders against the wall, but no.

Another thing, wouldn't these guys greatly improve their final kill count by using a belt-fed machine gun?

Instead of using magazines and having to reload all the time, why wouldn't they just buy some M13 links, a few thousand rounds of cheap, bulk .308 ammo that would be carried in a rucksack and proceed from there? They could even carry a spare rifle in case the sheer blaze of righteous justice melts the firing mechanisms. You don't even have to buy an expensive, belt-fed gun. With some spare parts, tools and know-how, you can convert most AR-type rifles to accept belted ammo.

Btw, this guy probably used FMJ bullets, rather than hollowpoints. It explains the injury/death ratio.

[Tom]

"Certainly not a representative nerd who would do well in school."

The University Chancellor of UC Riverside said that he was an honor student in college:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57477097/colo-suspect-james-holmes-smart-but-quiet-teachers-and-neighbors-say

"He was an honor student, so academically he was at the top of the top. He really distinguished himself from an academic point of view during his four years with us, graduating with highest honors."

[Tom]

Just goes to show you that going STEM means being a loser.

[Hugh]

This girl is partially responsible for what happened today by furthering his social isolation. Nobody will ever point out that fact.

Posted by: AC | July 20, 2012 at 08:30 PM

------------

Was she supposed to give him a complimentary blowjob ? Why do men believe that having a hot piece of ass is their natural right?

[ksm]

"I could never put my finger on it, but something told me to not get to close to him, female instincts I guess,"

I'm going to start using the following in conversations: "something told me that the answer was 2x^2, male logic I guess."

[Turambar]

Its kind of weird that I get to be the first outre person on this blog.

But since Bloomberg is doing it, let me point out that as long as we are suspending individual rights to prevent a tragety, if this were 40 years ago the young med student would have been happily married, fixed up by a couple of mothers.

Its porn that has defined 'happiness ' in a way that people like James Holmes can never achieve.

[Just Speculating]

"He probably couldn't get a smart, college educated girl friend, but maybe he could get a stupid girl friend".

This guy was in academia under a PhD program. Any dude who has no job or career prospects ahead of him, and takes on a some advanced college degree is in a lose lose dire situation. College females or women in general for that matter aren't impressed with men who are highly educated, but are not financially successful or coming from money. Men who have it the other away around do better in the dating scene. I know a few Ibankers who are dating girls with liberal arts degrees. Blame it on the elite with their power and sinister social engineering to keep the average joes at bay. The dumbing down, feminism and the college scam are a few things that have wreck havoc on this country. A guy with loads of college debt and no money is in a much worse predicament than a female counterpart of the same situation.

[trey]

"lived across from him in the Honors dorms."

This is vague. Does this mean she lived on the same floor as him, i.e. are co-ed dorms now co-ed on floors too? Or is she probably just being conversationally imprecise and mean in different buildings in the same dorm complex?

And if co-eds now live on the same floors, do they share bathrooms too? I've heard campus living has gotten more and more liberal, but damn.

[Conquistador]

@ Peter

Dude he targeted a movie theater...while not exactly an orgy fest it is a place where most couples go for dates. When I saw Inception the couple in front of me was practically having sex.

[Just Speculating]

"How many lives must be ruined before female hypergamy and the college prestige system is on the national radar?"

Don't forget women are now beginning to outearn men. This, and the fact that there are more women than men enrolled in higher education. It's done by design so that the few powerful men have access to most women, as a way to keep the average joes at bay.

[ArtisteNextDoor]

You guys are completely batshit crazy if you think that someone who shoots 70 people and kills 12 of them would have been totally fine if only he'd had a girlfriend. Sorry, but would YOU want to be his girlfriend? People pick up on loony vibes. There are thousands of geeky graduate students living in shitty apartments eating Ramen and not getting laid and they don't go on a shooting rampage. And he'd only started his program last year, so it's not like he could be considered some sort of giant failure - you study and get paid for it, not so bad.

The guy was fucking nuts.

[Severn]

Anybody know what happened to Dennis Mangan's site?

[Bekenstein]

I hate this kind of events, because it always ends up in a general stigmatization of introverted, solitary and smart males, and an endless display of women crying, praying and lighting stupid candles on TV screens.

"How many lives must be ruined before female hypergamy and the college prestige system is on the national radar?"

Politicians and journalists will never, never, reassess the sexual liberation and co-education in schools. Never. So more massacres are yet to come.

[AE]

He's attractive and appears that he was somewhat athletic. If I had his body, I would be getting laid left and right. I don't think your assessment is correct. He probably has a mental illness.

[rightwingnut]

The more details that come to light, the less 'crazy' he seems to be. He apparently published a profile on AdultFriendFinder a few days ago:

http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/20/james-holmes-sex-website-penis-cops/

Of all things it said 'Will you visit me in prison?'. He was no doubt a beta-male, but it looks like he knew all well women swoon for the worst of criminals like Bundy & Mason.

If you add to this that witnesses have said, he calmly threw gas containers into the theater, he was wearing a ballistics helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector, groin protector, gas mask and black tactical gloves.

He planned to live long after the incident. This is no nutter like Sodini who went down in flames without body armor at a Gym taking out women who rejected him. This guy does look to be the most evil person since Hitler.

[J1]

"If you know anything about the UC system only the LA and Berkeley campuses are prestigious in CA and guarantee good employment prospects"

Davis and SF too, but you're right about Riverside.

[Hugh]

Just goes to show you that going STEM means being a loser.

Posted by: Tom | July 20, 2012 at 08:46 PM

-----------

What say you, Sig?

[JayMan]

"You guys are completely batshit crazy if you think that someone who shoots 70 people and kills 12 of them would have been totally fine if only he'd had a girlfriend. Sorry, but would YOU want to be his girlfriend? People pick up on loony vibes. There are thousands of geeky graduate students living in shitty apartments eating Ramen and not getting laid and they don't go on a shooting rampage. And he'd only started his program last year, so it's not like he could be considered some sort of giant failure - you study and get paid for it, not so bad.

The guy was fucking nuts."

Exactly ArtisteNextDoor.

Seriously, you guys need to step outside your game-based theories for awhile.

Take a look at his face—from any photo posted of him. He's clearly nuts and has been for awhile.

I also think that it was odd for Half Sigma to expect that he might be Black or Hispanic. Mass shooters like this, especially in White areas, always turn out to be White—or at least Asian.

The problems of such mass shooters have nothing to do with porn, or "female hypergamy", or any nonsense like that. As HBD'ers, more than anyone, should know, some men are meant to be "losers"—that is, not reproduce—just as some women should not. It's a way to maintain fitness of the gene pool—something we need more of, not less.

Obviously, a guy willing to paint his hair red and come into a crowded theater with full body armor and go on a Terminator-style rampage is not someone we need to reproduce.

The problem—in all actuality—likely has more to do with Anglo-individualism. The fiercely individualistic and staunchly competitive nature of Anglo culture is very unforgiving to losers (I say likely mostly because similar rampages also happen in China). Such social tension—coupled with the violent inklings in American society bequeathed by its pioneer past—I suspect—leads to such outbursts.

To keep things in perspective, such acts are very rare. Of course, I'm aware that much smaller-scale crimes by similarly disaffected men probably don't make the national news, but it is still a fairly uncommon event, and not a new wave of "beta violence" we need to fear.

[Conquistador]

@ JayMan

The reason girls think so many guys are "creepy" is because biologically they know that when a guy isn't getting laid a lot their sexual frustration will manifest itself in due time. It's why humans assign so many good values towards attractive people. We know they're getting laid and therefore don't pose a danger where as the ugly are social rejects with a gazzillion hang ups.

[Conquistador]

To add to what I just said knowing someone gets laid is also why society assigns more value and trust towards married men. Frequently in the corporate world you can't get ahead without being married with children. It's not something humans consciously think about but a biological impulse we evolved for.

[LaPanache]

"He was also in the process of dropping out of the neuroscience doctoral program because of failing grades in multiple courses and was noted not to even respond to people in the apartment building who greeted him."

Nothing more is needed to know to explain his actions. I am a neuroscience major, the work is intense (and I'm only in undergrad) and my adviser very often stresses therapy to us because of the widespread cases of depression over-achieving students fall into once they start competing with other students of their own caliber and encounter failure. Hopelessness ensues, withdrawal ensues, psychiatric problems ensue, often suicides ensue. Sometimes, what this guy did just might ensue in the full-on crazy ones.

Supposedly intelligent, full grown men on this site indignantly chastising "female hypergamy" and paranoidly warning against all the upcoming explosions of "beta-male rage" because all the hawt wimminz aren't giving it up to them (because, don't you know everyone is entitled to hot partners and hot careers and if in frustration they go lunatic it's society's fault) need to seriously get their heads out of Game World and live in Real World. Would YOU want to be a looney's girlfriend?

[LaPanache]

Also, this guy was young, handsome, tall, fit, and still couldn't find ONE woman to be with?

Highly intelligent, living-in-their-heads type of people have throughout history have often had a high propensity for depression and other psychiatric problems which have led to disastrous ends (often suicides) regardless of whether they were married. He was probably one of these types and had some psychiatric issue. Giving him sex would not have fixed his biological brain chemistry.

[LaPanache]

To Conquistador: Or perhaps, these men are trusted not because they are married, but they are married because they are the type of men who can be trusted? Perhaps "creepy" men don't get laid BECAUSE they ARE creepy? Perhaps a man who frequents HBD blogs which champion genetic differences should not be making this causation-correlation error? Perhaps, game is no hard science and using it to explain the intricate details of the world is ridiculous?

"...a biological impulse we evolved for." -Conquistador. Jesus Christ. That statement makes neither gramatic nor scientific sense. This is not going to change your mind but: Game and Pop-psych are not trustworthy sciences.

[Baines]

"Why do men believe that having a hot piece of ass is their natural right?"

Because possessing that belief is the best way to get that ass.

[Scarlet Knight]

@trey

Co-ed dorms generally have co-ed floors.

[asdf]

JayMan,

HS said he thought the shooter would be white or Asian.

Anyway, 50 years ago a woman would have married this guy because he was a provider. I've got an old dude just like him at my job. He would have gone to his job and mediocrititied his way through life. Perhaps he might have had a kid, and perhaps the woman might have cuckolded him. At the end of the day he wouldn't have shot up the place.

Your greater point about not knowing what to do with the losers is spot on though. Because of hypergamy there are more losers, even losers that are intelligent and could otherwise be winners in a different system. The world doesn't know what do to with them and beats them down mercilessly (I suspect because beating them down affords opportunities to exploit their weakness).

[Just Speculating]

@ LaPanache

Why would anyone major in neuroscience in this day of age is beyond me? Neuroscience is like biology, one of the those STEM fields that a liberal arts SWPL would consider without much career opportunities. Hot women aren't interested in men with only an education. They're saying there's the icing, but where's the cake?

[Conquistador]

"Or perhaps, these men are trusted not because they are married, but they are married because they are the type of men who can be trusted?" - LaPanache

Umm duh? That was my point. Society assigns value to men who get laid. That's why a man seen out with women is automatically more trustworthy than a single dude. Female approval is a proxy for other positive attributes much like a college degree today.

"Perhaps "creepy" men don't get laid BECAUSE they ARE creepy?" -

LOL no. Any average guy who hits on a female is a "creeper". The word is so overused to the point where it's meaningless. I know a male model dude who acts weird as shit and makes jokes about throwing acid in women's faces and he gets laid all the time. Point is the more attractive you are the less your behavior matters. Creepy has simply become a word for unattractive.

"...a biological impulse we evolved for." -Conquistador. Jesus Christ. That statement makes neither gramatic nor scientific sense. This is not going to change your mind but: Game and Pop-psych are not trustworthy sciences."

It was a clunky sentence but I'm still right. It has nothing to do with "game" either. Evolutionary psychology and the science of attraction is still in it's infancy but has a growing number of supporters from the academic world. We're finally unlocking the secrets of human nature. It's an exciting time except for humanists like you who will have your worldview shattered.

[Days of Broken Arrows]

"Why do men believe that having a hot piece of ass is their natural right?"

No one said this, stop setting up straw man arguments. What people did believe is that if you were a man and you were reasonably attractive, a decent person, and somewhat successful, you'd be able to pair off. That's no longer the case. Hence the anger here.

Finally, so what if men believe that's their natural right? Women have all sort of over-the-top expectations that believe are their natural rights and society just cheerleads that.

[Jeff]

"Politicians and journalists will never, never, reassess the sexual liberation and co-education in schools. Never. So more massacres are yet to come."

It will take more and more massacres to wake up the powers-that-be. Eventually, hopefully, they'll have to take note, for their and their children's own safety.

[Sheila Tone]

He reminds me more of the university bell tower shooter, who turned out to have a brain tumor. We have zero evidence this guy was even straight, much less angry about his lack of prospects. If he was an angry introvert he could have found plenty of like-minded dudes online, yet there is no cyberspace trace of him (according to the newspapers thus far).

[Sheila Tone]

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense he may have been gay. Decent-looking cleancut guy, kind of quiet but not antisocial (until this), into cosplay, no trace of ever trying anything with a woman. His family was supposedly really involved with the Presbyterian Church, which isn't as bad as Westboro Baptist but does preach that homosexuality is wrong. Maybe the religious guilt finally caused him to explode.

[Sheila Tone]

Here's another thing that cuts against your theory -- med students are *usually* kind of geeky yet still considered highly eligible due to their future earnings potential. I've never known a decent-looking male med or pre-med who couldn't get a date.

[HS: He wasn't a medical student, he was a neuroscience student.]

[Sheila Tone]

[HS: He wasn't a medical student, he was a neuroscience student.]

I thought he was doing that as part of med school. What career does neuroscience lead to then?

By the way, UC Riverside was the easiest UC to get into until UC Merced opened a few years ago. It seems to me that a guy from Rancho San Penasquito (one of the rich hilly neighborhoods in northern San Diego County) should have been able to do better than UC Riverside. And "honors" doesn't mean he was the class valedictorian, it means the top 20 percent. Not bad, but maybe not as good as "honors" implies to a lot of people.

[nebbish]

"What career does neuroscience lead to then?"

After earning the neuroscience Ph.D. and probably working in several poorly paid postdoctoral fellowships, it might have been possible for him to find an assistant professor position somewhere. But competition for the tenure-track academic jobs is fierce, and he would have been up against all of the Ph.D.'s from the big-name research institutions. Some Ph.D. fields like pharmacology/toxicology can lead to jobs in industry, but I would expect that option to be limited for neuroscience.

[Just Speculating]

"It will take more and more massacres to wake up the powers-that-be. Eventually, hopefully, they'll have to take note, for their and their children's own safety".

Just hoping all the welfare money dries up so the Liberals will run for their lives.

"The more I think about it, the more it makes sense he may have been gay. Decent-looking cleancut guy, kind of quiet but not antisocial (until this), into cosplay, no trace of ever trying anything with a woman. His family was supposedly really involved with the Presbyterian Church, which isn't as bad as Westboro Baptist but does preach that homosexuality is wrong. Maybe the religious guilt finally caused him to explode".

Besides the usual HBD stuff, some people are saying this tragedy was staged so our politicians can enforce stricter gun control during a year of elections. There are certain inconsistent things that are ripe for this kind of speculation. They found over 20,000 worth of ammunition and guns for a jobless grad student. He had an apartment laden with booby traps which was described by him after his rampage. Why would a shooter hellbent on "killing everyone" would so casually surrender to police and then warn them of his booby-trapped apartment. Such a question implies a level of sanity in an otherwise deranged mind?

Something is not right!

[destructure]

"Perhaps 'creepy' men don't get laid BECAUSE they ARE creepy?" -- La Panache

Women define "creepy" as any guy who looks at them without making their nether regions tingle.

[Hugh]

@Sheila

If he was gay, why did he open an Adultfriendfinder account to meet women?

[Sheila Tone]

"If he was gay, why did he open an Adultfriendfinder account to meet women?"

Hugh, give me a link. Every article I've seen says there was no trace of him on the Internet.

[Sheila Tone]

OK, never mind my last comment, I see the link at the first comment. Can't you guys tell that's a prank profile? It doesn't even look like him, and the quote is "Will you visit me in prison?"

[Sheila Tone]

"http://www.tmz.com/2012/07/21/james-holmes-colorado-shooting-sex-profile-website/"

OK, AdultFriendFinder says it appears legit. It was made on July 5, less than 3 weeks ago but prior to the shootings. Note that he wasn't JUST looking for women, he was also willing to do man-woman couples and group sex. So bisexual.

"which is a social network for sex that's filled mostly with beta males desperate for sex"

I disagree with this assessment. It's a site for kinky swingers. If this is a real profile, it undercuts any allegation that he was a sweet guy looking for a *girlfriend.* But I doubt this profile reflects anything about the real man aside from another sign of the onset of a serious mental illness. It seems extremely out of character for him.

Everything we know about this guy still points to a psychotic break due to the onset of a schizoform disorder. He is the right age for that to happen, and the timeline works so far. Has anyone heard when the bizarre change in appearance came about (the weird red hair and white-trash mutton chops)?

[William]

There is a whole lot of assumption going on and it's quite obvious that too many posters here rely on game theories to the point where they can't even take anything at face value. This guy was just a psyho and it would've made little difference if he had a steady girlfriend because some people are just off no matter how much ass they're getting. Getting laid isn't the nirvana alotta guys here seem to think and there are plenty of guys who turn out to be very brutal and hateful that get laid so things are as black and white as many people here think. The reason I don't like these kind of theories is because it leads to an unfair demonization of men who aren't social butterflies and aren't very successful with women. Believe it or not, the vast majority of these men wouldn't dream of doing what he did so it's more than likely James' was a classic case of nutjob than "beta-male rage".

[Just Speculating]

@ nebbish

Academia is a dangerous sea to swim in. Besides the shoddy monetary prospects, you are basically a loser in front of women. Because of female hypergamy and a money oriented society, being soley highly educated means you are not getting any. Many liberal arts female grad students date men with money.

[nebbish]

Just Speculating,

I agree. I wouldn't encourage anyone to go for a Ph.D., although I'm not sure there are many other paths that actually have potential. Investment banking is limited only to people with elite degrees and outgoing personalities or significant quant talent. Law is a disaster. Medicine offers diminishing income and prestige and will decline further due to health care reform. It's also not for everyone due to the endless and expensive training.

As for female liberal arts grad students dating men with money, that's probably true as well. That makes them just a higher class of gold-digger, so those men should be wary.

[Random Paleocon]

Nebbish-

If one has a combination of high-IQ, social connections, and an appetite for risk, one can swing for the fence as an i-banker or CEO-track exec.

But don't sell an MD short: it's still a virtually-guaranteed way for a young person with the IQ, aptitude, and drive to complete the training to set himself up for a career earning 150-500k+/yr., with high social prestige and no risk of pinkslips.

The problem these days seems to lie with the those in the next social/intellectual rank. These are the people who once would've had steady jobs in "middle management," not rich, but comfortable, secure, and respectable. These jobs are mostly gone. So in exactly what direction does one steer one's son these days?

[Kokomilgrim]

@nebbish- agreed that law is horrible. Unfortunately, I made that mistake. But I also don't think the dreaded "manager class" is going anywhere. They know they should be obsolete, but they are entrenched in the power structure that they designed to their advantage, and they will do whatever it takes to fool the rest of the world into thinking they are relevant.

If I had male spawn I would probably try to encourage him in an entrepreneurial venture. Or a Thiel fellowship. Formal education is great for socializing but a total rip-off financially, a fact people are only starting to wake up to.