Mass shooters: look at their eyes


In many of these deranged killers I see a couple of peculiar things. Their eyes are wrong and their cheeks are wrong, in ways that produce a creepy effect.


Mass shooters get tons of press. It is because they have now become the poster boys for leftist gun control. We had mass shootings in the past but the news coverage had a different character. Now the coverage always includes many calls for political interventions, mainly for further gun laws restricting everyone, and thus lasts longer than it would if it were merely a matter of some people getting murdered in, say, Chicago's streetz or some other drug fueled free fire zone.

But the media circus does have a useful side effect. We see the killers' faces repeatedly. As a result of seeing so much of them, I have noticed something distinctly odd about those faces. There is a similarity of facial expressions. I think that is useful to remark on, for an explanation of it may further our understanding of such crimes.

In many of these deranged killers I see a couple of peculiar things. Their eyes are wrong and their cheeks are wrong, in ways that produce a creepy effect.

The eyes are glassy and indifferent, emotionally detached, soulless, cold, uncaring, reminding of the glass eyes of a doll, or of the open eyes of a dead animal.

The cheeks are held stiffly and rigidly in a straight face or, sometimes, in a smile that is somehow unnatural. Whatever is causing the peculiarity of expression, it's not normal. Eyes should be responsive to surroundings, cheeks flexible to express a variety of emotions.

I am not sure what I am seeing here, but I have some conjectures. For the moment, why don't you take a look and see what you think?







As to an explanation, there are several I would inquire into. Is there some dangerously psychotropic drug that produces this effect? Is it a manifestation of some sort of neurological problem? Is it a reflection of a particular kind of disturbed psychological state, or even the touch of the demonic? Any of those might account for it. I am for the present at a loss about it, but it does bear looking into. Understanding a common element in these crimes, beyond those we have already figured out, would be helpful in figuring out how to prevent the shootings.

It may be my background or my bias, but I see life's spiritual dimension as ever present in human decisions and actions, even in works of the most depraved kind. I get a creepy feeling from these faces because I sense that something has gone terribly wrong in the empathy that, at least minimally, should connect one person with all others.

If you have an idea about this, please respond in the comments section or tweet to https://twitter.com/kendalblack .

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