To Tweet or not to Tweet, and some thoughts on the Tragedy of Sandy Hook

What with hurrying backwards and forwards to Bristol for ‘Question Time’, and one or two other matters besides, this has been a rather frantic few days and I haven’t posted as much as I should have liked. But one of the results of being on ‘Question Time’ was a great landslide of abuse on Twitter (yes, I know there were one or two favourable comments, glinting amid the slurry, but it’s impossible to pretend that they were numerous).

 

And I thought, as I sometimes do, that it might after all be worthwhile establishing a presence on Twitter. Some of you will know (I make no great secret of it) that I have a shadowy, marginal existence on Twitter under the name of Micah Clarke. I won’t go into the tedious reasons why I don’t use my own name, except to say that they are tedious, and much like the reasons for posting as ‘Clockback’ ( as in ‘turning the clock back’, a joke as it happens) on Wikipedia and in one or two other places.

 

Occasionally, where I detect signs of a reasoning mind, I will respond, as Micah Clarke (user name ClarkeMicah), to particular tweets. I will always identify myself as Peter Hitchens, though people are oddly reluctant to believe me when I do so, which is one of the reasons why I am writing this posting. Yes, the person posting as Micah Clarke on Twitter, and saying he is Peter Hitchens, is this Peter Hitchens.

 

As to whether I engage more generally in Twitter itself, my inclinations for the moment are not to do so, because of the largely moronic, mob-rage atmosphere that I find whenever I say anything in a public place, or on TV or radio,  which runs against fashion or conventional wisdom. The tiny word-limit only encourages crudity and coarseness (which the site itself seems to do nothing to discourage) .

 

By the way, a small point here about the latest appalling school massacre.  Once again, I looked for evidence that the shooter might have been taking some sort of  medication which might be acting on his brain, and once again, I found it.

 

The Washington Post, a major liberal newspaper which can generally be relied upon to be scrupulous in its facts,  reports as follows about  the Sandy Hook mass killer, Adam Lanza, as saying Lanza was ‘A really rambunctious kid, as one former neighbor in Newtown, Conn., recalled him, adding that he was on medication.’

 

The Post report continues :’ His parents, Nancy and Peter Lanza, separated about a decade ago, and his mother, a kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook, remained in the family’s home with her sons, Adam and Ryan Lanza, according to Ryan Kraft, 25, who was a neighbor.

 

‘The separation hit the children hard, Kraft recalled.

 

‘When Nancy Lanza would go out to dinner with friends, she sometimes relied on Kraft to watch Adam Lanza, who was too boisterous for Ryan Lanza to manage. “He would have tantrums,” Kraft said. “They were much more than the average kid [had].” Yet he was not prone to violence, Kraft said.

 

‘“The kids seemed really depressed” by the breakup, Kraft said of the Lanza brothers.’

 

 

‘Slate’ Magazine repeats some of the Washington Post account but gives it some extra context : ‘One thing everyone seems to be able to agree on is that Lanza likely had some sort of mental disability or developmental disorder. One law enforcement official tells the Associated Press Adam Lanza might have suffered from a personality disorder and the New York Times reports that several who knew Lanza in high school had been told he had Asperger’s syndrome, a high functioning form of autism.

 

‘It certainly seems he had several tell-tale signs of the disorder, often making those around him nervous because he was painfully shy and seemed to struggle to be social and form connections with people. It was evident Lanza “had a condition,” a neighbor tells the New York Post. “You definitely notice it,” he added. Lanza was “kind of, like, needy. I wouldn’t say antisocial, but struggling to be social.” One “family insider” tells the New York Daily News Lanza “was a deeply disturbed kid,” who “had major issues” and “was subject to outbursts.” A 25-year-old neighbor who sometimes watched Adam Lanza when his mother would go out with friends said he was on medication, reports the Washington Post.’

 

I hope that reporters on the spot pursue this angle actively, rather than yet another futile wail in favour of ‘gun control’ .  People said to be suffering from Asperger’s syndrome are frequently dosed with medications, including SSRI antidepressants.

 

Guns, as I have repeatedly said, have been freely available in the USA for centuries. Shootings followed by suicides, of this sort, were rare in that country until the era of modern medication for mental illness, and there is a strong correlation (yes, I know, correlation is not causation) between such shootings and the use of these medications.  Until the media take more interest in this correlation, we won’t get the proper inquiry into it that we so badly need. Why anyone should be against such an inquiry, I cannot imagine.