Just another lone wolf, right?

[conuly]

Engineer accused of crashing train said he was 'suspicious' of nearby coronavirus relief ship, Justice Department says

I can't help but think it'd be interesting to know exactly where he was posting and what he was watching and reading in the days leading up to this.

Comments

[dewline]

As would many of us, I suspect. Stochastic terrorism is real.

[brokenallbroken]

They just interviewed a friend of his on the local news, who said this is so wildly out of character he doesn't believe the guy said what the cops said he said.

[siderea]

I have to say, there's things about this which are more suggestive of a psychotic break than someone slowly radicalized by their reading habits.

I've three times now had someone I know go from perfectly reasonable human being with a reasonable sense of causality to thinking the FBI was bugging their Fruit Loops or certain that criminals were conspiring on the roof. This feels similar to me.

The first and most obvious thing is how wildly inept an act of "terrorism" this is. Dude tried to ram a boat with a train. A train on tracks that don't go to the boat. Claims it was a consciousness-raising exercise, but I'm having trouble imagining anybody thought, "Hmmm, what can I do that will bring my nebulous sense of foreboding and unspecific allegations of nefariousness to maximum attention? I know! I'll randomly crash a train not far from the ship and hope that provides me with the opportunity to speak to the media to explain the connection to them! For that reason, when they come to arrest me, I will run away first!" It's not that it's dumb, it's that it's strange.

And then there's the whole business about lighting a flare in the train? And then him saying something about how he seized the moment?

Yeeeeeeeah, nah. This smells like someone with a paranoid-grandiose delusion and impulsivity.

We'll no doubt find out more one way or another. Myself I'm betting that someone discovers he slathered his apartment walls with peanut butter to keep out the mind-control lasers or similar.

[brokenallbroken]

A psychotic break is exactly what I thought when I first saw the story.

[mtbc]

I do appreciate this hypothesis being offered as this was one of the strangest news stories I've seen for a while.

[conuly]

Well, you definitely have more psych knowledge than I do, so I'm going to go with this until/unless there's more evidence.

[dark_phoenix54]

Indeed, although the places would probably make my brain hurt, I'd still like to see what bullshit they are pedaling.

[heron61]

I did some looking, and can't find any hints of this guy's politics, which may mean he just lost it for some reason unrelated to far right radicalization, or it may mean reporters just haven't found his far right posts yet - either could be true.

[author_by_night]

I think we all know. :/ (Yes, I know that was a rhetorical question. Just adding to it.)

[thewayne]

Yeah, I don't think it would be particularly interesting. I would imagine it would be loaded with QAnon nonsense, and probably a good amount of Jones.

I can live without it.

[maureenlycaon_dw]

A psychotic break instead of being radicalized . . . that honestly hadn't occurred to me. But even for Qanon, the whole thing was over the top.

If it's paranoid schizophrenia or something like that, I'd wonder when he became mentally ill. Most schizophrenics start having problems around college age.

[chez_jae]

I suspect he was wearing a tinfoil hat, too.