Toronto condo killings - A nightmare world

[the5thelement]

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This gentleman went and killed 5 HOA board members and he himself was killed by the police in Toronto. There was an ongoing dispute
about him being bothered by "electromagnetic waves" (not unlike Chuck from Better call saul). Terrible to see how someone can take such a drastic step destroying so many families in a matter of a few hours. It seems like every day someone is driven to the edge and goes beserk. Is this just a part of the human condition which we were shielded from before the advent of instant news or are people increasingly are impatient and ready to kill the instance they perceive a slight or things dont go their way?
Daily Mail Link

 

[surfguy84]

This gentleman went and killed 5 HOA board members and he himself was killed by the police in Toronto. There was an ongoing dispute
about him being bothered by "electromagnetic waves" (not unlike Chuck from Better call saul). Terrible to see how someone can take such a drastic step destroying so many families in a matter of a few hours. It seems like every day someone is driven to the edge and goes beserk. Is this just a part of the human condition which we were shielded from before the advent of instant news or are people increasingly are impatient and ready to kill the instance they perceive a slight or things dont go their way?
Daily Mail Link

My gut feeling is the rise of social media has created a sense of entitlement and pseudo importance, which in the right person, can manifest itself in these type of ways when they feel like their importance/right/voice/etc is not being recognized.

 

[Merovinge]

My gut feeling is the rise of social media has created a sense of entitlement and pseudo importance, which in the right person, can manifest itself in these type of ways when they feel like their importance/right/voice/etc is not being recognized.

That's my gut feeling as well, but doesn't the data suggest these events are actually less common and we really do just hear about it more now? I can't imagine in the 1990's knowing a single thing about any spree killer in Canada (maybe, maybe, would hear about a small time serial killer, but probably not even that).

 

[Stagg737]

I listen to a lot of historical true crime podcasts and audiobooks and some of the stuff that happened decades or even centuries ago is worse than a lot of what we deal with today including the murders of dozens of children (look up Bath School Massacre or Italian Hall Fire). The difference is that back then stories like those would hit the papers and be there for a couple of issues. Today it hits the news, spreads like wildfire with shares and reposts, and news sources carry the stories for weeks with everyone having to give their own social commentary and opinions.

Nothing we're seeing today is really new (other than occasionally the methods used) and has been present of much of human existence. We haven't changed so much in the past couple of generations that behaviors like this are new or acutely worsening in any way that's really different than in the past.

 

[WisNeuro]

Yeah, not sure how accurate they are 100+ years ago, but if we're talking about intentional homicide rates, we had peaks in the post Great Depression years and a couple peaks in the 70-90s, but then a pretty good decline over the next couple decades. We've had a slight increase in recent years, but still a good deal below those late 80's figures.

 

[whopper]

I mentioned this before. While in residency I asked the attending doctors given that several of the delusions involve technologies such as tracking devices, and given that these technologies (at that time) would become reality in a few years, what will this do to these patients that we could easily knock off as delusional?

E.g. We now live in a world where someone could make a drone look like a bird. We can now implant tracking devices into people or their vehicles. There are now EM weapons.

But making this even more complicated people can now get almost any substance they want, not just the marijuana that was easy to get but pretty much anything. I had a patient become psychotic from some mystery drug he got online. I don't know WTF it was. Drug test was negative. He had to go to the hospital and was psychotic for several days. Social media certainly hasn't helped and I highly suspect it will increase the incidence and severity of ADHD.

The world is overpopulated and with the media being able to relay information quickly and often inaccurately, these severely mentally ill people that were often times relegated to an asylum these days are in public and their (mis)deeds are readily transmitted to us further adding to our own social anxiety and cynicism.

 

[splik]

This gentleman went and killed 5 HOA board members and he himself was killed by the police in Toronto. There was an ongoing dispute
about him being bothered by "electromagnetic waves" (not unlike Chuck from Better call saul). Terrible to see how someone can take such a drastic step destroying so many families in a matter of a few hours. It seems like every day someone is driven to the edge and goes beserk. Is this just a part of the human condition which we were shielded from before the advent of instant news or are people increasingly are impatient and ready to kill the instance they perceive a slight or things dont go their way?
Daily Mail Link

Well it does not sound like he was simply "driven to the edge" and went "beserk". From the information in the article, he was an older man which is very unusual for this type of mass murder event. Per the article, he experienced systematized persecutory delusions including somatic passivity for at least 5 years believing the condo corporation and HOA board members had been conspiring to cause him great suffering with electromagnetic waves, had filed suit, frequently posted in social media, and had an escalating pattern of psychotic acting out. It is unclear if he was receiving any treatment. The reports in the article are suggestive of late paraphrenia.

 

[Sushirolls]

As the baby boomer generation moves through anticipate more psychotic presentations in the dementing elderly.

Good thing we have the facilities for these angry psychotic elderly to get the care they need. And the family supports to help spot these changes in behavior, too. /sarcasm