WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — A Warner Robins teacher is accused of threatening to behead a student after she made a comment about his Israeli flag, according to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office.
After that, several different witnesses independently said they heard Reese say, “he would kick her fg a, slit her godn throat and drag her a** outside and cut her head off.”
The same witness says Reese was later seen returning to his classroom, cursing extremely loudly. The witness says he was yelling that he “should not be spoken to like that because he is a Jew.”
He went on saying, “I will drag her a** into the parking lot, slit her f*****g throat and kill her.”
Wow, not sure to call him ultra-nationalist or religious-extremist.
Violent bigots come in ever flavor. At a certain point, it’s not worth the effort to suss out the source of their prejudices. It’s an unanswerable question that leads to the same dissapointment in simple minded zealotry no matter their specific path.
I’d rather spend time trying to understand the ones I respect instead of getting lost in the maze of a random scum.
Best comment in this shit-stained comment section.
Wow, not sure to call him ultra-nationalist or religious-extremist.
There’s a word for those two things; Zionist.
Not all zionists are religious, like at all.
It takes like 10 minutes of googling to see Zionism is an umbrella term for multiple different schools of thoughts. People are turning it into some slur when at its core it’s the belief that Jews have a right to a state. Keep in mind that Jews are both a race and a religion.
Race is a construct. We are all the same species.
Yes but so is Money, the significance of a social construct comes from how much society as a whole puts stock in the ideas. Unfortunately race is very relevant in today’s world as ethnicity and perceived race is a big factor in how issues are discussed and acted on.
I may be overreacting a bit, but your comment sounds a lot like the colorblind/all lives matter rethoric to me in this context, so I want to emphasize it’s significance to this discussion.
Well it’s more of a state in a specific place and that maybe everyone should go there.
Several different locations were considered at first. I think the levant was chosen because it renders the “go back where you came from” argument moot since they’d be living in the area they originated from.
it’s the belief that Jews have a right to a state.
Bullcrap. Zionism originated as an antisemitic Christian idea that was specifically based on the premise that Jewish people “don’t belong” in (so-called) “western civilization” and should return “where they came from” - ie, Palestine.
Keep in mind that Jews are both a race and a religion.
White supremacist much? Do you want to tell me now that Ethiopian Jewish people and Ashkenazi are the same “race”?
Uh no, Zionism is not a Christian idea. It’s been an idea long before Christianity was even around. I’m flabbergasted that you called me a white supremacist for stating a fact. Ethiopian and Ashkenazi Jews could very well share DNA linking them back to the original Jewish diaspora.
“As the BBC reports, the study suggests that “Ethiopians mixed with Egyptian, Israeli or Syrian populations about 3,000 years ago.” Professor Chris Tyler-Smith, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, told the BBC: “By analyzing the genetics of Ethiopia and several other regions we can see that there was gene flow into Ethiopia, probably from the Levant, around 3,000 years ago, and this fits perfectly with the story of the Queen of Sheba.” Note that the study does not contradict the 2007 work by Entine or other historical evidence. The results suggest that Israelites-Jews entered the region 3,000 years ago, but they were not necessarily consolidated as a group until about 1,500 years ago. Also, note the study does not necessarily confirm the biblical story of affair between Queen Sheba of ancient Ethiopia and king Solomon of ancient Israel.”
Here’s another
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543766/
“By principal component analysis, it was observed that the Jewish populations of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East formed a tight cluster that distinguished them from their non-Jewish neighbors (Fig. 1). Within this central cluster, each of these Jewish populations formed its own subcluster, in addition to the more remote localization of members of some Diaspora communities. The observation of a major central tight cluster was supported by statistical metrics for genetic distances (Fst, allelic sharing distances).”
With all this said, even if Ethiopian Jews and Ashkenazi Jews are not actually genetically related, they still get targeted the same whether they practice Judaism or not.
I’m flabbergasted that you called me a white supremacist for stating a fact.
Oh, look… a white supremacist is “flabbergasted” that someone pointed out their white supremacism.
Yawn.
Uh no, Zionism is not a Christian idea
Nope. Christian zionism predates Jewish zionism by about two decades. It’s such non-controversial history you’ll even find it on wikipedia, Clyde.
Ethiopian Jews and Ashkenazi Jews are not actually genetically related,
I’m genetically related to every other human being on the planet, genius - does that make me every “race” according to people like you who buy into the tenets of “race science”?
I have literally no idea how Jewish communities sharing specific DNA linking them to the levant has anything to do with white supremacy, or how that makes me a white supremacist. Zionism started after the Jewish Diaspora in 8th century BCE. Are all scientists that study genetics racist? Where are you getting this from and why are you so angry about it?
Are you trying to act like an asshole? Like… cause you are.
So now even Jew haters are Zionists?
Much like “nazi” you silly fucks are now trying to water down that word.
Pretending the teacher isn’t pro-Israel doesn’t make it true.
It’s always funny watching you people get mad when people call out zionism for what it is.
Oh, look… the fascists are now desperately hoping we’re going to forget what the word nazi means.
Yeah… not going to happen, fash.
Wow, not sure to call him ultra-nationalist or religious-extremist.
Fascist. That’s the word you’re looking for.
Religious nationalist is not a synonym for fascist. We need to stop diluting the meaning of the word fascist.
Religious nationalist
“Religious nationalist” is an oxymoron - especially when it comes to Abrahamic religions. Saluting a piece of colored fabric and treating it with any kind of reverential significance literally breaks the very first commandment.
They are neither religious - they literally act in direct contravention of the teachings they (supposedly) “follow” - nor nationalist - they literally (and overtly) place the interests of a small wealthy elite above the interests of the people in the nation.
No, Clyde - they are fascists.
Nations aren’t considered gods, and flags aren’t idols of those non-gods. You don’t sacrifice goats to the flag, or burn incense for it.
Judaism has historically looked at Christian beliefs and practices with way, way more suspicion of polytheism and idolatry than it’s ever looked at national flags.
The teacher here is unhinged, but you clearly don’t really know very much about the ten commandments, especially from a Jewish context.
Nations aren’t considered gods
Oh really? Children aren’t brainwashed into worshipping the classical liberal nation-states they are born into with religious-like reverance?
Really?
You don’t sacrifice goats to the flag,
No, we sacrifice people to them. Do tell, Clyde - how many USians have sacrificed themselves to “defend America” in the past couple of decades?
Judaism has historically looked at Christian beliefs
Oh, I see Jewish people everywhere being very suspicious of your precious nationalist religion… and it’s not a new thing, either.
Yes. Children do not literally worship their nation-state with literal religious reverence. No rabbi would tell you that the ten commandments are about prohibiting metaphorical sacrifices to metaphorical religions.
No rabbi would say that saying that someone “worships money” turns their wallet into an alter and their job into idol worship. Religiously, it’s just a metaphorical turn of phrase.
Maimonides, probably the most influential rabbi of the middle ages, explicitly called Christians idolaters. The trinity isn’t precisely considered polytheistic; the Hebrew term is shituf.
Can you find a single rabbi who would call volunteering to join a military and dying at war halachically prohibited human sacrifice to the nation-as-god or flag-as-idol?
And where exactly did I call myself a religious nationalist? I’m just saying that your argument that the term is an oxymoron is idiotic and betrays a deep ignorance of the religion. I mean, you couldn’t even quote the right commandment - in Judaism, the first item on the ten commandants is “I am the lord your God”, which makes your argument a complete non sequitur.
Children do not literally worship their nation-state with literal religious reverence.
Of course not! Performing weird little rituals in regards to it’s symbols and sacrificing themselves and others to it’s (alleged) grandeur cannot possibly be compared with anything religious!
I mean… at least the older religions offers you the fantasy of an afterlife to cling to, right? That must be enough of a difference, right?
No rabbi would say that saying that someone “worships money”
Capitalist bootlickers have always attempted to pretend that religious figures “didn’t mean what they say” when they condemned the wealthy elites… I guess that hasn’t changed at all, huh?
I’m just saying that your argument that the term is an oxymoron
I can’t wait for you to actually come up with something that isn’t just bottom-of-the-barrel apologetics - will this be taking you long?
Totally reasonable reaction to have…
(Please tell me I don’t need to tag this as sarcasm)
What the fuck
Sooo…. He’s in jail, right?
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I’d say “when pigs fly”, but cops already have helicopters in some places 🤷
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This really has nothing to do with religion or politics - that’s just the trigger.
This person needs to be put into psychiatric care immediately and given the appropriate treatment as they are a danger to themselves and others. They should not be allowed to post a bond and leave custody. A medical evaluation should be performed, obviously, but this is clearly a psychiatric case.
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It’s “fringe” but if this was our response to every time someone did this shit our mental healthcare facilities would be overrun like it was peak COVID. Plus, if this were some kind of treatable mental illness they’d be going absolutely nuts about curing it being some kind of liberal brainwashing. But it is an epidemic.
That would not be the case if ineffective resources dedicated to the prison system were properly redirected in an evidence-driven program designed to isolate people from larger society when they constitute a danger and effect whatever treatments are possible to fix the actual issues, not some misconstrued notion of good and evil. I believe that it is legitimate and moral for society to protect itself from people like this man. You’re just not going to fix anything by sticking him in a dark abusive hole for five years, much less letting him out on parole for a few grand.
This man’s brain is in the exact same condition that it was in when it caused him to react to a child’s statement as if he were sieging Fallujah. That same guy is still walking the streets. Having received some consequences for his action may have attenuated those signal pathways, but may have also exasperated them. He needs a combination of medication to reduce his reactivity and coping mechanisms for realizing when it’s happening. He may never be safe for society, but he’s certainly not safe because he was able to take $5k from his savings to pay bail.
I agree.
Seriously, what the flying fuck are you talking about?
People who commit acts of violence like this are quite clearly psychotic - whether it’s a mother murdering her children, a teacher threatening to murder a student, a gunman on campus, or someone who gets into fight after fight in bars. There is something broken in their brain.
Let me walk you through this, since your background in the subject is lacking. I will bet you $1000 dollars that if we were to do a neuroimaging on this man, we would see that his amygdala - the part of the brain that senses threat and engages the rest of the brain in a threat response is hypertrophied. His limbic system, which controls emotional response, is primed to react to a level of stimulation so small that probably neither you nor I would notice. His prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for pushing back on those signals through rationality and long term planning is hypotrophied. It is decoupled and unable to do its job. This is the same as we see in violent individuals throughout the prison system.
There are a number of ways this can happen. Having been abused as a child is one. Having been malnourished. Having grown up experiencing social abuse and rejection. It’s more likely than average he suffered a traumatic brain injury at some point in his history. TBIs are about ten times as common in the violent prison population as in society as a whole.
This man’s clinical condition dictated his interpretation of himself, which includes his religion. It’s the same for the gunman. It’s the same for the child abuser.
You will find the same in the brains of Hamas and IDF combatants. You will find, in a time series study, that these conditions become more extreme as a result of combat stress and ptsd. The Palestinian children who are being subjected to this massacre will display these same symptoms. The inner city kids in the US who grow up in a culture of systemic racism and violence show these same symptoms.
If you’re the kind of person who ascribes this kind of behavior to someone being an “evil” person or having an “evil” ideology, I strongly suggest you read some textbooks on neuropsychology and behavioral science.
Honest question: are you in favor of all (spontaneous?) violent crime being treated as a psychological problem, rather than a judicial one?
It sounds like you might, which I’m not necessarily against. I’m mostly asking because it I and probably others initially read your first comment as this being an exceptional case that should be treated differently. That made you sound to me like you were explaining things away. But from reading more of your comments I’m not so sure that’s the case, it seems to me like you may just have some underlying principles that do not align with the current system. This would be a very different interpretation of your comments, that if true, I’d like to understand.
Edit: I just read the only comment of yours I hadn’t read when I wrote this, which seems to confirm that you want it in general. I’m all for rehabilitation being the main goal in the justice system. Apparently I just didn’t get that that was what you were arguing for to begin with.
Thank you.
Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying. Violent crime is a brain thing, not a moral failing. It is true in every case.
In this man’s case, his condition latched onto his self identity as Jewish. If this man, same brain, same background, same genes, had been raised in Alabama, he’d instead be carrying an AR-15 to church and threatening to shoot up drag shows. He might have driven his SUV through a crowd of protestors. He might even have shot up a synagogue. If he were born black in Detroit, and had the same issues - and again, I am talking about physical brain issues because there is nothing psychological that does not have a physical manifestation in the brain - he’d probably be dead before he hit 18.
He reacted to the words of a preteen girl as if it were a violent and existential threat. Those words hit his brain and it went into fight mode instantly. It wasn’t a conscious reaction. The “sane” response, the one we’d expect if we were to put ourselves as a teacher into that situation, would have been to sit down with the girl and talk to her. If she said something like “Israel is a racist nation,” he could have talked to her, acknowledged the complexity and need for understanding and compassion, and used it as a teachable moment. If she said “All Jews should die,” it might have merited a trip to the principal, a visit with parents, and so on. Instead, he reacted with absolute fury. It’s the behavior of the vet with ptsd who becomes physically violent in his sleep. It’s the behavior of a person who tortures animals.
You can’t punish a person out of having a hypertrophic amygdala. You can’t do it to a Jew who hates Palestinians, or a Muslim who shoots up the Pulse nightclub, or a white guy who shoots up a synagogue or black church, or the white woman who tries to cause death by cop because a black family is having a barbecue.
We get a dopamine hit when we have revenge fantasies about things like that. I have that, too. It’s tough to see a video with homophobia or transphobia and not think “I’d like to beat that guy.”
The right way to fix it, though, is to go after the actual causes. We know - and I mean that in the scientific sense of the word - that child abuse leads there. We know that poverty leads there. We know that malnutrition leads there. We know that societies that reward toxic masculinity and honor culture lead there.
And if you can’t solve it there for all cases, you can at least acknowledge that the condition is phenomenologically closer to an epileptic seizure than demonic possession or an “evil” person choosing to do evil. They need their brain chemistry evened out. They need self-detection and coping mechanisms.
They certainly do not need to be out on the street, nor do they need to be locked up in an American style prison.
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I wouldn’t blame it on Judaism (religion) but it’s pretty clearly a political thing.
It’s a pretty normal reaction for a Zionist.
But make sure they can still vote Republican, right?
I’m going to pretend your question was serious.
Should we allow people with diagnosed psychoses to vote? People with schizophrenia or other psychological conditions?
In the traditional good-and-evil model of the prison system as it exists in the US today, I am very much in favor of allowing prisoners to vote both while in prison and after having served their time. I believe that because I believe that the prison system is fundamentally unjust, that innocent people are jailed, that there is significant racial prejudice constantly driving the system, and that there’s no scientific evidence driven justification for what we do and how we do it. Rubin Carter should have been able to vote. Leonard Peltier should have been able to vote. Until we fix the criminal justice system, I think it’s wrong to deny prisoners the right to vote, and I think we need to make sure their votes are made without coercion and properly registered.
But should we allow someone with a clinically diagnosed psychological condition like schizophrenia to vote? They are wracked by delusions, what does their vote mean? For me, it goes down to the assumption of rational agency being part of the justification of a democratic system in the first place, versus the obvious fear of weaponized medical diagnoses being used for political purposes.
It seems to me that he’s getting the perception that the status quo now normalizes with the things that Hamas has done, in light of the Palestinian protesters around the world.
I would not comment on this, however, as I am not legible enough to know whether his characteristics are of psychiatric disorders or high levels of neuroticism. I cannot fully judge this person, as I am not to claim that I was present in his environment where this happened.[Edit: (see next posts in the comments, as I have arrived at a different conclusion)]I can tell, however, he may be triggered, but he’s not the triggerman.
And yes, put that man in a ward or with a therapist.
When I use the name of a disorder like “psychotic” in this context, I’m using it as a colloquial term. I was a little more specific with the neuropsychological components because that emphasizes my point. I’m a biologist and not a psychologist, and I think that the neuronal bits are more important than the clinical classification. The latter might help with treatment, but the former is what I’m proposing as causal.
We can certainly reasonably speculate that he was following the news. We can make a pretty well educated guess of the slant given by the news he was following, and how he interpreted it. His brain, having taken in the violent imagery and internalized it as an existential threat to himself, his ego-identity, and those with whom he identifies, was primed for this response. The involved physical neurons were in a hypersensitive pre-triggered state, just like yours would be if you sensed you were being stalked by a tiger.
The resulting signals bypass the deliberative brain (which is a whole subject in itself), and moves straight to flight/fight/freeze. These are things we can view diagnostically in people who have committed violence, and they’re ones we can trigger by specific electrical stimulations of the brain.
If you want to fix a problem, you have to identify it and address it. You can’t beat schizophrenia or epilepsy out of someone.
Thank you for sharing your thoughtful insights. Your perspective adds depth to the discussion, and I find your analysis intriguing. It has given me valuable insights.
And it’s great that we align on this matter. I value the exchange of ideas, and it’s reassuring to find common ground in our views.
Who knows what new understandings we might uncover in the future ?
When I read the news I had conflicting emotions of pity but also understanding for his behaviour, in a manner of speaking (hence my initial comment, and my stance in disbelief). “What if he’s only a single piece of pieces that are being moved around by various factors ?”, including his environment. For instance, if his post immediate environment is presenting a supportive attitude towards ALL Palestinians, that could actually be wrongly perceived.
Exuding highly reactive aggressive behaviour is often correlated with high levels of neuroticism and emotional factors at play, from my understanding.
Here is an interesting excerpt from psychologist expert, Arlin Cunic, “A smaller-scale study found that after viewing unpleasant images, people rating higher in neuroticism had lower oxygen levels in their lateral prefrontal cortex than those with lower neuroticism ratings…”, https://www.verywellmind.com/how-neuroticism-affects-your-behavior-4782188
I have come across these concepts before from documentaries and vast inputs, but your insights has driven me to do a brief research about it; specifically about neuroticism. Quite fascinating.
It is indeed of most import to address these complex cases, without having to leave them at the wits of those who prefer idleness.
