The Broken Life of Matthew Thomas Crooks
Absent from public discussions of Crooks’ tragedy are despair, losses, and mental health crises Covid-era lockdowns caused, especially young people; cruel, vitriolic, and even violent political rhetoric pervading our culture in the last several years; and effects of video gaming on young people’s brains, and perhaps on Crooks’ brain, effects worsened by the predatory gaming and technology industry, making billions of dollars, especially on young males. Gaming addictions and other addictions skyrocketed during Covid lockdowns.
Did Crooks imagine he was “defending democracy” if he succeeded in killing Trump? That potent abstraction that tens of thousands of mostly young men are sent to kill for in U.S. foreign wars, many of which are revealed to be based on lies, folly, and profits? How did lockdowns, bullying, and despair contribute to Crooks’ tragedy? Was he in a game? The last several years of increasingly cruel, vicious political rhetoric provided another potent context for Crooks’ suicidal violence.