“A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth”.

There’s a real ‘sink or swim you fuckers’ mentality in the US that isn’t reflected here in Europe. I don’t mean on an individual level but certainly at a societal and political level. The US does not seem to be a place where compassion can easily take root and when it does it is often mistaken for weakness.

At least that’s what it looks like to this outsider.There’s something peculiar to the US psyche that prefers competition above compassion as this is perhaps at the heart of the American Dream. Any time I’ve suggested the solution to US social issues may be mitigated via European style socialism, I’m quickly slammed for being a communist.

That's an extract from this article here. https://medium.com/lucid-nightmare/they-said-the-teenagers-scare-the-living-s-t-out-of-me-8439f5a8093d

But I think it's very relevant to what you've written here - and the reason I think it's predominantly white guys is two fold. The first is the gradual erosion of community spaces and community feeling. Whilst there remains a tight-knit community feel to most minority groups, white young men do not see themselves in this way. Their only real option for a close knit community is either to be in sports, or to stand against other minority groups and join a cause. More than a few have travelled that latter path.

The second thing is lived experience.... white people are routinely told that they live a very privileged life and they are at the top of the societal pyramid. Whilst that is true for a certain economic class, that is not exactly the experience of many young white teens. Privilege isn't simply about skin colour, your genitals or economic resources, there's a more complicated and nuanced picture to be seen and one society doesn't really want to see in the current climate of identity politics. I'd suggest the cognitive dissonance it creates will almost always out in nihilistic rage.

Great article :o)