Unanswerable? Why would parents of a 7 month old go out and kill people?

[HereSince1628]

The shootings took place, so there must have been some motivation. It may not be one that comes to mind because we don't share the same view of the world.

Sometimes you have to change a question to unlock it. If the question is asked either as, Under what circumstance would you die for your children? or under what circumstance would you kill to protect your child? It might get set a different circumstance, that prompts ideas.

I'm sure many, perhaps most, might might answer, nothing, but for some there may be an answer.

The next question is why how does a sanitarian, a person working to keep people safe from food pathogens and toxins, arrive at a view America so threatening that it requires that sacrifice?

[uppityperson]

1. People are complicated. It's not like in the movies or books, but quite complicated.

I don't understand either.

[TeeYiYi]

2. Her motivations were political.

The kid was a prop.

TYY

[HereSince1628]

4. How do you know the child was a prop? What did I miss?

[TeeYiYi]

14. What I'm suggesting...

...is that the woman was, for whatever reason, dedicated to an international cause. She was likely a passionate, brainwashed warrior who selected and then groomed an American suitor to carry out some holy war in the name of ISIS or whomever.

Why do spies spy? Why do international political warriors embed themselves within the fabric of America, creating the illusion of the happy family unit, only to be summoned for their one and only purpose;... to strike against the 'infidels.' It's always about gawd and/or the motherland (The Cold War)... or 72 virgins...

What I'm saying is that she came to America for one purpose... and having a baby may or may not have been part of her 'American dream' cover. Regardless, the child was not her first priority. It never was.

I don't "know" anything more than you. I'm just speculating, based on the information available and my own understanding of how the world works.

You never really know who your neighbors are.

TYY

[ManiacJoe]

3. There are lots of people in this world who

hate others more than they love their own children.

[leftstreet]

5. Only on teevee are all parents loving

Also would you assume, say, a garbage collector picks up trash because of his/her ideals, or to make a living?

[HereSince1628]

10. That's true, but I suppose consideration of loving parents

is operating both on people who can't imagine parents of a 7 month old being mass shooters and within the assumptions of the alternate questions I posed.

[jberryhill]

6. There are plenty of soldiers in plenty of armies that have children

If you believe you are fighting a justifiable war of some kind, then that is your belief.

It is also certainly true that in some instances lingering post-partum mood effects can lead some women to do strange things.

[randys1]

9. Yep to both observations.

Families are slaughtered by drones, Shock and Awe, etc.

[hifiguy]

7. Idjit religion.

That worst of all human inventions.

[HereSince1628]

12. I do think religion can introduce belief in dangerous moral imperatives.

I'm only willing to say that religion, as sometimes practiced, displays serious dysfunction

[hifiguy]

16. There is literally nothing that cannof be justifed

by the none-too-bright in the name of a nonexistent Invisible Skydaddy.

It's poison.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Similiar story for the Dear Fellow in

Colorado Springs. Duty calls. What a messed up place.

[HeiressofBickworth]

11. I'm curious

I wonder WHAT the couple told the grandmother when they dropped the baby off?

Hey, Mom, can you watch the baby for a while? We have a couple of errands to do.

or something along this line:
Hey Mom, can you watch the baby for a while and if we're not back, raise her to adulthood.

So, I suppose what I really want to know is what the grandmother's understanding was at the time she took the baby off their hands.

It's just hard to understand how the stockpiling of weapons and explosives wasn't some kind of an indication of something wrong. Did the grandma ever visit the couple's apartment?

So many questions.

[proverbialwisdom]

17. Press conference summary.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/san-bernardino-shooters-family-knowledge-extreme-behavior-attorney/story?id=35588391

[cwydro]

18. Latest news is that the grandmother lived with them.

So there was no "drop off."

The whole thing is so horrible.

[HereSince1628]

20. Yes, that conversation is also hard to imagine

[tabasco]

13. Because they're demented, warped, hateful assholes?

Just a wild guess.

[6chars]

22. Exactly

I mean, leaving the baby with the grandmother is the least of their failings.

[840high]

24. ...+1

[Snobblevitch]

15. I think an American decided

to go to Saudi Arabia to get a wife and got radicalized. He was apparently a hothead on the issue of religion. He wanted to kill more than he loved his daughter. His wife must have felt the same.

[HereSince1628]

23. I'd like to know what police/FBI think they mean when they say radicalized

The way I understand unconventional and extremism it seems a person could have that happen in the US.

I know a lot of people who identify under various labels ending in "-ists" and many of them are passionate and irritable (as in able to be aroused) around their 'isms'.

I can't say what he wanted, his motivations did overcome norms and taboos. Which suggests the motivations were very powerful for him

[Snobblevitch]

28. I'd like to know more too.

We often cannot understand the motivations of people's actions. Our home grown Eric Rudolph was a terrorist. There are young Somoli men in Minneapolis who have been recruited into Isis after living and going to school in Minnesota for many years.

[NightWatcher]

19. Root cause: Religion

Sure it was taken to an extreme, but at the root of it, is religion.

[hifiguy]

21. IT could hardly be more obvious

but some refuse to accept the irrefutable facts; somehow they have no problem accepting the obvious motivation whan a xtian loon goes on a rampage but here, not so much. Cognitive dissonance like that would make my head explode.

[840high]

25. My head, too. I read

these posts and shake my head.

[HereSince1628]

27. Saying religion really doesn't explain very much although

it might be loaded with many assumptions, expectations and even stereotypes.

And an answer might reside therein... but what about religion would facilitate parents of an infant to be mass-murderers?

Saying religion is simultaneously answers everything yet nothing.

[NightWatcher]

29. I'm not blaming a religion or even their religion. I blame the extremist actors

who do what they do because they believe they are acting in the favor, or defense, of their deity or belief system.

Religion is the root cause behind why people bomb abortion clinics, torch black churches or synagogues or mosques, behead women and children who happen to be Shia in a Sunni neighborhood (or vice versa), and it is also why so many people vote against their own best interests.

I'm against all religions.

[JI7]

26. Islamic fundamentalism

[obnoxiousdrunk]

31. Or any kind of fundamentalism ?

[GeorgeGist]

30. Short answer ...

religion.