[burnt-resistor]

Not very much substance or evidence in this op-ed article, there should be at least some support. Yes, online glorification of such needs to be shutdown and that means creative MMO platforms must be held accountable to provide effective moderation.

More broadly, I'm concerned that the civilization glue of community continues to be in retreat, lack of uniform mental healthcare and healthcare, and lack of reasonable bounds on who can/'t have firearms with similar respect as vehicular operation.

While that means I'm concerned about the same loser types Columbine that continue to be a problem (as mentioned), but I'm also concerned about organized domestic and international terrorists (including accelerationist, race-oriented, and religious groups) out to do much greater harm in ways that aren't just mass shootings.

Also, AI chatbots opens up the potential of automating sentiment manipulation through astroturfing leading towards radicalization goals.

Final qualitative observation: Functional, healthy civilizations seem to produce far fewer revenge-suicide events per capita per time interval.

[Mountain_Skies]

Robert Putnam has plenty of research on the subject of the disappearance of community, but he was called a Nazi for doing actual research and publishing the results because the data didn't show what many people, including the vast majority of Hacker News, wishes to be true. As long as we continue to insist that our wishes trump reality, things will continue to fall apart, and everyone will continue to act confused about why it is happening. Lots of unsupported theories that conform to wishes will be bandied about while actual research continues to be ignored.