"out in style"

I went out at lunchtime today and happened to catch a disturbing bit of audio on the Dennis Prager show. Prager played back a story from Omaha NBC affiliate WOWT that included an interview with a friend of the young man who murdered eight people yesterday. The audio is here and at about 2:06 in, the friend says this:

"I don't think anything less of him because I know that Robbie would have never have done anything like this just for the fun of it, it was he wanted to go out in style and that's what he did...he went out in style."

The massacre itself is far more appalling than those words of course, and I'll avoid the temptation to paint with too broad a brush. Still, that someone would go on camera and say something like that kind of takes me aback. I don't exactly know how I'd react if I was in that guy's shoes, but I'm pretty sure that if any of my friends murder eight innocent people I'm going to think less of that person. It may be mixed with sorrow, anger, confusion, and shock, but the revulsion will be there, of that I'm certain. That's just the way it is.

I'm completely baffled at the whole "style" thing. WTF? Either I'm missing something or that's a pretty depraved sense of style. Hopefully very uncommon also.

Comments

[Rob]

Everything about this is disgusting and frightening.

[ricki]

I have no words - not even ones of four letters and Anglo-Saxon origins - to adequately describe how sick I think that attitude is.

[Joel]

Most people, when they go out in style, don't take an honor guard of innocent bystanders with them just for the hell of it.

[Dave E.]

Style and eternal damnation are mutually exclusive I think, Joel. In general I'm not big on condemning human failings, having my own fair share of them. Murder is obviously different though, and what is starting to frighten me more than anything is the lack of condemnation of the murderer and the mindset of his friend from any political leader. Have I missed that? Or is it just too politically explosive to actually condemn mass murderers now?

[DirtCrashr]

Identity-politics has transformed the landscape such that, "If you haven't mass murdered anybody, then you can't speak authentically or condemingly about what it's like"... And these people see fit to vote.