The Tragedy in Southport, England

We need to get kids away from the computer screens and into social settings to combat extremism. The Catholic Church can play a huge role.

It turns out the horrific attacks in Southport, England, which left at least 3 little girls dead who attended a Taylor Swift dance class, were carried out by the child of Rwandan immigrants who was described as an introverted loner who never went outside. I don’t believe being from Rwanda had anything to do with this tragedy, we really cannot blame Rwandans or immigration on this. This kid was a lunatic who failed to adapt and integrate into society, the same as most other mass shooters and stabbers, most of whom are not immigrants or do not have immigrant parents. We see this more and more because our society becomes sicker and sicker, and the Internet tends to exacerbate problems. 

I guarantee this kid spent all his time on the Internet, and he targeted those girls because in some way he was lashing out at what he perceived was keeping him down or being denied to him. There are plenty of sites on the Internet, and pages on social media, to both develop and feed almost any hatred or mental sickness. It is difficult for social media sites to weed them out, and they often nix perfectly good sites in their efforts, and as we know, too often apply a political lens to their censorship under the guise of fighting extremism. 

Being introverted isn’t in and of itself a problem, as many people are disposed towards it naturally. However, when someone becomes a shut-in, a loner, or chronically online with no other hobbies or some kind of legitimate career, they need help. Way more people today have crippling social anxiety, and when you add things like the porn epidemic to the mix it creates a trap where a young person, usually a boy but sometimes a girl, is stuck in an evil digital prison, where they don’t make friends, do not get the mentally helpful and necessary real-life social connection they need, and demons are able to often help push them over the edge to commit atrocities to others or themselves. These atrocities range from killing innocent people, to developing an addiction or severe obesity which destroys the self. 

We cannot allow our own kids to be shut-ins, and any time we come across loner kids we should do what we can to push such kids out of their situation, and encourage and warn their parents. If kids are left to the Internet all day and are not making friends in the real world they become at-risk youth of sorts similar to kids in a ghetto who might join a gang. Some young shut-ins might get angry at this and insist their 15-hour per day video game addiction is not hurting anyone, but it is hurting themselves and people do these things as a coping mechanism not as a hobby, when it goes too far in terms of time spent. A video game marathon is well and good, I play plenty of games myself, but if a kid has few or no real world friends something is wrong. 

Society has to get better regarding mental health. The Catholic Church can play a huge role here by providing constructive social outlets for kids, and many do, including my local parish. My local parish has a large teen group that meets for Mass every Sunday, and then has a myriad of events afterwards, and sometimes there are events during weeknights as well. You have to keep kids preoccupied with social endeavors, whether it’s sports teams or Church groups, or some will just be chronically online and will fail to make friends. School is not enough, and some kids do not do well socially in school but do better in athletic or religious settings. Once you get involved in something with a purpose, even the most introverted person will make some friends naturally, especially when they have something in common such as a shared religion or sport to play. 

The Catholic Church should be more aggressive in seeking to invite and attract non-Catholic youth to Catholic youth events and groups. It will not only have an evangelizing effect, but a social healing effect. Of course, volunteers, facilities and money needs to be in place, but I am confident that if any Parish seeks to do this, in most cases  many Parishioners will jump at the opportunity to assist. Events do not have to be very expensive either. You don’t even need to provide food if it’s too costly, just some structured socializing. In the digital era, one of the best things we can do is provide safe social spaces for kids and teenagers, and get them out of their bedrooms and away from screens. Kids have to see and understand the real world so that they are less susceptible to extremism and dismiss extremist content when they come across it because they know it’s absurd.