Jessica has enough, and then she asks me a rhetoric question: “Haven’t you?” I do.

Some of her readers might have it enough, much more than Jessica wished they had. Their lives might be in the downspin. They might feel desperate to do something dramatic to let the world know how bad it is. They might look at Jessica’s article for whom to blame for their misery. Jessica mentioned two examples, a self-confident, presumably more successful neighbor and a wealthy type blasting “themselves into outer space.”

What at least some pissed-off Americans do? They buy a semi-automatic gun or two and a lot of bullets. It is hard to reach those who “blast themselves into outer space.” Happy neighbors, who might appear more fortunate, are an easy target; in schools, churches, concerts, or supermarkets. Many factors trigger someone to become a mass shooter. One of them is the social justification for hopelessness. Jessica provides it in her writing. It is not her first article spreading despair.

In Jessica’s defense, there are many writers on Medium with the despairing message. Medium leaders support this kind of writing. Articles of this kind are regularly recommended to me and to four other Medium accounts I monitor. The last thing Medium needs is the next mass shooter testifying that Medium provided moral justification.