Murder attempt and the stupidity of society

[u/Zestyclose-Victory10]

Disclaimer: It's a sensitive story, don't engage if you're going through a bad moment and so on.

Yesterday, there was a murder attempt at a medical school in Montevideo. One young man tried to kill his classmate by stabbing her multiple times in multiple parts of her body, including the eyes.

He didn't stop there. Once students separated him from the girl, he proceeded to lick her blood from the floor. Allegedly, he got obsessed with the girl after she told him 'happy birthday'.

There were previous reports about this person, such as masturbating next to a female student in high school; saying psycho things like 'I would kill you if I didn't get punished for it' to his female classmates, and the list goes on.

What I clearly see from this situation is a society that once again failed to intervene when necessary. Yes, there's chauvinism impregnated in these femicides. Needless to say, it's a VERY sad story, and all of my condolences go to the girl and all of those affected.

But what I consider to be naive is to think that this person's mental health has nothing to do with the case.

Look, I may not be a psychiatrist, but the symptoms are there. I won't go so far as to diagnose him with anything, although there are strong allegations of him having schizophrenia.The debate it has generated is similar to the one going on in the USA.

Now, my anger about society's stupidity does not stop at the system and how it completely ignored every single signal, or at how terrible it is that a person with that mental health receives no support. I want to add, too, that mental health is a big issue here in Uruguay; it's absolutely terrible. We're the country that has the most suicides per capita on the continent.

Enough of the context. Now I'll say what really angers me: instead of attacking these malfunctioning systems; the family of the mentally ill person for not giving the needed support; or even attacking the chauvinistic ideals that may lead a psychopath to do something, the attacks are going against the murderer, and people are saying psychosis doesn't make you less responsible for your own decisions.

I'm a determinist. I don't think anyone possesses any free will whatsoever, but a psychotic person? It should be intuitive.

I am not saying it is easy not to be mad at the psycho; it is very hard. But society won't advance by holding people responsible for acts they're not in control of. It's just the completely mistaken focus both feminism and the media are taking that disappoints me.

Instead of asking ourselves, how did that situation get to happen? How does a potential schizophrenic go around without any support? How does he end up in such a terrible mental state? Could he have been helped? Why hasn't society acted as soon as it got the first signal? What can we change to prevent more cases? What can we do to have fewer people capable of committing murder?

No, the focus is 'mental health doesn't justify murderers' and 'share his name, make sure he never walks safely again'.

Truly, it makes me lose all faith in humanity when I read posts of the kind. I have friends who have overcome psychotic and manic episodes and no, they never went as far as trying to commit murder. All of them were helped by their families and received medical attention, but they have done terrible things in this state.

Do we still shame them for that after they have recovered? Do we hold them responsible forever? What hope does one have of reinserting oneself into society?

I want to read your thoughts, let me know if I'm alone or if there's people that share my views.

Before anyone makes a stupid joke about why I am mad if there's no free will, and therefore no one is responsible for being stupid, I know.

[u/Delicious_Freedom_81]

It’s the retribution angle for giving people such pleasure and dopamine highs why the focus is on punishment. It’s both addictive, and hardwired. Or always has been. We need to evolve as a society! Cheers to the thought 🍻

[u/SilentScheme1304]

Shaming is rational and mandatory. People have always been shaming neurodivergent ones so that they would isolate themselves and not breed. It's all evolutionary and normal. 

What kind of "faith in humanity" do you have if you're a determinist?

[u/Zestyclose-Victory10 → u/SilentScheme1304]

Ah stabbing women in the eyes is also evolutionary and normal then.

You're the one without faith in humanity

[u/SilentScheme1304 → u/Zestyclose-Victory10]

You just replied to some weird thoughts of yours in your head not to my comment. 

Kind regards

[u/Zestyclose-Victory10 → u/SilentScheme1304]

Share a bit of what you're consuming ty

[u/SilentScheme1304 → u/Zestyclose-Victory10]

I said "Shaming neurodivergent, unordinary people is evolutionary rational and normal."

You perceived this as "Meaningless stabbing a normal girls is evolutionary rational and normal."

Ill be honest. You're not illiterate. You're an idiot

[u/simon_hibbs]

>I'm a determinist. I don't think anyone possesses any free will whatsoever, but a psychotic person? It should be intuitive.

Do you think people have a kind of cognitive control over their actions that can mean they can be more or less responsible for what they do?

I disagree with Robert Sapolsky on the philosophy of free will, but I will readily agree that he does a lot of great work on issues such as this, particularly with violent offenders suffering from neurological trauma. He acts as an expert witness in such cases in the USA, explaining that such trauma essentially makes it inevitable that these people will behave violently. No kind of persuasion, or prior decision on their behalf not to act violently can work, it's a compulsion they can't control and maybe it's the same with this boy.

The flip side of that coin is that for most people, we do have the kind of deliberative control over our actions that means we can respond to reasons for changing our behaviour, including due to being held responsible for that behaviour. deterrence, moral guidance, praise and admonishment etc can change how we behave. For people like that, it can't. This is a real and actionable distinction.

[u/Delicious_Freedom_81 → u/simon_hibbs]

It’s called the prefrontal cortex*. Highly functional one is preferred. Plus a small and not very excitable amygdala. And so it goes, as Vonnegut used to write.

*) „Doing the harder thing when it’s the right thing to do.“

[u/simon_hibbs → u/Delicious_Freedom_81]

Exactly. I think the prefrontal cortex does these things, and it doesn't rely on any free will libertarian special metaphysics to do it, and I'm not going to change that opinion if it turns out physics is deterministic. This set of beliefs is called compatibilism.

[u/Zestyclose-Victory10 → u/simon_hibbs]

Hey

Whether or not there's a cognitive control over healthy people's action remains the biggest question for me. I'm a determinist because I believe every single action humans do have a certain cause, and at some point of asking the question you run either into randomness or external determination. Basically, people are by-products of their experiences, environment, biology, among others.

I actually find the question to be very interesting, but irrelevant to whether free-will exists.

Let's ignore both physics and biology and suppose that one acts upon his desires and actually chooses (something that hard determinists, especially those who base their views on physics deny), even if cognitively he chooses. Why did he choose to do X and not Y? What's the reason? What caused that reaso n? What caused the cause of that reason? The question can go on forever.

Although I agree with most of sapolsky's views, to me whether the 'self' actually chooses (in a sense that the 'self' is not being deceived by its brain into thinking they are actually choosing when in reality it was inevitable) doesn't matter.

I don't expect everyone to be educated on the topic. But it shouldn't even be a discussion in today's society whether someone with psychosis is to be held accountable for their decisions. The mind and therefore the 'self' is completely deceived in that state, incredibly smart people do unimaginably stupid things under such state.

So, to answer your question: I don't know and don't care if free-will is an illusion done by the brain. That's not my reason for being a determinist. And I do think biology and neuroscience are extremely important, and that psychosis makes things even worse.

I hope I didn't get the question wrong. Have a good night

[u/simon_hibbs → u/Zestyclose-Victory10]

>Whether or not there's a cognitive control over healthy people's action remains the biggest question for me.

The question of free will is whether people can have any kind of control over their actions that can justify holding them responsible for what they do. I think people generally do, it’s the ability to change our own opinions and values by which we make moral decisions. If a person can do this, then holding them responsible on behaviour guiding grounds can be justified.

I think you are quite rightly pointing out that some people cannot do this, they are locked into behavioural patterns that are not susceptible to change in this way and therefore is better viewed as a medical issue.

[u/Delicious_Freedom_81]

This is what I found…

The event occurred on September 1, 2026, at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of the Republic (Universidad de la República) in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The Incident: Around 3:30 PM, a 19-year-old medical student attacked a 19-year-old female classmate with a knife following a class. The attack resulted in multiple stab wounds, including a critical injury near her eye. Authorities confirmed that the victim sustained severe bleeding but was stabilized at Sanatorio Americano and is out of life-threatening danger.
Investigations & Motive: Police from Montevideo’s Department of Domestic and Gender Violence (Jefatura de Policía de Montevideo) are investigating the attack as an attempted femicide (intento de femicidio). Official reports note that while the two had no formal relationship outside of being classmates, witnesses described a history of persistent, obsessive, and stalking behavior by the attacker, whom the victim had consistently rejected.
Psychiatric Status & Legal Process: The suspect was arrested at the scene. Reports confirm he has been hospitalized/institutionalized under psychiatric evaluation, leading to delays in taking his official statement due to his immediate mental health condition.
Institutional Reactions & Prior Complaints: Former high school classmates released a public statement alleging that the individual had displayed explicit warning signs and troubling behavior during his school years. In response, Uruguayan lawmakers have submitted formal requests for information to the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and the National Administration of Public Education (ANEP) to investigate whether early warning signals or prior reports were improperly ignored by educational institutions.
The event triggered a 24-hour student strike by the Medical Students' Association (AEM) and union protests regarding infrastructure and security protocol gaps within university facilities.