Justin Mohn has “been ranting and railing about the government for 10 years now and how they’re out to get him,” a childhood friend told NBC News.

The man accused of killing his father and displaying his decapitated head in a macabre YouTube video has long been obsessed with conspiracy theories, say those who knew him.

Justin Mohn, 32, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and other counts after his father, Michael Mohn, was found beheaded in their family home in Middletown Township’s Levittown section Tuesday evening, court records show.

In a video that was removed by YouTube hours after it was posted Tuesday, the younger Mohn described his father as a federal employee of 20 years and referred to him as a traitor to his country. He also called for the death of all federal officials while allegedly displaying his father’s head.

“We’re all just in shock right now,” John Prickett, 68, who lives down the block from the Mohn residence, said Wednesday.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I just want to pint out the role parasociality likely plays in all this. You see it to a lessor extent in fandoms like Marvel or Star Wars, but these people have their identity all wrapped up in the things they see and hear, the talking heads and the talking heads problem.

    We didn’t evolve in a world of screens and taking voices. We only have so much of an ability to contextualize that the people on screens aren’t us. So when some one had their entire being wrapped up in a parasocial relationship with Alex Jones or whoever, they lose the ability to distinguish what’s happening to the characters or themselves. It’s all the same.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Yup. The cries of “identity politics” from the right was just more projection. Because of course it was.