Colorado Shooter Was a “Keynesian,” “Socialist”

Karl Pierson
Karl Pierson

Details behind the motivations of a student who shot two classmates at Arapahoe High in Colorado have revealed the interesting politics of Karl Pierson, who ended his attacks by committing suicide.

The Denver Post‘s profile of Pierson was revealed to have edited the fact that a classmate described him as “a very opinionated Socialist,” and replaced it with “very opinionated.”

The original report appeared as follows:

Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with the gunman,described him as a very opinionated Socialist.

“He was exuberant I guess,” Conrad told The Denver Post.

The edited report appears now as follows:

“Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with Pierson, described him as very opinionated.”

Why the change?

The Denver Post went on to describe Pierson’s political beliefs:

In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith, who through his invisible-hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as “Keynesian.”

“I was wondering to all the neoclassicals and neoliberals, why isn’t the market correcting itself?” he wrote. “If the invisible hand is so strong, shouldn’t it be able to overpower regulations?”

Strangely enough, Pierson was also apparently an advocate for gun control. “He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff,” said junior Abbey Skoda, who was in a class with Pierson during her freshman year. “I also heard he was bullied a lot.”


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