Originally Posted by
RBP
[welcome to the answer to your otherwise rhetorical question. I do that some times]
We are all capable of it. Nature of humanity. Did a sociopath get molded into a psychopath? (cue Lost to say they are the same thing - he's a forensics guy). Is that even possible? I'd say yes, a sociopath by nature could devolve into psychopathy, but could be treated. The true psychopath cannot. Given his apparent lack of violent or criminal history, I'm leaning more towards a psychotic break. The intensely planned details , the writings, the markings on the guns, the incoherent rambling manifesto, the purposeful calm in execution, all put in that in a psychopathy category.
I have not gone too deep, but the meme-based clues are troubling. Significant references drawn from popular culture, politics, memes, and the chan boards - he was clearly looking to incite more generally. And if you had any doubt, his final troll was brilliant. There is an arrest photo of him flashing the "okay" symbol. That is a chan-created hoax that worked to convince many MSM outlets and people that the okay symbol was a solidarity show with white supremacists. And what did the press do with that photo? They ran it as "suspect flashes white supremacist sign in arrest photo". He got exactly what he wanted.