Further, I think its possible that with the cultural associations of that word, using it here actually slights the serious nature of the threat… to imply that it was anything less than fully intentional (as in, “insanity defense” etc). I did not mean to do so. What I meant, really, was that this is so far utterly outside of any acceptable realm of behavior as to be… bizzarre. That does not, in our homophobic, fat-shaming, disrespectful culture, make it *surprising*.

An entire culture that rewards the kinds of behaviors (called “microaggressions”) that make it possible and comprehensible for a few people to do things like this. Not many people make death threats; many people use misogynistic, fat-shaming, and homophobic slurs. The sum total of all of those smaller slights is what makes the more shocking violations, like this one, possible.