Despite knowing better, people's conception of a government or even an entire country often rests on the image of its leader. People thinking of the Canadian government, for example, now fixate on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Americans fixate on leaders as well, often using
terms like "Trump's America" to tie the climate of social relations to their president. The head of state becomes the state itself.
But it goes even further with countries that the governments of the United States and Canada are unfriendly with. In these cases, mainstream media, pop culture and politicians speak of their leaders not only like they
are the country, but as though they're cartoon villains.
Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, famously
called the "mad dog of the Middle East" by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan, had a
documentary released about him post-mortem by the same name. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
is a "butcher" gone wild who supposedly
unleashed chemical weapons on an area his government had nearly retaken just because he's full of bloodlust. Magazines are riddled with covers
depicting leaders, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, as people that simply want to watch the world burn.
Comment: If it is indeed correct that the perpetrator was known to authorities, it's reasonable to question whether someone had foreknowledge that an attack like this might happen. Because, in a number of instances, there's strong evidence showing that the establishment actually facilitated the attack. That said, it's also possible that the perpetrator just 'went off':