The thing is that much of the writing in the manifesto is spot on in its analysis of Islam, the threat posed to Western culture and democratic systems of government by multiculturalism and by Marxism and their sympathizers. There is little evidence in the first 800 or so pages that this is guy who would become so radicalized he would shoot up and blow up innocent people.
He strongly defends and argues in favor of the constitutional rights we enjoy in the United States. He rejects Nazism and other “hateful” ideologies. He shows understandable alarm at the loss of freedoms in the name of tolerance. None of these would be foreign to conservative philosophy. You can tell he researched his subject very well and the argument he presents in favor of protecting Western culture is one I would not fault.
However later in the manifesto he starts getting more heavily into a ultra nationalist argument with comparisons to Custer and Sitting Bull (he sees himself as a Sitting Bull against the Custer of Islam) and you can see a growing acceptance of armed resistance and action to reach his goals. When he starts his Templar Knights I think it is a safe bet to say he went off the rails big time.
The point being he was right about many things but for whatever reason he failed to grasp that the crimes he committed were the complete antithesis of the philosophy he claimed to believe.
One of the ideals Western culture rests on is the ideal of being a system of laws not of men. His crimes went against that 100%.
“The point being he was right about many things but for whatever reason he failed to grasp that the crimes he committed were the complete antithesis of the philosophy he claimed to believe.
One of the ideals Western culture rests on is the ideal of being a system of laws not of men. His crimes went against that 100%.”
Agree. 100%.
I enjoyed reading your analysis.
Today, I believe he is a madman, and we will never understand his logic and motivations. Even if we got a sociopath to question him and uncover the answers, we would not understand those answers.
If he slowly descended into madness, his early writing would not be connected to his current work.
He seems to have lost respect for all Human life. He identified a group as the root cause to current problems???? He then sets out to erase that group????
The medium to long term question is > how do innocents protect themselves? The Police needed 90 minutes to respond??