Unabomber Manifesto

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Dr. Huk-N-Duck

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Having recently watched the Unabomber documentary on Netflix, and reading portions of his manifesto http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf (famously published in newspapers), the thought of Dr. Kaczynski’s political leanings are of interest to me. Do you think he qualifies as a liberal? A conservative? Some odd hybrid of the two?
 
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Huk said:
Do you think he qualifies as a liberal? A conservative? Some odd hybrid of the two?
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Neither. Kaczynski asserted both leftism and rightism were hostile to his pro-anarchy and anti-technology views. He's neither liberal nor conservative; he's an anarchist and a Luddite.
 
I couldn't qualify him as either. I would have to say that he was a crackpot! Nutjob! Delusional idiot!
 
AverageJoe said:
I couldn't qualify him as either. I would have to say that he was a crackpot! Nutjob! Delusional idiot!
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Well, that's the thing. Kaczynski isn't a crackpot or a nutjob or delusional. His manifesto starts from a false premise--that "the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race"--but sanely and rationally argues his case from that assumption. One of the social scientists he cites in the manifesto read it and evaluated it as "something that a very good graduate student might have written" (source).

The Unabomber isn't a lunatic. He's a dangerous radical and a domestic terrorist--who like other terrorists such as the IRA or al-Qaeda, knew what he was doing, and had well-articulated reasons why (whether or not we agree with them).
 
Huk said:
Having recently watched the Unabomber documentary on Netflix, and reading portions of his manifesto http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf (famously published in newspapers), the thought of Dr. Kaczynski’s political leanings are of interest to me. Do you think he qualifies as a liberal? A conservative? Some odd hybrid of the two?
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Skimmed it. Evidently an evolutionist who took his Materialism to its logical extreme.
 
Ransom said:
Well, that's the thing. Kaczynski isn't a crackpot or a nutjob or delusional. His manifesto starts from a false premise--that "the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race"--but sanely and rationally argues his case from that assumption. One of the social scientists he cites in the manifesto read it and evaluated it as "something that a very good graduate student might have written"
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I agree. It’s far too easy for people to say he was a crazy nut. I was a teen when he was arrested, so I remember the unabomber, but I kind of forgot about him until watching the Netflix documentary recently. I believe he was perfectly sane and methodical about everything. That’s not to say he wasn’t evil. He was also highly intelligent (167 IQ) and had a PhD in mathematics.

Politically speaking, I’d have to do a little more research. He mostly strikes me as a radical leftist with his earth-first philosophy, but there are some alt-right components to his views as well.
 
Huk said:
I agree. It’s far too easy for people to say he was a crazy nut. I was a teen when he was arrested, so I remember the unabomber, but I kind of forgot about him until watching the Netflix documentary recently. I believe he was perfectly sane and methodical about everything. That’s not to say he wasn’t evil. He was also highly intelligent (167 IQ) and had a PhD in mathematics.

Politically speaking, I’d have to do a little more research. He mostly strikes me as a radical leftist with his earth-first philosophy, but there are some alt-right components to his views as well.
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I've read many places that he had an extremely high IQ, and that he was very intelligent. I don't doubt this. Yet, anyone who believes they can get away with this kind of thing "Scott"(LOL) free is an idiot.
 
AverageJoe said:
I've read many places that he had an extremely high IQ, and that he was very intelligent. I don't doubt this. Yet, anyone who believes they can get away with this kind of thing "Scott"(LOL) free is an idiot.
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that is true... but then there is always the memory and legend of db cooper that keeps a lot of these elaborate james bond villian types going..... the difference of course is db cooper didn;t kill anyone... as fas as anyone knows... and ted kacynski did.... ....it;s highly likely db cooper accidently killed himself... but until somebody finds the body what does anybody really know?.... :sneaky:
 
AverageJoe said:
I've read many places that he had an extremely high IQ, and that he was very intelligent. I don't doubt this. Yet, anyone who believes they can get away with this kind of thing "Scott"(LOL) free is an idiot.
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He did get away with it, for nearly 20 years. He acquired wilderness survival skills and lived as a recluse starting in the 1970s. At the time of his arrest, he was the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history. (The D. B. Cooper case ultimately ran longer, and 9/11 is now the most expensive.)

He might have gotten away with it longer, too, except that Kaczynski's brother read the manifesto and recognized his style, and tipped off the feds about his suspicions.
 
Ransom said:
He might have gotten away with it longer, too, except that Kaczynski's brother read the manifesto and recognized his style, and tipped off the feds about his suspicions.
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According to the documentary I watched, it was actually his sister-in-law who connected most of the dots. Ironically, she never met Ted, but she had read his rantings enough to get suspicious.
 
Huk said:
According to the documentary I watched, it was actually his sister-in-law who connected most of the dots. Ironically, she never met Ted, but she had read his rantings enough to get suspicious.
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That's true. She was the first to be suspicious. His brother was the one who gathered the evidence and gave it to the feds.
 
Ransom said:
He did get away with it, for nearly 20 years. He acquired wilderness survival skills and lived as a recluse starting in the 1970s. At the time of his arrest, he was the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history. (The D. B. Cooper case ultimately ran longer, and 9/11 is now the most expensive.)

He might have gotten away with it longer, too, except that Kaczynski's brother read the manifesto and recognized his style, and tipped off the feds about his suspicions.
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Yet, he didn't get away with it, did he? He was finally caught.
 
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