Don's Tuesday Column

           THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson   Red Bluff Daily News   8/20/2019

The rest of the murderers’ stories

The role of so-called “manifestos,” the testaments or screeds left behind by mass killers, has quite a history. Within our lifetime many may recall the way the news media struggled over publicizing Ted (Unabomber) Kaczynski’s lengthy manifesto containing his rationalizations for years of bombing and killing: “The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.”

The Washington Post published an 8-page supplement containing his 35,000-word manifesto, a decision that went against the policy of elevating the stature of a madman killer but, on the advice of the FBI, proved to be the break in the case when Kaczynski’s brother recognized his writing and beliefs. It was less well known that among the inspirations for his pessimistic tome was Al Gore’s book, “Earth in the Balance.”

Almost all would recognize the benefits that have accrued to humanity’s elevation and economic advancement stemming from the Industrial Revolution. There have certainly been some downsides; however, given a choice between hunting, gathering and providing from their own plot of land and limited resources—and having the many choices, things, lifestyles and opportunities inherent with modern industrial/technological advancements—well, it’s not much of a choice.

Just consider the horrific examples of Communist China’s Cultural Revolution and Cambodia’s Communist-inspired “killing fields” to prove that when a country tries to reverse its material advancements by force of dislocation, starvation, destruction and murder, only misery ensues. Kaczynski killed 3; those two nations destroyed millions in their violent efforts to purge modernity from their (liberated?) populaces.

 Who wrote “Our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country…creating a massive burden for future generations. Corporations are heading the destruction of our environment by shamelessly over-harvesting resources … the next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable”?

Taken at face value, you wouldn’t point to conservatives or Republicans, let alone President Trump, as advocating such leftist environmental nonsense. That’s the point; those words appeared in “The Inconvenient Truth,” the manifesto provided by the El Paso mass killer. Another connection to, not Trump, but an Al Gore book.

Is that the mass killer who the news media and Democrats all said was inspired to kill Hispanics in El Paso’s Walmart by…Donald Trump’s rhetoric? Here’s the obvious problem: First, the killer said himself that his views predate Trump’s criticism of “illegal immigration.” Next, his own rationale was not to kill Hispanics over racial superiority/inferiority but due to his sense that too many people pollute the environment of America. No one on the right says that; only the environmental left.

I’m not holding the environmental left responsible for the killer’s slaughter. However, it’s the media/Democrat cabal that have lockstep messaging pointing to his use of the term “invasion” to “prove” that Trump’s language is responsible. Democrat presidential hopeful Kamala Harris said that while Trump didn’t pull the trigger, his tweets were (literally?) the ammunition. Is that the kind of rhetoric meant to bring us together and find practical solutions to preventing these massacres. I think not!

Byron York summed much of his message: “Crusius [the killer] worried about many things, if the manifesto is any indication. He certainly worried about immigration, but also about automation. About job losses. About a universal basic income. Oil drilling. Urban sprawl. Watersheds. Plastic waste. Paper waste. A blue Texas. College debt. Recycling. Healthcare. Sustainability. And more. Large portions of the manifesto simply could not be more un-Trumpian.”

Those concerns dominate the Democrat left’s agenda. He bemoaned “the takeover of the United States government by unchecked corporations,” complaints reflecting a progressive perspective. Sure, he’s as insane as anyone that rationalizes themselves into a mindset where the “solution” is weapons and killing. However, the media and the Dems normalized using the thoughts of a lunatic to attack their enemies.

Other complaints in his manifesto included the cost of college and mounting student debt, urban sprawl and resulting environmental degradation due to “our lifestyle.” More liberal, non-Trump language.

Oh, but he used the word, “invasion,” just like Trump. Well, also just like California’s lawsuit decades ago, claiming the government did not protect states from an “invasion” of illegal immigrants. Arizona, in 2010, sued in court, challenging the federal government over the “invasion” from south of the border. You’ll likely find that Democratic politicians have used “invasion” when describing what is, by definition, masses of foreigners swarming our border, intending to forcibly, illegally enter.

He wrote, “In general, I support the Christchurch (New Zealand) shooter and his manifesto”; mostly, however, his own deteriorating mental health and grip on reality turned him into a homicidal maniac.

Then, the media rushed past the Dayton, Ohio, killer’s stated beliefs; nothing to see here—move along. Before casting more stones at Trump’s side, look up “The Dayton Murderer Is Proof We Need to Take Left-Wing Violence Seriously,” by Cathy Young; “Dayton shooter Connor Betts may be antifa’s first mass killer,” by Andy Ngo; and “Oh, So That’s Why The Liberal Media Is Painfully Avoiding Dayton Shooter’s Political Beliefs,” by Matt Vespa.

Again, the same people that cherry-picked and weaponized the El Paso killer’s manifesto to smear Trump, saw no lessons in the clearly stated, politically inspired, violence of the Dayton killer. “I want socialism, and I’ll not wait for the idiots to finally come round to understanding,” he wrote on Twitter. He echoed Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s ludicrous assertion that there were “concentration camps” at the border; he expressed support for the violence of the “antifa” leftwing groups; he retweeted extreme leftwing and anti-police posts, and support for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; "these people (I.C.E) are monsters.”

Readers, let’s just take a breath and accept that there’s more to any story that political and news partisans turn into weaponized propaganda pointing to one side. Wait for “the rest of the story.”