The Unabomber was (not) right

Politics and Social Issues
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I happened upon this while googling something else yesterday, but it relates to a lot of other things I’m thinking about. I think it relates to global climate and a few other topics that often go around on here.

What’s nice about it, it summarizes Kaczynski well, saving you the trouble of reading his manifesto. it critiques him perfectly too, I think. I started reading the arguments in the comments but didn’t have time to work through them. Basically, it’s the tension of realizing the system you live in is not working, but not having a replacement laying around. The differences of humans, some who feel free if they have very few things to worry about, and others who want the freedom to engage as much of the world and its problems as they can. The author mentions the often missed detail of Thoreau, that he went to town for supplies, and sometimes as a beggar. Almost all protestors have this problem.

Who is the greater hypocrite? The rich person who can affect world politics and change global energy markets, but flies in a private jet and owns a huge empty house? Or the poor person who doesn’t interact peacefully with their society except to use the goods and services it provides when it’s convenient? Assume both of them understand the problem equally.

https://kk.org/thetechnium/the-unabomber-w/

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I found the Netflix Manhunt series finally moving concerning Kaczynski. I’d have still blown him out of his socks to save innocent life.

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Kaczynski was ultimately motivated by his mental illnesses. That is always the case with anybody who wants to “change the world”.

He did touch on some real problems in the manifesto, but he did what he did because he was simply unstable.

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Mental illness is a little too simple for me. His manifesto has been picked up by a new generation. He doesn’t get to the part about bombs until pretty far into it. “Taking down the system” is expressed in many ways

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The bombmaking is only one part of it. Kaczynski moved into the woods decades before he killed anyone. His hatred towards the system comes from the fact that the system requires people to interact, and he had trouble interacting with people his whole life. He is on the autism spectrum and his isolation probably contributed to his instability.