décembre 10, 2024 - 10:10am
Lorsque le PDG de UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, a été abattu à Manhattan la semaine dernière, les spéculations ont fusé. Était-ce un contrat ? Un client mécontent ? Maintenant, dans les 24 heures qui ont suivi l’arrestation de Luigi Mangione, 26 ans, accusé de son meurtre, les médias ont commencé à rassembler quelques réponses.
Les mots « retarder » et « nier » ont apparemment été écrits sur des douilles trouvées sur les lieux du crime, tirés du titre d’un livre critique de l’industrie de l’assurance santé. Cependant, Mangione est le fils d’une famille riche et diplômé de l’Ivy League avec des diplômes en informatique, et en Amérique, nous sommes censés croire que la violence politique ne concerne que le Trumpenproletariat. Comme Mangione ne correspond pas à ce profil, des efforts ont été faits pour le présenter comme un fan de droite de Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk et Peter Thiel. Cependant, un coup d’œil rapide à son compte X montre qu’il suivait également Ezra Klein et Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ainsi que le contributeur de UnHerd, Gurwinder Bhogal, qui a décrit ses conversations avec Mangione sur X.
L’intelligence importante de Mangione a ensuite conduit à des comparaisons avec son camarade de l’Ivy League, Ted Kaczynski, également connu sous le nom de Unabomber. Des enquêteurs d’Internet ont trouvé ce qui semble être une critique quatre étoiles de Mangione pour le traité de Kaczynski, La société industrielle et son avenir, qui contient cette observation : « Lorsque toutes les autres formes de communication échouent, la violence est nécessaire pour survivre. Vous n’aimez peut-être pas ses méthodes, mais de son point de vue, ce n’est pas du terrorisme : c’est la guerre et la révolution. » Le New York Times a également rapporté qu’un manifeste manuscrit trouvé sur Mangione contenait une condamnation des entreprises qui « continuent d’abuser de notre pays pour un immense profit parce que le public américain leur a permis de s’en tirer ».
Cependant, Kaczynski n’est guère le seul exemple d’une personne hautement éduquée prête à se montrer violent envers une société qu’elle trouve corrompue. C’est une tradition qui remonte à longtemps. Fiodor Dostoïevski a fait de Stavroguine, le personnage central de sa grande étude sur la violence révolutionnaire Les Démons, un aristocrate. À l’époque, la Russie connaissait une vague de violence de la part d’étudiants et d’enfants de familles aristocrates mineures, qui conduirait finalement à l’assassinat du tsar Alexandre II en 1881. Les intellectuels ont également participé à la deuxième vague de violence russe qui a éclaté au début du 20e siècle, entraînant la mort de milliers de personnes. Lorsque les intellectuels ont finalement pris le contrôle du pays, le nombre de morts a atteint des millions.
Des praticiens du terrorisme bien éduqués sont également présents parmi les groupes radicaux de la fin du 20e siècle. Les membres de la faction meurtrière de l’Armée rouge en Allemagne dans les années 70 étaient presque tous diplômés de l’université. Bill Ayers, co-fondateur du Weather Underground, qui posait des bombes, était le fils d’un PDG et diplômé de l’Université du Michigan, une soi-disant « Ivy publique ». Ali Hassan Salameh, l’un des hommes derrière l’attaque de Munich en 1972, a été éduqué en Allemagne et marié à la Miss Univers de 1971. Pendant ce temps, Mohamed Atta, le leader des attaquants du 11 septembre, a étudié l’architecture au Caire et l’urbanisme à Hambourg.
Bien sûr, malgré le fait que ces radicaux soient diplômés d’université, leurs croyances étaient remarquablement manichéennes et simplistes. L’avantage d’être très éduqué est que vous pouvez rationaliser des actes violents et sombres tout en déguisant vos griefs personnels en théorie.
Et comme les deux dernières années l’ont révélé, les rationalisations de la violence sont assez courantes parmi les élites diplômées d’Amérique. Les manifestations radicales sont principalement concentrées sur les campus des universités de l’Ivy League, tandis que Taylor Lorenz, ancienne star reporter au NYT et au Washington Post, était parmi les nombreux individus à soutenir que tuer un PDG d’assurance était une réaction compréhensible à l’injustice. La bonne nouvelle est que la plupart des radicaux bourgeois d’Amérique se contentent de jouer des rôles et de lancer des bombes rhétoriques. Brian Thompson a simplement eu la malchance de rencontrer quelqu’un prêt à aller beaucoup plus loin.
Daniel Kalder is an author based in Texas. Previously, he spent ten years living in the former Soviet bloc. His latest book, Dictator Literature, is published by Oneworld. He also writes on Substack: Thus Spake Daniel Kalder.
Daniel_Kalder
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SubscribeWhat I struggle to understand is what pressure these radical trans-activists can realistically bring to a scientific publisher?
Is there money (or loss of income) floating around somewhere hidden?
Is it pressure from a few employees?
I really don’t get it.
I’m with you on this Andrew. I can’t see how a tiny minority of, admittedly very shouty, people can exert this amount of pressure over an issue that most people (the ones I speak to) don’t take particularly seriously.
The investigative reporter Jennifer Bilek exposes some of the powerful forces, big money and creepy perversions of the super-rich behind the trans-activist movement. This recent YouTube video is a good example:
She deserves a wider audience.
This is a very important point! How are are these trans activists so effective? Do they visit the publisher in person or in their home. How do they do it!
There is a global movement to flatten the concept of ‘gender’ so that men and women become entirely interchangeable. When traditional masculine and feminine identities are finally destroyed they can be replaced by a far more compliant identity – one that is disembodied from religion, history, culture, and sex – a kind of neutered consumer-worker drone if you will.
An interesting insight, which I’ve heard before but not so neatly put. In America, most are already consumer worker drones. Why not neutered, as well? It’s clear that our many “woke” corporations see dollar signs in marketing to consumers captured by gender ideology.
An interesting insight, which I’ve heard before but not so neatly put. In America, most are already consumer worker drones. Why not neutered, as well? It’s clear that our many “woke” corporations see dollar signs in marketing to consumers captured by gender ideology.
Cowardice is in the mix there somewhere.
It’s because publishing these days, including scientific publishing, is a hotbed of wokeness. Look at what recently happened to Prof Nigel Biggar and his attempt to have a nuanced book on Colonialism and the British Empire published. The publisher — Bloomsbury, I think — having commissioned and received the manuscript, suddenly announced it wouldn’t be published due to ‘public concerns’. He managed to get released from the contract and has managed to successfully publish elsewhere.
Activists say jump, and the publications merely reply ‘how high?’
While most people are apathetic on these things, Activists can rally a small but highly motivated group to support “victims” against oppressors, by attracting those who sympathize with the supposed injustices, even if those sympathies were coerced based on blatant lies. The Activists and their mob then attack not only the individuals and companies deemed oppressors, but groups, friends, family, acquaintances, partners, and businesses that work or associate with the supposed oppressors. The pressure relies primarily on boycotts and blackmail, by including threats of coordinated public campaigns of negative publicity.
The defamed real victim may try to weather the storm, and can possibly sue for the personal and professional damages caused by the spreading of the false information, but sue who? Everyone posting or sharing the rumor? Can a specific leader even be located and then proven as the catalyst? Probably not. Certainly not with the help of Social Media platforms. And what about those platforms carrying the garage? We all know they have immunity – and may very well join in the attack by promoting the negative propaganda and suspending and canceling those that defend you. Heck, they can even eliminate your self defense and rebuttal ability by shadow banning or canceling you: all the while letting the mob continue their beat down, unimpeded.
There’s simply no effective and efficient rapid response defense mechanism for this kind of coordinated attack, often of lies. And there are no deep pockets to punish or pay retribution. Therefore, it’s usually a simple risk assessment that concludes something like, “Ok, then…this is NOT the item we are willing to fight to the death about, so we’ll retract the article”.
Then comes the final insidious step. Before capitulating to the mob the targeted individual or company defends themselves by taking precautions to insure their actions are cloaked in some sort of legitimacy. So, basically, they end up doing the extremely dirty and disgusting work of laundering their decision through justifications that end up benefiting the mob that unjustly attacked them in the first place.
Why? Because the trans activists are now inside the institution (including in positions at the top of the editorial chain of command), and the institution is no longer committed to editorial integrity and objective standards, but rather to the particular result.
I’m with you on this Andrew. I can’t see how a tiny minority of, admittedly very shouty, people can exert this amount of pressure over an issue that most people (the ones I speak to) don’t take particularly seriously.
The investigative reporter Jennifer Bilek exposes some of the powerful forces, big money and creepy perversions of the super-rich behind the trans-activist movement. This recent YouTube video is a good example:
She deserves a wider audience.
This is a very important point! How are are these trans activists so effective? Do they visit the publisher in person or in their home. How do they do it!
There is a global movement to flatten the concept of ‘gender’ so that men and women become entirely interchangeable. When traditional masculine and feminine identities are finally destroyed they can be replaced by a far more compliant identity – one that is disembodied from religion, history, culture, and sex – a kind of neutered consumer-worker drone if you will.
Cowardice is in the mix there somewhere.
It’s because publishing these days, including scientific publishing, is a hotbed of wokeness. Look at what recently happened to Prof Nigel Biggar and his attempt to have a nuanced book on Colonialism and the British Empire published. The publisher — Bloomsbury, I think — having commissioned and received the manuscript, suddenly announced it wouldn’t be published due to ‘public concerns’. He managed to get released from the contract and has managed to successfully publish elsewhere.
Activists say jump, and the publications merely reply ‘how high?’
While most people are apathetic on these things, Activists can rally a small but highly motivated group to support “victims” against oppressors, by attracting those who sympathize with the supposed injustices, even if those sympathies were coerced based on blatant lies. The Activists and their mob then attack not only the individuals and companies deemed oppressors, but groups, friends, family, acquaintances, partners, and businesses that work or associate with the supposed oppressors. The pressure relies primarily on boycotts and blackmail, by including threats of coordinated public campaigns of negative publicity.
The defamed real victim may try to weather the storm, and can possibly sue for the personal and professional damages caused by the spreading of the false information, but sue who? Everyone posting or sharing the rumor? Can a specific leader even be located and then proven as the catalyst? Probably not. Certainly not with the help of Social Media platforms. And what about those platforms carrying the garage? We all know they have immunity – and may very well join in the attack by promoting the negative propaganda and suspending and canceling those that defend you. Heck, they can even eliminate your self defense and rebuttal ability by shadow banning or canceling you: all the while letting the mob continue their beat down, unimpeded.
There’s simply no effective and efficient rapid response defense mechanism for this kind of coordinated attack, often of lies. And there are no deep pockets to punish or pay retribution. Therefore, it’s usually a simple risk assessment that concludes something like, “Ok, then…this is NOT the item we are willing to fight to the death about, so we’ll retract the article”.
Then comes the final insidious step. Before capitulating to the mob the targeted individual or company defends themselves by taking precautions to insure their actions are cloaked in some sort of legitimacy. So, basically, they end up doing the extremely dirty and disgusting work of laundering their decision through justifications that end up benefiting the mob that unjustly attacked them in the first place.
Why? Because the trans activists are now inside the institution (including in positions at the top of the editorial chain of command), and the institution is no longer committed to editorial integrity and objective standards, but rather to the particular result.
What I struggle to understand is what pressure these radical trans-activists can realistically bring to a scientific publisher?
Is there money (or loss of income) floating around somewhere hidden?
Is it pressure from a few employees?
I really don’t get it.
Can’t they just go somewhere else?
.
.
Can’t they just go somewhere else?
Transes’ star is hitched unalternatively to the Progressive movement. The only human distinction is class. Race and sex are caused by class. Every difference manifested in human condition is caused by class. The remedy is to eliminate class.
Words like alternative, only, other don’t exist because they might result in difference or lead to not class.
Race and sex are caused by class?
Your are even more deranged than Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao.
Even Pol Pot sounds saner than you.
What??!?
Race and sex are caused by class?
Your are even more deranged than Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao.
Even Pol Pot sounds saner than you.
What??!?
Transes’ star is hitched unalternatively to the Progressive movement. The only human distinction is class. Race and sex are caused by class. Every difference manifested in human condition is caused by class. The remedy is to eliminate class.
Words like alternative, only, other don’t exist because they might result in difference or lead to not class.