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Notes -
I see your point that in progressive circles, Roof is frequently brought up. However, progressive circles are a small subset of the West's population. I have literally never heard anyone bring Roof's name up in conversation, not even ten years ago right after he killed those people. And it's not like I interact entirely with politically apathetic people or with right-wingers or something. I've interacted with plenty of progressives in the last ten years, and those murders just never came up.
You are, from what I recall you writing before, someone whose social circle is pretty hardcore progressive. The thing is, this actually makes you pretty atypical for a denizen of the West. Or anywhere in the world, for that matter. Progressives are highly represented online, but offline, even in cities where people vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, few people go around talking like the stereotypical Redditor.
I actually agree that Breivik would likely have been more remembered if he had done his murders in America, not just because America is the entire world's media focus, but also because for historical and social reasons, Europe is probably more used to the idea of a militant far-right existing than America is. In America, the idea of there actually being an effective nativist far-right killer is something from TV shows or the wild dreams of Redditors, but we haven't really had one in as long as I can remember. Some people might bring up Timothy McVeigh, but he was more of a libertarian-right mass killer, not a Breivik-style explicitly nativist one.
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