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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   38486 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 5, 2023

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Ted Kaczynski was one of the most brilliant writers I have ever had the privilege of reading. May he rest in peace.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ~ Timothy 4:7

I must have missed the segment of the Pauline letters that commanded blowing up your enemies.

To my knowledge Ted Kaczynski was not a Christian. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. Nonetheless, he fought the fight he believed in, he finished his race, and to the best of my knowledge he kept the faith (a faith of his own invention, with it's holy text being Industrial Society and Its Future) until the end.

he fought the fight he believed in, he finished his race, and to the best of my knowledge he kept the faith

So, presumably, did many Islamic State fighters. I don't think it makes them worthy of respect if their fight was conducted abhorrently and directed towards awful ends.

It should, because if you don't respect someone you're likely to underestimate them, or otherwise misunderstand them, and so be more likely to fail when combatting them (or when trying to reach a peaceful modus vivendi).

He was a paranoid schitzophrenic who murdered innocent people. He's hardly worth lionizing.

Having read his manifesto, I find it hard to imagine a schizophrenic could write that lucidly, and express his points so clearly and concisely. I find him much more lucid, direct and less prone to digression than e.g. Curtis Yarvin or Eliezer Yudkowsky. His defense attorney thought that pleading insanity was his best chance, but he refused to do so, despite knowing full well he'd probably be treated better in an institution than in a prison. You think he shouldn't be lionized, fair enough, but I don't think there's good evidence to suggest he was a madman.

Paranoid schitzophrenia was the official diagnosis of the psychiatrist who interviewed him post-arrest.

ETA Sourcing: https://harbor.klnpa.org/california/islandora/object/cali%3A1205

Fair enough, but see also Wikipedia:

Forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz said Kaczynski was not psychotic but had a schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder.[119] In his 2010 book Technological Slavery, Kaczynski said that two prison psychologists who visited him frequently for four years told him they saw no indication that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and the diagnosis was "ridiculous" and a "political diagnosis".[120] Some contemporary authors suggested that multiple people, most notably Kaczynski's brother and mother, purposely spread the image of Kaczynski as mentally ill with the aim to save him from execution.[121]

It seems like a controversial diagnosis even within the psychiatric community. I'd say either he wasn't schizophrenic, or he's the most lucid and clear-minded schizophrenic in the history of the diagnosis.

Doesn’t he have an IQ of like 183? Seems like a relevant variable to that last bit.

167, per the New York Times's obituary.

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As so often happens, you're both right.

Bingo,

There's nothing inherently contradictory about being a brilliant writer and also being a paranoid schitzophrenic or murderer.

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