One has to give the Norwegians credit: even their mass murderers are nicer-looking than ours. Compare this guy with Jared Loughner, or Timothy McVeigh, or the loco classico, Charles Whitman.
There must be something quite wrong with me. There is no story so grim that I can't find something in it to give me a sour laugh. In this case it was the NY Times writing a 1600-word thumbsucker on this Breivik dude without even once mentioning that he was a huge fan of Israel; indeed, it doesn't seem much of an exaggeration to say that he found Israel, well, inspiring.
The print edition of the Times, which still arrives with a thump --- though a less meaty thump than of yore -- on my doorstep, headlined this item "Norway Charges Christian Extremist." This headline, too, I found intensely amusing, for reasons that aren't entirely easy to unpack.
Qua Christian, Breivik is a little problematic. He does not seem to be a croyant; he was, apparently, at best -- or worst -- a "cultural" Christian; not a category so often encountered as his elder brother the ''cultural Jew". Although one could argue that Breivik was Christian in the same sense that Christian Democrat Angela Merkel is Christian -- and a democrat, come to think of it. But it's kind of a stretch in all cases, isn't it?
It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Times needed to fill a syntactically obligatory slot normally occupied, in the unmarked case, by the word "Muslim." That clearly doesn't apply here; but one would have thought that if some essentialist qualification were necessary, others might have been more appropriate. "Vienna School extremist"? "Anti-Muslim extremist"? "Zionist extremist"? Any of those would surely have been more accurate and informative; but they didn't meet the requirement, somehow. So the Christians get Breivik tied to their tails.
Not Jewish, not Muslim... must be Christian. That's logic. Process of elimination.
Comments (28)
Apparently, le tuer's preferred self-identification was as "Templar" and "Mason."
Odd.
Posted by Jack Crow | July 24, 2011 6:20 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 18:20
What gets me is that he apparently wanted to start an "anti-islam crusade".
Um... we've got boots on the ground in several islamic nations and NATO air forces and drones are committing random acts of murder and mayhem over a half a dozen more? How much more of an anti-islamic crusade could the guy be wishing for? Sheesh, some people are never satisfied.
I guess he would be satisfied with nothing less then full nuclear annihilation of all the world's 1.3 billion muslims. My, how very Aryan of him.
Posted by Drunk Pundit | July 24, 2011 6:57 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 18:57
Fuck mass murder. The asshole is a goddamn PLAGIARIST and a sloppy, credulous one at that. He plagiarized "The Protocols of the Elders of Political Correctness," from former Gary Hart aide, William S. Lind.
http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/07/confessions-of-cultural-marxist.html
Posted by Sandwichman | July 24, 2011 7:16 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 19:16
Sandwichman,
He also plagiarized Unabomber Ted"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8658269/Norway-shooting-Anders-Behring-Breivik-plagiarised-Unabomber.html
Posted by Jack Crow | July 24, 2011 7:37 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 19:37
Sandwichman -- Wotta riot. You can't make this stuff up.
Posted by MJS | July 24, 2011 7:38 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 19:38
"You can't make this stuff up."
But apparently fucks like William S. Lind, Lyndon LaRouche, Paul Weyrich, Pat Buchanan and Andrew Breitbart came make up whatever they damn well please. May they rot in Hell for a million eternities.
Posted by Sandwichman | July 24, 2011 8:02 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 20:02
Just sayin'.
http://www.lippsisters.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/illya1.jpg
Posted by Sandwichman | July 24, 2011 9:05 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 21:05
Posted by MJS | July 24, 2011 9:38 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 21:38
I suspect there will be further tightening of immigration to Norway — and other North European nations worried about Purity Of Essence — even if the usual suspects unsportingly got off lightly this time, no thanks to Rupert Murdoch. Upstate New York born gun rights advocate McVeigh ended up causing a lot more hassle for millions of "people of color" who happened to be "aliens", even "resident aliens" from places like Puerto Rico who had been living in NYC for decades.
Posted by sk | July 24, 2011 11:08 PM
Posted on July 24, 2011 23:08
Lind is of course. A contributor to counter punch
Part of Alex's Frente amplio
Btw we have commenters here that shade into one man commando mind sets
Quite nicely
..
The solitary meadow muffin nihilist.may be only a trip to demascus away from such a sweeping vision as this young feller hatched out of his skull's inner wiring
Yes indeed loose minds may tether themselves to a star
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 10:31 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 10:31
The odd sour laff here or there innocent as a school girl
Tends to mobilize and self organize
Deep in the minds lower chambers
And with enough time and proper context
T'will maybe morph into a factory for personal amusement
Feeing it's resident ego
With
A steady diet of sardonica
At that point we jesus freaks
Suggest you
Consider de program sessions
You are headed into better Ryan o'neal country
If his recent realitymercial
Is any indication of the future state produced by too much of
the grim mirror gaze
The self examining life has it's hazards for certain types
Better they plunge into the struggle and never look into reflecting surfaces
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 10:43 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 10:43
Obviously these foul and heinous destinations are reach only by a sifted few
And for that
we all can thank mother nature's favorite distribution curves
Imagine the exciting world we'd inhabit if guys like this burrrrzzzzerker
Were as plentiful as alcoholics in Dublin
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 10:49 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 10:49
Sandy's thumb nailer on the marcusifiction
Is excellent
What in hell brought this lovely mind to these naked shoes I wonder
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 11:19 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 11:19
Mjs
That picture of the norskbomber
Really misses the skin head polyp
He has become
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 11:21 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 11:21
The twisted love affair with the deadly odd ball
Rises within us
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 11:33 AM
Posted on July 25, 2011 11:33
No fair, OP - nihilists are the furthest thing from this freakazoid, and all other would-be revolutionaries and guru types, because nihilism means a thorough-going disbelief. This unabomber-nord, like Loughner, like all the lone gunmen, has a super-abundance of "belief," all based out of the idiocy of their own alleged superior will and irrationalism, even that crazy asswipe that flew his plane into the IRS building last year to kill some bureaucrat, which seemed to so enchant the cockburnians-chomskyans, most particularly the plenipotentiaries of that wing of the opinionation.
There should be no weather-men or weather-girls here - what would be the point?
"Direct action" is a pathetic refuge - unless there's a real game on.
Posted by mjosef | July 25, 2011 12:00 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 12:00
Mjoe
You are too kind to these lost bitter spirits
They believe in one thing
their own minds convictions
And where that might take them
Why that's a riddle of the dream within a dream
Posted by Op | July 25, 2011 12:26 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 12:26
The sweet irony. What a blessed day.
Posted by Jack Crow | July 25, 2011 12:40 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 12:40
Good to see that OPs thumb is fibrillating over the post button again.
Posted by Boink | July 25, 2011 2:34 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 14:34
I'd have labeled him a Hitchensite.
Posted by Michael Dawson | July 25, 2011 2:50 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 14:50
Op
The CounterPunch connection blows the mind. You can't make this stuff up.
Posted by Sandwichman | July 25, 2011 6:02 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 18:02
I sympathize with Cockburn, a bit. Some right wingers have a thoughtful grasp of things that crop up over in lefty spaces, and they come to that from a very different starting point than the lefties. The novelty and the brief, fortuitous camaraderie are especially appealing to the gregarious types.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 25, 2011 9:28 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 21:28
There's another side to that affinity. If being left wing is what you do for a living, you may find that you have a lot in common with someone for whom being right wing is a living.
Posted by Al Schumann | July 25, 2011 9:55 PM
Posted on July 25, 2011 21:55
The idea that the right will somehow ever make a decent ally is batshit, and a sign of desperation, if not proto-nihilism. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, as they say.
Posted by Michael Dawson | July 26, 2011 1:37 PM
Posted on July 26, 2011 13:37
I've written to Cockburn and St. Clair asking for an explanation.
Posted by Sandwichman | July 26, 2011 10:49 PM
Posted on July 26, 2011 22:49
Chip Berlet: Author Cited by Anders Behring Breivik Regrets Original Essay
http://ecologicalheadstand.blogspot.com/2011/07/chip-berlet-author-cited-by-anders.html
Posted by Sandwichman | July 26, 2011 11:31 PM
Posted on July 26, 2011 23:31
The idea that the right will somehow ever make a decent ally is batshit, and a sign of desperation, if not proto-nihilism. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, as they say.
what's your
plan
for them
then
signor Dilly-Dali Dawson
make them tipe
solipsist cudchews
like
ouchy pain
the
neutered bull?
Posted by Karl | July 28, 2011 7:30 PM
Posted on July 28, 2011 19:30
to the organic poison gas baths, Herr Karl. That's the solution...a final one at that.
Posted by Brian M | July 28, 2011 8:13 PM
Posted on July 28, 2011 20:13