American Blogger Praises Oslo Shooter
While most people who found their words or sentiments echoed in Anders Breivik’s screed raced to distance themselves from him, an obscure American blogger named Brett Stevens was practically giddy to learn that Breivik, who murdered more than 70 people this past Friday in an anti-Muslim murder spree, had quoted his writing.
“I am honored to be so mentioned by someone who is clearly far braver than I,” Stevens wrote on Sunday. “[N]o comment on his methods, but he chose to act where many of us write, think and dream.”
Breivik’s manifesto quotes in full a 2009 essay called “Conflict avoidance and how to avoid it,” in which Stevens argues that being “forced” by social constraints to treat each other as equals, “when in fact … we are not,” leads to dysfunction, frustration, and breakdown.
“For the last 2,000 years our preferred method of neutralizing conflict has been to insist on equality. First, it was insisted that we were all equal in civic duty, so should get a vote. Then, it was insisted that we were all equal in the eyes of God, as we all had souls. A thousand years later, we upgraded that to the idea that we were all equal citizens in potential, so we should have no limits of role or money,” Stevens wrote. “The idea of universal equality and rights sounds good to us because we’re afraid as a group. If you the individual speak out against it, the others may gang up and you and clobber you — for denying their denial of reality.”
Stevens’ proposed solution was to hold “rallies where each participant steps out and says, ‘You know, we’re not all equal and we can’t pander to the weakest link in the chain just so we seem nicer than our neighbors.’”
Though not well known outside of white nationalist circles, Stevens is a well-read and prolific blogger who believes that political correctness and diversity have undermined the natural social order. He is a fan based on his blog roll of the VDARE hate site, which has published anti-Semitic, racist and anti-immigrant materials. He is also an admirer of racist ideologue Jared Taylor, founder of the group American Renaissance. Taylor once wrote, “When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.”
Stevens blog also links to the campus group Youth For Western Civilization, which worries about “radical multiculturalism” and claims that the “far left” is trying to “destroy our people and culture.”
Stevens takes some pains to obscure his identity, using as his Facebook picture the famous rendering of the Unabomber suspect wearing huge sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt. Indeed, he seems to be something of an admirer of Ted Kaczynski. So is Breivik, who included in his own manifesto substantial portions of the so-called “Unabomber’s” anti-technology, anti-liberal manifesto.
In Breivik, Stevens has found yet another murderer after his own heart.
“This was an act of war, a political act. It was not a murder like a serial killer, who kills for his own pleasure,” he wrote on Sunday. “This guy killed to attract attention and to change society, which puts him in the same category as Ted Kaczysnki and Tim McVeigh, or even the American revolutionaries who opened fire on British redcoats.”
Stevens ramped up his rhetoric on Monday:
“If you wonder why people shoot up your society, it is because you are oblivious to truth and derive some perverse sense of power by turning your back on the truth. You feel like you are kings because you have in your minds the ability to deny logic, truth and the evident consequences of your actions.”
“The rage builds under the skin,” Stevens continued. “Look for more events of this type in the future. As for me, I’m tired of giving service to the boilerplat (sic) ‘oh isn’t this terrible.’ If that’s the kind of sentiment you want, get away from me — you’re an idiot.”
