Ted Kaczynski was and Eco Fascist and his Manifesto was Racist
The internet has given rise to many weird political trends recently: from tankie politics, to weird political cults. You can see the rise of cult of personalities in Q-Anon to people ironically or unironically praising Ted Kaczynski (TK). After reading his manifesto, I wanted to point out mainly the racism in his writings, but you can also see the political short-comings of his ideas, which are innately eco-fascist.
It is very similar to a rant from an incel, blaming cancel-culture and political correctness, all the while wanting to maintain his power as a white man in society. When I see someone who's white, especially, complain about identity politics or political correctness it's usually because they want to be able to say and do oppressive things without being challenged, and TK was no different:
“The leftist wants equal opportunities for minorities. When that is attained he insists on statistical equality of achievement by minorities. And as long as anyone harbors in some corner of his mind a negative attitude toward some minority, the leftist has to re-educated him. And ethnic minorities are not enough; no one can be allowed to have a negative attitude toward homosexuals, disabled people, fat people, old people, ugly people, and on and on and on.”
“The terms 'Negro,' 'oriental,' 'handicapped' or 'chick' for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. 'Broad' and 'chick' were merely the feminine equivalents of 'guy,' 'dude' or 'fellow.' The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Those who are most sensitive about 'politically incorrect' terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any 'oppressed' group but come from privileged strata of society.”
His manifesto goes deeper into his believes on genetic superiority, white supremacy:
“Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others.”
“These are docile types who would have been happy as plantation darkies in the Old South. (We don’t mean to sneer at the 'plantation darkies' of the Old South. To their credit, most of the slaves were NOT content with their servitude. We do sneer at people who ARE content with servitude.”
His manifesto is also a misogynistic and trasphobic rant:
“We aren’t the first to mention that the world today seems to be going crazy. This sort of thing is not normal for human societies...It is true that not all was sweetness and light in primitive societies...transexuality was fairly common among some of the American Indian tribes.”
“Thus an advanced industrial society can tolerate only those small-scale communities that are emasculated, tamed and made into tools of the system.”
On top of the white supremacist, and fascistic views, what TK gets wrong is no different than other primitivists and rugged-individualists. Their politics, to me, are by nature white-supremacist, and if not, just white. They tend to get it wrong in many ways. From not being able to have an anti-colinial, anti-capitalist, and anti-imperialist analysis, it tends to be white people romanticizing certain things about their own histories. TK hasn't been the only primitivist holding views that are questionable and problematic, from John Zerzan writing about “Rank-and-File Radicalism within the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s” (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/john-zerzan-rank-and-file-radicalism-within-the-ku-klux-klan-of-the-1920s), to Deep Green Resistance transphobic and terfy politics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Green_Resistance#Anti-trans_views), TK follows suit :
“The kind of revolution we have in mind will not necessarily involve an armed uprising against any government. It may or may not involve physical violence, but it will not be a POLITICAL revolution. Its focus will be on technology and economics, not politics.”
“Revolutionaries might consider favoring measures that tend to bind the world economy into a unified whole. Free trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT are probably harmful to the environment in the short run, but in the long run they may perhaps be advantageous because they foster economic interdependence between nations.”
So it's strange to see leftists and anarchists champion someone like TK. I think part of the appeal was that he took action, and in a world where we are facing the reality of a climate apocalypse brought on by capitalism, folks are looking for heroes. The reality that we have to face is, that the only way we can win, and where we have a chance for any future, or at least have a resistance movement worth anything, is one where we organize alongside indigenous people in the front lines defending their territories/taking back their lands (not just the celebrity activists/influencers, but the grassroots). There is no way around the fact that we have to organize our communities. Allies have to organize in their own, where the fascists are recruiting, instead of just moving to city where you can start a project with other like minded people. Anyway, there are better heroes and examples to look to for inspiration.
