I would urge you all to read this Twatter post. It’s a tad long, but what I say below the fold will make a great deal more sense if you do.
“I thank Nirit for doing this important detective work because it is not easy to meticulously track and report daily on the increasingly deranged rhetoric and actions of lunatics hell-bent on destroying modern civilization.”
Any student of history will recognize this phenomenon appearing as early as the late 19th century with the rise of the Anarchist movement. Specifically, what emerged was the Ego Anarchist, someone who felt as though they had been “dispossessed” by society, and struck out at a well-known figure of the ruling class. It didn’t matter that the victim had nothing to do with the assassin’s situation; they were symbols, and therefore targets. Here’s a short list, to illustrate the point:
- 1894: French President Carnot stabbed to death by Santo Cesario, an Italian baker’s apprentice;
- 1897: Spanish Premier Antonio Canovas shot to death by Michel Angiollilo, an ex-convict jailed for printing subversive literature;
- 1898: Empress Elizabeth of Austria murdered by Luigi Lucheni, a vagrant; 1899 King Humbert of Italy shot to death by Gaetano Bresci (despite his Italian name, an American from New Jersey);
- 1901: U.S. president William McKinley shot to death by Leon Szolgosz, an unemployed Polish worker;
- 1905: Russian Grand Duke Sergei (and everyone in his coach) blown up by a bomb thrown by Vassili Kaliaev, an anarchist;
- 1912: Spanish Premier Jose Canalejas shot dead by Manuel Pardinas, Anarchist;
- …and there were countless other mass murders (almost all by bombs): in the French Parlement, restaurants, stations and streets, and others during failed attempts at assassination (where the intended victim survived but the people around him didn’t).
All these “Ego” Anarchists had responded to the principle of Anarchy — “The Idea”, as Barbara Tuchman described it in the Proud Tower — and its primary focus was on destruction of a state or institution, perpetrated by a lone individual guided by near-insanity or else a mind infused with hatred for “the System” and its leaders.
We’re seeing it now, all over again: Charlie Kirk of Turning Point, assassinated by Tyler Robinson; Brian Thompson of United Healthcare, assassinated by Luigi Mangione, and various other such attempted assassinations.
In the case of the 19th-century anarchists, their actions were fueled and endorsed by radical publications, and today’s merry little crop of heroes don’t need actual printed publications because they have the Internet and social media. Likewise, 19th-century Anarchism moved away from individual acts towards collective acts (such as the Terror Brigade of the Socialist Revolutionaries in Russia, who assassinated over half a dozen Russian political officials). It’s only a question of time before the BLM/Antifa organizations start doing the same.
You heard it here first.